For the Price of a Postage Stamp

by Gene Shelburne

A newspaper columnist (whose name escapes me) recently based   a column on the realization that thirty-four cents was all it took to close down the building that houses the Supreme Court of the United States. The reference, of course, was to the cost of the postage stamp placed on the letter that spread anthrax spores and threatened the entire court.

It may have been with some loss of judicial dignity that the court met in a borrowed building while its own was being certified clean from contamination. If not a loss of dignity, then certainly a feeling of lessened security, knowing that vile people are willing to behave so irresponsibly with human life and public institutions. Any increased vulnerability the justices may feel is shared by the whole nation.

The offices of the U.S. Senate suffered an even more widespread anthrax problem, and it somehow seems unreal that for the modest price of a postage stamp, so much fear and confusion could be spread throughout the federal power centers of Washington, D.C.

But if you remember what James wrote in the New Testament, you will recall his observations about the power of small things. Just a small bit in the mouth of a horse will turn the whole animal. And small rudders on large boats, even out in stormy seas, allow pilots to steer wherever they want to go.

            James also reminds us that a great forest can be set on fire by a small spark, and he warns us about the big trouble our small tongues can cause. He even preaches to the preachers as he singles out for special warning those who would presume to be teachers. But he wants us all to know that the tongue, though small, can be a hellish thing (see James 3:1-12).

An evil person needed only an inexpensive postage stamp to spread dangerous anthrax spores. Talk is cheap, too, and when used for the wrong purpose, is a low-cost way of spreading deadly poison.

Jesus said that it’s out of the overflow of the heart that the mouth speaks. That’s pretty revealing. We can bless or curse, pray or blaspheme, be truthful or lie, speak with kindness or cruelty, or otherwise outwardly express what we inwardly are.

What do we learn about the anthrax terrorist from the way he used his postage stamps? What do we learn about ourselves from what our mouths (and hearts) speak?