I begin tonight’s sermon with a sense of uneasiness for tonight we are looking at the term “Your Name”, and I’m because it seems like the only thing we will end up with at the end of it will be some kind of theoretical outcome, much like the other nights. And it’s very true that we will once again plunge our heads into the heady heights of theological discourse, of philosophical discussion, of more questions than answers…but after the sermon tonight we will say the Lord’s prayer. Tonight we will try and draw some of the threads back together and end up at where the purpose of this series is intending to take us. That we will be inspired to do more than say this prayer but to live it. That it will act as a summary for our lives. That it will be more than a ritual but certainly nothing less.

And so tonight we come to the fourth massive phrase in the first line of the Lord’s prayer. But let me say that this is one of Your Name. At first glance it doesn’t seem to hold much significance but hopefully by the end of tonight we will see something more. Hopefully also we can tie the four together to see what it means as a whole.

So name. What is God’s name? Who actually knows and before we answer YahWeh, we’d ought to realise that’s an answer but not the answer? Is it personal enough to address him with it “hey, wassup Yahweh?” Why is it that we can say his ‘name is holy’, as well as ‘he is holy’?

I don’t think that the bible is particularly clear on what God’s name is. Now this may take some of you by surprise, but I think there’s good reason to suspect that God hasn’t actually revealed his name to us—but only revealed his character. Because in the biblical sense names actually reflected character.

For example, with Abram. He became Abraham after “God Almighty” as God addressed himself , appeared to him and made a covenant of ownership : compulsory circumcision…after this consecration or dedication, God changed Abram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude).

Also how Jacob (holder of the heel) became Israel (wrestled with God) after he had wrestled with the angel of the Lord. There’s a little interchange that takes place in Genesis chapter 32 where Jacob asks the angel his name, which is very important for the story and the answer is “why do you ask?” It was at that point that Jacob realised he had struggled with God himself. Interesting how Israel means wrestled with God…especially in the later stories of the bible.

How Jesus renames some of his disciples : Simon (he who hears) becomes Peter (the rock) for instance, Saul (asked for) becomes Paul (little one).

There is significance in the name changes that take place, for the name exposes the character of the person being named. It expresses an identity.

We don’t carry this in our society. When we were growing up there was a kid in my brother’s class called Auckland International Airport, because that’s where he was born. People give names for all sorts of reasons nowadays, but they are generally not prescriptive.

It doesn’t always work though, Stuart means Head of the household.

SLIDE

(Turn to the people next to you and say what your name means.)

So a name actually carries real significance in the Hebrew culture because it’s not just a designator or way of identifying someone. It’s actually about that person. Identity is sourced in it. We find that in our English surnames, baker, butler, shoemaker, Smith.

One movie springs to mind that gives an insight into the ideas that we might hold in the concepts of names. Shawshank Redemption.

Andy Dufresne: What was his name?

Heywood: What did you say?

Andy Dufresne: I was just wondering if anybody knew his name.

Heywood: What do you care, new fish? Doesn’t matter what his name was. He’s dead.

But it did matter. Because the minute a name is given, a person exists. A human takes on personality.

Same with the Tsunami. Many of us were shocked but felt it deeper when we found out Andrew Walsh was one of the victims. The tragedy had a person because of a name.

Names are important to us, though it’s more subtle in our society.

But when it comes to God, we struggle with the name thing.

Picture Moses in Exodus 3, standing by a bush that is burning but does not get consumed. Years of carrying guilt over being a murderer. Taking the life of someone nameless. Standing before this bizarre sight and then a voice coming out from it. “Take off your shoes for you are on holy ground.” “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” Having had God identify himself like this was enough for Moses to hide his face in fear. The identity is historic and powerful and full of the meaning of promise. It had been 400 years since anyone recorded this kind of encounter with God. 400 years.

Trembling he takes his shoes off and has a discussion with this voice about how he is to set free 2 million people from an oppressive military super-power. Understandably he is concerned about how this might happen especially given his reputation as a murderer among these people.

So he asks who it is that he should say has sent him on this little errand.

Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”

I am who I am is cryptic and is translated into four Hebrew letters that are then rendered into English for us as YHWH.

Now this is as explicit as it gets as far as what God’s name might be. So I want you to split into groups and talk about what you think it might mean. (SLIDE)

At the end of it, it’s cryptic. It became what we call the tetragrammaton, four letters. It’s an extraordinarily complex set of four letters with many wordplays within it, but as I’m no scholar of biblical Hebrew and the surrounding culture, I can’t speak with any integrity on it. But it’s complex.

It has been translated as Jehovah, though that is not God’s name, it’s a translation for a difficult to pronounce non-word. The ‘name’ became so sacred that the Hebrews resisted saying the name when they read their scriptures and hence the phrase “my lord” and “The Lord” came into common usage.

What is also significant is that Jesus uses this term to refer to himself in John 8:58: Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am.”

Which in our context we would think was kinda harmless, except for the next verse that follows that shows how his audience felt about it.

59: So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple.

This is one of the clearest identifiers of Jesus being the same as God. This is one of the key texts to the doctrine of the Trinity. This is one of the key moments that makes Jesus extraordinarily significant compared to all the other ‘prophets’ and ‘miracle workers’ around at his time. They wouldn’t have tried to stone him if he hadn’t have basically said that he was God.

So what? Two things, we’ve just seen that the name locates us in a long line of history that spans to the beginning of the bible. We are calling on the same God that Abraham called on. God is involved in our history. We have a history of relationship with God. This is not a new thing. This is a very old thing. This is a symbol of the faithfulness of God. Other religions have come and gone over that time, other empires, but God’s name has endured and will endure forever.

( May his name endure forever, [Psalms 72;17])

Another big so what here is an issue of authority and claim.

The authority of the name of the Lord:

Deuteronomy 18:18–22

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.” You may say to yourself, “How can we recognize a word that the LORD has not spoken?” If a prophet speaks in the name of the LORD but the thing does not take place or prove true, it is a word that the LORD has not spoken. The prophet has spoken it presumptuously; do not be frightened by it.

Jesus reiterates this authority, “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.

[John 14:13–14]

and almost to prove this:

But Peter said, “I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk.”

[Acts 3;6]

The name has power, but not because it’s magical, but because the action that is done in that name is holy. And consecrated and representative. And I stand guilty here of not taking this a little too lightly myself. But there’s a sense where if I say something in the name of Jesus, I’d better be sure it sits well with the holy spirit or I set myself against God. Crazy.

Why the commandment not to take God’s name in vain? It is holy. It is identity. If we lay claim to the name of God by speaking it in our prayers, we are claiming to be aligned with him and his rule.

Taking God’s name in vain is not so much about cussing the name Jesus, which I think is actually quite stink anyway, it’s actually more to do with taking the name Christian and not matching the importance of taking that name. That is very significant.

We might stone people for taking the name in vain, but need to take this seriously because we are a holy community. We are a people chosen by God, to give him glory. We are his body, his holy body for this world. it’s a miracle.

In the very act of saying, Holy is your name, we are acknowledging our allegiance with this God, we are aligning ourselves with kingdom values, we are accepting his dominion over us, we are redefining our identity with him.

So while we don’t know his name we are more than aware of who he is. We are more than aware of his person…

====>conclude:

Our father, intimate, relational, significant, source of life.

Who is in heaven, the holy other, the separate but present, the indefinable but ultimately liveable place.

Holy, set apart, more than perfect, more than righteous, more than more.

Is your name, identity, allegiance, power, authority, anonymous yet personal.