"Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips  (Isaiah 6:5)

It’s that time in the service again. The time for me to talk for a while. Of course, I say, ‘talk’, but there are all sorts of ways of communicating ideas. Maybe I could do the sermon through the medium of French mime. Or interpretive dance. No? Why would I do that when I have at my disposal one of the most powerful gifts God has given us as human beings; the gift of speech. A gift, I would argue, that truly marks us out as children of God, made in the image of God.

In the beginning, according to the Book of Genesis, God created the universe, shaped Creation. In the great hymn that is the first chapter of the Bible that act of creativity is closely tied to speech; to words. Throughout you get the repeated refrain, “The Lord said….”. The word of God shaped the world. The writer of Genesis understood something that, perhaps, we take for granted. Words shape the world. They change the world. They alter perceptions and pass on ideas.

We do that. The power of speech that God has given us affects the world around us. The words we speak affect those who hear our words. Maybe not by much. Maybe we think that the words we say don’t make very much difference. After all, the words we say are simply sound - they are ripples of compression in the air, growing fainter and fainter as they spread out until they are inaudible and they are gone. It’s only if there is someone to hear them that they can have any effect. As the saying goes, if a man says something in a forest, where there is no women to hear him, is he still wrong?

Yet words are powerful. They can communicate ideas. They can communicate feelings. They can change hearts and minds. It’s no accident that when John began his Gospel it was by announcing Christ as “The Word”. In John’s gospel Jesus often speaks at length to the people he meets. When Nicodemus comes to him by night, Jesus affects him , touches his life and, we imagine, changes his life, by talking to him. “We speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen,” he says. Look how often he prefaces what he says with ,”Truly I tell you.”

Words make a difference. For good or evil. They shape hearts and minds for good or evil. They shape the world for good or evil. And ultimately we know that. We know that words can sting and hurt, or they can heal and nurture. Whoever coined the phrase, “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me” clearly doesn’t understand human beings very well. when I was a kid I was hit several times by sticks and stones. The bruises faded after a few days. I was also bullied for my acne. “Fester,” they called me. “Crater-face”. I felt those words for years after.

“I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips.” says Isaiah. That gift of words we have - a gift that can shape the world around us - so often it gets used for terrible things that perpetuate terrible evils in the world. I offer you the speeches of Hitler that fired Germans to turn on their Jewish neighbours with disastrous consequences. I offer you the words of newspapers today that speak of refugees fleeing the horrors of war as “invading swarms”, as if they were insects.

“I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips.” I offer you the thousand words of hate that divide us one from another. words that belittle and despise “The Other”, be they people of another the race - take a moment: how many words can you think of for people with differently coloured skin? Of a different religion? Of a different sexuality. How do these words shape the world? How do they affect people’s hearts and minds? What scars do they leave on the hearts and lives of men and women: of our brothers and sisters? 

“I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips.” If we are honest aren’t our lips unclean sometimes? Are we sometimes harsh in what we say? Cuttingly sarcastic? Spitefully unforgiving? Take a moment. Have there been times when you’ve said something and hurt someone? When you’ve thought, “I wish I hadn’t said that”? Or have there been times when you’ve kept your lips sealed and, by your silence, told someone that they don’t matter. That they are alone. That they are not wanted.

“I am a man of unclean lips and I live among people of unclean lips,” says Isaiah. Yet then his lips are touched by a live coal from the altar in the temple and an angel says his sin has been blotted out. His lips have been purified. If you remember the reading from Pentecost that hot coal might resonate with the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, with the tongues of fire touching the apostles. That’s the point of the Holy Spirit, and of living in Christ - that our lips do not have to be unclean.

The Holy Spirit of God lives within us. It lives in you and it lives in me. It speaks in our hearts and it whispers in our minds. It touches our hearts and guides us if we will but listen. It works through us to do God’s work in the world. In Galatians Paul speaks of the fruits of the Spirit - of, among other things, peace, joy and love. Yes, sometimes we use the precious gift of words and speech harshly and wrongly; but at our best we use it to yield the fruits of the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit of God lives within us. It is the constant, living reminder that we are redeemed and that we can be better than we have been. It is the voice within us that, if we listen, sings the song of God’s love for all humanity - a love in which we are all, regardless of race, creed or sexuality or whatever, brothers and sisters. And we can speak about that. When the world wants us to hate, we can speak of peace. When the world wields words of division we can speak words of peace. When the world throws up barricades and hurls words of anger we can give voice to the teachings of the prince of Peace.

The Holy Spirit of God lives within us. It is the constant, living reminder that we are God’s children. It is the voice within us that, if we listen, sings of God’s love for the lost and the lonely - a love that can touch people in their times of grief, their times of sickness and brokenness and remind them that somebody cares; that they matter; that even in the darkest times there is the prospect of joy.

The Holy Spirit of God lives within us. It is the constant, living reminder that, however harsh words may shape the world for hatred and selfishness, we are made for love. We are made through the love of God to live in a world touched by the love of God in Jesus Christ and that every kind word sends ripples out through creation. Every word of compassion sends ripples out through the world. Every word of love has echoes in eternity. You can make someone know that they matter, know that they are loved and cared for with a word formed on clean lips. Rejoice in that.

Lord may your Holy Spirit guide our words. May they they reflect your Son’s teachings and the love he showed you have for the world

Preached at Hutton and Corrie Parish Church and at Lockerbie: Dryfesdale Parish Church