"He Speaks with Forked Tongue"

When I was a young boy and used to enjoy western films I remember hearing an indian chief saying, "He speaks with forked tongue." It was a short sentence, yet telling a true and vivid story of someone. Today our minister took his scripture readings from Genesis Chapter 1, the Letter of James Chapter 3 and St Luke Chapter 8. In Genesis we read the story of God creating the world. In this story God does nothing at all. He simply speaks and the creation unfolds. In Luke's gospel we read the story of Jesus being awoken by the frightened disciples who were travelling in a boat with him across the Sea of Galilee. His response was to rebuke the wind and the storm abated. The Letter of James speaks about the ability of a bit in a horse's mouth to guide the horse wherever its rider wishes. It speaks too of a large ship which is guided by a relatively small rudder. More importantly it draws attention to the great power for good or evil of the tongue.

In the case of God and Jesus the tongue is used to speak important words which will make a huge difference. But in the case of humans the tongue can and is used to speak words which make a huige difference but in the wrong way. So, it seems that, despite our best intentions, we sometimes get into trouble through what we say. We can be scathing with our tongues and we can be gentle and assuring. We can speak words of truth or we can distort reality by lying.

I have to say that I have always tried to be truthful, even before I decided in favour of Christ. So this means that Christian allegiance is not what makes me speak the truth but a natural desire to speak it. I cannot ever say that I went through a life changing experience which caused me to begin speaking the truth instead of lies. So I do not expect the reader to believe that I suddenly began to speak the truth. It was always an important thing to me.

It is because of this that I simply cannot understand why people deliberately tell lies. My mother, seeing this in me said that if I were on trial for my life I still could not lie to save it. Yet I cannot say that I hate people who tell lies. I just do not understand them. But, to get back to the message in James' letter, it is very true that even the most beautiful and perfect ship cannot go where it pleases if it cannot trust its little rudder. You may shout into a horse's ear but it needs the metal bit to guide in the correct direction.

All this reminds us that the best and most complex plans for world peace can be made unusable by uttering the wrong word. The most trustworthy person is no longer trusted if someone tells lies about them. I remember how the late President Richard Nixon lost his position by lying. On that occasion it reduced the most exalted position in America to a heap of dung through lies being told. The damage that can be done by a false tongue is immeasurable. When a man or woman holds office at a high level we have to be able to trust them and lies will reduce them to history.

Some years ago, a British high ranking civil servant coined a new phrase. He admittd that he had been "economical with the truth." One has to ask the question, does this means he admitted lying or was he saying he held back certain facts, which is not lying? Some years ago I held the position of Branch Secretary for the union formerly known as NALGO. In that office I was required, along with other colleagues, to negotiate with our management. Throughout those four years I never once lied and, to the best of my personal knowledge, neither did my colleagues. But that is not to say I never held certain words back in order to favour the cause of my members. I decided that , if management could not see areas in which they could wipe the floor with us, I was not the one who would point it out to them. This, I believe, was honest and helped the cause which I served.

Yet, it seems that the course of history can be changed by a few lies told by an individual. Therefore, we can agree that the tongue, though very small, is a very powerful member of the human body. From this we can now see how important it is that Christians speak the truth. One person who tells a lie can do untold damage to the rest of the believers. It is vital then that we speak the truth and keep on speaking it.

Now we come to the question, "What is the truth?" The truth is that 2,000 years ago Jesus came into the world as the very incarnation of God. Next Sunday is the first day of Advent and it is during Advent that we remember and celebrate the coming of Christ. We therefore have to speak the truth that tells everyone how "Love came down at Christmas." As messengers and advocates for Jesus we have to be aware that the spotlight is on us. Anything and everything we say is noted and remarks made. It is therefore essential that we always speak the truth and never descend in to lies.

