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Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
Text today looking at that epistle lesson from the letter of James. Please be seated. And that passage from James may be somewhat familiar. Talking about the tongue and how it can be a very powerful thing. What people say can be very powerful, either with positive or negative impact. What someone says can start a war or stop one, or as James says, it can steer a ship through a storm or burn down a forest. It can curse people or praise the Lord and Father, our God.
Now, you’ve probably had times where you’ve been on the receiving end of a storm, or a forest fire, or a curse because of what someone has said to you before. I’m going to read a little bit of the Bible. Words can hurt. Now, like him or not, Rush Limbaugh once said, “Words mean things.” How true. And that’s why words can be mean. Yeah, words can hurt you, but there are also probably times when you started a storm or a forest fire or cursed someone. That power of what people say may have come out of your mouth or out of your keyboard, or your phone, or any other electronic device today. The power of what you say had a negative impact on somebody.
Yeah, you push that send button, and there it goes, right? James puts it very simply in the reading today in verse 10: “My brothers and sisters,” alright ladies, you’re not off the hook here. “My brothers, these things ought not to be so.” Now, I’m willing to bet that when you’ve said something powerful with a negative impact to someone, that you were sorry for it. You regretted it, you’d really like to take it back, but you oftentimes can’t. Again, you push send, and there it goes. You can’t take it back.
So when you regret it, when you’re sorry for it, and you’d like to take it back, what do you do? What do you do with that? Well, you say something. You say something helpful, something good, something with a positive impact, and it’s called confession. We do that in worship here. We did that at the beginning of the service. We confessed together that we sin in thought, word, and deed.
And what you say in confession is powerful. Sure, confession is powerful because it can clear your conscience and get it off your chest and help you to feel better about yourself. But there’s more. But wait, there’s more. Infomercial sermon. Confession. Okay, in the small catechism. Remember that book? There’s a new one now. There’s a new small catechism. They keep getting bigger. Pretty soon they’d have to call it the medium catechism.
Okay, in the small catechism, talking about confession, it says this: “Confession has two parts. One, first, that we confess our sins. And second, that we receive absolution.” That is forgiveness. In confession, there’s what you say in confessing your sins, but there’s also what God says. And he says it to you. He says, “You’re forgiven.” When you say, “I’m sorry,” that’s powerful because then God says, “You’re forgiven.” When you say, “I confess.” When you say, “I’m sorry.” When you say, “I’ve sinned in thought, word, and deed,” God says, “You’re forgiven.”
It’s that simple and yet so powerful that God forgives you. No matter your sin, no matter how bad it is, or how burdened your conscience is, or how dirty you feel about what you’ve said, done, or thought, what God says is more powerful. Because no matter how bad what you’ve said, no matter the fire you started, what God says is more powerful.
Twice, in the absolution that I pronounce to you, twice it says, “You’re forgiven of all of your sins.” All of them. Not just the little white lies or the little things that you did, but even the most disgusting things. All of them. And again, words mean things. The word “all” means all of your sins. As a pastor, it’s my privilege and joy to say that to you—to say what God says to you. The pastor gets to announce God’s grace to you. God says, “It’s by Christ,” the pastor says, “It’s by Christ’s authority that I forgive your sins.”
See, when the pastor announces the forgiveness of sins and says, “I forgive you,” it’s not his authority; it’s God’s authority. It’s God speaking to you. Not that the pastor is God. Okay, please don’t put that on me or any other pastor. We have enough problems already not to have to be that. But this is powerful stuff that’s happening here. This is God speaking to you directly and saying, “I forgive you of all your sins.”
It’s not just some guy in a white dress up here talking to you. This is God speaking to you. You are forgiven by Christ’s authority, by what He’s done, by His grace. It’s death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead. It’s words of forgiveness that are backed up with that. It’s forgiveness that Jesus paid for and now gives to you freely. Forgiveness that Jesus even said while he was dying on the cross when he forgave the very people who were crucifying him with, “Father, forgive them. They don’t even know what they’re doing.”
And then some of his last words, “It is finished.” It is finished. Powerful words because the work that was needed to forgive you of all of your sins was completed in that death on the cross. It’s finished. And that’s the essence of Christianity. Sure, there’s a lot of labels that people give to Christianity or things that they think it is or should be, that it’s a social program or it’s a political thing or it’s some sort of just a charity. No, it’s really about the forgiveness of sins.
It’s about what God says: Absolution. Forgiveness given in Christ. And that’s what happens when we gather in worship. That’s the power of what God says to us here today. But not just in worship, but also daily—daily forgiving your sins with the power of your personal confession and His forgiveness of you each day. Confession is a powerful, positive use of what you say. It’s one of the best things you can use your tongue for: confessing your sins. But more so is the power of God in what He says to you.
Now, another positive thing to say, that’s powerful, another good use of your tongue, is to say good things about people. Okay? I know, it’s so easy today to say hurtful things. Kind of feels satisfying when you do, doesn’t it sometimes, huh? But like James says, “My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so.”
We look again at the small catechism, or the becoming not so small catechism, talking about one of the commandments—the commandments—my favorite commandment, actually. Not my favorite commandment to break. Alright, it’s not that. The eighth commandment, commandment number eight: “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.” And then the good Lutheran question: “What does this mean?”
We should fear and love God so that we do not tell lies about our neighbor, betray him, slander him, or hurt his reputation, but defend him. Speak well of him and explain everything in the kindest way. I
