Lady Wisdom and the Fiery Tongue
Proverbs 1:20-35 James 3:1-12 I admit it. I am a bit of a social media addict. My wife knows it. My students know it. My colleagues and friends all know it. I am constantly checking Facebook and Instagram on my smartphone to learn the latest juicy gossip, the latest news, and yes, sometimes, the latest juicy scandal and fight. In these Lectionary texts (Proper B19), I see myself and so many of us implicated today. These texts seem to speaking to us today. Of course we know we should hold our tongue. How many of us have seen the kinds of destruction that has resulted from a comment someone made on Social Media? As the author of James says, the tongue spews forth sparks that set an entire forest ablaze. The trick with social media, I think, is that many of us type in that comment before we realize what we are doing. Over a lifetime we may have learned to better control our tongues. But writing privately on our phones, with the assumption of anonymity, we often say things we wou...