Taking God's name in vain isn't what you think.

The Trinity would like a word about individualism.

Hello! It’s been a minute. This semester we are taking 2 classes instead of one. That may not seem like a lot but think of grad school hours in dog years: 1 hour = 74 business years. I am not complaining (maybe a little) because I really do love to learn, but it is rigorous and sometimes I just want my life back. I want to make creative videos and paint and decorate my house for Christmas and read fiction. However, I know this time will come in January with a 6 week break(!!) and we’re at the point in the semester where we crawl across the finish line.

“We” is the most important word here. This ladies cohort, these professors, my family, the women I will/do teach—either they are carrying me or we are carrying them at various times in this journey. Without them, I would quit. Frankly, without other humans, my work doesn’t matter( GASP! more on that later). The Bible talks a lot about communal living and it’s something us westerners don’t understand holistically: we are built for relationship from a relationship. That is, the God we profess is already 3 in 1, “community in unity”, as Gerald Bray calls it and we are made in His community-in-unity image.

Let me tell you something about being made in His image. It’s a strange concept to us but the readers of Genesis back in that time would have know very well what this was insinuating. When a king would conquer somewhere, he would leave his image so the people knew who owned the place, who to worship even, so they wouldn’t forget: “You’re mine!”. So when God says, these are my people, He doesn’t leave a stone image of Himself. In fact, He says don’t make any graven images or any god (including Him!). Why? Because His representation, His image, how they will remember Him, will be other humans. We are to represent God to others, we bear his image. When people look at us, they will see something about God. Isn’t that so interesting?

from the Bible Project (a great video at the end)

To this point, when we think of “taking God’s name in vain”, we think about saying “Oh my G-o-*” but in studying this, the meaning is more like claiming God’s name but abandoning His character.¹ We say we love God and then we do things completely unloving to our neighbor. We profess a God of mercy, hospitality, adoption, gentleness and then go about destroying one another, including with our tongues. That’s taking God’s name in vain and we are guilty personally and communally.

Yes, Communally. What are we without each other? Millard Erickson makes a point that we are only human in relation to other humans. What is the human experience without other humans? Meaningless! That is why I can say my schooling is meaningless without other humans to learn from, to teach, to relate, to carry and be carried. We are made to worship together, lament together, praise together, learn together, celebrate together and also repent together.² Which we talked about in class yesterday— Westerners do not understand communal culpability which also includes being complicit when you see sinful, albeit evil acts.³ Our professor made the point that Germans still study the evil acts of the Holocaust so that THEY will never communally participate or be complicit in ethnic cleansing. Psalm 106:6 “We have sinned like our ancestors. We have done wrong. We have done evil.” Hmmm, implications for America seem ripe at the moment.

Regardless, in the Old Testament, God was forming how His people would participate under His rule. The Israelites didn’t know this God well. They were used to being in slavery, forcefully following rules of a different king, and were exposed to and participated in worshipping all kinds of gods of the day. It was the air they breathed. And now they’re free, and have to learn a completely new way of life. Why do you think they kept trying to worship other gods? They were used to that, it was second nature, and there were so many to choose from! But this God says, I am enough for you, worship only me. Unlike Pharaoh, this King was individually personal and present to His people, but this relationship played out very communally. Mess around with Leviticus and find out (personal and communal cleansing take up most of the book and it is called the heart of the Torah. But ask Christians the last time they read that banger.). My point is this: living in community matters for us as humans, and even more so as those who reflect God’s image. We either build our siblings and family up, or we tear them down by actively degrading others made in the image of God or being complicit when we see it. There are implications for this personally, politically, globally but that will be for each of us to ask God to shine a light in the dark places of our hearts.

Welp! That went somewhere I didn’t see coming, but welcome to some seminary overflow. If you want a really great video on Image of God, Bible Project always knocks it out of the park: https://bibleproject.com/explore/video/image-of-god/

Talk to you soon,

Jami

1. Bearing God’s Name by Carmen Joy Imes audiobook is free on hoopla, fyi! Great book on the subject.

2. Go read the Psalms: they are full of individual and communal prayers/songs and are instructive in how we are to practice worship/lamenting/praise/repentance.

3. The king, Don Payne, said this in our lecture, if you thought I sounded too smart.