“The Sacredness of Words”
Sermon Series:
THE PATH:
10 Commandments for our Daily Walk
Sunday, February 10, 2013 ©
Dr. Victor D. Pentz
Senior Pastor
Scripture Lesson: Exodus 20:7, 14
As a child, did you ever have your
mouth washed out with soap? Come on, ‘fess
up. Was yours Dial or Ivory? For some of my
friends it was Lava. Yuck! I distinctly remember once my grandmother grabbed my tongue
between her thumb and forefinger. But we
learn fast. What most of us heard was, “You
should have your mouth washed out with soap”
– maybe you even heard that last week from
your spouse. And why was this? For saying a
bad word. From the time we’re this tall we
learn that words do matter.
we demanded unconditional surrender of the
armed forces, promising Japan would not be
destroyed as a nation and even hinting that the
emperor might be left on the throne.
While the Japanese cabinet was considering the Potsdam terms, Japanese Premier Suzuki went to the press to say that the cabinet
was continuing its discussion. He used the
word "mokusatsu," a word with no counterpart
in English. Suzuki meant to say that the cabinet
had decided to make no comment on the Potsdam Proclamation, implying that something
significant would be coming. However, besides meaning "to withhold comment,"
"mokusatsu" can also mean "to ignore."
"Moku" means "silence" and "satsu" means
"kill" – thus literally "to kill with silence." Unfortunately, the translators into English chose
that meaning – that Japan had decided to
"ignore" the Potsdam ultimatum. Tokyo radio
flashed that news to America. Just over a week
later, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima where 92,000 people died, and then
Did you know the deadliest error we’ve
ever had in dealing with another country had to
do with a single word? In World War II after
Europe surrendered, Japan continued its resistance. On July 26, 1945, Truman, Churchill,
and Stalin issued the Potsdam Declaration calling Japan to surrender unconditionally or else.
Today we know the Japanese Foreign Minister
Togo was quite happy with the Potsdam Declaration, quickly noting that instead of demanding unconditional surrender of the government,
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three days later on Nagasaki, killing 42,000. A
new era in human history was irretrievably begun, in part over the misinterpretation of
one word. (Richard Lederer, The Miracle of
Language)
draining God’s name of meaning. Profanity
profanes, empties, hollows out the name of
the Lord.
Notice we’re not talking about a bad
word, but the best word – the holiest word
there is, the holy name of God. Even in the
pages of the New York Times there is deep
respect for people’s names. Even a mass murderer is Mr. Gacy, or Mr. Oswald. The
only time I thought it went a little far was in a
review of a concert by a singer named Meat
Loaf; yes, he was Mr. Loaf.
Words matter.
Every day thousands of words come
tumbling from our lips with the power to hurt
or to heal.
There is no such thing as small talk. All
talk is big talk. When you say something, you
do something. That’s why words are sacred in
the Christian faith.
Isn’t your name important to you? I
have one of those names that’s very hard for
someone to just pick up and read correctly at
first glance. When I’m at the doctor in a
crowded waiting room and the nurse comes
out says, “Vince Pertz; Is Vince Pertz here?”
that kills me. When you mangle my name, I
feel mangled. When my name gets forgotten,
I feel forgotten. In many ways I am my name.
God’s name in the Bible is surrounded by
barbed wire and high towers. “Thou shalt not
take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”
And the most sacred word of all is the
holy name of the most high God. As with mokusatsu, when that name gets misused tragic
consequences follow. That’s the message of the
third commandment, which is found in Exodus
20, and which you’ll find right beneath the sermon title in your bulletin. Last week we looked
at commandment one, “you shall have no other
gods before me,” and commandment two, “you
shall have no idols” – no graven images. Today
we come to the Third Commandment in Exodus 20, verse 7: We’re reading here in the classic King James: “Thou shalt not take the name
of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD
will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name
in vain.”
Point one: It’s lukewarm faith that uses
powerful words in a meaningless way. Do not
empty God’s name.
That never would have happened in
Israel. God’s name was held in such high respect in Israel it was almost scary. For example when a Jewish scribe was transcribing the
Torah – which they did for hours on end in
painstaking long hand – whenever he came
across the Hebrew word for God, "Elohim,"
the scribe washed his pen and got fresh ink.
And then he wrote “Elohim.” Then as he
continued along in his work when he came
across “Adonai,” the word for "Lord," he
threw away the quill he had been using up to
that point and got a new quill and fresh ink
Emptying God’s Name
What does that mean – to “take the
Lord’s name in vain”? The root of the Hebrew
word used here for “in vain” is "to hollow or to
empty of meaning."
