watch what you say!

Helen Street turned busy, this week:  school busses and impatient parents made steady pilgrimage to West Middle School, just up the street.  A few walkers, resigned to a new school year, trudged by with clean but downcast faces.  Everyone’s a year older!  And the search for Wisdom continues……

The Book of Proverbs begins with a reproach to the foolish from Wisdom (1:20-33).  She’s EVERYwhere — on the streetcorner, in the market, at the gates of the city.  “You have ignored all my counsel….I will laugh at your calamity.”   Remember the stuff our parents used to tell us?   “You’ll shoot your eye out!”   “Just shut your mouth and eat!”   And the ever-popular, “When you chop your foot off with that axe, don’t come running to ME!”   And now we hear, “the complacency of fools destroys them, but those who listen to me will be secure.”

James tells those who would teach to be very careful with their words (3:12).   He notes that the tongue is difficult to tame, and is the little rudder by which the entire ship sets its course.   “No one can tame the tongue, a restless evil, full of deadly poison.”   If you’re going to praise God, he says, be careful not to pollute your words with unkindness and gossip.

The Gospel continues from St. Mark (8:27-38).  Jesus asks, “Who does society say that I am?  And who do YOU say that I am?”   Gotta be careful with this: St. Peter answers rightly that Jesus is Messiah — then blows it by denying that the Messiah must suffer & die!   Jesus’ wisdom is that that’s a selfish escape, and that to be whole with God we’re all to take a counter-cultural risk….

How do these tie together, and is there a common link?   Seems to me that if there’s a common denominator, it’s a verbal one: what’s said.   God must often feel as though there’s only an echo coming back, that messages of Wisdom and Christ-like suffering fall on non-hearing ears.   As a Preacher, as one given to Disciple-speak, I often think I may be conversing in Martian!

Last Saturday, I had a high-school class reunion  — number 51 (sheesh, am I a geezer!)  Not surprised, but tickled that so many there spoke of their involvement in church, and what their faith had led them to do!   My old classmates, with whom I laughed & tussled, took tests, squabbled over basketballs, danced and disrupted study-halls!  And we came out (eventually) with a taste of Godly Wisdom….

I guess all those First Days of School were worth it after all.

God Bless Us, Every One

           Horace Brown KIng