Say Ahhh!

“O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” 

Psalm 51:15

Say Ahhhh!! When you go to the doctor’s office for a checkup, one of the first things you are asked to do is to stick out your tongue.  Then the doctor takes a tongue depressor and presses down the tongue to examine your throat and mouth.  The tongue is a great help in determining our physical condition.

The book of James confronts all of us with our physical condition as indicated by our tongues.  The warning we hear from James is very clear.  “How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness.  The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.”

James gives us some harsh words.  Words that condemn all of us as ones who have misused our words and sinned with our tongues.  But what’s the big deal with such a small part of our bodies?  The tongue is small but very significant.  It is a small muscle but a mouthful of muscle.  Just like a small rudder can guide a large ship.  James also uses the analogy of a bridal on a horse. A small bridal can guide a great, tall horse.  So it is with the little tongue in our mouth. That little muscle in our mouth controls our whole personality. It is amazing that such a little muscle has such power to control the direction of our whole personality.  Counselors understand this.  Counselors tell us that if you can change the language of a person, you can actually change the person.  If you can change the words that a person uses, you can change the feelings inside of that person.

James was right.  He said that a small rudder controls a large ship; a small bridle controls a big horse; a small muscle like the tongue controls our whole personality.  In the wisdom of James about the tongue, we discover that the tongue is very vulnerable to sin.  No one is innocent – not you, not me – no one.  And to drive the point home James reminds us of what we are capable of doing.

But what can we do?  James tells us that no man can bridle his tongue – so are we just doomed to live this life in a never ending battle with our tongues, with the hurt that we cause others just being collateral damage?  By no means!  The battles rage on, but the war is already over.  The victory is won through the one man who was able to bridle his tongue and was “like a sheep that before its shearers was silent” – our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Our Savior, Jesus Christ – lived and died and rose from the grave because of our sinful condition, because of the hurts that our tongues have caused.  He bridled His tongue even in the face of death so that we might receive His righteousness as He now lives in us.  Through the waters of Holy Baptism we have received the gift of the Holy Spirit who transforms us to live as children of our Heavenly Father.  We live as those given the inheritance of the only Son of God, who was silent on our behalf.  May this Good News lead us to confess and praise along with St. Paul in Romans chapter 7, “Wretched man that I am!  Who will deliver me from this body of death?  Thanks be to God – through Jesus Christ our Lord!”