Westwood Presbyterian Church

September 20th, 2009

197 Browning  Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba  R3K 0L1

REV. PETER BUSH's SERMONS

3rd Commandment - The Name of God

    

Last week I saw an ad on television that told me that a particular TV gave a hyper-real picture. A TV that gives a picture that is more real than real? Does that make any sense? We live in a world where ordinary speech is regarded as boring, and so we have to use words that catch people's attention - hyper-real; it is no good for something to be unique - which means one of a kind - it has to be very unique - what does that mean; and unless something is a crisis it is not worth talking about. Why is this going on - in part because everything in the world is starting to sound the same? Even though the voices are different, the words have been said before - even though the product is new the sales pitch has been done before. Everything is starting to sound the same - and so to make this product, this issue, these words stand out we inflate the language - use hyper-words ­which are better than ordinary words. (Don't worry I just made that up.)

In such a world we hear - "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." Or "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God."

The name of God - what is it? That was Moses' question when God spoke to him from the burning bush - "Who shall 1 say has sent me?" Or maybe the question is give me a name that will blow them away - something like "Super-awesome, mega-powerful, hyper-holy, way cool Ruler of all things." But that is not the name - the name is "I AM" or "I AM who I AM". Kind of a let down, kind of dull and boring, no hyper-speech there, no ear bending name - Just I AM.

Now for a crash course in Hebrew. The Hebrew used to write the Old Testament included no vowels - this is a common pattern even today - in both Arabic and Farsi there are vowels which are not written but which everyone includes when they read the words - people know where the vowels go. So we have the 4 consonants that make up the name of God - YHWH - we don't know what vowels were used or how many. Why don't we know that - because the people of Israel were so concerned about misusing the name of the God that they stopped reading the name when they came to it in the Bible ­and within three generations no one knew how to say the name. Even today if you go to a synagogue when people come to the YHWH they do not pronounce it - they simply pause for silence and then go on reading. In English translations we know when the YHWH is used because it shows up as LORD - as opposed to Lord (which is a different word - Elohim). The best guess for how to say YHWH is Yahweh - three generations ago the suggestion was Jehovah - understanding that Y can have a J sound and W a V sound.

That we call God, God - and that we have been invited to call God, Father - that we call Jesus, Jesus. These speak to the personal nature of God. God is not an unnamed, unknown, higher power. No, God is a personal being who is in connection with us. That God is known by a name means that God has an identity - God is not an it, not a thing, but is someone who has invited us into relationship. In having a name God tells us that God is among us as one to be known and related to. Especially I AM - says that God is the one who is always with us - always seeking to be in relationship with us.

That we are invited to call God by name is a gift - it is out of God's grace. Here again we see that grace precedes the command - G.od tells us his name, connects with us, invites us into relationship with himself and then says - "If we are going to be in relationship, this is what being in relationship with me means."

Okay so what does it mean to take God's name in vain?

We need to say two things right off the top. The name of God is more than YHWH ­ it is the words, the names: God, Jesus Christ, Spirit, etc. Second, the command does not say that we are not to use God's name - it says that we are to use God's name with meaning and rightfully.

Traditionally, this command has been connected to using God and derivatives there of and Jesus and derivatives there of as swear words. It is interesting to see the reaction of people when they discover what I do, they sometimes say to me, "I hope I didn't swear. If I had known what you did I would not have sworn."

Swearing by using God or Jesus trivializes the names, robs them of their meaning and significance. Think for a moment how it would feel if every time something went wrong people used your name as an explicative - it would trivialize your name, you would wish you had another name. Using God and Jesus as swear words is disrespectful, saying that the names - and by extension - the persons known by those names are not worthy of respect. To use the name disrespectfully is to treat the person who has that name with disrespect.

