You Shall Not Take God’s Name in Vain
Thursday, October 5th, 2006What do Bar girls, the corporate world, Madison Avenue, and churches (those other churches, of course) have in common? They are counterfeiters. Ok, not always, but often enough to be included in this discussion. Swearing is one thing, but counterfeiting is something else altogether.
In Hebrew grammar classes one learns that the picture behind this commandment is that of a person holding God’s name up to emptiness, or emptying God’s name of God. All kinds of examples come rushing to one’s mind. In Losing Moses On The Freeway Chris Hedges chooses the list above from other possibilities. He makes a very important point. This chapter (Decalogue III) is a vital one to digest as foundational to entire subject of the ten commandments. His examples show bar girls counterfeiting love, corporations counterfeiting personal value, Madison Avenue counterfeiting personal worth, and church counterfeiting righteousness. The following quote is key:
“We all want to be loved, to be needed. We turn, when lonely, also to charlatans who soothe us, who tell us we are valuable and important, but who regard us in the paneled warrens of their spacious offices as pawns to move on a chess board. The television evangelists have tapped into this burning need. God will bless us, shower us with wealth and success, as long as we mail in the checks. We are used and eventually discarded by the institutions where we work. They manipulate us for their own gain, holding out the promise of status, respect and love. They create false communities, ones that strive to push us to identify with the goals and prestige of the corporation or the nation or the church. It is not unconditional love. It is very conditional love. When we fail to please the god of production and profit, when we fall afoul of the rigid codes of behavior imposed upon us, when we question dogma or rules, when we denounce injustices. We are thrust into exile…” (p 57)
So what does this have to do with the commandment? Everything. The Church is in one sense the Body of Christ. The church is to be to its members as Christ incarnate. As the body of Christ, the church promises unconditional love, honesty, unqualified nurture, authentic community, unlimited forgiveness, and absolute integrity. To intentionally violate these promises robs Christ’s name (and by inference God’s name) of God’s essence - robs God’s name of God. We will make mistakes; people will get hurt. We will fail to be longsuffering with some who test our patience or drain our resources. We will sometimes react out of fear of conflict and let a wrong go unseen and its victim’s suffering go unaddressed. These mistakes are not counterfeiting God’s name. It’s the thoughtful destruction of someone’s character, the obvious exclusion of the unappealing, the reasoned undermining of gospel order (good process), the dishonest effect of half-truths, the lies in innuendo, the cruel twisting of a phrase, the scape-goating of loss, hurt, or failure, the self-righteousness of those whose sins don’t show, the self-serving boundaries that exclude the most needy, and similar acts of the collective or individual will, that rob the church of God, and thereby violate this commandment. It is these latter acts of cruelty and dishonesty that conterfeit Christ’s character and conterfeit the kind of belonging that is Christian community.
This commandment calls us to be scrupulous in our relationships within our community. It calls us to live humbly and meekly in full recognition of our own weaknesses, biases, and pride. It calls us to lay our vested interests at the feet of Christ and bow to Christ’s leading and direction regardless of the intensity of our opinions. It calls us to consider the feelings of each and every member of our family before we act on our feelings and/or observations. It calls us to forgive (really forgive) those who have wronged or disappointed us, it calls us to sacrifice for the growth and benefit of others, etc etc. (you can finish the list.) It also calls us to be authentic in presenting the gospel story to our community and in our relationship to our neighbors. We rob Christ’s name of meaning when we display un-Christ-like attitudes and actions and insist that such behavior is righteous.
When others come among us will they find authenticity or counterfeit goods? This is a very complex and challenging question. Have fun with these concepts. Those of you who don’t have the book may have some refreshing insights to offer. Your comments are invited.