Blabbermouth

Mark 1:40-45

      Did you ever want to keep something under wraps, quiet for the moment, secret? My wife loves throwing surprise parties for people. She loves putting all the details together and seeing the smiles when she pulls it off. It can be difficult to get the word out without the news spilling over into the wrong hands. You have to be crafty and sometimes deceitful, in the good sense, I mean. Keeping things like this secret is not my strong suit, especially when I am surprising her. I want to let her in on the surprise early. I can’t keep secrets from her, a character fault.

      We read in our text about a man with a skin disease that kept him separated from everyone else. He lived away from family and friends, and had to warn other people of his presence. He comes to Jesus, a forbidden encounter, and wants healing. And then Jesus gives him very specific instructions about his next steps. The result of his disobedience marks a change in Jesus ministry. He must stay away from cities and towns because too many people gather when He shows up. If Jesus does want to visit a town, He must do it secretly, privately, without prior notice.

      We can see what happens to famous people today. Everywhere they go they are recognized. Paparazzi snap photos of them from a distance with telephoto lenses. Private moments become tabloid headlines. A quiet day at the beach becomes a critique of the suit chosen or the weight control program failure (or success).  

      This man wonders if he is worthy of Jesus’ favor or of Jesus’ willingness to heal him. Something in his question isn’t quite right, but Jesus heals him anyway. And then Jesus tells him to keep it quiet and perform the rituals prescribed in the Old Testament in connection with the cleansing of these kinds of skin diseases. This man does neither.

      Sometimes we just need to keep our mouths quiet. Some things don’t need to be spread, or shouldn’t be spread. There is no place for gossip in the life of a Jesus-follower. No place!

Just a Click Away

Proverbs 17:9

      Let it die! Don’t spread the story. No one else needs to know.

      These are not phrases that are heard very often in our age of Twitter and Facebook. We have become a culture where gossip takes on a life of its own. Who cares if George Zimmerman got arrested again. It doesn’t affect my life. It shouldn’t affect your life. That goes for Justin Bieber, Lindsey Lohan, Lady Gaga and the whole rest of that bunch. Just let it die.

      If only we would spread stories of the good things that people are doing. That would be some news worth spreading. Find someone who tells the truth even when it is inconvenient or personally costly, that would be some great gossip.

      Our proverb talks about the relationship between our handling of an offense (a wrong done to a person) and love. If we want to build a loving atmosphere, then we must work at not highlighting other people’s weaknesses and failures. Even if the offense is against us. There is no rule that says we have to make a big deal out of it. We can let it go. We can forgive.

      So why do most people gravitate to gossip? Most people gossip because they are insecure about who they are and their own value. If they are putting other people down, then they are lifting themselves up in the pile. They may not be on the top, but at least they are not like “that guy.”

      We can also feel insecure about our friendships, so we repeat stories to the other person’s friends in order to ruin that friendship. We don’t cover it over, we bring the spotlights and make sure everyone can see it. We video it and post it on Youtube. And once it is posted, it can never really be taken back.

      I want to challenge you and I to be different.  We need to learn to let it go, to stop spreading or even taking in the follies of other people. We don’t have to be a consumer of those stories. We can just click right past them instead.

Property Wars

Proverbs 11:12-13

Real estate can be a tricky investment. All it takes is one really bad neighbor and the value of all the properties in the area can take a dive. If they don’t maintain their house and it is near the beginning of the development, or it sits right next to your property, says to potential buyers that these houses are to be avoided.

Even if you have a home owners association, it can take years to get resolution in court. So our neighbors make a difference.

And it is not just the way they keep their property. If their personality or lack of interpersonal skills are extreme, that bad attitude can bubble over. A neighbor can get a bad reputation and it spreads. As soon as you enter the neighborhood people you meet warn you about “the neighbor” and their attitude.

Our verses today touch on relationships in a neighborhood. It makes no sense to put down a neighbor. Bad-mouthing another isn’t good for either of the parties. It even ruins your reputation. If you are willing to talk about that person behind their back, maybe you are talking about me behind my back!

Just because we know something about another person doesn’t mean we have to spread that knowledge. The smart thing to do is to keep my mouth shut. I don’t have to spread what I know. I can protect their reputation, even if they are trying to ruin it.

This applies to information that is shared in confidence. We should be able to keep a secret. That lesson has been in the news in recent years. Secrets are meant to be kept secret. If you have a security clearance, you understand this concept.

When I worked at a previous job I came in contact with very secret government information. But I didn’t have a high enough clearance to see the documents. So any time I came into the room, all the information had to be covered until I passed through the area. So I would see piles of documents with a cover sheet on top that read “Top Secret”. All the bulletin boards would be draped with a cover, and all the safes would be closed.

Keeping secrets is important. But some people just can’t turn of the flow of information. They thrive on telling stories about other people. And they are almost never positive stories. Maybe we should become positive gossips, always telling good things about what others are doing, always focusing on the successes. What a difference that would make in our world!