It’s No Big Deal! Or Is It?

 

               “You shall not misuse name of the Lord your God.” We continue our study with the second commandment.  It is often overlooked, but is very important in the life of the Christian.  Its focus is simple as can be heard from the meaning.  “We should fear and love God so that we do not curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie or deceive by his name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”  While it is very simple on paper, in practice, we fail often.  Let us parse this meaning to gain a clearer understanding.

               Don’t curse which leads us to think that this commandment talks about using profanity, but that is not what this commandment is about.  That does not let you off the hook!  Paul teaches us clearly about our use of words in Ephesians 5:4, “Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.”  This is more a conversation of the eighth commandment, but there is an aspect of the second commandment that is here. 

               First of all, we are called to use our God’s name rightly (more on that at the end) but too often God’s name is used improperly and impiously.  For example, someone is upset and they yell out, “Jesus Christ!”  Why did they yell it?  Are they calling upon Jesus for help?  Certainly not, rather it is used out of anger, similar to Moses striking the rock in the wilderness with his staff before the people when he was told to speak to the rock.  For this offense alone he was not permitted to enter the promised land!  How much more so when we blaspheme God by misusing his name!  Derivations of God’s name like Gosh or Jeez, an acronym like OMG, or a phrase, “for the love of God” are all misuses of his name, but we haven’t even come to the worse misuse yet.

               What does it mean to curse except to damn something or someone? To say, “God damn you,” is a grievous offense to God!  For what you are wishing is that God would send that person to hell.  God desires that no one go to hell.  Yes, he created hell, but it was created for the devil and his minions who rebelled against God.  There is no doubt that many will sadly suffer in hell because damnation is reserved as the place of judgement for those who reject Jesus Christ.  We must also remember the words of Jesus from John 3:16-18, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

               God’s desire is to save all mankind as Paul says in 1 Timothy 2:4, “God desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Indeed, Christ has paid the price, but those who are condemned are those who do not believe.   Thus, the truth must go forth.

               Likewise, God does not want us to swear frivolously or thoughtlessly.  Again, this is not talking about profanity, but rather refers to taking an oath on the name of God.   How often have you found yourself saying, “I swear I didn’t do it.” “I swear on my mother’s grave.” “Pinky swear!” Jesus says in Matthew 5:37, “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.”  What the Jews were trying to do was get around swearing by God, and swearing by something “lesser”, and so he says just quit it all together and save true swearing for important things.

               Swearing is not bad, though, when done rightly and done with thought of importance.  You are permitted to take an oath, for example, in marriage, to join the military, or in a court case.  You even took an oath at your confirmation to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it!  (notice big C not little c Church meaning that of the universal church.) These oaths are done in the highest regard as on something bigger than yourself.  You should never enter an oath inadvisably or without planning.

               Satanic arts are to be avoided at all costs.  To say words as though you are casting a spell, to engage in reading your horoscope, fortune telling, tarot cards, and Ouija boards are never to be used. It hands over to the devil that you can predict the future which God clearly says you cannot.

               Lying also is condemned here, “children should be trained early to shut falsehood.  They should especially avoid the use of God’s name to support falsehood.  For where children are allowed to do as they please no good will result.” (LC 1, 69) It should be made clear that it is talking about the harmful lie as opposed to the playful or obliging lie.  The playful one is what actors do on a stage.  The obliging lie is when we lie for the sake of someone’s good, for example Michal lies when she says that David had threatened her with death in 1 Samuel 19:17.  It is obliging because it not only serves the advantage of someone else, who would otherwise suffer harm or violence, but also prevents a sin. (Luther’s Works vol. 2, pg. 291-2)

               The gravest offense of the second commandment is false teaching.  It is a misuse of God’s name to teach false theology within our Christian churches.  It is particularly condemned here because Christians, in particular pastors, can do great damage if they lead people astray into false belief, despair and other great shame and vice.  An example from just a couple weeks ago is the ELCA’s recent synod convention in which they used Indian pagan worship practices called “a prayer to the four directions” and various other practices in the midst of their worship service.  There has been untold harm done within churches of this unchristian denomination since its creation in 1988.

               Our lectionary from a couple weeks ago drives this point home.  In Matthew 7:21 Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.” Jeremiah 23:16 says, “Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes.”  The point?  In both instances, it is a command by God to speak the Word of truth rightly and not to deviate to the left or right as he commanded in Deuteronomy 5:32.

               Now let us learn and focus on how to keep this commandment.  Luther teaches, “call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”  What he means is that we are to use it only in a proper sense.  When necessary, we use God’s name to take an oath.  In your everyday use of language do not flippantly use God’s name in callous, impious, thoughtless speech but save it for when you confess the faith.  In so doing, others will take notice.  They will notice your reverence and piety and respect you all the more. 

When you speak God’s word rightly others will desire to know what this faith is that you have.  We don’t make up answers to someone’s questions, but admit when we don’t know.  In so doing, we show that this Christian faith is an ever-growing gift. 

