28th Day of Lent: I Swear!

Remember when I was trapped in 1 John? Now, I seem to be trapped in the Sermon on the Mount. Which is a great sermon. I did a whole series on the Beatitudes which is really just Jesus warming up (the sermon is three chapters long). We're in a portion of the sermon where Jesus takes a law from the Old Testament ("you've heard it said you should not commit murder," "you've heard it said don't commit adultery") and then turn it on its head. He doesn't undo the law. He just goes a step deeper. Instead of not murdering...don't even think angry thoughts. Instead of not cheating on your spouse, don't even look at another person with lust in your heart. And now, we have this: 

“Again, you have heard that the ancients were told, ‘You shall not make false vows, but shall fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your statement be, ‘Yes, yes’ or ‘No, no’; anything beyond these is of evil.

Matthew 5:33-37 

When I read this scripture, it automatically transports me back nearly 24 years to the only vow I've ever made to the Lord. I was eight years old. And in a few weeks..I was turning nine. At the time, I had a particular sin problem: I was a thief. A true thief. I stole money from my parents and from my siblings. That was to buy things at the store we lived near. I also stole things from my siblings to destroy. That was for spite. When you're small and other people are big...you have to fight back in creative ways. Honestly, I don't really remember stealing a ton of things. I can only call to mind two specific instances:

1. $20 out of my mom's purse. Or my sister India's purse - never caught (to my knowledge)
2. A pack of Rolos from Krogers, our local grocery store - caught and forced to return and acknowledge to the cashier that I was a thief.

Those are two terrible things, and so if I was bold enough to do those, it stands to reason that I may have been a prolific thief at the age of eight. 

Which is why it was the perfect subject of my one and only vow to the Lord: 

"Lord, if You make it so that I can walk again by my birthday...I'll never steal again." 

Maybe I tacked an amen onto the end. I can't recall. You see, on May 23, 1991 I was in a terrible car accident. The kind of car accident that people generally don't survive. I was walking across a busy street, and was hit by a car. I was dragged by the car for some ways before the car stopped, paramedics were called and I was rushed to the hospital. There is A LOT to that story, which is not the subject of today's blog. So long story short: I couldn't walk. Doctors thought I would never walk again, but a kid doesn't think that way. Especially not a church kid. So, I made my vow. 

And I walked. By my birthday.

And it's been torture ever since. 

Have you ever read The Kite Runner? There's a part of that book that struck me while I was reading it (and I've never forgotten it) because it felt like profound truth to an avowed ex-thief: 

"There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft... When you kill a man, you steal a life. You steal his wife's right to a husband, rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness."

So really, unless I live perfectly...my vow is broken. Not that I want to make wrong moves or that I wish I could steal things, but I do wish I had never said it. The prayers of the saints (the people at my church) were enough for me to walk again! God's grace was enough for me to walk again! Me simply saying: "Lord, I'd like it if I could walk again" would have sufficed...but I complicated it with a cosmic tit-for-tat that God simply didn't need or request.

In this scripture, vows are being used to attest to truthfulness. It is implied that a question has been asked, and someone feels the need to make a vow to validate what they are saying. Followers of Christ should need no such validation. We should possess the sort of character that our simple "yes" or "no" is received as the truth no matter how preposterous it sounds. 

Person who knows me: Did you just move that remote control with your mind? 
Me: Yes. 

And just like that, the person who knows me believes! To swear by all of these other things is meaningless. Why? Because we're powerless in those regards. Swear to God? So what happens if you lie, have you (via the power of your lie) called down God's wrath? Or swearing on your mother's grave. Have you, via the power of your lie, canceled out her resurrection? Or plummeted her into hell? Or my favorite: "I swear on everything" like you, via the power of your lie, can suddenly rid the world of all its goods? 

Making vows of that nature assigns power to people who are, by spiritual nature, powerless beings. It was this powerlessness that predicated our need for Christ: 

 You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

 - Romans 5:6

So, the simple yes/no...that's how it should work with people.

by the moon and the stars in the sky...I'll be there!

So what about vows with God? Since when does God ask you something and then say: "How do I know you're telling the truth?" which would be your cue to start vowing? I've never had that happen. It didn't happen when I was eight...and it hasn't happened since. So, there's no need to make a vow.

Don't get me wrong, I try to keep my vow by not stealing, and I try to remain cognizant of all of the stealing variations. But, I won't make another vow. Firstly because God didn't ask me to make a vow. Secondly, because I'm sort of a powerless person. If I keep that vow, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit which enables me to live a sinless life. At which point, God is keeping the vow for me. 

I've also contemplated that just making the vow was a sin...but even if it was...

Christ died for that.