GOD HAS MANY NAMES: __
1. DOES IT MATTER WHAT YOU CALL GOD?.

November 11, 1990 ..

8:30 and 11:00 a.m. Worship Services
John M. Buchanan

Fourth Presbyterian Church, Chicago

Scripture
Matthew 25:1-13
Exodus 3:1-15

“'Please tell me your name." But he said, "Why is
it that you ask my nase?" And then he blessed hin.“
—Genesis 32:29 (NRSV)

A name is a powerful thing.

"Sticks and stones will break
your bones but names wil] never ~
hurt you..."

Gur parents told us when we were verbally assaulted by the bully dawn the
block, and although the intent was sincere, the sentiment is not true.
Names do hurt you. Names affirm you. Names lift your spirit, or cause a
descent inta an abyss of self doubt.

Names it could be said, have power to create,

No project assumes more discussion, research and intentionality than
choosing a name for the baby.

ae a: 2,

Will bt ‘work if she is a concert pianist and her name is introduced
on stage at Carnegie Hall?

Or what if he is a tailback for the Bears and the name is thundered
across the autumn sky on the PA system?

What if she writes a book on management theary and her name is in the
window of every book store?

What if she runs for President and her name is an every bumper
sticker?

To name something is to participate in a mysterious way in
behaviors which will influence the future. When God gives Adam the
authority to give names to the animals in the Garden of Eden, the human
race is indelibly aad forever brought into the process of creation.

Come ch ten wee “" "Same >peopte ‘are ‘saying that ‘the way we fiawe God Téaves ‘thém outs
Actually they have been saying it with varying degrees of intensity for a

leg thousand ‘years. Some. are saylig that if the only name you have for-God-ig: -.-."
4 masculine name, or a feminine name, OF @ Warrior name, or a soft and
gentle name, or a judging name, they feel left out of the conversation.

And, the theologians know they are right... that the one and only
thing you can ever know for sure about God, is that God, being God, is
unknowable and therefore unnameable. And furthermore, if you only have one
name — or if your God is male, or female, or a judge, or warrior,
exclusively you are missing what the Bible and the Judeo-Christian
tradition have to Say about God.

God has many nance, And in the weeks\ahead we will be thinking about

some of them. In the Pp ene aeeooptes “of & hew Brief Statement of
Faith which is currepth re“the Presbyter' n Church (U.S.A4.) for

cons ideration.<"Some—o -“namesare part of ‘that Brief Statement. The

rT chair of the comm é which produced this statémeht was Jack Stotts,
GX President o stin Theotdgical Seminary, former Pres dent of McCormick
S- Theologival Seminary” good friend of Fourth Church, who Served it as

Oe \ intefim preachef in 1984 and 1985. Dr. Stotts wiil be a guest-preacher
4 Y here 1p-ebruary and -will—also-be-delivering several “lectures on.the Brief

Qs A Statement, I -have“heard him -say- that one of the most important tasks

Re > 45 Ns before the church is to learn how to say "God" in the modern world. -
yy 2 fw te 4 fet YR A PC EA sad Atcenkt | 4b ay aa
C yo “ '' $0 that is he project before us, and I invite you to begin by
are ta ondering the question, "Does it Matter What You Call God?" And to do that
Ce pondering, not in the abstract, nor in the sometimes overheated debate

about inclusive ljanguage, but in light of a story which cones to us from
the distant past.

It's a marvelous story. It's about a man by the name of Moses who
has finally settled down to a quiet and predictable life as a sheep herder.
Up until this time his life hae been a bit of a roller coaster ride.
Abandoned by his parents as an infant in order to save his life, rescued by
the daughter of Pharaoh, raised as Egyptian royalty, a rising young star in
the Egyptian Civil Service and then, suddenly, one day, an outlaw, hiding
from justice. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew slave and in anger he
killed the Egyptian and ran for his life. It was during that escape in the
wilderness that he met his future wife, moved in with her family, became a
parent and went into business with his father-in-law. And watching the
sheep one day his life, and human history, are forever changed.

A burning bush a voice: “remove your shoes... I'm the God of your
father, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." And then a plan, an
outrageous, foolhardy scheme toa liberate the Jewish slaves back in Egypt.
"I have come down to deliver them," says the voice, "I have heard their
cry... came, IT will send you to bring them out."

