The Name

"The Name"
a condensed version of the sermon delivered by Rev. Kirk Moore on Sunday, August 31, 2008 at Union Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, in Somonauk, Illinois.

PODCAST of "The Name"

This Morning's Scripture reading is:
Exodus 3:1-15

We’re continuing from where our story left off with the courageous women last week. Do you remember all their names? Shout them out after me:

Shiphrah and Puah! The Hebrew midwives
Jochebed! Moses’ mother
Miriam! Moses’ sister!
Bathia! Pharaoh’s daughter who drew Moses out of the water
Tirzah, Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah and Milcah – Zelophehad's daughters – they successfully argued for the right to inherit their father’s property rights!
The Wise Woman of Abel! She convinced Joab, one of King David’s commanders, not to come in and destroy an entire city looking for one enemy. She convinced him to wait while they captured the enemy. She offered an alternative to destruction and victory at any cost.
Jael! She invited a fleeing general (Sisera) into her tent, hid him, got him to go to sleep and then hammered a tent peg into his skull. The Israelites defeated King Jabin because Jael defeated Jabin’s general.
And the Syro-Phoenician woman! She found Jesus while he was resting and she asked him to heal her daughter. He, knowing that she was not Jewish, told her that he had to take care of the Jewish people first – he had to help the children – not the dogs. She stood up to Jesus – she confronted the racism in his comment when she said, "Even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs."

And now we’ve got to move far ahead in Moses’ life. He grew up, thought he’d stand up for the Hebrews and ended up killing an Egyptian guard. Instead of being hailed as a hero – he was rejected and he fled into the wilderness and lived there for a long time. He married Zipporah. (Shout out her name!) And he also went to work tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro. One day he let the sheep graze in a mysterious place – the Bible says that he went "beyond the wilderness." It’s kind of like saying "In the middle of nowhere" or "deep in the forest" or "in the deepest depths of the ocean." He was beyond where he normally would graze the sheep. And out in the middle of nowhere he encountered something beyond his wildest imagination.

A burning bush – one that didn’t get burnt up – it just burned.

I’ve heard folks try to explain exactly how this could happen – showing types of plants that appear to be on fire when the sun hits them right etc.

The science or explanation of this event isn’t the point. The point is that God was appearing to and speaking to Moses.

A voice told Moses to take off his shoes – he was standing on holy ground.

Was he supposed to do that out of respect? Was it so that his feet would be closer to that which was holy? Was he supposed to experience it as "take yer shoes off!" and find a way to relax? I guess it could be any of those – thought the "take yer shoes off" idea is kind of a stretch. But in the context of the whole Bible, our God who calls us to offer hospitality to others may have been offering hospitality to Moses. But I digress. . .

Finally - what Moses thought he was doing all those years before when he ended up killing the Egyptian guard – was going to come true. God was going to set the Hebrew people free! And Moses was going to lead them!

Come again? Moses – the murderer and the shepherd? The man who stuttered? (Read about that in chapter 4, verse 10) What kind of idiot would use a loser like Moses to lead a nation?

Do you remember this from last week? "God is working through the ones that society treats as unimportant. God is caring for the ones who are on the fringe. God is working outside of those considered powerful by our standards."

Who would dare to use Moses to lead a nation out of bondage? God.

And in our reading this morning, the name God instructs Moses to use to identify the one who sent him is . . .

The subject of scholarly debate, inspirational speaking, signs of respect and perhaps even deliberate vagueness.

A search of several Bible smarty-pants resources offers quite a few interesting views of this name.

I AM WHO I AM – related to the Hebrew verb "ehyeh" or "to be"

Some like to understand it as

"I cause it to be" or

"I will be what I want to be"

And I’ve heard the UCC’s Evangelism Minister and Team Leader, David Shoen, describe the name as "I will be what the future requires."

I love that way of looking at the name.

For many, the name is too sacred to utter or to write. In that case, instead of spelling out Yahweh or YHWH, one utters or writes the name the scribes would have subtexted to show respect for the name, Adonai – or lord. In the NRSV translation of the Bible, you’ll find the places where the respectful term is used for the name when you find the text using all-caps or small caps LORD. (Something else about the "adonai" subtext. Putting "YHWH" and "Adonai" together gives us the oft-used, but never intended word, "Jehovah." Interesting, eh?)

God’s name is sacred. The name is complete. The "ehyeh" I mentioned that forms the root for the name is kind of expanded in Yahweh. It is "Ehyeh Asher Ehyeh" and it carries with it past, present and future tenses.

God was, God is, God will be

I am what I was
I will be what I am
I will be what I will be

Etc.

The name is complete. It is also not fully definable.

We do not get to define God -- God does that. Not "I am what you say that I am," but "I am what I am!"

I think one of the most inspirational views of the name comes from Rob Bell, author, speaker and Grand Rapids preacher. He suggests that the four letters in the name, known as the Tetragrammaton (let’s say that one! – Tetragrammaton means "four letters" in Greek. Those 4 letters, Y H W H, are pronounced in very breathy ways, (Yo, Hey, Vah, Hey) and that they sound like the sound a person makes when they are breathing.

Breathing.

God – The name – breath – life

"I will be what the future requires"
"My name is complete"
"My name defies simple definition"
"My name is like the sound of breathing"

This week, why not think on all of those glimpses of the name. Experience God, whose name is beyond simple definition, as who the future requires. Experience God every time you breathe in and breathe out (Yo, Hay, Vah, Hey)

Experience God – who is complete to the very core – with all that you are.

See what happens, as we all experience the name.

Close with prayer.