Sunday 26th October, Bible Sunday, 19th Sunday after Trinity

We live in a world where truth is hard to discern. Misinformation and disinformation are rife on the internet and in social media: truth, untruth and outright lies are hard to disentangle, and once the genie is out of the bottle it’s very, very hard to put it back. And sometimes people act upon things which turn out to be untrue, and others are harmed as a result. It’s too easy to believe the worst of people and treat them accordingly.

But this is not a new situation: it’s as old as language. The Epistle of James warns of the power that our tongues possess: “How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire! And the tongue is a fire […] no one can tame the tongue” (James 3:5-6, 8). We all need to be careful of what we say: “all of us make many mistakes. Anyone who makes no mistakes in speaking is perfect, able to keep the whole body in check with a bridle” (3:2).

Whether it’s in social media, in an email, over coffee, in this time above all times we need to be loving to our neighbours in what we say – or more importantly, don’t say. Before I pass on that particularly exciting nugget of information perhaps I just need to pause and ask: is it true (and how do I know)? Is it kind? Am I loving the person I’m talking about by saying this? If the answer to any the above is “no”, perhaps we should say something else, or even nothing at all. Let’s not feed the fire – someone might get burned.

Every blessing,

Roger.