Isn't that something? Just when he's finally settled; just when
he's started a Family, has a little money in the bank; just when he can see
a little light at the end of the tunne], maybe even an improvement in his
golf score... there is this voice and this incredible Plan. “I will send
you to Pharaoh,"

11/11/90

. tye

_'Moses' response is understandable. “Who me? Why me? Who am I that, .
‘I. should go?" That's the cue for the voicé to Say something like: -"Méses, ou.”
you're perfect for the job. You're bright, intelligent, physically strong,
you know your way around Egypt, speak the language, have contacts, -besides -

you have unrealized human potential which you never touched."

The voice doesn't say that however. What the voice says is, "I will
be with you."

Next question... that isn't the answer I wanted, but say I go: say I
go to Egypt and tell the slaves about the plan, and they ask me who sent
me, what shall I telJ] them? “What's your name?"

And the voice said: "J am who Tam.... Tell them 'I am’ has sent me
to you."

"What kind of a name is that?" Woody Alien once asked, and it is a-good
question. There are few incidents or phrases in the Bible that have
received as much scholarly research and attention. .

The language itself could not be more difficult. Se let's roll up
our sleeves for a moment and take a look. The ancient Jews regarded God
with so much awe that God's name was never Pronounced. In Hebrew it is
four consonants — YHWH — and here, in the third chapter of Exodus, what
seems to happen is that the vowels from the Hebrew word for Lord are woven
into these mysterious consonants so that the result is a word that sounds
like Yahweh, and that is actually a kind of verb, the basic linguistic
unit called the "be" verb. In English it translates:

“I am who I am" - but that's not the only possibility. Reputable
Biblical scholars argue that God's name is —

TY am because I am, or

I will be what I will he, or

Iam the one who is, or

I will be present, or

I will create what I wil} create, or

IF will be what I become.
All of them possible: variations on the verb “to be.°

What's really going on here? Why doesn't God have a name? Why
doesn't this God - this God of the ancestors have a proper name like all
the other gods? The people who study these texts agree that what we have
here is an intentional and “purposeful act of ambiguity by the writer to

leave open a wide range of possibilities." [J. Coert Ryllarsdam, IB,
Vol. Tj .

11/11/9909

The anthropologists know that the ancients believed they lived in a

.-worid inhabited by .many: spirits. . And. i£.the spirits could be- named ‘they... 0...

could be understood; and if understood perhaps even controlled, or at Jeast
people would not feel quite so frighteningly helpless in the presence of
these unseen and mysterious forces. The impetus to give God a proper name,
one interpretation proposes, is an expression of the primal human need to
have God at our disposal. [Riblical Interpretations in Preaching,

Gerhard Von Rad, p. 42]

It comes up other places in the tradition, When Jacob wrestles all
night at the Jabbock with a mysterious stranger who turns out to be God, he
asks for a name and what he gets is a blessing and a limp, and a new name
for himself, but no name for God. Later when Moses raises the subject
again, God tells him he can seé God's backside but not God's. face.

The ancient Jews knew something important, namely that if you think
you Know too much about God you not only don't know a thing, that little
piece you know begins to feel like the whole piece... and now you have an
idal on your hands. An idel is one small piece of truth. And the trouble
with idols (in addition toa being very expensive to maintain, you have to
build shrines for them and hire pecple to protect them and polish them)
is that they keep you from dealing with the real thing.

So instead of a nice respectable proper name, what Moses gets is
intentional ambiguity and, of course, the promise - and that's really the
point, The God Moses is dealing with is the one who will be with him as he
goes down to Egypt to perform his impossible mission. Hans Kung writes:

“Yahweh means, 'I will be present guiding,
helping, strengthening, liberating"
[Does God Exist?, p. 13]

Let's come back now to our starting point. We do know something
about the power of names, for good or for ill. In a recent editorial in
The Christian Century, James Wail points aut that the PBS documentary, “The
Civil War" was offensive to some peopie because the name "Civil War" is the
name given to the conflict by the side that won. The losing side calls it
“The War Between the States." Similarly, Wall points out, Israeli anger and
intransigence in the aftermath of the killing of Arab demonstrators hy
Israeli police and the universal criticism which ensued, is due, in part,
to the fact that the United Nations insists on calling the spot where it
took place by its Palestinian name - Haran al-Sharif. The Israeli nane,
used in the American Press is "Temple Mount." What name you use tells what
side you are on politically,

AS Names changed so did attitudes people had about themselves and
about others ~ from “colored" to “Negro” to "Black" to “African Americans."
Cassius Clay became Mohammed Ali: Lew Alcindor -. Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

Does “Indian,” which represents a rather significant error by a European
navigator, really describe the people who have lived here for thousands of
years and who are the only Native Americans?

