Taking the Time to Make a Difference

“Hate the sin, but love the sinner,” ought to apply, no matter what the season, even throughout the political process. So should the practice of “fraternal correction,” that demands good Christians make every effort to help another person to come to an acceptance of what is good and true. I recently read a commentary by the Rev. Gilbert R. Caldwell Jr., a retired Methodist minister whose comments were distributed by the United Methodist News Service. Caldwell was calling for a “timeout” – the method often used by a teacher to bring order out of classroom chaos. He cited Aretha Franklin’s classic song, “R-E-S-P-E-C-T,” and suggested that everyone should “put that verb into practice.” What struck me most about Caldwell’s commentary, though, was a reflection on some passages from our Sacred Scripture that should apply on a life-long basis. Caldwell quoted two brief passages from the New Testament Letter of James: “everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath” (James 1:19), and “the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze” (James 3:5). Caldwell goes on to reflect on these passages and apply them to ordinary life, even political life. “We condemn others for their inability to manage their anger,” he writes. “Yet, many who deplore physical violence in our society seem to have no qualms about engaging in verbal violence.” He goes on to say, ”In my lifetime, I have witnessed how verbal violence is often the prelude to physical violence. We who know that must demonstrate the ability to listen and develop the capacity to be careful, thoughtful and respectful in how we speak and write.”

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Caldwell’s commentary engaged my curiosity about the context of the quotations from James. Both passages are powerful for reflection.

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“Know this, my dear brothers: everyone should be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath, for the wrath of a man does not accomplish the righteousness of God. Therefore, put away all filth and evil excess and humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you and is able to save your souls. Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like. But the one who peers into the perfect law of freedom and perseveres, and is not a hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, such a one shall be blessed in what he does. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, his religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”

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“If we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we also guide their whole bodies. It is the same with ships: even though they are so large and driven by fierce winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot's inclination wishes. In the same way the tongue is a small member and yet has great pretensions. Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire.”

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Take the time to reflect on the fires you have lit, on the power of your tongue, within your home or among the people of your everyday association. Do what you must to make a difference.

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