Sunday, December 29, 2013

Pastoral Malapropisms

James writes, [3:1] Let not many of you become teachers. He is warning of a stricter judgment on those for whom excessive gum-flapping is a vocation. Over the years, I have had occasion to wonder if I should have taken James’ counsel to heart...

There was the time when I was describing from the pulpit the attire of the High Priest when he went in to the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle/Temple to offer sacrifice on the high and holy Day of Atonement. Part of his dress included bells attached to the hem of his robe, the silence of the bells being a signal that God had judged him and struck him dead. What I said was, “The people listened for the sound of the High Priest tinkling in the Holy of Holies.” Nice turn of phrase, that.

Or the time just recently when I was describing the empires that had occupied the land mass that is currently Iran, mentioning Assyria and Babylon and the “Peeds and the Mersians.” Nice touch.

More troublesome was the time that I was describing the leadership roles that Jesus’ disciples were to have in the coming Kingdom. I intended to tell the congregation that Jesus said, “You shall sit on twelve thrones...” I got my mords wixed up and said something more like, “You sall sh** on twelve thrones...” Needless to say, I pretty well lost the teenagers at that point. (Shall sit. Shall sit. Shall sit. Shall sit.)

There is no question that teachers and preachers need to be careful about what they say. My propensity for malapropisms prompted me to manuscript sermons many years ago. While not totally eliminating blunders, I can only imagine how I would have mangled things had I not become more intentional about word choice.

However, word choice in messages and silly mistakes in a sermon are not what James had in mind when he issued his warning.

In a number of places in his short letter he writes about using the words we choose to bring blessing to those around us.

Any observer of human interaction could come up with a list of examples of people using words to curse (James 3:9-10). Sadly, that’s easy, like shooting fish in a barrel and I could join the party with a few illustrations of curse-words.

But from the observation deck of serving as a pastor I’ve had the privilege of seeing words bring great blessing, too. I’ve listened in on conversations where someone was blessed because of the words a speaker used, as in the time when:
a recently widowed mother of four knelt at the bedside of another young mom and tenderly urged her to trust the Lord in a season of despair;
a group of Elders prayed in the home of a family suffering from diseases and other hardships, anointing members of that family with oil as they spoke words of genuine encouragement;
a leader of youth used his position to mentor those in a Sunday School class in the things of God;
another youth group leader used her words to bring hope to a hopeless young man;
a woman offered a sincere apology for an unthinking remark that caused pain to someone she dearly loved;
a group of people wisely “ganged up” on a pastor (yes, that would be me) to lovingly confront him about his workaholic ways;

On and on and on I could go and not even scratch the surface of the times I've listened to the power of words bring refreshment to weary souls, exhortation to rebels, and instruction to the naive.

You are aware that there are lots of ways to express love and care. We could offer financial assistance to the poor, help someone with a move, offer the gift of childcare and/or meals when a family is overwhelmed - and more. But we are missing a huge opportunity to bless if we neglect the way we use words.

I take advantage of the time I’ve been given to manuscript the messages I bring on the weekend to the church I serve. But nobody has the freedom to manuscript the chance conversations that come our way every day. What we can do is enter each conversation with a heart eager to bless, with an aim to encourage, with a desire to do good.

Over and over again I’ve proved James comment that [3:2] we all stumble in many ways. (Amen!)

By God’s grace may we all be those who [3:3] do not stumble in what [we say], proving to be agents of grace to those who hear.

1 comment:

  1. I >love< that phrase you used, "agents of grace"...what a marvelous "profession" to which to aspire. And only when we seek to be used by Him for others can we hope to become such. What a lovely prospect regarding what the Holy Spirit can bring about within us...

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