You Are Known by Name

In our two lectionary passages today, we learn that God knows us by name, but mysteriously, God cannot be fully seen by us, even as we can come to know God.  We also learn from Jesus that we are to give back to the world what belongs to the world, and give back to God what belongs to God.  How are these teachings related?  And what is in a name?

Will you join me in prayer?  Dear God, Jehovah, Lord, uniting spirit, God of many names, we ask that you teach us to know you better, and that we learn joyously to give back to you what is yours.  Amen.

In the ancient world of the middle-east, a person’s name carried a far different cultural meaning than our name does today.  A person’s name back then was their calling card, their credit report, their reputation, their family of origin, their social security identity, their bank account number, their donkey cart license number-- their whole identity.  It often also was their address, as in Jesus of Nazareth. 

Our Monday afternoon Bible study has been studying Genesis, and there, we are learning the importance of names, as God names Adam and Eve, and Adam names the animals.  God renames Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah when God gives Abram his covenant, and God reveals His name as “I am.”  In the Hebrew, God’s name is more complicated than simply “I am,” but rather it means, among other things, “I am who I am becoming,” or “I am becoming what is needed.”  God’s name is not a noun, but an active and reflexive verb of action and becoming.  In effect, God says, my name is “Change.”  God is given many names throughout the Hebrew Testament, but the most holy name of God is the tetragramiton, or the four consonants that form the Hebrew word Yahweh, which is translated Lord in the Hebrew Testament.  Many Jews do not pronounce God’s name because  it is too holy for the human mouth. 

And as we learn in our passage today, God is so filled with glory that any human that actually sees God’s face will die.  In our culture and society, we no longer revere and hold hardly anything as holy, so this type of reverence is culturally unknown to us.  When our scripture talks about fearing the Lord, this Hebrew word for fear means respect, to be filled with awe, to acknowledge as greater than we can possibly imagine.  So it is no wonder that God does not show Moses His full glory because Moses would surely die.  Instead, God hides Moses in a crack in the rock and blocks Moses seeing with God’s hand, except that, as God passes by, Moses does see a fleeting glimpse of God’s backside.  Like that embarrassing moment when our hospital gown opens to reveal our delicate hind side, Moses sees not God’s face, but His behind.  In the Hebrew, this is a very funny passage, because talking about God’s backside is just as sensitive as talking about our backside—but that is all humanity has ever seen of God—his rump!  I hope you are giggling about that, because God is.  We humans are only good enough to see God’s derriere!  What is really the most interesting thing about this exchange is that it emphasizes that it is not the Israelite people that are special in this relationship, but it is God that is the special One.  God chose the Hebrew people--- God gave them his very name and identity.  And it is not whether we can see or hear God that is the center of the matter, but it is about knowing God as the unseen but always present God, forming a relationship with God, knowing and being known by God, by name.

So as we consider God’s name, or God’s full reputation as holy and divine, it becomes even more important to learn that the most holy presence of the universe knows each of us by name—each of us, great and small.  God knows the church’s newest member Tye by name, God knows your name, your reputation, your integrity, honesty, mercy and heart.  And our names have been written on God’s heart since the very beginning, and will be, forever more.  Our names are very important as our identity before God.  And just as in these chapters of Exodus, God is trying to form a relationship with Moses and the Israelites by name, so also, the very creator of the universe is asking to form a relationship with you!  By name!

Of course, if you are in a relationship with someone, then your relationship is formed around a bond, a covenant, a knowing of one another.  God knows us, and covenants to walk with us in love, no matter what.  Our part of the relationship is to recognize the relationship for what it is, a relationship where God is the beginning and the end, the fullness and the unspeakable glory, and we are the recipients of God’s love in grace.  Once we realize the fullness of God’s graceful love for us, we begin to respond in respect, wonder and awe.  We begin to respond in love that acknowledges the fullness of God’s glory, the glory which is too awesome for us to see—except perhaps a glimpse of God’s hind side.  This glory may begin to scratch the surface of what Jesus is saying here in our Matthew passage—as we begin to live a life that fully acknowledges the glory of God, we begin to give back to God that which belongs to God.  If we give thanks, it is in gratitude for what we have received from God.  If we honor or respect God’s holy name, then it is because God has known us first.  If we are swallowed up into the holiness of God, then we can give nothing back that has not come from God.  So rendering unto God what is God’s means living our lives completely known by name by the holiest name and presence of the universe, our living God.

Now, rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s is a whole new concept if we start with the fact that everything we have is from God.  [pause]  If everything we have comes from God, what is left that belongs to Caesar?  [pause]  Here Jesus questions the very basic assumption of our civic and financial lives.  Often, this passage is interpreted to say that Jesus tells us to pay our taxes.  I think it tells us almost the opposite.  Jesus says decide what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar in our lives, and return to each accordingly.  Jesus does not tell us whether or not to pay taxes here—instead he challenges us to think about which realm we really belong to, and how we can live in the world as God’s people, belonging to God first and the world second.  Almost all of the world lives exactly the opposite way, belonging to Caesar first leaving only a tiny portion to God.  Decide where the treasure is in your life, and give to God and Caesar their due, Jesus says.  And then the Pharisees, who were trying to entrap Jesus into choosing against Caesar and get him into trouble with the Romans, leave wondering what just hit them.  Jesus reframed their question, asking back to them, “So, what in your life belongs to God and what in your life belongs to Caesar?”  The Pharisees could not answer, because their culture, like ours, valued their relationship to Caesar more than it did their relationship with God.  Can you answer Jesus’ question?  What in your life belongs to our modern Caesars, and what in your life belongs to God?  [pause]

If we were to think about placing our lives into these two realms that Jesus speaks of, how would you divide your life?  How much of your life belongs to Caesar, or the economic or governmental realm, and how much of your life belongs to God?  [pause] 

Jesus says in Matthew 6:21, “For where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also.”  In other words, Jesus says, show me your treasure, and I will show you where your heart is.  If we really took seriously giving back to God what is God’s, we might find our priorities a bit different than how we are currently living.   If, in fact, everything belongs to God, and when American’s render perhaps 2% of our income back to God but 35% to 40% of our income to Caesar’s taxes, what are we saying about what belongs to Caesar and what belongs to God?  Where is our treasure?  One way to measure our treasure is to look at our checkbooks and bank statements— it shows what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar in our financial life.  Are your demonstrated priorities of your life’s treasure what you really want them to be?  Of course, in addition to money, your time and talent are also measures of your treasure, so this question is not meant to be just financial.  What belongs to God in your life, and how do you prioritize what you render, or give back to God?

There is no simple solution to this dilemma of our money and time and talent that is demanded by today’s many Caesars.  But if God knows you by name for eternity, and the IRS knows you only by your social security number for your days on earth, perhaps we need to carefully reevaluate what belongs to God and what belongs to Caesar.  We can’t change what we owe Caesar, except perhaps by choosing our governmental representatives carefully, but we can re-evaluate what belongs to God in our lives.  God knows you by name for eternity.  God knows you by name.  How are you responding to God’s love and eternal relationship with you?  What belongs to God in your life, and how do you render to God what belongs to God?   Amen.