Sermon by Pastor Mike Buttonnn
Talking the Cross
James 3: 1-12; Mark 8: 27-38
NRSJames 3
Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. 2For all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle. 3If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. 4Or look at ships: though they are so large that it takes strong winds to drive them, yet they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.5So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! 6And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, 8but no one can tame the tongue — a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. 10From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? 12Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
NRSMark 8
27Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" 28And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets." 29He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?" Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah." 30And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him.
31Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.32He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
34He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. 35For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.36For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? 37Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?38Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."
Most every Sunday our service typically includes three lessons and a psalm, each of which comes straight out the heart of Holy Scripture. This Sunday is no exception to that rule. Our First Lesson is drawn from the Servant Songs of the prophet Isaiah, in which the servant of the Lord gives his back to be struck and his beard to be pulled as a testament to his faithfulness. The verses drawn from Psalm 116 constitute a song of deliverance, testifying to the steadfast love of the Lord. Our Second Lesson is the third in a series of readings from the Letter of James, in which the apostle expounds on the perils of keeping a civil tongue in one’s mouth. And finally, our Gospel from Mark 8 centers on Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, to which Jesus responds with the first of three declarations foretelling his impending death and resurrection.
Any one of these four readings would provide a strong foundation for an equally strong sermon, but I’m especially drawn to the juxtaposition of our two New Testament readings, the one from James and the other from Mark. On the one hand, in James 3 we hear what amounts to a mini-essay on appropriate speech. It’s basically the kind of wisdom teaching that was common among first-century philosophers like Epictetus, who preached a message of self-control and self-knowledge. That’s a nice of way saying that this morning’s passage from James is theologically light. There is a reference to God as creator and James does address his audience as brothers and sisters, but what James writes about controlling our tongues would be equally at home in Ben Franklin’s “Poor Richard’s Almanac” or Robert Fulghum’s “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.” In contrast, today’s Gospel from Mark 8 is profoundly theological and uncompromisingly Christocentric. After inquiring as to what was the word on the street about him, Jesus, with all the intensity of a laser beam, asks, “But who do you say that I am?” When Peter declares, “You are the Messiah,” Jesus then, for the first time, unfolds the mystery of the cross, dumbfounding Peter and leading Jesus to declare, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me” (Mark 8: 34).
What I want to know is how these two very different lessons cohabit in the same Bible. Where do the ethics of right speech intersect with the way of the cross? That’s the question I’m going to pursue, and at the end of this sermon you can let me know if I got there.
May the Lord keep all your days and deeds in the grace and peace of Jesus the Messiah. Amen.
Some years ago I had a friend who sent me a prayer that she’d found somewhere on the Internet. To this day I don’t know who wrote it, but from the moment I read it, I was so impressed that I eventually copied out this prayer and pasted it to the inside of my Bible. It begins:
Lord, keep me from the habit of thinking I must say
something on every subject and on every occasion.
The prayer goes on at some length, but that first petition hit me right between the eyes. From childhood I had heard it said, “Better to be silent and let people think you’re dumb than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.” Yet somewhere in the course of eight years of higher education, I had somehow come to the conclusion that this wisdom no longer applied to me. With all my accumulated insight, with all my vast knowledge, great intellect, and sterling academic record, surely, I thought, it would be wrong, nay immoral, to deprive the world of my astute observations, perceptive judgments, and plain good sense. Ha!
I think of words and phrases like, “gas bag,” “blow-hard,” “bloviator,” “big mouth,” or more colloquially, “the southern end of a north-bound horse.” If you don’t know the type, I am the type. It’s a professional hazard. For those of us who speak for a living, especially those of us who aspire to speak the Word of God, no less, it’s an easy pit to fall into. No wonder that James counsels, “Not many of you should become teachers.” The problem always comes when you start believing your own press, and before you know it, you’re expounding on people, places, and things about which you have not the slightest idea. I call it falling in love with the sound of your own voice, and sadly, it’s a romance that can go on for years and years and years. And then, before you know it, people are ducking behind the Velveeta and hiding behind the Cheese Nips when they see you coming up the aisle in the grocery store. What a horrible fate!
