Unbolt Our Mouths

Wrath and anger are hateful things, yet the sinner hugs them tight. The vengeful will suffer the LORD’s vengeance, for he remembers their sins in detail. Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven. Could anyone nourish anger against another and expect healing from the LORD? Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself, can he seek pardon for his own sins? 

If one who is but flesh cherishes wrath, who will forgive his sins? Remember your last days, set enmity aside; remember death and decay, and cease from sin! Think of the commandments, hate not your neighbor; remember the Most High’s covenant, and overlook faults. (Sirach 27:30 – 28:7)

Our reading from Sirach stops too soon especially in light of political contests in 2020.  Here’s the next set of passages in the section entitled “The Evil Tongue:”

If you blow on a spark, it turns into flame, if you spit on it, it dies out; yet both you do with your mouth! Cursed be gossips and the double-tongued, for they destroy the peace of many. A meddlesome tongue subverts many and makes them refugees among peoples. It destroys strong cities and overthrows the houses of the great. 

A  meddlesome tongue drives virtuous women from their homes and robs them of the fruit of their toil. Whoever heeds it will find no rest, nor will they dwell in peace. A blow from a whip raises a welt, but a blow from the tongue will break bones. Many have fallen by the edge of the sword, but not as many as by the tongue. 

Happy the one who is sheltered from it and has not endured its wrath. Who has not borne its yoke nor been bound with its chains. For its yoke is a yoke of iron, and its chains are chains of bronze. The death it inflicts is an evil death, even Sheol is preferable to it. 

It will have no power over the godly, nor will they be burned in its flame. But those who forsake the Lord will fall victim to it, as it burns among them unquenchably. It will hurl itself against them like a lion, and like a leopard, it will tear them to pieces. 

As you fence in your property with thorns, so make a door and a bolt for your mouth. As you lock up your silver and gold, so make balances and scales for your words. Take care not to slip by your tongue and fall victim to one lying in ambush.

Who among us is blowing on sparks? Who among us have meddlesome tongues?  Are we hugging tight to wrath, anger, and hateful things.

On the other hand, who among us use our tongues so as not to fall victim to those lying in ambush or even in the open lying and deceiving to break our bones? How many of us have Godly tongues speaking truth to power as did Jesus to Caesar and his minions?  We must wag our tongues in the interest of truth and justice.  We must not bolt our mouths.  Jesus didn’t.  

Deacon David Pierce