By Pastor Don Schatz

Clean Talk

You can listen to today’s devotion by clicking on this SoundCloud link.

The books of Proverbs and James come immediately to mind as places in Scripture that speak about the power of words.  Both books like to do so metaphorically–picturing the power of the tongue to inflict harm.  Jesus was being tested, as usual.  The topic was what made a person ritually ‘unclean’ or ‘clean’.  His answer:

And he called the people to him and said to them, “Hear and understand: it is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth; this defiles a person.”
Matthew 15:11 English Standard Version

I do not know why someone stuffed a bunch of dead sea grass into the mouth of a statue.  But as soon as I saw it, I thought of these words from Jesus.  The scene struck me as an apt description of too much of human speech.

“What comes out of the mouth…defiles a person.”  It takes so few spoken words to trash or otherwise injure another person.  It can take years to undue the inflicted pain, emotional distress, spiritual turmoil, damage to self-esteem and relational rifts those few words create.

On the other hand: “…the tongue of the wise brings healing” (Proverbs 12:18b).  That sounds better, doesn’t it?  Pun intended.  Taking care of how we speak to other people is as important as how we speak to the Lord.  Taking care to help and heal and bless with our words is a constant ministry in which we can engage.

The increasingly harsh rhetoric in our society these days makes it even more important for Christians to speak peace, hope, joy, compassion, mercy and love into the mix.  I am certain that you can immediately name persons you know who could use those words.  Today they get you to bring those concepts alive in their lives.  Speak peace.  Speak hope.  Speak joy.  Speak compassion.  Speak mercy.  Speak love.  Blessings!

Copyright Holy Cross Lutheran Church, Colorado Springs, Colorado