With the advent of social media, however, it’s no longer just the traditional gas-bags (preachers, politicians, and professors) who have forgotten the art of knowing when to shut up. Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, not to mention all the Internet blogging services, the world is now awash in people sharing the most intimate aspects of their lives in excruciating detail to potential audiences of billions. Not that long ago moms would counsel their children, “Keep your opinions to yourself,” but now,the wisdom seems to be, “Broadcast your opinions wherever and whenever you can, whether or not anybody has asked for your opinion.” Which brings us to the $1,000,000 question: When to speak up and when to shut up?
There’s no question that free speech is a precious thing, but when and how we are to exercise this freedom is tricky business. Maybe you remember another motherly counsel: “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” Good advice, but this, too, has its limits. Sometimes we’re morally bound to say things that are not pleasant, perhaps even hurtful, if only to keep other people from being hurt. Lord knows where I’d be if it hadn’t been for a sharp elbow lovingly applied to my rib cage now and then. On the other hand, how often do we open our mouths only to gratify our own weak egos? What’s the point of putting in my two cents when the pot’s already full, except to indulge my own sense of self-importance?
I think it was about 10 years ago when Gracia Grindal, a professor at Luther Seminary, published an article she titled, “Fourteen Commandments for Preachers.” I think it’s funny that God gave Israel only Ten Commandments, but preachers need fourteen. Some of her commandments were on the jokey side, like, “Never preach your Easter sermon in a bunny suit.” Can’t you imagine some poor, desperate preacher thinking that he’s going to jazz up his Easter service by hippity-hopping up to the pulpit in a bunny suit? (On second thought, mmmmmm…., no!) But Dr. Grindal’s last commandment was the real kicker. She wrote, “Before ever stepping up to the pulpit, let every preacher ask him or herself: ‘Did Jesus Christ suffer and die for me to deliver this sermon?’” That’s what I call a sobering question. Did Jesus Christ suffer and die for me to regale you with funny stories? Did Jesus Christ take up his cross for me to impress you with my wit and wisdom? Did the Son of Man trudge to his destiny on Calvary for me to hold you captive while I rattle and prattle on about every dumb detail of my oh-so-exciting life? Please.
But you know, that’s not such a bad question for anyone to ask before opening his or her mouth. Before you pretend to tell somebody else how the cow chews the cabbage; before you unload on some unsuspecting bystander the combined frustration of your day, your week, your life; before you use another person as a punchline or a verbal punching bag: maybe you ought to ask, Did Jesus Christ suffer and die for you to share this juicy bit of gossip? Did Mary’s child, God’s Son put this or that person in your path just for you to rant and rave at him or her? Did the Lord of heaven and earth take flesh, walk this earth, and ascend to the cross for you feast on the misery of some poor soul who’s been brought low?
In Luther’s Small Catechism we’re taught that the essence of Christian discipleship is daily dying to sin and daily rising to Christ. Paul described the same thing in terms of the old self, the old nature dying with Christ so that by grace, through faith, the new self may rise with Christ to the life of love and service. When Jesus invites us to take up our cross, he calls us to confront not only the evil in our world, but the evil in our souls that most typically flies out through our lips from the tips of our tongues. During World War II there were posters reminding people to beware of unguarded talk. Do you remember the saying? “Loose lips sink ships.” But loose lips also sink relationships; loose lips devastate reputations; loose lips undermine marriages; loose lips tear families apart; loose lips divide churches, and communities, and nations.
The Apostle James is absolutely right when he reminds us how difficult it is to tame the tongue. That’s true in no small measure because of the wicked pleasures we derive from wagging them. Is there anything more fiendishly delicious than telling a friend or family member brought up short, “I told you so. You wouldn’t listen. If only you had paid attention to me” ? So what if you were right? So what if you had foretold this sad turn of events long before? So what if you can claim total innocence of the mess that’s been made? Does it help? Or is it just a dagger driven into another’s heart so you can feel good about yourself?
Jesus calls us to a higher path. It runs through the cross, but it ends in glory.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