Finally, we also teach our children this Christian faith and not just one hour a week.  For that is the true honor of His name, to look to it and call upon it for all consolation. (70) If we spend only one hour in God’s Word and do not confess it to others, we truly do misuse the name of the Lord our God. Your have been created anew in Holy Baptism so then your hearts have also been changed.  What proceeds from the heart is what the heart believes, and since you have been born from above in Holy Baptism, we are called to have His Name come forth from our lips.  In so doing we show the world what we sing in the hymn, Lord Thee I Love with All My Heart. “Let no false doctrine me beguile; let Satan not my soul defile.  Give strength and patience unto me to bear my cross and follow thee.”  (LSB 707)

Give thanks to God who preserves you in this faith and hold fast to his command “to use His name for truth and for all good.” (64) “For the first things that spring from the heart and show themselves are words.” (50)  And that is what this commandment is all about, the use of our words.  For God’s name cannot be misused worse than for the support of falsehood and deceit.  (52)  When we focus upon the words that we speak, we then realize how often we have the opportunity to uphold his holy name as he leads us to live in Godly virtue, confessing Christ to the world so that it will not be lost and despair without the hope of what we ourselves know and hold fast to: the forgiveness of your sins through Christ alone.  What wonderful encouragement you have from God to speak rightly his name for all to believe.

              

Law, Law, Law

Pastor, stop telling us the Law, just tell us the Gospel!  Why do so many people fear the Law of God?  If the Law is preached rightly your true nature is revealed.  You are not just imperfect but doomed to hell if salvation comes by your work.  Man is not really afraid of all law, indeed, we like to hear what we can do.  We like to know what it is that pleases God, but that is because we seek to earn our way into God’s heart.

               The Catechism was written in 1529 after Luther had engaged in a visitation of the churches in 1526 and he discovered the deplorable, miserable condition of the churches.  “The common person, especially in the villages, has no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine…they live like dumb brutes and irrational hogs.  Now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to abuse all freedom like experts.”  (SC, preface, 2-3)

               Now as a pastor, I would hope this is not the case, but we also do not take the knowledge and faith in the Holy Scriptures for granted.  Rather, pastors are called to teach so as to impress this Word of God upon all people, young and old.  Never should you assume you are too young or too old to dig into this catechism.  Luther even called himself a student of the catechism.  He even says, “Those who are unwilling to learn the catechism should be told that they deny Christ and are not Christians.” (11) I commend the prefaces of the Small and Large Catechisms to your reading.  Without further ado we start at the beginning:

The First Commandment: You shall have not other Gods.  What does this mean?  We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  We hear this commandment and think, well that’s easy, I don’t worship any other gods!  I must have this down pat.  Let no man ever become so conceited as to think that we keep this commandment! 

What is a God and what does it mean to have a God?  “a god means that from which we are to expect all good and in which we are to take refuge in all distress.  So, to have a God is nothing other than trusting and believe Him with the heart.  I have often said that the confidence and faith of the heart alone make both God and an idol.  If your faith and trust is right, then your god is true.  On the other hand, if your trust is false and wrong, then you do not have the true God.  (LC, I, 2-3)

In theory, this sounds easy!  But in reality, we transgress this commandment every time we sin.  When I teach my catechumens, the question often arises, what commandment was broken?  To which they quickly realize the first is always included.  For when I disobey God by not keeping the 3^rd commandment, Remember the Sabbath day, it is obvious that you have also not trusted in God.  So also is the case with the second table of the Law, loving your neighbor as yourself. 

The prominent example that Luther uses is that of mammon.  This word, mammon, is often translated as money, but it includes a much broader spectrum.  It includes not only money but also possessions.  Man is often led to think that if he is wealthy then he has God, but those who are poor also turn mammon into their god because they seek after wealth as though it is their only care. 

Included in this pursuit of God is man himself.  If you trust and boast in your great skills, powers, friendships then you also have a god, because you base your salvation upon how good you are, rather than giving glory to that which is from God.  This was evil that all the line of Herods fell into.  They considered themselves above the law, to the extent that Herod Agrippa in Acts 12 is struck down by God because he did not give glory to God for his power. 

When we become secure in our sin, our heart seeks confidence in ourself.  Thus, the reality is when I do not keep the first commandment, I make myself god.  This was the first temptation in Genesis 3, the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die.  For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  This is our sin today.  “God you don’t know what you are doing, I know best.”  The conscience says, “God must serve us and he is our debtor, we are in control!” 

To this let us continually return to the positive means.  We fear, love, and trust in God above all things.  When the realization comes that you have sinned, turn to your true God.  For though the first commandment condemns you in every sort of way,  you have the confident provision that he will also not deny you or turn away from you.  As he leads you to repent, he has also provided the way of escape. 