"I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" said Jesus. So if we look for the truth we need look no further than him. people who search for they dem the truth can find it in Jesus. However, at this point they begin to shift their ground and seek the truth elsewhere. They truly recognise that Jesus is the Truth but now they realise that accepting that Jesus is the Truth commits them. The fact is that truth is something people talk about but cannot always face. You see, it just so happens that the truth is not really what they are seeking because it commits them to a new way of life and that is too hard to bear.

This truth is something which puts the spotlight on them and examines all that they do and to face up to living under a spotlight is too frightening. Under this spotlight they have to be prepared to stand up to criticism and to true scrutiny. When they are looking for the truth they are admitting to looking for anything other than the truth as told by Jesus of Nazareth. What they seek is something which is warm and comfortable. The truth of Jesus is never that.

So it is hard to live the Christian life. We often try hard and still manage to get it wrong. Perhaps we often put ourselves down because we see the absoluteness of the truth under that spotlight. It reminds me of the walk towards Emmaus after the Crucifixion. These men were puzzled and disappointed at what had happened. They had thought they had found a man upon whom they could depend. They thought he was a man who would not allow the authorities to arrest and execute him. Only after taking the bread and the wine did they see the truth illuminated in the spotlight. Then they heard the words of life that would take them forward. Suddenly they saw the truth of Jesus and it made all the difference.

It had been the tongue of Jesus that had eventually brought them to the truth itself. This is a tongue which can be trusted. It is never a forked tongue. It always speaks the truth.

Sexuality and Christianity

My friend, Arlen Crawford in America, has reported today on the case of Pastor Haggard who has asked for forgiveness from his congregation. Haggard has had to admit he is gay and has problems with his own honesty with those people he has preached to.

I think the idea of being gay and therefore being unable to become a Christian has to be dealt with. The matter of sexuality is, for me, no problem. Long ago, as a trade union activist, I learned that some people were different to me. They are attracted to members of their own sex. I am not, so this leaves me wondering how it can happen. However, I am, perfectly happy to accept them as equal in God's sight. Just as I cannot understand their feelings so they cannot understand mine. We are simply different.

My life as a Christian has taught me that God loves absolutely everybody. There are no exceptions to this. I once preached on "God loves me" and talked about who might be the lowest of the low today as the tax collectors were in Jesus' time. Alan Bennett had suggested in an Easter programme that child molesters were the lowest people today. Does God love them? Yes! No one sits outside his circle of love. Like it or not, the people you detest are loved by God. In the case of paedofiles, God does not love what they do but they are not exempt from his love. No one is exempt.

I am not saying that everyone must love the outcasts. I am simply saying that God loves them. The difficult act for the Christian is to love all these people who are so unpopular today. Yet if we cannot take that step we fail as disciples of Jesus. The problem is a very difficult one for many people but I have to say that I do not have a problem. If someone is not a threat to me or others i cannot exclude them from God's list of people to be loved.

Many years ago I read of a policeman who counselled a probationer police officer thus: Don't hate the criminal - hate the crime. This is what God calls us to do. We have to be able to handle all these matters in life on a practical basis. The trick is to hate what is done without hating the perpetrator.

The task of today's church is not easy. In the United Kingdom the numbers of church attenders are falling year after year. A few years ago I bought a book which I find most helpful. The first chapter begins like this: "How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land?" is a qquestion the Church, always finding itself in but not of the world, urgently needs to reconsider today." The book is "The Gospel According to Peanuts" and it is excellent. Mind you, it was published originally in 1965, 41 years ago. But the situation is just the same.

Instead of stating publicly what we think of gays and lesbians we should be enetering the world to tell it all about Jesus. We are not here to fill churches. The instruction we should follow as Christians is what Jesus gave to Peter. He said, "Simon Peter, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord." the rsponse was, "Then feed my sheep." We are not exhorted to get folk into church but get them to meet Jesus. Commitment to Christ is everything and the church is not seeing it like that.

There is slow evidence that the current church is starting to change from the edges inward. I cannot wait for the results because I am convinced it will not be changed from the centre. But my message today is "Smile because God loves you.!"