In other words when we spit out God’s
name in a temper tantrum or use it to add
megatonnage in our vitriolic attack on another
person, naming God in a string of f-bombs, we
are debasing the name of the Lord. We are
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and then he wrote “Adonai.”
legal binding glue for all business transactions
in Israel.
And when in the course of this textual
transcription he came across those consonants
for the Divine Name itself, YHVH, what we
pronounce “Yahweh” or “Jehovah,” the scribe
would get up, go take a sacred bath for purification – a mikvah – and put on clean clothing,
and then get a new pen and fresh ink and only
then with trembling hand would he dare to
write the letters of the Divine Name. I read a
while ago that orthodox scribes still do the
same thing, only today they’ve gotten more efficient. They skip over the name of God in
their normal writing, then on a special day they
take their mikvah and go back and fill in all
those blank spots with God’s name.
Sounds simple doesn’t it? Except back
then they had lawyers too. Now full disclosure:
of my six children – three daughters and three
sons-in-law – five are lawyers. I don’t know
where I went wrong. Unlike today, in Israel
lawyers had lots of work. People in Israel became so fixated on the formula of their oath
that they began to say they were only responsible when the exact words “in God’s name”
were in their oath. It reminds me how some of
us grew up with every prayer having to end
with the exact words “in Jesus’ name.” It was
like God’s email address; if you got one letter
wrong your prayer would bounce back and not
go through. The formula was “in Jesus’ name.”
In Israel the formula validating a contract was
seen to be “in God’s name.”
My point is in the original context this
commandment was not about profanity, even
though it covers our profanity problem today.
But in Israel they lived with awe before the
throne of the thrice holy God of the universe.
The people of Israel would no more use God’s
name in a curse word than you or I would do a
backward somersault off the upper deck of the
Georgia Dome. In fact, not only did they not
use God’s name in a curse, they did not even
use God’s name in worship and over time the
sound of how they pronounced God’s name in
Israel disappeared in history.
Well, oath-taking became an elaborate
fan dance where you’d try to swear by something very weighty that was just short of God’s
name: “I swear by the holy altar of the Temple” or “I swear by the blessed whiskers of
Abraham” or “by sacred gates of heaven” or
“by Jerusalem” – all the while leaving the door
open just a crack so that just in case, you could
weasel out later.
It’s like W.C. Fields said: “A verbal
agreement is as good as the paper it is written
on.”
So why was this command given?
The Pose of Rectitude
It covers profanity, but it was given for
the sake of integrity and honesty.
It’s funny where we see this today. I
have to get very honest on this one – I hope I
don’t have to surrender my man card. I see this
with men all the time. In a lifetime of hanging
with guys, if you’re with guys in a gym or a
frat house or around a campfire or out hunting
with a bunch of guys, when one of those guys
raises his hand and says, “I swear to God,
man,” what’s about to happen? You are about
to hear pure, unadulterated baloney. ”I swear to
In that day, you’d seal a contract by taking an oath: “I call upon God to witness my
vow that I will finish this landscaping project
at such and such home with all these terraces
and azaleas and roses and rock work for such
and such an amount by April 30, so help me
God.” This “the oath of the Lord” became the
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God, man, I dated Kim Kardashian in high
school.” “Swear to God; Steve Jobs stole all his
ideas from my uncle back in the sixties when
they were hitch-hiking across India together.
No, no, I swear to God, man.”
tegrity. People of integrity have integrated
their insides with their outsides so there’s a
complete consistency with what they say and
what they do. It was said that John Wayne
wasn’t an actor; he was just John Wayne. Before the shoot you’d hear John Wayne say,
“Bring me my script.” Then you’d hear,
“Lights, camera, action” and you’d hear,
“Bring me my horse.” He wasn’t acting. He
was John Wayne.
This is a pose of rectitude: “In God’s
name.”
Or consider the fact that every day our
Atlanta Journal Constitution now runs on its
front page a measure of the words of our political leaders called a Truth-o-meter. This Senator or Congressman So-and-so said thus and so.
True or false? Then you flip to the front page
of the second section and there’s a meter from
one to a hundred: how much is true? How
much false? I’m sure many of our leaders
would like to run a Truth-o-meter on that Truth
-o-meter. Every once in a while the needle is
on zero truth and they say, “Pants on fire.”
But of course who is the greatest example of integrity – the complete consistency between what you say and how you live? God. In
Genesis 1 at the Creation, “God said,” and it
was so. Again “God said,” and it was so. Yet
again “God said,” and it was so. Later Jesus is
God’s Word become flesh. So it is with God’s
promises: “I will carry you on eagles’ wings.”
“I will never leave you or forsake you.”