Disrespect for the name of God can be shown in a variety of ways in addition to using God's name as a swear word. Using God's name to bless ungodly or improper actions is clearly a violation of the command to not make wrongful use of the name of God. Tragically through the history of the church, God's name has been attached to immoral and improper actions. In South Africa, some churches provided a theological defense for apartheid, including saying that God condoned such a system. In both World War 1 and World War 2 - Christian leaders on both sides of the conflict declared that God was on their side, and prayed to God for the defeat of the other side. And the list could go on of ways and times in which God's name has been used to justify terrible actions done by political regimes and social structures. Church leaders have used God's name to justify their own actions. During the 1980's and 1990's we witnessed the fall of a number of prominent Christian leaders - Bakkers, Swaggert, McDonald, and others - all of whom justified their misdeeds by claiming that they were following God's guidance and that made their actions okay. Shady business practices that kept the ministries on the air were justified because the ministry was touching people's lives with the gospel. Personal lives that were a mess were justified because it was proof of God's grace to use broken, frail, fallen people as God's messengers.

But using God's name to justify actions is not just something that political leaders do, it is not a temptation that exists only for church leaders, all of us face the risk of using God's name to justify what we want. And in the process we risk trivializing God's name.

It is easy to say, "God told me to ... (fill in the blank)" and that ends the conversation, because who can argue with God. It seems to me that this commandment invites us to be careful about how quickly, or how easily we say, "God told me so." I believe that God does guide us, that God does speak to us, that God nudges us along - but I also know that the human heart is capable of self-deception. So easily do my goals become what I believe God wants - so easily can I turn personal hopes into God's direction for my life. This commandment invites us to be cautious in saying "God told me to ... "

A further risk lies in our desire to say of many things "God told me so ... " There is a familiarity that breeds contempt - if we often say "Thus saith the Lord ... " people stop hearing the naming of God - stop hearing the power of the words "Here is a word from the Lord ... " If everything is a word from the Lord then God's name gets overused - and in the process is trivialized.

The opposite danger also exists. If we never have the courage to say those words ­"Thus saith the Lord ... "; if we never speak saying - "This is what God says ... " we are not acknowledging that God does speak in our time and place, that God does say some things about how we are to live as human beings, does have expectations of our pattern of life, and so on. While we are invited to caution that we not overuse and thus diminish the name of God - we are also invited to be courageous in speaking God's word into those places and times when that voice needs to be heard.

As we have begun to touch on, if there are wrongful uses of the name of the Lord our God - then by logical extension there are also rightful uses - proper times and places to use God's name.

The God of grace and majesty who in love made us, who has so saved us in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and who comes to us in power of the Holy Spirit - this Triune God is to be thanked - and thanked not as some nameless, remote, higher power ­but as the God who reveals himself to us - as the God who invites us to the connection of knowing God's name and using that name.

In our praise and in our worship - in our thankfulness and in our rejoicing - we call on God's name - we say "You are LORD - you are Yahweh - you are worthy of our praise and adoration."

We also call on God's name asking for God - the God of all love and grace to break into our world and bring transformation and renewal. For we know that only God can do that - only God can answer the deep longings of our hearts and of the world. To call on any other name would be to show a different kind of disrespect. In the third command there is an invitation to enter into a relationship - a connection with the God of love and grace who brings salvation and to invite that God into the situations of our world and our lives. We do this through prayer - in which address God -speak to God - call God by name - and acknowledge God's Lordship of all things.

In the Lord's Prayer we ask God to make his name holy - that is the direction of "Hallowed by thy name." This is a request not just to God that that He be holy - it is also an invitation that God would make those of us who use God's name - that we would be holy in our use of the name - would use it well.

As we call ourselves Christians -literally "little Christ's" - we in the Lord's prayer ask that we would live up to that calling - that our lives would bring honour and glory to God. That by our bearing the name - his name would be lifted high. This is a high and holy calling that we are invited into. To be people who are given the privilege of using the name of God - to be people who are honoured to be called by God's name.

 

For there is no other name like the name of God.