Swearing

23:20-22 – “So the one who swears by the altar, swears by it and everything on it; the one who swears by the temple, swears by it and the one who dwells there; and the one who swears by the throne of God, swears by it and the one who sits upon it.”

 We don’t usually swear by any of these things – or anything – except God, as in “I swear to God.” But even that has become an expression rather than a binding oath. Jesus, if not the scribes and Pharisees, took swearing seriously. Swearing by the temple, the altar, or the throne of God was risky; it invoked God’s participation and made the consequences of not following through much greater. No wonder the scribes and Pharisees preferred to swear by the gold and the gifts. It was safer. They obsessed over correctness and safety.

Yet, they often didn’t take the correct or moral action. What good is doing something correctly if it’s wrong or immoral? What good is making the trains run on time when they’re going to be taking Jewish people to Auschwitz? What good is doing a job well, when the result will be evil? What good is making a pretense at swearing on the Bible, the gifts, or the gold, when the action sworn to will harm or oppress others?

It is difficult to know today whether to celebrate or mourn the United States. As Frederick Douglass so eloquently wrote, “What, to the slave, is the fourth of July?” For me, today will be a day of celebrating the promise of what we could be, while mourning what is being destroyed by our own leaders going back on the oaths they swore to uphold the Constitution.

For the record, this is what every senator and representative has sworn to do: I, AB, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God. https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/5/3331

It is clear that many of them have not been faithful to their oaths of office, even as they requested their God’s help. It is time to vote them out and vote in people who will be faithful to their vows, no matter what they swear on.