Words Like Swords

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Proverbs 12:13, 18; 13:3, 14-17, 29; 15:1, 28; 18:6, 21; 19:19; 21:23; 29:22: 

It’s said that a normal preacher has one sermon that they give over and over again. A good preacher has two sermons that they over and over. And a great preacher has three sermons that they give over and over. Now I don’t know how absolutely true that is, and I like to that I’m at least a good, or maybe even great preacher, although 80% of preachers think they are above average, which makes you wonder about that other 20%, but I do find that I come back to similar themes over and over again. I don’t always know if that’s because scripture repeats these themes over and over again, or if it’s because I think we need to hear them over and over, or maybe it’s that I need to hear them over and over again. And one of the unspoken confessions of most preachers is that we preach as much to ourselves, or maybe sometimes even more to ourselves, than we do to those who are hearing this message. But today’s message is one of those themes that I keep coming back to and in this case I do think it’s because we need to hear it today maybe more than eve.

I couldn’t find a count as to exactly how many proverbs are actually contained in the book of Proverbs, nor did I take the time to count them myself, although most sources put it between 800 and 900, but there are around 150 proverbs that deal with anger and words and the mouth. Outside of the Proverbs that talk about wisdom or folly, this has to be close to the most of any theme found in Proverbs, of which we only heard a small sampling of them in this morning’s readings, but I hope it was enough to begin to give you a feel for what these proverbs sound like.

Proverbs: Words Like A Sword

Here is my sermon from Sunday. The text was Proverbs 12:13, 18; 13:3;14:17, 29;15:1, 28; 18:6, 21; 19:19; 21:23; 29:22:

I can be an angry driver. Not like cutting people off and then slamming my brakes angry, but calling people not nice names, or responding to things they do. So, for example, the other day a woman decided to make a turn in front of me, when I clearly had the right of way, and so I hit my brakes and honked at her. She in turn hit her horn, as if I was the problem, and flipped me off, and so I returned then gesture and then quickly thought “I hope that’s not a member of the church.” Now the positive side of this is that the girls are learning the rules of driving, because when I say something like “what are you doing idiot?” they will ask me what the other person did, and then I explain how what they did was wrong. Or at least the positive parts is the story I tell myself. Of course, the things I yell at the tv, especially when the Yankees are playing can be even worse. But, the problem is that by saying the things I do, and reacting the way I do, I am also teaching them many negative things as well, and some of the things that we are told not to do in scripture, and in particular in the book of Proverbs, and so we continue in our series on Proverbs looking at anger and the power of the words we use.

Now we may say that sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never hurt us, and even though that rhymes and therefore has the ring of truth to it, we know that it’s not true. That, in fact, words not only can hurt, but they do hurt, and can do considerable damage to us and to others. Words are powerful things, and we should understand this as Christians because we know that words matter, that they can make a difference, that they can change the entire world because we proclaim that Jesus was the word made flesh. The Word made flesh, and so words matter, but how much attention do we really pay to the words we use, the words we say, how we say them, or even the thought process that goes behind them, even if we don’t say them. Do we understand the power they can hold over us and over others?