Stick a Bible in My Eye

By Rev. David Petersen

The Second Commandment.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.

What does this mean? We should fear and love God that we may not curse, swear, use witchcraft, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.

We have a great deal of trouble letting our yes be yes and our no be no. Even grade school children learn to swear on a stack of Bibles or their mother’s graves or to invoke death and disfigurement (needle in my eye) if they should be lying. High school students mostly, and shamefully, imitate the filthy mouths of Hollywood’s fantasy tough guys.

An unadorned yes doesn’t seem to be enough. We feel the need for emphasis, for power. If we leave it at just yes, people might think we don’t really mean whatever it is we are saying. We have this idea that “heck yes” is going to carry the day. In fact, the more shocking the adjective, the more vile and offensive, the better. For we think that the depth of our vulgarity will carry the sincerity of our expression.The worse we can make it the more emphatic we are.

Why? Because we are afraid that if we let our yes be yes, our hearers will think we don’t really mean it. That fear drives us to cuss and swear. Vanity lies behind our abuse of words. We want attention. The easiest way to get it is to say something outrageous and terrible, even sinful. But using words that vibrate with rebellion against God, mother, and school teacher, we demand our hearers take notice.

The irony is that these words have become meaningless. What in the world could “heck yes” possibly mean? Even the crassest of vulgarities have become nothing more than meaningless sounds. In these contexts, taken at face value, they are not sensible. At best, they simply conjure up some naughtiness or create an illicit or humorous picture that appeals to our fallen nature.

Often what we are trying to convey with “heck yes” is that we are so committed to our yes that we will gladly tell off our mother and suffer all social shame and loss for it. We will even tell off God and risk damnation. Taboos and damnation cannot stand in the way of our commitment and masculinity. Again, there is irony. For mostly, we have so often repeated “heck yes” and over such absolutely trivial things that our mates take no notice of it all. It is doubly meaningless. If anything, it brings suspicion from our friends. We are being too emphatic, and they smell our phoniness and think we are exaggerating. We are not really that serious about our dislike of sloppy joes. As I sit here typing, I can think of no case when vulgarity convinces the hearers of either sincerity or commitment or of a time and place when a simple yes would not actually carry more weight. Even on the field of battle in a command meeting, yes carries more weight than meaningless oaths and vulgarities.

Such is the problem with our sin. Our sins are never reasonable. They never obtain what we think we want. The devil never delivers. Nothing immoral is ever expedient. Our abuse of words, our unwillingness to let our yes be yes, belies something about the power of words. For we know words can change the world, and we want to use them for our benefit.

Nowhere is this more true than the abuse of God’s name. For no word has such power and authority as the name that is. In seeking to use it to our own means, we seek the ultimate power. Sometimes, we do this by calling damnation down upon someone for whom Christ died, or we demand that He destroy something that He has made, rejecting creation, because it has inconvenienced us. Sometimes, we use His name simply to call attention to ourselves. That is the point of “Oh my God” when we are surprised, or happy, or sad, or angry, or don’t know what to say. The idea is that whatever is happening to us at that particular moment is the most significant thing in the universe, and God’s name should be attached to it. But besides our obvious sinful pride, it also means that we have no fear of Him and can invoke Him even for our sins. God’s name thus becomes our plaything. We use it at our whim. All of that—whether damning people or things or using God’s name vainly—is the lust for power and control. It brings “heck yes,” bad as it is, to a whole new level.

And again, irony. Our fallen flesh wants power for which we have no need. God gives us His name in Holy Baptism. Everything that happens to us is of cosmic significance. Every hair on our heads is counted. God’s name is already attached to everything in our lives because God has firmly, in water, attached His name to us. Christ has died for us. The devil is already defeated, already damned, and our enemies will be destroyed. There is no need to damn anything or anyone.

We have constant access to our Father in heaven through Christ. We call upon Him in every trouble and need, every joy and heartache, every moment of our lives, not vainly for attention from men but for the needed, compassionate attention from Him. That prayer, God’s name, is an incredible benefit of faith. It is the most powerful force in the universe. It changes everything. It makes sinners into saints and brings the dead to life.

Despite our frequent abuse and selfish uncertainties and insecurities, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit remain ever faithful to us, ever eager for our prayers, and ever involved in our lives. We are, after all, baptized into Him, and His name does and gives what is says.

Rev. David Petersen is pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and is also on the Higher Things editorial board. His e-mail address is David.H.Petersen@att.net.