Exodus 20:1,2,7; Philippians 2:1-11
A Sermon Preached by Donald Mackenzie
University
Congregational United
You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God. Exodus 20:7a
On the night before my first day of nursery school at age 3 my mother was giving me a bath and I asked my mother to hand me the soap. But I didn’t just say that. I modified the word soap with a curse that included the word “God.” I don’t know where I heard that but I must have thought it was a very grown up thing to say because on that night before school I was feeling very grown up. As soon as I said it, however, I stopped feeling grown up because my mother let it be known that that was not an appropriate thing to say. I don’t remember her explanation of why it wasn’t, but it was clear that it was not a wise choice of words and it would be many years before I would dare utter such a thing again. Some years later, I would curse God for making people vulnerable after a particularly painful event where I observed the pain of someone’s self-esteem being destroyed. I assumed that death would follow but instead I felt my curse hit something and only later came to understand that the cursing of God is actually invited in the psalms because all human emotions that are properly directed to God in prayer.
I had assumed, of course, that to curse using the word “God” was a violation of the third commandment. But it isn’t. That’s because the name of God is not God. The name of God is “I AM” as Moses discovers in Exodus chapter three when God tells Moses that the divine name is I AM who I AM. God says, “this is my name forever and this my title for all generations.” So, while cursing is profane, vulgar, and an illustration of the poverty of our ability to express ourselves effectively in times of crisis, frustration or anger, it is not a violation of the third commandment. What is a violation is something like “I am stupid,” or “I am a failure.” Or, any one of those things that you might say to yourself when you first look in the mirror in the morning. Instead of saying, “I am filled with God’s holy spirit,” and “I am able to do what God would have me do today because God is with me,” we are more likely to put ourselves down because self-esteem is so hard to come by; it’s a part of being human and our sense of ourselves when we don’t see I AM as God’s name, is perceived to be separate from God and therefore in need.
What could it possibly mean to say, God’s name is I AM? From our human perspective, God is a condition of being, a kind of absolute centeredness and serenity, a way of being in the universe that, because of the love that defines it, has an enormous potential for healing. Further, because we use the words I AM to preface things about ourselves, there is a sense that we are connected to God in ways that must be surprising to us. We are a part of God. Yes, we, each of us has his or her own name, but we are a part of God and God’s name precedes our own when we say something like, “I am Don.”
Except too often as I am being introduced to someone when I say, “I am Don,” the other responds, “Oh John nice to meet you.” Maybe I didn’t enunciate so I try again and the response is right John. Am I not forceful enough? Is it because Don is not very common these days or is it because the other isn’t listening?
We can’t be sure but what we can be sure of is the fact that when our names are mispronounced or forgotten, we feel lost and diminished. Close your eyes for a moment and say your name to yourself. When you hear the sound of your name, isn’t it true that the sound of your name evokes the very essence of who you are? Isn’t that what is meant when a police officer says, “Stop in the name of the law?” Or when we read in the Bible, God’s name dwells with God’s people, we understand that the very essence of God is with people and as God’s name is remembered, God is with them?
In the garden on the day of resurrection, Mary Magdalene, has come to the tomb and is crying because the body of Jesus is not there and she asks a man standing in the Garden where the body has been taken. She assumes the man is the one who takes care of the garden. But, he says, “Mary” and suddenly, hearing her name pronounced, she realizes that the man is Jesus. When God calls our names, we know who is calling.
What is true for private life is also true for public life. My friends we are living in a time when our cultural trust in God is so low that the collective self-esteem necessary to carry a moral sensibility, a broad sense of what does and what does not contribute to the common good has been lost. For us, today, the name of God is God, something out there and apart from us. Only when the name of God is I Am is our own self-worth, individual and collective, strong enough to maintain that important moral sensibility.
The name of Jesus, because Jesus is part of God, is also I Am. The name of Jesus is strong because it does not stand alone. It is not separate from the creative and loving centeredness that holds each one of us. This is what is meant by the use of the term, “The Body of Christ.” When Jesus says of the bread, “this is my body broken for you,” he means, that God, through the revelation of Jesus has become a part of each of us meaning that not one of us stands alone. Each of us has a strong name because we are a part of the Body of Christ and the I Am of God. Amen.