Pastor's Corner: Let your yes be yes
Do you remember the Dr. Seuss book that was made into a movie called "Horton Hatches an Egg?" It tells the story of an elephant named Horton, who promises to sit on an egg and hatch it for its mother. As the days and weeks go by, Horton just keeps sitting there on that nest up in a tree. All his friends encourage him to forget his promise and to come play with them. Do you remember Horton’s response? He said, “I meant what I said, I said what I meant. An elephant is faithful 100 percent.”
Matthew 5: 33 – 37 says, “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.”
What seemed to be happening was that the religious leaders were trying to find ways to “get around” keeping vows by swearing by one or more of the above to perhaps convince the person they were making the vows to that they would keep it. When an oath was made and it was broken, there was an elaborate system by which the religious leaders would judge how close the oath came to God as to whether it was a valid oath that needed to be kept. There were whole sections of the Jewish teaching that dealt with which vows were valid and which ones were not. Swearing by heaven or earth was not binding, nor was swearing by Jerusalem, but swearing “toward” Jerusalem was. You get the picture. The real issue was a lack of integrity. People did not know who was genuine in their vow and who was just saying it to say it. Jesus says, “Enough is enough. Just do what you say you are going to do.”
I believe we have gotten to a point in our society where we do not even expect people to keep their word anymore. I know I get a “I will believe it when I see it” type of attitude at times. Are you a person of integrity? Are you as good as your word? Do you back out of promises you have made? Do we say yes to things just to get people off of our backs, with no real intention of carrying out what was said? How many have said, “I will pray for you” and then did not? How many have said, “I will see you at church on Sunday” but then sleep in and not show up. What about when someone asks you to meet them at a certain time and you agree but are always showing up late or always having to cancel?
Jesus says in these few words that, first of all, don’t take oaths at all. If we swear on a stack of Bibles, God is still part of that oath. We should regard all promises as sacred if we remember that all promises are made in the presence of God. Second of all, I believe integrity is doing what you said you would do. If you told your child you would spend Saturday with them, do it. A promise is a holy thing, whether made to the chairman of a board or to a child. Next, we should show integrity in our actions. Our actions back up our words. You show what is important by what you do. If your faith is important, it will show up in how you live your life.
What would God do with the type of faithfulness that Horton displayed? Are you there today? Can you say it, and follow through with your actions? “I meant what I said, I said what I meant. A Christian is faithful — 100 percent.”
Pastor Wynne Schott is co-pastor of the Cheboygan Church of the Nazarene.
This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Pastor's Corner: Let your yes be yes