This is what the famous account of John 3 is all about.  Though you were conceived and born in sin, God provides you with a washing of new birth in the Holy Spirit.  He delivers you from your sin since you cannot!  Your sins are washed away because Jesus went to the cross and suffered and died on your behalf.  Why?  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”  He is the one and only true God.  All other false gods want you to atone for your sins, in fact, they expect unwavering obedience.  But our God, to whom we cry, “Abba, Father.”  Will never disown or abandon you. 

Faith grasp hold of this promise for faith needs an object.  Let not your faith hold onto yourself or the objects that you adore as more precious and important than your God.  Rather, continually trust in that sure object of faith, Jesus Christ.  It is through Jesus alone that we have life and salvation.

As we go through the rest of the commandments notice how the heart, in faith, then engages in action, be it in thought, word, or deed.  Keeping the commandments is not just about what you say and do, but it is what flows out of the heart.  So let us understand clearly, without the regenerative work of God of the forgiveness of sins delivered to us through his precious means of grace, the heart only desires its selfish motivations.  It is only by being made a new creation in Holy Baptism that we can say, “Lord, thee, I love with all my heart.”  And because of Jesus alone, that statement is most certainly true. 

 

 

Urgency!

We are in the midst of the time of the greatest urgency for American Christianity in who knows how long.  Recent pew research studies have shown that only 63% of people in the United States IDENTIFY as Christian.  And thus, guess what, I guarantee that number is lower, because it will include groups like Mormon and Jehovah Witness!  To drive this urgency here is another disturbing fact: the number of those who attend church since the COVID pandemic began is at the same levels today.  These statistics should concern you greatly, because this means one-third or more have stopped attending church.  We are in a time of great urgency.

            No longer today is the social norm being a Christian.  No longer is Sunday held in high regard as the day of worship.  And dear people, Jesus is coming, and our Lord warns us repeatedly that the final day will come like a thief in the night and you do not know the day or the hour (Matthew 24:36-44).  You are not going to get a warning bell that Jesus is coming.  In fact, the warnings we have received are happening even now! 

            We are additionally warned not to be consumed with this life. As Jesus tells in the parable of the rich man, “And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” But God said to him, “Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.” (Luke 12:19-21)  

            What then do you find is urgent to you?  Or to word it differently, what is your god?  The Lord warns in Luke 16:13, “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”  What is most important to you?  Is it getting your children and grandchildren into the best schools or on the best sports teams?  Is it making more money?  Is your goal simply to get to your lake house to escape the heat?  Are you just tired and want a day to rest and relax?

            Or is our life centered around the gift of repentance: hearing the Word of God and receiving the sacrament?  Is the urgency in seeing your children or neighbors and know they are not going to church or have embraced false teachings?  Are you concerned?  Do you worry that your children, grandchildren, and friends no longer hold to the vows they made in the rite of confirmation?  Are our vows just lip service to God?  Hear them again, “Do you intend to hear the Word of God and receive the Lord’s Supper faithfully?  Do you intend to live according to the Word of God, and in faith, word, and deed to remain true to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, even to death?  Do you intend to continue steadfast in this confession and Church and to suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it?” 

            Well, sure I’m concerned, but only if I can skip church once a month to go to my lake house.  Sure, I care, but I still want my child to skip church and go to their tournaments on the weekends.  Sure it’s important, but only if I can be certain I will not get sick at church. 

Maybe it has become something else.  I just want my children to be happy and they don’t like going to this church.  It’s not that important what church I go to or my family members go to.  In fact, I can believe what ever I want to and it doesn’t matter what church I belong to, let alone even go to church!  But the phrase, Lex Orandi Lex Credendi matters. (It means: the way of worship is the way of belief and is an early church phrase that dates back to the 5^th century.)  If I was to go to a church that denies the Sacrament is the true body and blood in, with, and under the bread and wine for the forgiveness of my sins, that church’s belief is my public confession.

What then is most urgent?  The truth.  The salvation of you and your loved ones.  We do not confess once saved always saved, because Scripture does not.  In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer has to say, “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”  He writes around 70AD, and if the Day was drawing near then, well guess what!  It is getting closer, but the reality is, the Day is always near.  We see this in the case of Jerry Paul Redman or my member from my last church, Seth Rasmuson, who died in a plane crash during a routine training mission on an osprey.  The Day is now to be ready, let us not think we have time and can wait to get around it.

Today begins the urgency.  For this reason you have called me as your Pastor.  I am here to preach, teach, and administer the sacraments as Paul teaches us in 2 Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”  The ears are itching; so many want to be entertained and told they are right so they can continue life on their merry way.

I therefore encourage you, embrace the urgency.  It is time to be ready.  Now is the time.  You know who it is that has wandered off in order to get their itching ears scratched.  It is time to teach, now, what embracing false teaching does.  With that, it is time to get back to the basics for us.  Let us become grounded in the faith.  Let us hold fast to the promise of the Word of God.  You, dear Christian, have the truth.  The Word of God is the inerrant and inspired word of God.  You have your catechism as well, the correct exposition of the Word of God.  So let’s get the message right and let’s get the message out.  Believe and confess this wonderful faith!