Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B 12th September 2021
Lectionary readings: Isaiah 50 v4-9a; Psalm 116 v1-9; James 3 v1-12; Mark 8 v27-38.
Guard your tongue!
“My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn’t right.” (James 3 v 9, 10)
James is encouraging us, his readers, to live wise and sensible lives. He acknowledges that
“All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.” (v2).
James starts this chapter by talking about teachers, he says, “My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact teachers will be judged more strictly than others.” (v1).
I think that James has the ‘teachers of the Law of Moses’ in mind as he is writing.
In our gospel passage today, Mark recalls Jesus telling his disciples about how he would die and who would be responsible for his death.
Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation’s leaders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” (Mark 8 v31).
A few verses later Jesus says, “Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people!” (v38).
I think that Jesus is referring to the nation’s leaders, the chief priests and the teachers of the Law of Moses, not to the ordinary people of Israel.
The early Christian church, the followers of ‘The Way’ of Jesus, judged the nation’s leaders to be responsible not only for the death of Jesus but also for misleading the people of Israel. By their false teaching and hypocritical lifestyle they had betrayed God. They had failed to show God’s love, justice and mercy to the people of Israel.
Jesus encouraged his disciples to obey God’s commands and to show others how to live as children of God, by loving and caring for others.
The prophet Isaiah tells us where his strength and support comes from. “The Lord God gives me the right words to encourage the weary. Each morning he awakens me eager to learn his teaching; he made me willing to listen and not rebel or run away.” (Isaiah 50 v 4,5).
The psalmist supports this view, “You, Lord, have saved my life from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. Now I walk at your side in this land of the living.” (Psalm 116 v 8, 9).
The hymn writer Katie Barclay Wilkinson, suggests how we can guard our tongue as we grow in faith. “May the mind of Christ my Saviour live in me from day to day, by his love and power controlling all I do or say”. (Verse 1 of hymn 504 from Singing the Faith).
Bible quotations are taken from the Contemporary English Version.