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What's
In a Name? Old Testament
Lesson: Exodus 3:1-15 What's in a name? From early childhood, I was told 'George' meant 'farmer.' Now no offense to anyone who farms, but I was a city boy and I didn't like thinking my name meant 'farmer.' The only farms in east Tennessee I had visited were dirty. The farmers' lives were tough. There was manure everywhere, and they smelled bad to me. Only later, when I began to study Greek in seminary, did I find my name ge-or'gos also meant 'gardener, vinedresser, husbandman.' So I began to realize a deeper significance to my name. And now I've come to love growing herbs, tending plants, getting dirt on my hands. (And you know, preachers are known for how they can spread the manure.) I guess I've come full circle. In the early history of the Hebrew people, the name for God was El. One of the first conversations I had with Elroy Bond, our plant manager, was about his name, which can mean 'child of God.' Beth-el in Hebrew means 'House of God.' From the time of Abraham (about 2000 BC) forward, the Hebrew people called God El. Ancient times. Then around 1250 BC, a most intriguing change happens. The Hebrew people began to call God a new name. How and why? The Hebrew people migrated from Canaan to Egypt in about 1650 BC. We've been reading the cycle of those stories over the past Sundays. You remember the story--Jacob's twelve sons sold Joseph into slavery. He was carried to Egypt, rose to become Pharaoh's second-in-command, and then gave sanctuary to all his father's and brothers' people. The Hebrews lived in Egypt for 400 years. Over time they became slaves to Pharaoh, and many were put to work building the pyramids. Around 1250 BC, a child was born to Hebrew slaves. His parents were from the tribe of Levi, the priestly tribe. But Pharaoh had decreed that all male children born to Hebrews were to be killed at birth. So the mother hid the baby in a tiny raft and placed it in the Nile River. The daughter of Pharaoh spied the little canoe and the baby, and wanted to take him in. The baby's older sister happened to be there and suggested to Pharaoh's daughter that she could find a wet nurse for the baby. She went and got her mother, and the baby and child were reunited. The mother raised the baby to a teenager, at which time she presented him back to Pharaoh's daughter. Pharaoh's daughter said, "I'll call him 'Moses' (from an Egyptian word Mosheh meaning 'to beget a child') for I drew him out of the water (from a Hebrew word Mashah meaning 'to draw out.')" Fascinating, isn't it, how that name would ring with deeper truth?
One day years later, while tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro, God appeared to Moses in a flaming bush near Mount Horeb. Moses had to see more. (Read Ex. 3:3-8) "I have come down to deliver my people from the Egyptians, to draw them out [Mashah] from Egypt." "Moses said to God: Which of the gods will I say sent me to deliver Israel? When they ask me his name, what shall I say?" In antiquity it was believed that selfhood was expressed in the name of a person. When you knew someone's name, you gained power over him. In this moment, the God known only as El told Moses his personal name-YAHWEH--a verb. This verb form can be translated: 'I am who I am; I am what I am; I will be who I will be; He causes to be; I am who I choose to be.' Whew! What a name! From that moment on, Yahweh has not had a quiet moment. Just as Yahweh chose. Yahweh chose to relate to God's people personally. God chose Moses to draw out God's people into freedom. We are descendents of Moses today. Our spiritual ancestors were chosen by the God whose name means 'being, change, choice.' There's one more name most important in our spiritual history--the name Yahweh bestowed on Yahweh's son, born of Mary--Jesus. Jesus translates 'he will save.' Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yeshua. We sit here today as the tribe whose members, both living and dead, bear the mark of Yeshua's crucifixion on our foreheads. God has claimed us, we have claimed God in the name of Jesus. Yahweh moved in history to get us to this point. Will we be bold like Moses? Will we work with Yahweh to live into our Christian names? Here, nearing the anniversary of 9/11, will we find resurrection from the horrors from a year ago? Are we ready to draw out those around us to live with us in God's freedom? What's in
a name? Identity, being, mystical relationship, salvation. By God's acting
to draw out Moses, by God's acting through Jesus, in Jesus we are
made whole. That's where our story begins. As we live out our lives we
yearn to know God face to face, to grow into a fuller and fuller relationship
with God and God's son. Yeshua has saved us. Now we are challenged to
carry on what God has begun. Copyright 2002 Calvary Episcopal Church Old
Testament Lesson: Exodus 3:1-15
Gospel: Matthew 16:21-28 |
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