Celebrity magazines and newspapers thrive on gossip: casual or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically involving details which are not confirmed as true. There is something perversely enjoyable about these reports and a whole industry has grown up around these things.

The Bible has a lot to say about gossip, however, and urges us to avoid this:

• Agossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret. (Prov 11:13)
• A perverse person stirs up conflict, and agossip separates close friends. (Prov 16:28)
• The words of agossip are like choice morsels; they go down to the inmost parts. (Prov 18:8, Prov 26:22)
• Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip a quarrel dies down. (Prov 26:20)

If we wish to give up things for Lent, gossip is one thing we should let go of. When we gossip, we prove ourselves to be untrustworthy and not peace-loving. We also violate God’s commands to love people sincerely and can damage people’s reputations, often without meaning to (gossip has been called ‘reputation theft’.)

An old proverb relates the story of a person who repeated gossip and later found out that the rumour they had spread was untrue. He was sorry and went to ask how to repair the damage, only to be told to take a feather pillow outside and scatter the feathers. The next day, he was to bring the feathers back. Of course, this was impossible to do, and so we see how it is so easy to speak carelessly and thoughtlessly and how difficult it is to repair the damage (broken trust, hurt feelings, damaged reputations.) We do well to follow James’s advice to be slow to speak (James 1:19), for that way we can avoid hurting people through gossip. It’s our choice what we say and what we listen to; let’s build each other up and speak well of all people!

For years I worked in a school and witnessed first-hand the effects of children’s words on each other. The old rhyme ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me’ is a blatant lie; Wes King’s song ‘Sticks and Stones’ exposes the pain words can cause:

‘All this pain that I feel will leave a stain on my skin
And the marks that they leave expose the shadows within.’ (‘Sticks and Stones’, Wes King)

James reminds us that the tongue is powerful (James 3:3-12) and urges us to be consistent in our speech. Paul gives us guidelines for how we should speak when he says, ‘Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.’ (Eph 4:29) It is a challenge to speak consistently, building other people up according to their needs, because it means we need to know the people to whom we talk (some people respond to gentle encouragement; others need more bracing talk, for example.) It also means that we must consistently think before we speak, something that is easier said than done! The acrostic THINK gives us good advice on speech:

If it’s not, then perhaps we shouldn’t be saying those things!

One of the things I am learning is flexibility – not the stretchy physical kind to which Djokovic and my son aspire, alas, but generally letting go of my desire to be in control. Quite often, flexibility is forced on me – this morning being a case in point, when my 25-minute train journey to Sheffield became vastly more complicated because of a train strike – but that is probably because it’s the only way God can train me out of bad habits…

The reason I was venturing to Sheffield was to talk about the Dearne Community Arts’ Festival on Radio Sheffield, something I never expected to be doing in itself. The arts’ festival, which began as a germ of an idea at the end of last year, is blossoming into a beautiful flower more quickly than I can quite comprehend. There is something about the dreams and ideas God plants in us which flourish beyond our wildest dreams! The mere fact people wanted me to talk about this on BBC radio was pretty mind-blowing to me in the first place, but God’s stretchiness certainly exceeds my expectations.

You can listen to the interview online if you’re interested (it starts at 1h 08 and continues after the Ed Sheeran song until 1h 25), but what was so surprising to me was the way the interviewer wanted to know much more than mere facts about the festival. I ended up with the opportunity to talk about the local churches and all we do to help our local community, about God calling me out of teaching into working in the church in the first place and about our mission trip to India – all in the space of 15 minutes! Such unexpected opportunities to me highlight the prayer we looked at last night when we asked God to give us the words to fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel. God is able to open doors for us in unexpected ways and we have to be flexible enough to walk through those doors with gratitude and awe.

During this period of Lent, we need not only to be prepared to give up things but to take on new attitudes and ways. If we are to avoid the sins of hypocrisy and pretence – looking good on the outside but being rotten inside, whitewashed sepulchres, as Jesus described the Pharisees – then we have to learn to be transparent.

This is harder than it sounds for most of us, because we are not used to honesty and transparency and are afraid that if others really see us as we are, they will reject us. Kutless remind us that ‘it’s always easier to hide behind that camouflage that keeps our hearts so guarded.’ (‘Identity’) The purpose of camouflage, of course, is to blend into the background in order to be hidden and unseen, but the truth of the gospel is that we are fully known by God and fully loved (1 Cor 13:12, Ps 139:1-12). This security frees us to be authentic people, living out our God-identity without subterfuge or disguise.

Most of us feel naked without pretence. Just as a woman often feels reluctant to go out without make-up or we like to be fully dressed before we meet people, we feel that we always have to be on our best behaviour with God and other people, never admitting to doubt or fear or loneliness or struggles. Casting Crowns capture our behaviour in their song ‘Stained Glass Masquerade’:

‘Is there anyone that fails?

Am I the only one in church today feelin’ so small?

‘Cause when I take a look around,

Everybody seems so strong;

I know they’ll soon discover

That I don’t belong.

So I tuck it all away, like everything’s okay,

If I make them all believe it, maybe I’ll believe it too,

So with a painted grin, I play the part again,

So everyone will seem me the way that I see them.’ (‘Stained Glass Masquerade’, Casting Crowns)

Ironically, however, the church is meant to be a place of acceptance (Rom 15:7) where we can confess our sins to each other and pray for each other, that we may be healed. (James 5:16) As we approach Easter, we can resolve to become transparent people, without guile or hypocrisy.

We had two birthdays to celebrate, though Pat had double celebrations since this morning’s meeting was at Cherry Tree Court:

Our other birthday girl:

Mark gave us a taste of India (literally) in a curry-tasting game:

The winning pair:

Other prize winners:

Garry’s quiz tested our general knowledge (the currency of India is the rupee; New Delhi is the capital; India gained independence from the UK in 1947 and the official languages are English and Hindi…)

At the end of the meeting, the whole church prayed for the mission trip and we look forward to reporting back in due course!