“Because I live you will live.” God says, and it
is so.
Not just in politics but also in advertising we are always working through misperceptions from having been told things that are deliberately meant to fool us. One of my favorite
examples is that really fast voice at the end of
commercials that gives the disclaimer: “Don't
believe anything we say in this ad or hold us
responsible for the claims that were made in
this commercial. This product may cause heart
attacks or boils or make your hair fall out or
your teeth turn green. Statements may not be
100% accurate and were only made to persuade
you to buy this crummy product. Good luck.”
Last Sunday as our bagpipers were playing “Amazing Grace,” I was struck again by
my favorite line in that great hymn, in the
fourth verse, which often goes unsung: "The
Lord has promised good to me, His word my
hope secures.” God said it. I believe it. That’s
the end of it. God’s Word is as unbreakable as
his own character.
When Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the young
German pastor we’ve been talking about, went
to the gallows for his faith by personal order of
Adolf Hitler, he didn’t say, “Gee, I hope I
live.” He said, “I know I’ll live.” His last
words to those around him were, “For me, this
is the beginning.”
Today it is commonly agreed that our
standards of honesty are approaching an alltime low. We have corporate scandals, insider
trading, phony resumes, professors falsifying
data in their research, and just last week a
cheating scandal at Harvard.
Why? “His Word my hope secures.”
We need a generation of Bonhoeffers
who take God at his Word.
A Call to Integrity
The third commandment is a call to in4
We also need a generation who will
mirror God’s character by keeping our word.
Why do people so often feel let down when
they’ve trusted what’s been said? I’m talking
about everyday ordinary promises: I’ll be
here. I’ll be there. I’ll do this. I’ll do that. We
don’t break our word out of malice or deceit,
just dopey carelessness and sloppiness, but
the damage is still done.
This time of year we need to include
marriage. Included here with the third is the
seventh commandment against adultery. The
one place people still take “the oath of the
Lord” in public is a wedding, taking the
Lord’s name in the very words of the Third
Commandment: “In the name of God, I take
you…for as long as we live.” Keep that vow;
love your Valentine. If you were here a couple of weeks ago, Louis Zamperini was asked
if anything good came out of all the torture of
his two years in a Japanese prisoner of war
camp. He said, “Yes, it prepared me for 55
years of marriage.” Nobody said it would be
easy. Be faithful. Keep this promise above all
others.
In the movie "Hook" Robin Williams
plays this obnoxious yuppie dad who talks a
great game of fatherhood. He says, "Son, my
word is my bond. I'm gonna be there at your
Little League game today." Yet somehow he
never shows up. Finally it’s the last game of
the season and the son begs him to come. He
says, "Son, I'll be there this afternoon. My
word is my bond. Count on it." But then he
gets sidetracked by some big bond deal on the
telephone and sends his administrative assistant to stand behind the backstop with a video
camera. The dad meant well, all the while undermining his son’s esteem with scars that
can take years to heal.
In the words of William Norris: “If
your lips would keep from slips, five things
observe with care: to whom you speak, of
whom you speak, and how and when and
where.” Words matter. All talk is big talk.
In the play A Man for All Seasons Sir
Thomas More, the Chancellor of England, is
tempted to break his vow to the church and
before Christ by approving the divorce of the
King Henry from his queen. More says to his
daughter, “When a man takes an oath, Meg,
it’s as if he pours himself into his own hands
like water. And if he spreads his fingers then
— he needn’t hope to find himself again.” Sir
Thomas More lost his head but kept his integrity.
For it's not enough that we forge a
bond of sincerity between what we say and
how we feel, we've got to forge a bond of integrity between what we say and what we do.
I was thinking the other day that part
of this is cultural. Southerners and Californians like me love to get caught up in on-thespot beautiful moments. We get carried away
with enthusiasm. We’re at a party and “I just
met you but let’s do Europe this summer with
our families.” You don’t mean that. Someone
from the northeast would say, “That’s crazy.”
But we’re just in the moment. Let’s vow before God to stop putting ourselves in situations where we say yes to things we will not
follow through on.
“Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord thy God in vain. For God will not hold
him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”
Prayer:
Gracious God, we dedicate our lips
and our mouths and our voices to you. Even
as we trust every day in your word, may our
everyday words be trustworthy. Even as we
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live by your promises, make our promises like
a bond of steel.
I pray for the lips of those in this room
who have a problem with profanity and using
your name in a way that is less than worship.
With Isaiah we say, “Woe is me for I am a man
of unclean lips and I live among a people of
unclean lips.” And Lord we thank you that our
lips have the power to pray and to bless and to
promise. Lord, make us, like you, true to our
Word. Amen.
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