Rev. Charles Lehmann + Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity + Proverbs 4:10-23
In the Name of + Jesus. Amen.
We've all heard the saying, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but
words can never hurt me.” Of all the things I heard as a child, I always knew
that this was the most foolish. The saying suggests that only physical pain
counts. It suggests that words have no real power and should never be feared.
Neither of these are true.
Words are powerful. They can cause enormous pain that lasts forever. If
I was ever hit on the playground, I don't remember it. But I remember what
people said. I remember the insults and the slights. The pain inflicted by
words is deep and lasting.
Of course, the sticks and stones saying is trying to teach us something
true. It is certainly important that we don't take every hurtful word to
heart. We cannot live our lives bearing all of the accusations that the world
hurls at us.
But the words still matter. Words have immense power to kill and to heal.
The sentence “words can never hurt me” fails to recognize what we all know to
the contrary.
Our Old Testament reading for today makes words into a very physical
thing. The Father instructs his son to orient himself entirely around words.
He is to incline his ear to words. He is to always have words in his sight.
He is to guard words in his heart. These words from Proverbs seem to go
to the opposite extreme. They lead us to ask a very basic question. How in
the world can words be that important that your whole body should orient itself
around them?
The answer is found in verse 22. “[These words] are life to those who
find them, and healing to all their flesh.” There are words that are
important enough that our entire life, even the posture of our bodies, should
be oriented around them. These words should always be before our eyes and in
our ears. They should always be on our lips ready to be spoken and sung.
The words that are life to those who find them and are healing to all
their flesh are the words of God. They are the ones which He gives us in His
Word, which are spoken in this place, and which are sung in our hymns. They
are the same words by which God created the universe. They are the same words
by which He put His Name on you in your Baptism, forgives all your sins in the
absolution, and gives you His body to eat, and His blood to drink.
Words are the means by which God delivers to you all that He won when He
suffered and died on the cross to forgive all your sins. The Word of God
always does what it says. When Jesus says, “I forgive you,” you are forgiven.
When He says He remembers your sins no more, they are forgotten. The words of
the Holy Gospel are the words of eternal life and salvation.
They are good words. And it certainly makes sense that we should orient
our entire body around them as our reading in Proverbs indicates. We should
constantly be seeing them, turning our ear toward them, guarding them in our
heart, and speaking and singing them.
But sadly, we do not always use the good gift of words for a holy purpose.
We do not always allow the truth of God's Word and His great love for us on
the cross to define every word that we think and say.
The Scriptures have a lot to say to us about the words that are we use.
Our Lord says that it is out of the abundance of our hearts that the mouth
speaks. The Psalms on the one hand condemn deceitful and lying lips and on
other hand say, “O, Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.”
The Psalms also give us a wonderful prayer that asks God to use our lips
only for those things that are pleasing to Him. “Set a watch upon my heart, O
Lord, and guard the door of my lips.” Sadly, this is a prayer that we often
ignore, and we speak all manner untrue, unkind, and hurtful words.
There is only one remedy for our lying lips. They must be tamed by
speaking words that are true. We sometimes confess this at the beginning of
the liturgy when we speak the words of the Apostle John. “If we say we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our
sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.”
The time that we most clearly tell the truth about ourselves is when we
say that we are sinners in need of the Lord's mercy. It is when we listen to
the Word of God and speak it back to Him again.
The Lord's response to our confession is always the same. Forgiveness,
life, and salvation. His words are life to us when we find them, and healing
to all our flesh. The Lord's Word is living and active, sharper than any
two-edged sword. The Lord's Word comes into our heart and cuts out the sinful
nature. It kills the flesh that opposes His gifts. The Lord's Word drowns our
sinful flesh in the waters of Holy Baptism. It puts to death the works of the
flesh that Saint Paul lists in today's epistle: “Sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger,
rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like
these.”
The Lord's Word guards our lips from the lying words of men. It drives
away the deceit of the evil one. It preserves the holy Church by giving to her
forgiveness for all her sins, and the life and salvation that can be found
wherever the Lord's forgiveness is found.
And so we may say with today's reading from Proverbs: Sticks and stones
may break my bones, but God's own words will heal me. It is an amazing promise
that God's Word makes to you today. Words can heal your flesh. They can give
life to our bodies that are in bondage to death. Like the great army in the
valley of dry bones, the Lord's Words can connect bones with tendons and cover
them with flesh. The Lord's Words can breath life into the slain, and raise
all those who are dead in Christ.
The Lord's Words are life for those of you who have found them, and they
are healing for all your flesh. Jesus, the Word made Flesh, has lived among us
and suffered all the evil that fills the world. There is no pain that He has
not endured on our behalf. He suffered the blasphemies of the Jews, the rod
and lash of the Romans, and on more than one occasion, His own people picked up
stones to stone him.
But even on the day of His death, not one bone was broken. He died
bearing the sting of every word of hate and malice that has ever been spoken.
But from our Lord's lips on that day came words of love, mercy, and
forgiveness. He prayed that His Father might forgive all who had sent them
there. Though our lying lips nailed Him to the cross, His holy lips begged for
our forgiveness. Though we have inclined our ears to evil, Jesus has asked
only for our good.
His words for you were life, and healing for all your flesh. Though
Abel's blood cried against Cain for justice, the Lord's blood speaks a better
word than the blood of Abel. It speaks of forgiveness and mercy. You receive
from the lips of Jesus nothing that you deserve. Instead He asks that the
Father give to you all that is owed to him because He has received from His
Father all that is owed to you.
We have received from the Lord words of life and forgiveness, and we have
nothing to fear. And so let us hear once more the words of today's reading
from Proverbs. Let us be filled with the joy that they declare to us:
My son, be attentive to my words;
incline your ear to my sayings.
Let them not escape from your sight;
keep them within your heart.
For they are life to those who find them,
and healing to all their flesh.
In the Name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding keep your hearts
and minds in faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Rev. Charles R. Lehmann
Pastor, Saint John's Lutheran Church, Accident, MD
http://www.stjohncove.org
