Taking His Name in Vain

I have been following the recent story about the depiction of Allah with interest. When I was in Africa I remember a Muslim School that had put on a school play. A scandal was created when out trotted a grade school kid supposedly playing the part of Allah. Apparently the teacher who wrote and directed the play was a recent convert and wasn't aware of the prohibition. There was a lot of tension but fortunately no violence for the next few days as things got straightened out. But it seemed unfathomable that such a well known law wasn't known.

But we do the same thing. Every now and then I get someone complaining about how they heard someone violate the 3rd commandment of the decalogue while they were out shopping or something. I empathize with them but I am never really sure if I should say anything about their understanding about which prohibition they think was violated.

I usually don't say anything because it just doesn't seem worth it and I have other battles to fight. Besides this is the most common understanding of what it means to take God's name in vain. But the word translated "take" means to bear or carry. The word "take" works in the sense of taking something up, as in taking up a cause. It means to be doing things in the name of God. Therefore, doing something vain in the name of God is strictly forbidden.

The obvious examples of violations are things like the killing of thousands during the crusades or membership in the KKK who claim their actions are God's will. I might add that I wouldn't want to be one who fleeces poor people of their money in the name of Jesus.

Bringing it closer to home I think I need to be careful that my actions don't bring God into disrepute. It is very similar to the idea that one does not want to do anything that would bring disrepute on their family name. I am glad to be called a son of God, but with that comes an obligation to avoid doing things that tarnish His name.

I acknowledge that asking God to damn someone does indeed bring disrepute on God's name seeing that it seems to go against the ethics of love, mercy and grace. But that is not the common understanding. To a lot of Christians it's simply an issue of letting the wrong words come out your mouth that gets you into trouble. The sad part is that I think such an understanding shows that we lack substance. It's supposed to be about our heart.

So now the question becomes whether it brings disrepute on God's name to ask him to damn an inanimate object. Can I ask God to damn the hammer the next time it hits my thumb?

Greek vs Hebrew Thought

This little interactive flash file gives a good little overview of the differences between Greek thought vs Hebrew ways of thinking. I think there are a lot of similarities between modern and post-modern ways of thinking. It is helpful because a lot of the criticism about post-modernity is about baggage that it has collected and not necessarily about the epistemology per se.

Merchandising Jesus

I know that many have written on this topic and if I remember right someone even wrote a song about it. I don't necessarily think there is anything wrong with it in general. (Maybe I do.) But today I made a visit to our local Christian Mega-mart Book Store and left with a bad feeling about it.

First off, I must say that the staff there were extremely helpful and kind. I even asked for a book that I could only remember one word from the title and they found it. But that was as far as the good feelings went.

The first section I ran into was for computer software. I hate Christian software because I can get better stuff online for free. It just seems like there just out to make a quick buck on a poorly done interface. I didn't stay long.

A few shelves over I ran into an interesting end cap. The sign on the top said "Give the Gift of Love." The display consisted of three vertical rows of books. The two outer rows featured Hansi books which made some sense. But the center row (presumably the main attraction) was completely filled with the book "Condi." Now did I miss something here? Is a book about the person credited with inventing pre-emptive strike policy supposed to generate feelings of love?

I swiveled to my right and ran into a rack of "Birthday Scripture" which I searched through to find what Scripture was associated with my birthday. It was something about pride so I quickly moved on. No need to get a guilt complex because of my birthday, now is there.

The next time I looked up I was staring at an entire section of Joyce Meyer books. Apparently she can cure any type of psychological problem you may have but I wasn't interested. I had my fill of books so I headed off to the merchandise section.

Testamints? Please. I didn't even bother to read any thing that might have been written on them. I was afraid they might have some pithy little proclamation like "We're to blessed to be depressed" which, at that point, wasn't true. I thought I better go look at the art.

Whatever happened to the masters? Has Rembrandt been labeled satanic? Of course if you like Thomas Kincaid (which I don't) you're in luck. You can even buy a Kincaid tea set. I suppose I am being a little too hard on the rest of the art but it all looked to commercial for me. I want to know that the artist died dirt poor. That way I know that there was a lot of emotion that went into the painting. Hopefully the emotion was pain. Someone once said that pain brings out the best in an artist whether it is a painting or a song or a poem. I think I agree. If not you paint about light.

