Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 3 September 2014 "Blessing God, cursing human beings?"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Wednesday, 3 September 2014 "Blessing God, cursing human beings?"
Daily Scripture: James 3:3-5 A bit in the mouth of a horse controls the whole horse. A small rudder on a huge ship in the hands of a skilled captain sets a course in the face of the strongest winds. A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!
5-6 It only takes a spark, remember, to set off a forest fire. A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that. By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke and go up in smoke with it, smoke right from the pit of hell.
7-10 This is scary: You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue—it’s never been done. The tongue runs wild, a wanton killer. With our tongues we bless God our Father; with the same tongues we curse the very men and women he made in his image. Curses and blessings out of the same mouth!
10-12 My friends, this can’t go on. A spring doesn’t gush fresh water one day and brackish the next, does it? Apple trees don’t bear strawberries, do they? Raspberry bushes don’t bear apples, do they? You’re not going to dip into a polluted mud hole and get a cup of clear, cool water, are you? 
Reflection Questions:
The apostle James, Jesus' brother, found a painful irony in one way people speak. "With [our tongue] we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God's likeness. Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth," he wrote. Reflecting on this passage in his book Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White, Pastor Hamilton asked, "Does the Lord give us an exemption from practicing the Scriptures when it comes to our political leaders?" 
Sociologists note that in war, soldiers start using dehumanizing nicknames for people on the other side. It seems to become easier to kill other people if we stop thinking of them as people, as human. In what ways have you seen similar patterns in political "combat," when the "bullets" are words? Have you ever become friends with a person, later found that you hold different political opinions, and realized that the degrading labels you've used for "those people" may not be true?
In Seeing Gray, Pastor Hamilton wrote, "Part of the polarization…in our country today is a result of pastors and church leaders who have abandoned the teachings of Jesus and the apostles regarding the way we speak of those with whom we disagree. Part of the healing of our nation must come from the church modeling for our society how we are to love those with whom we disagree." Do you, like James, find it sad to bless God and then curse people God loves and for whom Jesus died? What can you change in your own speech to contribute to "the healing of our nation"?
Today's Prayer:
Lord God, sometimes those who disagree with me bug me so much that I wonder "where they came from." Remind me that they, like me, ultimately came from your creative heart. Help me to move toward seeing them as you see them. Amen.
Insight from Kari Burgess
Kari Burgess is a Program Director for the Catalyst team, handling promotion and marketing for all of the conferences held at Resurrection, as well as registration and coordinating hospitality volunteers.
As I reflect on today’s scripture and this week’s topic of religion and politics, I’m interested to consider the idea of our tongue steering us off course, of corrupting our whole body. Last weekend God taught me this lesson personally. I share this story as an example of how easy it is to let our tongues steer us wrong in all parts of our lives, including our political discussions with others.
Over the weekend, we decided to go camping. Just a normal Labor Day weekend for many. But my husband and I have been married for almost 18 years and have never been camping. We are the epitome of suburbanites. We like to consider ourselves “outdoorsy,” but we have limited ourselves to hiking in the mountains and returning to a cabin with a hot shower and a comfortable bed.
So we set out on our first camping journey with my husband’s brother and family—4 adults and 5 kids. My husband and I didn’t really know what to expect from the campground near a local lake. When we drove in to the camping area, there were already several groups there—not exactly the quiet serenity I expected. We set up camp, made some dinner, the kids swam at the beach—we were basically having a nice time. But I must admit I kept feeling a little uneasy about the groups around us. None of them were “like us.” All were a little rough around the edges, and I easily went to a place of judgment.
As it grew darker, we had s’mores, sat around the campfire and began to wind down. The groups around us started to wind up. It got louder and louder as the evening wore on. By the time we were all in our tents, there was no sleeping to be had. It was like we were in “party cove”—not the solitude I expected on my first camping trip. Loud music, raucous laughter, firecrackers at midnight—are you kidding me? How rude, and how typical….I’m sure you can imagine the judgment I placed on these people.
The next morning we were up with the sun. The talk while making breakfast was about the noise the night before. I even joked to the kids, “Why don’t you take those pots and pans and run around the campground banging them together? That will wake up the neighbors and serve them right after keeping us up half the night!” Joking? Only sort of.
We broke camp. We started the minivan. Well, we tried to start the minivan. Apparently one of the sliding doors was left ajar overnight and drained the battery. It was warming up quickly, and none of us 4 adults was exactly handy with the jumper cables. And, of course, there was corrosion on the battery connection, too, so it wasn’t a simple jump. I’m sure my husband and brother-in-law would have figured it out. But about that time, a gentleman walked up and offered to help. As soon as I heard his voice, a shiver went down my back. It was the loudest of all the voices from the night before. I was certain this was the same guy who was shooting off firecrackers and yelling at his kids. But here he was, getting under the hood of our car, getting tools out of his own truck, getting his hands dirty—and getting the car started within several minutes.
I turned to my sister-in-law and said, “God is good.” She said, “Yes, I’m so glad this happened here and not out on the highway.” But that wasn’t exactly what I meant. I think God took the opportunity of the dead car battery to teach me something about my heart—about being quick to judge; about making assumptions about others who are different from me; about using my tongue harshly against others without even knowing them. This guy had no reason to come and help us, except that he knew he could be helpful and had a generous heart for helping others.
Our tongue is a guide for our life. If we don’t tame it, it can easily lead us astray, set fire down a path we don’t intend. We can’t possibly know each other’s hearts based on chance encounters, any more than we can really understand the perspective of people on the other side of a political debate held on a social media site in quick sound bites. I don’t have any answers to our political problems, or even profess to understand all of the issues. All I can suggest is that rather than lash out harshly with our tongue (or keyboard), we should engage in authentic conversation with those on the “other side” of the debate (political or not), even break bread with one another. I believe we’ll find we have more in common with one another than we have differences. And in finding common ground, we can lay the groundwork for real work to resolve the issues before us.
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