If you get to name the hame, you get control as a by-product.

11/11/90

in an attempt to be friendly and personable, the -voice on the phone.
. who doesn't.know me at all, and asks- who Iam. before allowitig me access to -
the person I am calling, will often address me by my first name. “Thanks
“for calling,. John,-. He'll get back to you." I'm always a little taken
aback by that. Soa I was pleased to read Madeleine L'Engle —- “Names are
precious. It used to be a moment of great importance when someone said,
‘Oh, don't call me Mr. or Mrs. X, call me Anne or Bob: My name is a gift
which I offer to you. Now the name is taken automatically — grabbed away.”
[Walking on Water, p. 114]

To love is to call by name, she says, which is certainly part of what
is happening when we Say out loud these tiny infants' names as they are
baptized inte the church.

Does it matter what you call God? Yes is docs! It matters because
our naming of God always has within it the danger of idolatry and the
distortion about which the ancient Israelites were sco sensitive.

That is the reason gender specific language is such an important
issue theologically. Brian Wren, British theologian, poet and hymn writer
observes:

"Images of God must not become idels. However
hallowed by tradition, however enriching and
Suggestive, however profoundly they move us, our
metaphors and names for God are not themselves God.
We should no more bow down and worship mental and
linguistic images of God than the graven images
forbidden in the Bible, or the idols of money and
success," [What Language Shall I Borrow, p. 108]

"Your God Is Too Smali" is the way J. B. Phillips put it. The
trouble with the mental and linguistic images that have become traditional
and precious to us is that they limit God, and in the limiting distert, and
in the distortion -~ we miss God altogether.

You see if Moses had received the answer he wanted, if he had
received a name, “I am the Sun God, Moon God, War-Making God, Love-Making
God, Fertility God...," a definition, a creed or theological formula, the
Pilgrimage, the journey might have ended before it began. Instead, what he
received was infinitely more valuable, namely the promise of God's presence
in the difficult and challenging and frightening days ahead.

And that's the point of this whole exercise. What I need is not a
concept of God I can understand, but some sense that as I try to live
faithfully into my own future, whatever that holds, I won't have to do it
alone. What you need is not an intellectually defensible argument for the
existence of God, but some sense that the one who made you, will come to
you in your wilderness, or your escape, or your search, or whatever you are
doing here,.. and will come to you with caring and compassion and love and
Will be to you and for you what you need God to be.

li/i1/90

"Does it ‘matter what: you call God?-Yes “it Goes!” It mattérs ‘that the
names you use for God not distort’ God and in the Ristortion limit the ways

_ God. can .came. to you.. Yes,..it wiatters. to those who: use-the name. Christian, - -.

that God's name correspond with the life of -the one who contained all of
God. we ever need to know. .

Does it matter what you cal] God? Yes... And yet, because we are now
talking about what you call God in the privacy of your heart, your personal
relationship with the one who made you and prays to be with you, the one
whose name you speak in your most intimate prayers, it doesn't matter
because that voice in the Wilderness invites us to complete the sentence
out of our own experience and out of our own need.

I am...
F will he...

James Forbes, Pastor of The Riverside Church in New York City, put it
as eloquentiy and theologically accurately as I have ever heard it:

"God said -

- if you need someone to care for you, to nurture —
you, to give you a sense of dignity and worth,
I am your mother,

- 3£ you need grace, Jove, Kindness and provisions,
I am your father,

- if you need someone to talk to, to tell your
secrets, your burdens, your joys, your sorrows to,
I am your sister,

~ if you don't have a brother, I am your brother,

- if you have nobody to care for you, te meet
you where you are, I am your lover.

- if you are friendless, I am your friend, and I'li
stick by you."

God has no name,

God has many names.

When Moses and Jacob ask, they do not receive an answer. it is an
intentional omission, we believe. Because they both receive and believe

and trust the promise of God's blessing, God's presence in the future.

God invites you, out of your experience and your need, to use a
name. .,

Father, Mother, Friend, Brother, Sister,
Lover, Servant, Savior, Liberator...

and to know, as God's people have always known, that the great “I am" is
also the promised one who “will be," always, that “Yahweh" meéans:— . 7

Amen.

"Y wili be. with you and I wiidl be for

you what you need. I will be with you

as you free the slaves... as you confront
the challenges of your life... I will

be Yahweh. I will be God. [I will be -
with you - always, forever, world without
end,"