By this time I was at the coffee shop but decided to head back the other way. The ability of a barista to micro foam more than 8 ounces of milk is suspect anywhere, even at Starbucks and the like. (Tip: For this reason order a short cappuccino at Starbucks. Even though it is not on the menu they should make it for you.) This kid looked like he might be able to manage only 4 ounces and since I didn't feel like drinking warm milk I passed. I know I was being completely unfair to him but by now I was in no mood to take chances.

On the way back to the front I couldn't help but notice how patriotic everything was. I had to be impressed with the artist that captured an American flag with the Stature of Liberty in the back ground. Some of the book titles had me wondering if I had misread something in my Bible. Who were God's chosen people again? I can just imagine what it will look like in another 3 or 4 months.

I met back up with my wife who had found a children's book on a clearance table. I had stopped there too but didn't see anything I liked even though there were some good deals. I think that has to be one of the hardest things for a writer. Walk into a book store 6 months after your book is published and see them trying to dump your books for 90% off. That's got to be rough. I've heard that the main difference between a best seller and a book that goes nowhere is the marketing. If that's true that means there are probably a lot of great writers out there who are pretty discouraged. I don't think I'll ever write a book since Randy is the only guy who ever promised to read my book if I wrote one.

Have you ever felt like taking a shower after leaving a store? I did today. But I need to cut them some slack though. I think I just went at the wrong time. I was not in the right frame of mind. I wonder how many times people come to my church like that. They probably write about all the things they hate about my church.

To be uninspired

I ran across a curious phrase today, "the greatest of uninspired Jewish writers of old." Actually this phrase refers to an excellent writer that many no doubt find highly inspirational. But that is not the sense of the phrase. It is actually referring to Philo of Alexandria who may indeed have been inspired, just not by God. At least that is the orthodox view.

I got to thinking about that phrase and how easy it is to be excellent at something but not necessarily inspired by God. I might be able to become an excellent pastor. I may lead my church to astounding accomplishments. But if it is not ispired by God it is....

Now it is starting to sound similar to 1 Corinthians 13.

I think I'll seek some inspiration.

Discipleship & The Great Commission

The great commission found in Matthew 28 is widely used as a mission statement in evangelical churches in the United States. As I think about this it seems that to understand this scripture correctly one must understand what is meant by discipleship in an eastern context. What does it mean to become a disciple? How does one go about doing that? At what point does one go from being a disciple to making other disciples?

Perhaps the most common understanding is that any one who believes in Jesus is a disciple and is therefore qualified to make more disciples. Ray Vander Laan (of www.followtherabbi.com , one of my favorite sites) points to a difference between a student and a disciple that I think is helpful here. He says that a student simply wants to know what his master knows. A disciple wants to be like his master and do what his master does. A disciple is consumed by a passion to do this. We have a lot of students in our churches (even in the pulpits) today but probably very few disciples.

Perhaps today we are converting people to students and not disciples. This would be expected if the ones doing the witnessing are actually just students and explain why their seems to be little difference in our society in spite of vast numbers of convert claims. The question isn't how many converts do we have but how many disciples have we made.

Adopting an eastern understanding of discipleship probably also means adopting a similar timetable. We seem to emphasize getting new converts into the converting business as soon as possible, a favorite topic in the youth group movement. This is interesting because Jesus' disciples were probably similar in age - in their teens or very early 20's. Jesus' did send them out to preach about the kingdom but it was very much in a training environment. They weren't actually commissioned until after they had spent considerable time with Jesus.

Most of Jesus' disciple making took place in the context of life. It wasn't in the classroom. It took place in everyday activities. This allowed the his disciples to see how his yoke (interpretation of scripture) in action rather than simply hearing about it. I learned more about my wife from experiencing life with her while we dated than I ever would have had she given me an essay about who she was.

The conclusion. We need to become true disciples rather than students. We need to learn what it means to be a disciple in the eastern sense. We need to adopt an eastern timetable for discipleship. We need to focus on making disciples and quit counting converts. (One could argue that a convert is one who becomes a disciple but that definition is lost in our current understanding. I believe that most converts that are reported are not really disciples.)