Proverbs 26:20-21

William F. Schnell

November 9, 2008

   Every now and again I get an email from somebody that includes “Bulletin Bloopers,” which are humorous sentences that have appeared in church bulletins.  I in light of our choir’s anthem for today entitled: Make Me a Channel of your Peace I offer the following example: “The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.”  Or: “Miss Charlene Mason sang ‘I will not pass this way again’, giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.”  Or: “Barbara remains in the hospital and needs blood donors for more transfusions.  She is also having trouble sleeping and requests tapes of Pastor Jack's sermons.”  Or my personal favorite: “Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM.  Please use back door.”

   You may have thought that the title of our message for today was a bulletin blooper, “On Fire with the Gossipel,” but I assure you that last term is not a misprint.  I coined it some time ago when noticing how similarly the words “Gospel” and “gossip” rolled off the tongue.   I made a note then to preach a message using the morphed term: “Gossipel.”  After coming across a CD anthology of Black Gospel hits entitled Gospel on Fire, I had the basis for today’s title.

   Our titles and texts for Sunday sermons are selected a variety of ways.  Most often I preach from one of the assigned texts for a particular Sunday from the Revised Common Lectionary, and come up with an appropriate title.  Other times we have special Sundays like “All Saints Day” last Sunday, or our “Friendship Sunday” in a couple weeks.  They I find a biblical text that relates to the theme for the day and, again, come up with an appropriate title.  But sometimes I begin with a title that just pops into my head, and then select a biblical text that speaks to it.  That is the case with today’s message, as well as next Sunday’s.  Both are stray titles that I have jotted down for future sermons.  Well, the future has arrived.

   Churches are collectives of people, and wherever you find a collective of people you will usually find some measure of gossip.  I preached a message about gossip at the first church I served, challenging everyone in the congregation to go a week without gossiping about anyone, beginning with that day.  The coffee hour following that service was about the quietest I have ever attended.  When we remove gossip from what we have to say, there is often very little we have to say—at least until we learn to fill the vacuum with more enlightened conversation.

   As a pastor I have been on both the giving and receiving end of gossip, and have learned a few things that are supported by both our Old and New Testament texts for today.  One thing I have learned has been as a result of being on the receiving end of gossip.  As one who occupies one of the higher profile positions in a family of faith, being talked about goes with the territory.  Sometimes people speak in glowing terms, and other times they speak in not-so-glowing terms.  In the latter sense, there is a phrase that puts it best: “The tallest nail is the first to get pounded.”

   There have been times when people have spoken ill of me.  Some of it may have been deserved, in which case I would more properly refer to it as “constructive criticism” with potential for positive outcomes.  Some of it may not have been deserved, in which case I would refer to it as gossip with potential for creating contention and strife in the body of Christ.  In the case of constructive criticism the wise response would be to listen carefully and adjust accordingly, which is how the best is brought out of us.  But what is the wise response to not-so-constructive gossip?

   Is it to return tit for tat?  Is it to gossip back?  Is it to curse in return?  While a pastor might win a battle that way, he or she would certainly lose the war.  Cursing and gossiping and tale bearing are certainly unbecoming of a minister, which is a real drag because it means all those things you are dying to say, you can’t.  As a supposed wordsmith, it really puts you at a disadvantage in dealing with contentious people.  But there is a much wiser response to gossip for those who would win the war, and not just the battles.

   The answer is found in our Old Testament text: Without wood a fire goes out; without gossip a quarrel dies down.  As charcoal to embers and as wood to fire, so is a quarrelsome man for kindling strife (Proverbs 26:20-21).  Some folks simply want to kindle strife.  Some folks are simply contentious people.  Their goal is to light fires of contention.  Don’t give them what they want.  Don’t throw your wood on to their fire.  Fighting fire with fire just makes more fire.  They win and you lose.

   The proper response when someone is gossiping about you is not intuitive.  The proper response is not to follow your instincts and fight back.  The proper response is to hold your tongue and remain silent.  The proper response is to remain… cool.  Their goal is to get you hot under the collar.  But if you remain cool—if you refuse to throw fuel on the fire of contention—then either that fire will go out or your detractors will have to throw on more fuel to keep it burning.

   Suppose that is what they do.  Suppose your detractors decide that if a little gossip does not do the trick, maybe a lot of gossip will.  Maybe stretching the truth a bit more will do the trick.  Maybe slandering your good name will work.  But the more you remain cool, and the more your detractors must feed the fire of contention by themselves, the more obvious it will become to everyone else that the problem is not with you but them.  Eventually they will compromise their own credibility with others and either the fire will go out or they will go away.  The worst thing that can happen to excessively judgmental types who assume the spiritual high ground is to compromise their own credibility.

   Ultimately, the one who gets burned most by gossip is the gossiper.  As James puts it in our New Testament text: Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark.  The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body.  It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell (James 3:5-6).  Maybe we ought to think about that the next time we are inclined to gossip about somebody else.  We are not burning somebody else so much as we are burning ourselves, and burning ourselves badly by playing with fire—hell fire.

   We do not want to be “On Fire with the Gossipel.”  We do not want to compromise our credibility with others.  We do not want to be regarded as contentious people who are only good at creating strife.  Who wants to be around a person like that?  That kind of person does not marginalize others with their gossip; they only marginalize themselves—the only burn themselves.  Gossiping is definitely not the way to make friends and influence people.

   How unlike the outcome for the cool, calm and collected person who follows the Gospel in responding to the Gossipel—who responds wisely by not throwing any fuel on the fire of contention kindled by others.  May we be as wise by using our tongues to sing the praises of our creator, and not misusing them to curse his other children who have been made in his likeness.  And may our example become contagious, inspiring a thousand tongues to sing our great Redeemer’s praise.