Let your yes be yes

The Unbaptized Arm

Posted on by Betsy

Have you ever heard the strange legend about a group of 15th Century soldiers and their unusual baptism? They served a man named Ivan the Great who was the Grand Prince of Moscow and All Russia. Ivan was pledged to marry a Greek princess, but her father insisted that he and his 500 soldiers become members of the Orthodox Church first. This involved a full immersion baptism. However, the Orthodox Church forbade professional soldiers from being baptized due to their violent way of life, which is not in line with the teachings of Christ. But the clever fellows found a work-around. As they entered the waters, they held up their right arms above the surface. This prevented their “fighting arms” from being baptized. They were willing to give their bodies and souls to God but reserved their sword arms for the state. This story serves as a classic example of when your “yes” really means “no.”

In our Scripture today, Paul had been accused of being unreliable and untrustworthy by the church in Corinth because he had said he could come to them on a certain day and then was unable to make the trip. He sent a letter in his place and was met with their questioning of his motives and his word. You can hear the hurt and offense that this caused Paul in verse 17: “So I wasn’t unreliable when I planned to do this, was I?” Having his integrity questioned was painful.

2 Corinthians 1 (Common English Bible)

17 So I wasn’t unreliable when I planned to do this, was I? Or do I make decisions with a substandard human process so that I say “Yes, yes” and “No, no” at the same time? 18 But as God is faithful, our message to you isn’t both yes and no. 19 God’s Son, Jesus Christ, is the one who was preached among you by us—through me, Silvanus, and Timothy—he wasn’t yes and no. In him it is always yes. 20 All of God’s promises have their yes in him. That is why we say Amen through him to the glory of God.

Paul leans on their understanding of the reliability of God to make his point. As God is faithful, Paul was faithful to his churches, even when they needed to be reprimanded. He preached a Savior who was completely reliable and worthy of their trust. Jesus was not a “yes and no” man, and Paul was not untouched by that fact. His yes was always a yes.

Yet out of this unpleasantness came one of Scripture’s most beautiful verses: “All of God’s promises have their yes in him” (verse 20). Yes, Lord! What a wonderful statement of the reliability of Christ. Every good thing that God gave to humanity came through him.

Think for a moment about the commitments and promises you have made. Consider what you are doing with your time, your talents, and your treasure. Are you one-hundred percent in or are you holding something back? Does your yes mean maybe? Are you willing to serve God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength, or are you keeping something in reserve for yourself?

God’s yeses are always yes, for all of eternity. May we respond like Paul and give everything we have to the building of God’s kingdom, holding nothing back.

Just like Jesus.

Blessing of the Fleet

I SAID dNO!

Posted on by Betsy

Nora Jean is one feisty chick. She comes by it honestly, as she is the progeny of a whole line of feisty chicks. Take her grandmothers, for instance. A super-energized nurse who raised three kids while her husband flew for the Navy, and then the airlines. The other grandmother is a super-energized chick pastor, who raised two kids while her husband flew for the Navy, and then the airlines. (That is not a typo. Both grandfathers are Navy/Airline pilots. Imagine the odds of THAT happening!)

And then there is her mother, the feistiest of the feisty-clan. SHE kicked cancer, danced in a 46-hour marathon 9 months after her last chemo, got two degrees, and is raising three kids while her husband flies for the Navy….oh Nora Jean, you are surrounded.

So it is absolutely no surprise that at age two, Nora J can express herself with great clarity. They took her and her less-feisty brothers to a restaurant called The T-Rex Cafe. T-Rex is a bigger-than-life venue of pre-historic trees and vines, loud animal noises, dark spaces, and oh, yes…a ginormous T-Rex and his friends. Nope, said Nora. Nope, nope, nope, and if you didn’t get my meaning, let my shrieking do the talkin’. So without even sitting down, they exited.

Oh, but wait! Nearby is the much gentler Rain Forest Cafe, with quiet waterfalls, monkey sounds, and lush foliage. So in they went, and out they came. The same dark, immersive environment was also not to Nora’s liking, and the volume of nonononononono was actually heard in the gift shop next door.

As her mother took her outside to see if a little explanation and cajoling might help, Nora took her mother’s face in her hands, looked her in the eye, and said, “I SAID dNO.”

Matthew 5 (The Message)

33-37 “And don’t say anything you don’t mean. This counsel is embedded deep in our traditions. You only make things worse when you lay down a smoke screen of pious talk, saying, ‘I’ll pray for you,’ and never doing it, or saying, ‘God be with you,’ and not meaning it. You don’t make your words true by embellishing them with religious lace. In making your speech sound more religious, it becomes less true.

Just say ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ When you manipulate words to get your own way, you go wrong.

Let your yes be yes and your no be no, like a boss two-year-old!

It is interesting to see how The Message applies this to religious talk. How many times do you say to someone, “I will pray for you,” and then never do? Peterson calls that “religious lace.” In other words, we can see right through it. Worse, so can God.

I think there is a lot of smoke-screen-religious-speech happening right now. I would hazard a guess that there has always been a lot of it, if Jesus was addressing it over 2,000 years ago, calling it an issue that is “embedded deep in our traditions.“

We should strive for clear, accurate communication that is free of manipulative words that we use just to get our own way. Let us stick with the truth, and stop trying to making ourselves sound more religious with unnecessary embellishments. God calls us to mean what we say, and say what we mean.

Let your dNO be dNO.

My dNO means dNO.