Those of us over a certain age may remember that in the time before streaming
there was something called radio. It still exists today, and some cars have it on their audio systems as FM or AM.

Radio, for you younger folks, is like analog wireless streaming without computers. It works like SiriusXM but without satellites. Instead, the signals came from a transmitter much closer – usually within 100 miles.

Radio is regulated by the government, and so there are things that can’t be broadcast. I remember hearing the song “Who Are You?” by the band The Who where one word, the infamous “F Bomb,” was replaced with the milder word “Hell.”

Other songs were edited too: for example, in Steve Miller’s “Jet Airliner,” the line was changed to “I don’t want to get caught up in any of that funky kicks going down in the city,” kicks replacing a word that means what you’re supposed to pick up when walking your dog.

Other times the word was muted or bleeped out: in “Money” by Pink Floyd, the line “don’t give me that do goody good” ended in two eighth notes instead of a word represented by the letters BS.

So clearly these are the worst things a person could say, right?

Let’s go to God in prayer.
God of wisdom, may the words that I speak, and the ways they are received by each of our hearts and minds, help us to continue to grow into the people, and the church, that you have dreamed us to be.
Amen.

The words cursing, cussing, and swearing get used interchangeably. I think that’s a missed opportunity. Imagine if we used bread, bagel, and donut interchangeably: if I offered you a garlic donut, you wouldn’t know whether I meant a flat piece of garlic bread or a round garlic bagel.

I like distinguishing between cursing, cussing, and swearing.

Cussing – including the seven words you can’t say on television, if you remember George Carlin’s list – are words that are taboo: you’re just not supposed to say them.
They are usually names for body parts or bodily functions, but are more often used as interjections or intensifiers: like when accidentally hitting a thumb with a hammer and yelling FUUUUUSSY BABY! or asking why the fussy traffic always makes me fussy late for fussy work. They also get used as derogatory terms for people, like calling someone a shinbone.

The weird thing about this profane and vulgar language is implied by the words profane and vulgar: Profane comes from the word for “outside the temple” and just means not sacred. Vulgar comes from the word for “the common people” and originally referred to the language of the common folk as opposed to the nobility.

Yes, vulgar profanity is language used by ordinary people. In fact, English profanity generally referred to words from Old English, which came from German, as opposed to the higher Latin-based words of the Normans who spoke Old French, which is why the Latin names for body parts are more acceptable than German ones.

It’s because of these taboos that I won’t speak these words during worship at least, not intentionally.

But I don’t think these words are actually harmful.

Swearing can be used to mean making an oath, a solemn promise. “Do you solemnly swear ro tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”

Of course, in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is quoted as saying

³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago,
‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’
³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;
³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King.
³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black.
³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

Matthew 5:33-37, NRSV

So maybe just tell the truth, and then you don’t have to begin sentences with “I’m not gonna lie to you.”

What’s weird to me is that actual cursing gets less attention than cussing. We can say “damn” and “Hell” in church – look, I just did it! – and it’s rare that anyone will raise an eyebrow.

But think about what these words mean.

Whether you believe in an actual Hell or not, saying someone should spend eternity in torment is not a nice thing to say.

And other curses don’t even use mildly profane words:
“I pray you lose your job.”
“I hope you end up in the hospital.”
“You should just die.”

This is the kind of talk to which James is referring in our reading.

Wishing, hoping, and praying for the misery of others is a misuse of speech: it both damages the person about whom is spoken and hardens the heart of the one who speaks it.

Related to this are slurs used for people: there are derogatory words for people who are Black, Chinese, Gay, German, Indigenous, Irish, Italian, Jewish, Korean, Latinx, any group you can think of. Some of these words are more hurtful than others, but why use them?

Yes, some of these words have been reclaimed by these groups to refer to themselves: this is an act of empowerment to take back words that had been used to oppress. That doesn’t make it okay for others to use these slurs again.

And sometimes people say things that are not true, or at least not known to be true: such as claiming a group of immigrants is stealing pets for food. No so-called naughty word is used, but the damage is real.

I grew up hearing the saying

Sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me.

But broken bones heal. Torn skin heals. Words hurt in ways that are invisible and can take much longer to heal.

In the end, it’s not the words themselves that cause harm: it’s the way they are used.

My challenge this week is for us to examine how we are using our words, and how carefully we choose them.

Let us remember that a set of letters assembled into a word can be used to harm.
And never to point such a word at anyone or anything you don’t mean to harm.

Amen.

Let’s sing 181 in the black covered hymnal, “You Are Salt for the Earth, O People”

• Scripture quotations marked NRSVue are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. https://www.friendshippress.org/pages/about-the-nrsvue
• Scripture quotations marked KJV are taken from the King James version of the Bible.