Proper 19 B
The Teaching Tongue
St. James 3:1-12
13 September 2015 – Redeemer
I’m am concerned that after I read the Epistle not one person will come forward to be installed as Sunday School teacher – “not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Now it may be of some comfort that Saint James is probably writing these words to pastors – to those who have been called to teach in the Church, but his words certainly carry some weight for all whom God has called to teacher. He has called upon those of you who are older to teach the younger. He has called on fathers to teach their households and mothers to teach their children. He has called on all of us who are baptized to use our tongues to teach, to confess the hope that is within us.
Teaching is tied to the tongue. Teachers speak, ask and answer questions, with the tongue. And as Saint James write and warns, the tongue is a tiny member of the body, but like a little spark it can ignite a great fire, or like the tiny rudder of a ship it can turn that large vessel toward good or harm. So teachers watch your tongues!
In case you haven’t been listening there a lot of tongues in today’s readings. In the Gospel reading we find a mute man – a man whose tongue cannot speak at all, who is so under the control of a demon that his very life is in danger. That’s you, by the way, before you are baptized. That is what Scripture says of us – sinful from the time of conception, under the complete control of the Devil, unable to say or do anything that God would find pleasing. If you want to know how severe your sin and captivity to Satan is, read today’s Gospel reading – before Jesus gets hold of you, before baptism, you are no different than that mute, possessed, endangered boy.
Thanks be to God the boy’s parents heard about Jesus and brought their boy to Him – even as Kimberly and Chris brought Josiah to Jesus today. The devil doesn’t leave our children alone until they reach a certain age. Because of the sin we pass on to them them the Devil has them from conception. But the devil has nothing to say over Jesus. With a word from His mouth, with speech off His tongue, Jesus casts out the demon and takes hold of the boy. “You deaf and mute spirit, I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.” That happened in Mark 9 and it happened at the font today. “Therefore, depart you unclean spirit and make room for the Holy Spirit, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
There are some words that only work when they come from the mouth of Jesus, from the tongue of God – casting out demons, bringing the dead back to life, forgiving sins, and thankfully Jesus desires to speak those Words to us, for us.
It is Jesus that Saint Isaiah describes in today’s Old Testament reading. The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary.” Isaiah is beginning to describe the Suffering Servant” – the One promised by the Lord who serves the Lord by taking the place of sinners. This is Jesus – the one who gave His back to those who strike and his cheeks to those who pull out the beard. He did not hide his face from disgrace or spitting. Jesus is the Word God has spoken to us sinners and for us sinners. Jesus is the tongue of God from whom we hear blessing instead of cursing.
Consider the tongue of Jesus and how it delivered God’s saving Word to us – how Jesus finally loosed our lips so we had something to say to God. The tongue of Jesus never spoke back to His parents. This tongue taught the teachers in the Synagogue when he was twelve. This tongue was baptized by John and spoke God’s Word against Satan in the wilderness. This tongue rebuked the self-righteous sinner and restored the sorrowful sinner with forgiveness. This tongue was silent before His accusers. The tongue cried out as it suffered for our sins, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?” This tongue declared our forgiveness won, our debt paid, our life secure, before it breathed its last, “It is finished.”
And because of what Jesus has done for you, that His tongue went silent for you, and that it now lives for you, you and I find ourselves described in James, chapter 3, which is sort of like Romans chapter 7, where Saint Paul says, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” Or if we used Saint James words, “I do not understand what I am doing, for out of my mouth, at the same time, come blessings and cursing.”
Because your tongue was washed, along with the rest of you, in Holy Baptism, you now have a forked tongue. Luther said it simply, “You are at the same time saint and sinner.” That is no excuse for your tongue, but rather an explanation. Today, Josiah Christopher Bahr was born again of water and the spirit. Does it mean he will be the perfect little boy and always say, “Yes, mommy” and never throw a tantrum? Of course not. Jesus Christ has set us free from sin and death. He has loosed our tongues so we confess our sins and say “amen” to the forgiveness which Jesus won on the cross, but sin has not left us alone, Satan is still after us. Our fallen nature is not and will not be completely restored to holiness until the resurrection of our body.
Because of baptism your tongue is much better than it used to be, but it is not yet perfected. You are forgiven. You are declared right by Christ. And on the last day that will be complete, perfect – your tongue will praise Christ perfectly and speak only blessings upon others. Your tongue, though made new in Christ, is also wild and untamed because of sin. How many of the sins that you brought to confession today are sins of the tongue? Have you spoken up for the unborn? Have you spoken to your U.S. Senators about defunding Planned Parenthood? Did you speak in anger to your wife or children this week? Did you complain about what the Lord has given you or not given you?
What will you do with such a tongue, after it’s small spark has set a whole forest on fire, or after it has caused a shipwreck to others. Bring it to Jesus, as those parents brought that boy in the Gospel reading. In Jesus the fire of our hell is quenched, the wreck of our lives is restored. Hear the tongue of Jesus forgive your sins and then use your tongue to receive His body and blood. And remember – whatever Jesus says He does. Because our ears have heard forgiveness and our tongues have tasted Jesus Saint James calls us on to control our tongues, to teach the truth, to confess God’s Holy Word, to bless and not curse, to steer the right course according to God’s Word. Likely, all of you, have some calling by the Lord to teach – a grandma to her unbaptized grand child, a father to his house, a baptized Christian to an unbeliever, or perhaps your call is more official – a Sunday School teacher. Watch your tongue. Teach God’s Word. Bless instead of curse. Steer towards the safe harbor of forgiveness. Quench the destructive fires of gossip with silence or rebuke. Control your tongue because you have heard God’s saving word from His own tongue in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Pr. Bruce Timm
12 September 2015 anno Domini