“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!” They are just words...Do you agree with that? You do not agree, do you? Every single person here has had many experiences that say the statement is not true. When was a word spoken to you that was carelessly said and affected you negatively?

I remember one of those times when I was making the decision to go to theology school. The decision to go to theology school was not an easy one for me. I’ve known some people who told me that they had an undeniable word from God they could not resist following. It was not like that for me. I stewed over the decision. But I had some intuition that just persisted and I decided that I should simply follow it and see where it would lead.

It was in the Spring time before I graduated from college when a young Christian guy that I knew asked me, “Allen, what are you going to do when you graduate?” I said, “Well, I’ve decided to go to seminary.” Quickly, he said, in voice where everybody else could hear it: “Allen - was that just your decision...or have you REALLY prayed about this?” Even though I knew his intention was not to hurt me - and that his remark came out of his rather arrogant assumptions about my brand of Christianity, it was a careless remark that wounded me and haunted me and stayed with me.

Are they just words? Words sometimes appear trivial. As one writer points out, they have no substance, no solid form. You can not weigh a word.

We live in a time when more and more it seems words are just seen as innocent speech - they are just words. The freedom of speech has started to mean that it does not matter how we speak. Maybe it is because we live in a highly psychologized culture that says, “express yourself” - don’t hold back - let your feelings go. Listen to the public debate, “What do you hear?” Poison. Spin. Words that are meant to win an argument but have little relationship to the truth. Listen to the way people speak to each other, “What do you hear?” Carelessness. Rudeness. A lot of superficiality.

But are they so innocent? Words are in reality a form of power. They have the power to bless and the power to curse, the power to build up and the power to tear down, the power to save and the power to damn. Listen. “You have cancer!” “I don’t love you anymore.” “I love you so much.” “Daddy.” “Thank you.” “I am sorry, I am so sorry.” Can you feel that? Can you sense the power of those words?

Our Biblical tradition tells us something very different about the power of words. There is such wisdom in this ancient biblical text that we in our time so need to hear. A fellow pastor tells about his disbelief when his Sunday School teacher first told him the story of blind, old Isaac's pronouncing the blessing on the wrong son. You remember the story...Jacob, the second-born, son, tricked his older brother and fools his blind, old father into pronouncing the paternal blessing on the wrong kid! That blessing, once spoken, give the majority of the family wealth to the one it is spoken to.

When he heard the story, it just did not make sense. “So he pronounced the blessing on the wrong son: "Why didn't he just take it back?" You know when you are young, if you did something you didn’t like, you just declare a “do-over.” It is like a Mulligan in golf. No real problem. Take back the blessing and give it to the right son!

“But his teacher told him that for the Hebrew people words had power which, once spoken, once let loose in the world, could not be called back or retrieved. Like arrows flung in flight from a bow, they could never be taken back.” Like King Kong let out of his cage. Once it is out - there is no going back. It will do what it will now do. Word are powerful. They are not simply labels for things. They are not innocent.

The writer of the book of James would tell us that our words have such great power and there is such danger in how we chose to use them. One of the great affirmations in the book of James is that all of us are made in the image of God. Imagine that: we are made in the image of God! But what does it mean? Does it mean that we look like God? Surely not. Does it mean we have free will? Yes, that is the most common way of understanding it. Does it mean we have dominion over the earth? According to the book of Genesis we do, for good or for evil, we do.

However, there is a deeper meaning to the phrase which goes along with these meanings. We are a reflection of the essences of God. The essence of God is that God is always creating. With WORDS God creates. God speaks, “Let there be light!” and the light shines through the darkness. God speaks, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kind...” and the world is teaming with life. God speaks, “Let us make human beings in our image...and God created them male and female.” “And the WORD became flesh...” in Jesus the Christ - the power to create new life was born and dwelt among us.

This same power of words - to speak a word and to create life, to build up life is given to us. This same power to speak a word and to tear down and to destroy is given to us. Of all God’s good creatures on earth, we alone are given the power to create or to destroy with our words. The ability to speak a WORD is a part of our affinity with God.

James tells us that we who have power of words - the power to create or to destroy - are always in the midst of a spiritual struggle. It is not just a matter of whether we are going to be nice and polite and appropriate. On a daily basis, we make a decision about whether we are going to join God in creating a beautiful world or we unite ourselves with darker forces in our world to tear down and destroy.

We all know intuitively what James says is true. Most of us can look back at our childhoods and remember the people who shaped us for good or for bad. I remember my second grade teacher, Ms. Harmon. I do not know why she was so abrupt, so abrasive with her words - but she was. I did not hold my pencil correctly. My handwriting from very early on was poor. The joke in the family was that I should have been a doctor with bad writing like that. For Ms. Harmon it was not a joke. She patroled the room with ruler and one day when she came by my desk - she slapped the back of my hand with that ruler and shouted for the room to hear, “Can’t you even hold your pencil straight?” I was so humiliated. When the last month of school she got such a bad case of poison ivy and had to stay home...I was happy.

I did not tell my parents until the end of the year and they made sure that the next year, I had an affirming teacher, Ms. Ferris. She was a member of my church and a woman of warmth and sincere faith. We did a geographical workbook and I chose to do it on the country of India. She came by my desk and handed me back my project. “Allen, how did you feel about what you did?” “I don’t know;” I said as I looked down, “I guess, ok....” You should feel great...it is one of the best anyone did.” I looked down and there is an “A+” and a “good job” crocodile stamp on the front cover. She was only doing her job, but her words were like the words of an angel, words of grace for a kid who so needed a little encouragement.

I am sure that Ms. Ferris has no memory of what she did for me or any of the words she used. But I do. I do.

James would tell us to be careful how we use our words. They have power. We participate in the creative power of God or in the destructive power of evil in this world. Let me ask you to think about something: How do you speak to the people in your life you most cherish? Do you consider carefully the words that you choose? “Are you slow to speak, and quick to listen,” which is what James instructs his church to be. Our ability to listen and to understand one another is the best antidote to careless speech. So do you honor those you love by a silence that allows you to really hear them? When you do speak, do your words come out of the peace of Christ that is within you? Do they come out of a reflective silence that knows, your words have the power to build up and also to tear down? James tells us that it is hard to control the tongue. We can tame wild animals, but who can fully control their tongue? Difficult to reach perfection, but do we allow the peace and the love of Christ within us to guide us much of the time?

As we begin this new program year together, let me ask you something to consider: How do you speak about your church? What words do you use to tell others about your love and appreciation for this place? How do you speak about your church when you have a problem? Do you consider carefully how your perception might be spoken to the benefit of the whole or do your words fly out carelessly like blind bats out of a cave into a dark night? James says that our words can be like a tiny spark that starts a wild fire that burns out of control, a fire that comes from the pits of hell itself. Do we realize that how we speak has so much more power than we imagine and that we have been given the same creative power that even God has to build up and to give life?

So we begin this new program year with an invitation from the writings of James to know that we are made in the image of God and have the power to create new life with our word. So how we speak to each other - as teachers, as church leaders and members, as family members, and as citizens of this world - is in reality a spiritual battle that we are called to win with the grace of God. Let us speak in the spirit of Christ.

1 R. Wayne Stacy, The Power to Bless: James 3:1-12, Review and Expositor 97 (2000), I am indebted to this writer for some of the ideas for this sermon.