How do you like it when people criticize you?

The person who first said “Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” either lived as a hermit or was an out-and-out liar. Words can hurt. Words do hurt. Words can hurt a lot. Words can hurt a lot more and do a lot more long-term damage than any puny stick or stone.

Studies have shown how lasting an impression, how lifetime an impact, words can have on children. Children who receive constant criticisms about their looks, or their brains, or their abilities, grow up believing the words thrown at them. Some of you here this morning are spending your adulthood with the sound of “dummy,” “fatso,” “geek,” “airhead,” “loser,” echoing in your ears.

Words can stunt spirits. Words can break hearts. We cut each other’s throats with our tongues.

So what can we say to those who use words to wound us? How should we handle our critics? How should we respond to criticism? When someone throws an arm around our shoulder which is really a hand at our throat, what do we do? Should we take the criticism to heart? Weigh its content? Let it roll off our back? Fire back a critical volley of our own in return?

I personally like that last option. An eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a tooth is the most tempting when criticism lashes out at you red in tooth and claw. You want red? Let’s keep it red. Right?

After all we live in a red-in-tooth-and-claw culture of criticism.

No matter what news broadcast you listen to, you won’t hear a “news report.” You’ll get an acid-etched critique of others.

Real bombs and bullets are being fired off in Iraq and Afghanistan. But in the war for political power and influence, it is the constant lobbing of critical grenades that keep our own back yards blasted and barren of hope.

The website complaints.com boasts on its home page: “Often a single complaint posted to Complaints.com about a business appears higher in the search-result rankings than the home page of the business that is the subject of the complaint.”

If you look at the tv programs we’re watching, and the magazines we’re reading, it seems we all want our first course to be dishing dirt.

Biblically, the “culture of critique” often hasn’t worked too well for the critics. There are certain Bible stories we tuck our kids into bed with. But there are others that give parents pause, and could very well give children nightmares.

There is a Christian radio station that promises listeners it is “Safe for the whole family.” Really? So the Bible is “safe?” Jesus is “safe?” That was his message? “Come follow me, and I’ll lead you into a safe life?” You really think all portions of the Bible are “safe for the whole family?”

Consider 2 Kings 2:23-25, recalling an event in the life of the prophet Elisha:

He went up from there to Bethel, and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, “Go away, baldhead? Go away, baldhead!” When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two she-bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys. From there he went on to Mount Carmel, and then returned to Samaria.”

Yikes! Talk about trouncing your critics! Author Nick Page, who confronts a number of “Bible mysteries” in a light-hearted volume called What Happened to the Ark of the Covenant? (Authentic Media, 2007), offers some commentary on this troubling text.

At first Page admits, tongue firmly in cheek, “I can’t see the problem here. You mock someone for baldness, you get eaten by bears. Sounds fine to me.” Then Page confesses that since he too is “follically challenged,” perhaps he is overly-sensitive to the critical cry of “baldy:” “I’m prepared to admit that having a lot of cheeky kids eaten by bears does smack of a little of over-reaction.”

As Page examines this “too bad for a bedtime story” text, he finally concludes that the situation was more complex than it first appears. First Elisha was at Bethel, the center of a cult of false worship (I Kings 12:25-33). Elisah was in “enemy territory.” The taunt of these youths, who are identified as “na’ar” — an inexact term that could mean anything from infant to young adult—-is not just “go away,” but “go up.” They are mocking Elisha’s role as the successor of the prophet Elijah, who was miraculously called up by God. “Dissing” God’s prophet, “dissing” God, “dissing” the message God had sent to the people — that is the criticism this gang is leveling at Elisha and what prompts him to have “cursed them in the name of the Lord.” Note that despite all the power the prophet Elisha welded, he didn’t call down the bears. Page drily observes, “the bears are just an added bonus.”

Having stories like Elisha and the boy-eating bears in their repertoire, it is easy to see where James and John might have gotten the idea that commanding “fire to come down from heaven” to “consume” the inhospitable Samaritans was an appropriate response to the situation they were in. But Jesus’ ministry and message is not a repeat of Elijah’s or Elisha’s prophetic roles. Jesus is bringing something new into the world. Jesus is more than a prophet. Jesus is Messiah. Jesus is King. As Messiah and King he is ushering in a new order, a new kingdom, the Kingdom of God.

James and John mistakenly believe Jesus’ presence is a call to judgment, a green light for making critics into crispy critters. Jesus’ “rebukes” them and their eager offer to fight fire with fire. The kingdom Jesus is gradually revealing as he journeys with his disciples to Jerusalem won’t be brought about by the world’s versions of power and might. Those who criticized Jesus, who hesitated to follow him because they had other pressing duties, other responsibilities and other relationships, they missed his message. The kingdom Jesus preached, the path of discipleship Jesus offered, wasn’t rooted in worldly ways. The Kingdom was a New Way. The kingdom could only be found by following the one who was The Way, the Truth, the Light.

When rejected by the Samaritans Jesus refuses to dole out punishment. Instead he simply moves on. He keeps moving. He continues on his way to the fulfillment of God’s promise. As he drew closer to his destination, Jesus’ “critics” increased in number and turned ever more caustic. The temple-based priests and Sadducees didn’t agree about much with the Pharisees. But they agreed together to criticize Jesus. The Roman rulers and the Jewish authorities didn’t agree on much. But they agreed to criticize Jesus.

Once upon a time there was a poor mule that fell into a dead well that was about 20 feet deep. Have you ever heard that story? Well, the farmer saw from a distance what had happened to his mule, but it was just at dusk and by the time he got to the well it was totally dark and he had no flashlight. But the farmer listened hard for movement, called out to his mule and got no response, so presumed the animal was dead. So what do you do with a dead mule in a dead well? Well, you bury it. There was a pile of dirt nearby, so the farmer started throwing dirt into the well.

Now the mule had actually landed on “all fours,” and while it was initially shaken up and out of it, the mule eventually came around and was alright. But it couldn’t move. It knew that it had to exercise in some way. So it did. The mule started stomping to keep its muscles from deteriorating, and by the morning do you know what happened? The farmer thought he had filled the well with dirt almost to the top. But in the morning light there appeared the old stomping mule at the top of the well on well-tamped and solid ground.

Keep moving, and stomping, and kicking down the dirt, and you’ll end up on the top.

In 2006 a movie came out called “Amazing Grace.” It was the story of William Wilberforce, who is credited with being primarily responsible for the 23 February 1807 vote in England to abolish the slave trade. The vote was 283-16.

But that vote doesn’t tell the story. William Wilberforce spent 20 years pushing abolition. Few people in history were as stubborn as Wilberforce, and few people in history were as criticized as Wilberforce. In the 1790s he was slandered in the press, physically assaulted, subjected to numerous death threats, once challenged to a duel. During certain periods he had to travel with a body guard. His spirit was almost broken many times. He suffered a nervous breakdown.

But in spite of all the dirt thrown at Wilberforce, he kept stomping and moving. He handled criticism, not by turning back and engaging his critics, but by kicking down the dirt and moving on toward his goal. He set his face toward the abolition of slavery, and he didn’t look back.

Wilberforce feared God more than he feared his critics.

So how do you handle criticism? Fear God and keep on moving.