The Law and the Land: Part Two

"You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name."

Exodus 20:7


"If the gospel we preach is not good news for the poor, it’s not the gospel."

Jim Wallis, commenting on Luke ch. 4


As a recap, in the wake of the Baltimore uprisings and the disturbing racial and economic inequalities across the country which it highlighted, I'm blogging about what those good ol' Ten Commandments--God's word to Israel from Mount Sinai, on how to be a free and faithful people--and what those commandments might have to say about social justice in our land today.


It's time for Commandment number two. And while I'm actually a bit more partial to the Reformed tradition in terms of numbering (they split up the Lutheran and Roman Catholic "First Commandment" into two: one about not having other gods and one about not making idols), I'm going to stick with my Lutheran roots, and move on to "our" second commandment, just because that's where I'm feeling a connection with the world this week.


If you grew up in a household like mine, you knew exactly what that second commandment was all about. You knew that God's last name is not "damnit", you even sometimes got called on an offhanded "Gosh!" or "Jeez!" and...admit it...even the now-ubiquitous "OMG" gets your hackles up a bit.


Putting it right out there, I'm not the best role model for this commandment, narrowly defined as not saying or using God's name unless you're legitimately talking about or to God. Not sure what went wrong--maybe exposed too early to the Indiana Jones movies--but I struggle.


See, the thing is, though, that "not saying curse words" is only the very tip of the iceberg. In the Small Catechism, Luther does with this commandment what he does best: takes a nice, simple, (relatively) easy-to-follow rule, and ruins it with all kinds of complications and implications and proactive suggestions. Sure, there's the "cursing and swearing part", that's pretty clear-cut. But then Luther goes on to include "lying" or "deceiving by God's name". A great young man I worked with in seminary, who came out of the Baptist tradition, called this "lyin' on God."


I think, if I made a full-court press, kept a "swear jar" in the kitchen, meditated every day, took a whole bunch of deep breaths before starting out on my morning commute, I might--mind you, might--be able to keep somewhat free and clear in terms of not saying the "J.C." word, or the "G.D." word, or generally cleaning up the potty-mouth. It's actually not a bad goal. But it's the "lyin' on God" thing that will always plague me, and the Body of Christ in general, because anything at all we have to say about God, we say from our perspective as human beings, bearing witness to Biblical texts written down by human beings, interpreted through the traditions of other human beings, and so in short, we will inevitably find out on occasion that what we'v had to say is utter and complete bulls--I mean, not as faithful a witness as we would like.


But when it comes to social justice, man oh man, the Church has done some lyin' on God through the centuries. We have used the Bible to justify wars, torture, slavery, racism, sexism, everything up to and including straight-up genocide, and by doing so we have taken God's name in vain in a way that no "swear-jar" could remedy. Even this week, I had a friend and colleague, who dared to suggest that Anti-Muslim Rhetoric is Un-Christian and Un-Biblical, get not just called names, but threatened, in Jesus' name. And just about every week, Christians will hear from pulpits across America that wealth and prosperity are a sign of God's blessing, and (sometimes implied but often said explicitly) that not having access to those things is a sign of God's anger. All this, in the name of the Son of God, who specifically said he was here to bring good news to the poor. The concept that God is mad at you or your community for being poor, or that ongoing poverty is somehow a just or inevitable situation, does not sound like "good news" to me. Sounds more like somebody is lyin' on God.


Obviously the burden for this one is heavy on pastors and church leaders, since it's our line of work to get up and talk about God in front of a big group of people every week. But here's the thing: What I as a pastor say about God from the pulpit gets heard by maybe 220 to 240 people on average. In my previous call, it was around 80 to 100. Now compare that to the hundreds of Facebook friends, or friends of friends, or followers on Twitter or Instagram, that may have the chance at reading every single thing you share, whether it's your original sentiment or someone else's. That could number in the thousands, easily. Every time. And I can guarantee you that 1) the majority of them do not come to church on a frequent basis, and 2) a good number of them will construe whatever you say from a "Christian" perspective, as what "all Christians" think or say. So it's up to us all: Let's not be lyin' on God.


So if you're wondering whether or not you're keeping the second commandment, here's a good rule of thumb. Talk about God in such a way where you could picture Jesus of Nazareth--Jesus who brought good news to the poor, Jesus who lambasted the religious leaders for empty piety without social justice--would be nodding along. Obviously, those are muddy waters, fraught with danger and uncertainty (welcome to the priesthood of all believers! This is hard!). If you're not sure how to navigate those waters, maybe just ask God. Near as I can tell, prayer is the only sure-fire, "second-commandment-safe" way to use God's name. But for the rest, there's grace.