But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles (Matthew 15:18)

I was a young man in the 1980s - remember, the decade taste forgot? My first year at university was 1981 and going to all the student discos. There was a a song I remember from those called “Wordy Rapping Hood” by Tom Tom Club. There’s some possibility that for some of you those words meant nothing at all, but some of the words were 

Words in papers, words in books 

Words on TV, words for crooks 

Words of comfort, words of peace 

Words to make the fighting cease 

Words to tell you what to do 

Words are working hard for you

and the chorus was the question, “what are words worth?” What are words worth?

In the Church of Scotland we’re big on words and, indeed, on the Word. I am, as a Reader, a Minister of The Word. The reason that the sermon plays such a big part in our church services is that we regard the sermon as the part of the service where we encounter God through the medium of words: indeed, if you look at the standard order of service for the Church of Scotland when we first started it’s all spoken words apart from a couple of psalms and the sermons could go on for hours. These days it just feels that way. But what are words worth? Don’t we sometimes listen to what politicians say or what broadcasters say or even, dare I say it?, what preachers and think “Yeah - but  they’re just words.”

There is nothing “just” or “only” about words. That’s what Jesus is getting at in the first bit of the reading we had from Matthew this morning. Words are powerful, powerful things. They can ennoble and they can defile. They can beautify and they can desecrate. They can can wound and they can heal. Words, speech, they are brilliant. They are, perhaps, what makes us human. They are, perhaps, what mark us out most obviously as the children of God, made in his image. Does that sound a bit grand? “In the beginning was The Word”, begins the Gospel of John. In Genesis God speaks and the world comes into being. It has a point.

See, we have some brilliant words - words that point to the fact that what we say is far more powerful then we sometimes imagine. Some years ago, when Christopher was doing French at school we started labelling the house with sticky notes for saying “la porte” on the doors, or “la chaise” for the chairs - that kind of stuff. But the power of words goes far beyond the kind of stuff you can attach sticky notes to. “Justice”. “Truth”. “Beauty”. “Love”. Where would you put stickies for those? What are words worth? Maybe a whole lot.

Why am I saying this? Surely you know this is true. Surely you know what an effect words can heave on any one of us. Surely you know how it reshapes your world when someone you care about tells you they love you. Surely you know what a difference it makes when you’re going through difficult times and a friend or a colleague says something that tells you they understand what you’re going through and that they are there for you. And surely, too, you know how it hurts when someone you care about says something that suggests they don’t care what you feel. Surely you know how words can heal and how words can wound.

That is what Jesus is getting at in the first part of our reading from Matthew. We have within us the power to make the world around us a better place or a worse one. We have the power to make the people around us feel better or worse.We have the power to communicate ideas that can reshape the world around us and make it more just, more truthful, more beautiful, or we can speak injustice, we can peddle lies, we can make the world around us a darker place. And most often we do it through the medium of words, through language and speech. What are words worth?

That depends. It depends on whether or not what we do corresponds with the words we say matter to us. I’d like too turn, for a moment, to the second part of our reading from Matthew: the story of the Syro-Phoenician woman. This is often described as a “problem passage” in scholarly works because Jesus seems to be so out of character here - the way he speaks to the woman seems almost brutal. But let’s remember that the person who speaks first in that passage is Peter: “This woman is bothering us. Send her away”. Maybe that’s why Jesus says what he does - he is illustrating to Peter and the other apostles what their words really mean - how hurtful they actually are and how, thoughtlessly, they make the world a darker place.

And then he heals the woman’s child. It may seem that he has changed his mind. Maybe he has - I don’t know. But Matthew’s genius here is putting the two passage we read this morning together. The words we use, the things we say matter; they can shape the world around us for good or for evil, but it matters too that we act in a way that mirrors the things that we say. In healing the Syro-Phoenician woman’s daughter Jesus behaves in a way that reflects what he said about ritual cleanliness - what matters is not what rituals you observe, but what is in your heart. 

We have some great words, as Christians. We can talk about how the love of God is for every man, woman and child on this planet. These are good words. We can talk about the forgiveness that God showed to us in the death of Christ on the Cross and his resurrection. We can talk about the saviour that we call the Prince of Peace. These are good words. They are the words of our faith. But what are words worth? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. It depends on what is in our hearts. We can talk until we are blue in the face about the love and the forgiveness of God, but if that isn’t reflected in what we do - if our heart isn’t in it enough to affect what we do - what are our words worth? We can prattle on for as long as we like about “peace”, but if our heart isn’t in it and we cleave to hatred, what are our words worth?

There are any number of temptations in this world to use words that defile us. There are any number of opportunities to behave in ways that make a nonsense of what we say we believe in. We can disown the poor and label them with words - “scrounger”, “layabout”, “on benefits”. Or we can be better than that and call them “brother” and “sister”. Remind me - where in the gospels did Jesus turn away from someone who was poor. We can hear of the “tide of immigrants” that is threatening to “swamp us” and we can buy into all that. Or we can be better than that and act in a way that reflects our belief that God is father to all. Whatever the case we can’t run away from who we  are and the difference we are called on to make in the world. We can reflect the words we say matter to us, or not. The choice is ours.

What are words worth? Everything or nothing. We have heard the word that proclaims the love of God for all his children, regardless of who they are, what they’ve done or where they’ve come from. We can make the world a bit more beautiful by embracing that word and acting accordingly, or we can make it darker by saying one thing and acting differently. What are words worth? Maybe nothing. Maybe everything. The choice is yours.

Lord, may all we say reflect your love for your children. May all we do reflect what we say. May we follow in the way of your son and embrace all your children in word and deed

Preached at Tundergarth Church