A Sermon Delivered by The Rev. John D. Painter at Centenary United Methodist Church Metuchen, New Jersey March 7, 2010 (The Second Sunday in Lent)

Texts: James 3:8-10; Matthew 7:7-11; Proverbs 16:24
…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.
—James 3:8-10, NRSV

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for eve-ryone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” —Matthew 7:7-11, NRSV
Kind words are like honey—sweet to the soul and healthy for the body.
—Proverbs 16:24, New Living Translation (NLT)
Will you pray with me? Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
I am so glad you are here this weekend. We are in a Lenten adventure called “Live Like You Were Dying.” During these days of Lent this year, we are stepping back and asking the question, “What if we only had 30 days to live?” How would we change? If you were on a 30-day countdown to exit this earth, how would you live differently? It is a thought-provoking ques-tion and one that is worthy of our time. This weekend we are going to zero in on one line from Tim McGraw’s song, Live Like You Were Dying, that will probably change us in many ways if we follow it. The change the song talks about is to “speak more sweetly.”
One of the most amazing and powerful gifts God gives us is the gift of a “voice.” A voice allows us to be able to express our deepest thoughts and emotions. It is interesting that in John, Jesus is called the Word. And, in Hebrews chapter 1, the writer says that long ago God spoke at many times and in many ways through the prophets. But in these days, God has spoken to us by his Son. The most powerful communication of God to humankind came in the form of Jesus. He is the ultimate and complete Word from God.
Proverbs 18:21 (NIV) says, “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” Words have power. Words have impact. Last year the average cost of a 30-second commercial during the Super Bowl was $2.6 million. Companies spent $2.6 million for a 30-second shot at getting the word out about their product. The President has a press secre-tary, and his job is to carefully choose just the right words when speaking on behalf of the Presi-dent. Words can inspire, motivate, challenge, and affirm. Or they can cut, de-motivate, wound, and destroy.
Some of us who are here today could give testimony to the power of hurtful words. You can still remember word for word a verbal lashing you received from a parent or a teacher or a coach or a spouse. It may have happened years ago, but even in this moment you can feel the emotion of embarrassment, shame or anger. Verbal shrapnel has left scars on all of us.
On the other hand, some of you know the power of affirming words. You have experi-enced the joy of someone’s verbal blessing. Words have inspired you, comforted you, and chal-lenged you. You know what it’s like for someone to look you in the eye and say “I believe in you… You can do it!”
During our time together this morning, I would like to suggest three ways to use your words so that they are life giving. If you only had 30 days to live, I am convinced these three practical suggestions would be changes you would want to make.
1. Appreciate People
One of the defining marks of a follower of Jesus Christ is the characteristic of gratitude. Even for those of us who have been Christians for a long time, it is easy for our words to be more about grumbling than about gratitude. This is a struggle as old as the human race.
In his rule for monasteries, St. Benedict considered grumbling a serious offense against community life. He says, “First and foremost, there must be no word or sign of grumbling, no manifestation of it for any reason at all.” The most wonderful line in Benedict’s rule describes the appropriate response to a monk who was creating discord by their grumbling. “Let Father Abbot send two stout monks to explain the matter to him.” You complain and whine in the mon-astery and you get a visit from a couple of monk bouncers named Bruno and Guido. Maybe we should implement such a strategy in the church?
Now, I know what some of you are mumbling to yourselves right now. You are saying “you don’t understand. My life is hard.” That may be, but you’re still not off the hook. Listen to this admonition from the Bible: “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18, NLT).
Did you hear those first words…in all circumstances? No matter what happens… I think that just about covers it all. No matter what you are going through; even if you only had 30 days left to live you can still be filled with gratitude. No matter what life throws at you, you are loved. You are forgiven. You have hope. By God’s loving grace, you are at peace with God, and you can face both life and death with confidence.
When people realize that they have been touched by God and they get to live a life they don’t deserve and their hearts are filled with gratitude, you know what happens? Their face gets notified and they smile more. Their mouth gets notification and they speak grateful words.
I want to give you two very doable, practical ways to put this attitude of appreciating people into practice during the next seven days.
First, Say “Thanks” to the people who serve you. Life around here moves pretty fast. If we are not careful, we can blow right past opportunities for gratitude to fill our soul and roll off of our lips. So, this week I want you to focus on noticing the small things. Then, every chance you get this week, say the words “thank you,” or “I appreciate you.”
When you see the school crossing guard at the intersection, roll down your window as you go by and say, “Thanks for what you do.” When you see your mail carrier in the neighbor-hood this week, stop for a moment and just say, “Thanks, I appreciate what you do.” When you encounter the waiter or waitress, busboy, bank teller, nurse, children’s Sunday school teacher or your high school principal, develop the habit of expressing thanks.
Second, Say “Thanks” to the people who shaped you. There are people in your life who have shaped and blessed you, or sacrificed for you. If you only had 30 days to live, I suspect you would track down some of those people and take a few minutes to tell them what they mean to you.
