Let Your Yes Be Yes and Your No Mean No by Rev. Benjamin Glaser
It used to be the case that you could trust someone’s word. It was good enough for deals to be made on a handshake with the understanding that violating that covenant meant more than just a transaction gone bad, it meant you could not longer be a valued business partner. That mattered to people. One of the great sins of our age is that people treat covenantal matters like toilet paper. Good enough for the moment, but at the end of the day it can get flushed without much care. You can just declare bankruptcy, or ignore the requirements of the contract and move on. No big deal. A way we see this play out in real life in the Church is with congregational vows. It is not uncommon for folks to Church hop like a snowshoe hare. They’ll make promises to seek the peace, prosperity, and purity of one place…but will only mean it as long as they are getting what they want out of it. As soon as some other thing comes into view there is little compunction to going somewhere else for worship ...