The Tongue

It has been suggested that I spend some time on the  Book of James.  An interesting request placed before a Lutheran Pastor.  Interesting, because Luther suggested that the book of James be removed from the New Testament writings. 

But, because I want this to be a reader friendly blog, I will do my best to offer the requester my thoughts on this book.

To begin I will say that the third chapter of James has been a favorite of mine.  Sorry Luther!   Because James addresses the dangers of speaking —use of the tongue

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For 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. If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we guide their whole bodies. Or 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. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great exploits.

How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And 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. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.(James 3:1-12)

A great discussion, in my opinion.  One that should cause anyone alive to take notice.  

Side note:  

Before I entered Seminary I was told by a good friend and Pastor:  “I don’t want you to think that you are going into a loving community.”  At the time his comment puzzled me.  I thought it an odd thing to say about the Christian community.

That was thirty-two years ago; however today, being much less idealistic, I totally understand and have witnessed his truth.   

Christian, or not,  the human tongue can and does wield great power.  

Power that is all-to-often used to make others feel less, or stupid and worthless.  This manner of tongue uses is, what the Bible might call, an abomination to God. 

Misuse of our tongues is a result of our need to be thought of as strong, or intelligent, or at-any-rate well educated — in the know.  Putting the listeners, we are addressing, in a position of less.

Point?  I think that Luther, or any theologian of any religion, or Jesus would agree with James on this particular subject.

Tomorrow I will start at the beginning of The Book of James.  There I will most likely stand with Luther on most point.

Who Knows Best? God Or Us?

“If you are Jewish and don’t believe in him (Jesus) how do Jewish people go to heaven?”

This question is a new one for this Gramma!  It was sent to me some months ago; but I saved it for another time.  This is the time.

As I read this question, again this morning, my first gut reaction was:  ‘The same way everyone goes to heaven.  By the grace of God.’  

My thought is that all who believe in The Creator God will live with him forever.  

The topic of an after-life was much older than Jesus.  There was great debate, between the various sects of the Jewish faith, about the possibility of eternal life.  It was a divisive debate to say the least.

And yet, when you really think about it, just God alone can be a point of conflict period.  Actually, the potential of God even existing is, in and of itself, a topic debated from the earliest of times. 

What is interesting to me is that the debates have lasted through all of history.  Which tells me that God has more honest clout than any of us give him create for.  

Indeed, If their were not the possibility of God. The God we think of as the Creator of all that exists.  The subject would have no meaning, no purpose, no need for conversation.

Paul writes about this dilemma in two pointed writings:  One is found in Roman’s 1:16-25.  The other is 1Corinthians 1:26-31 and 2:1-11.

We human creatures think we are so smart!  

However I believe God is much smarter!

       

That is, much wiser!

Just a simple thought for today. 

…For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith; as it is written, ‘The one who is righteous will live by faith.’

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen. (Rom. 1) 

Consider your own call, brothers and sisters: not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God. He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, in order that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.’( 1Cor. 1)

When I came to you, brothers and sisters, I did not come proclaiming the mystery of God to you in lofty words or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom but on the power of God.

Yet among the mature we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to perish. But we speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is written,

‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard,

   nor the human heart conceived,

what God has prepared for those who love him’— 

these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within? So also no one comprehends what is truly God’s except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God. And we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.(1 Cor. 2)