Who is it that is coming to mind right now? Maybe it is someone you haven’t seen in years. But, their influence and example have shaped you to become the person you are today. Their words and prayers motivated you. Go to them if you can and sit down with them. Look them in the eye and say, “Thanks, I am so grateful for your impact on my life.” Now I know this is new territory for some of you, but listen, life is too short and you aren’t promised tomorrow. Don’t miss this chance to sit down with people who mean something to you and say out loud, “I am grateful for you.”
2. Encourage people…build them up
This is so huge and, yet, it is so simple to do. In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 (NIV) Paul offers this challenge: “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.”
Mother Teresa once said, “Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless.” What a great statement!
We live in a world where people are beat up and put down. We all remember the child-hood saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” That is just not true. Years ago on the old sitcom Cheers, one of the characters was a guy named Norm. One day when he was asked how his day was, he responded, “It’s a dog-eat-dog world and I’m wear-ing milk bone underwear.”
Some of you feel that way about this past week. There are people all around us who are stressed, anxious, fearful, angry, insecure or discouraged. They are everywhere.
But, here is the great news. We have the unbelievable privilege of looking people in the eye and saying to them, “You matter; your life counts; God loves you. You are valuable, and the God at the very heart of the universe is intimately interested in you.”
I’m sure you have seen video footage of the Special Olympics. Don’t you just love watching these clips? As the kids are participating, the parents, friends and coaches are cheering wildly. And as the kids cross the finish line there is a mob of hugging and cheering and celebrat-ing. It doesn’t matter how fast they are or how gifted they are. Every person is encouraged and cheered for and celebrated. If there is any group on this planet that ought to model this kind of encouragement, it is the body of Christ. We should be excessive, obnoxious, and lavish with our encouragement.
Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called today. This is such a great attitude for this 30-day experiment. It is a reminder that all I really have is today. All of our good intentions have led to so many missed opportunities.
I wonder how many people God put in my path this week. But, I was so self-absorbed or moving so fast that I never even saw them. One of the things that I love about Jesus is that he had this wonderful capacity to “notice” people. He never seemed to be rushed. He never looked past them to someone more important. He never seemed to see people as an interruption or an annoy-ance.
So, how about it? Who needs your encouragement? Who could you bless this week with no strings attached?
However, you choose to do it, let me challenge you this week to be a “blessing dis-penser.” I want to give you a chance to put this one into action. I am asking our ushers to share a special card with all of you. What I want is for you to use that card to write an encouragement note to someone this week…preferably sooner than later. Be a “blessing dispenser.”
So, we can appreciate people, encourage people and, finally, we can…
3. Pray for people…
It is a wonderful privilege to be able to speak to people on behalf of God…one I have cherished for over 43 years. But, it is an equal privilege to speak to God on behalf of people. In other words, we have the joy of carrying people and their needs before the very presence of God. We can engage in prayer for the sake of our friends and family…and even complete strangers.
One of the greatest blessings we have is that we can go into the presence of God anytime, anywhere. My hope for you is that prayer will become a lifestyle—an ongoing conversation with God throughout the day. While you are driving, showering, taking a walk, or sitting in front of your computer, you can pray on behalf of those people who are in your world.
Listen my friends, there is power in prayer! Sometimes we minimize the power of prayer and forget that prayer has the ability to move heaven, as we heard in that portion of Jesus’ Ser-mon on the Mount from Matthew’s Gospel earlier this morning.
Prayer should be our first response not our last resort. So, when someone shares a need, a crisis, or a celebration, get in the habit of stopping right then and praying for him or her. People’s tears are often God’s invitation to stop and pray. Sometimes, the most important thing you can do is to tenderly pray on someone’s behalf. The result is that people are encouraged, God’s power is unleashed, and everyone’s faith is strengthened.
I have this picture in my mind of our congregation scattered all over this area and you have your arm around someone whispering a prayer on their behalf. Can you imagine how it might change our community and us if we just started praying for and with people? Can you im-agine how it would impact people if we had no other agenda than to bring their needs before God? Let me challenge you this week give it a try. Make it your goal this week to pray with at least one person that God brings across your path. Come on, take a risk. After all, what do you have to lose? You have only 30 days to live. Go for it!
There is a man in a nursing home in Indiana who is a quadriplegic. He hasn’t been out of a wheelchair in many years. And, now he is unable to speak. But, he loves God and he loves his church. He can’t usher, or sing, or lead a small group…but he can pray. So, every week the folk in his church bring him prayer requests, and for hours every week he brings those needs into the presence of God. Not until we arrive beyond the Jordan will we really know just how much im-pact this man’s life and prayers have had.
I want to finish today where we began. I want to take you back to those words from Prov-erbs 18:21 (NIV): “The tongue has the power of life and death…”
May your words be life-giving this week. Amen.
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