THE SACRED NAME
(Exodus 20:1-7)
If you have ever taken a “Dale Carnegie Course” on how to win friends and influence people, you know that one technique is to get the person’s name
right: it’s pronounced Ione, not IonE or IonA; no Parry is spelled with an
“A” pArry not an “e”. Going for an interview at college, the Director of Admissions made it very clear to me that the College of Wooster was pronounced Wooster not Woooooster.
The old cliché: “you can call me anything you want just don’t call me late for dinner” is not true.
People don’t like their name mispronounced or misspelled or worse misused. Remember in school days how kids could really be cruel to other kids by mocking or making fun of their name -- Laughinghouse – what kind of name is that? are you an Indian? Or how about the ribbing my school chum Gary used to take for his last name--DeBuvitz- try spelling that one.
Everyone of us here has their own “war” stories about how, if you please,
my name was taken-as the third commandment states it- how my name was taken in vain - misused, abused, treated with no respect.
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Here we are getting miffed a bit if someone repeatedly mispronounces or misspells my name, while everyday on some construction site or crass talk radio show, people are using the Lord’s name to swear, tell off-color jokes,make fun of religion. What is particularly galling to me is when I am in the
YMCA men’s locker room (mind you ymca stands for young men’s Christian association) and an older fellow is talking in a casual conversation using the name of God as a cuss word in every other sentence.
You would think that after 4000 years when God gave this commandment to Moses that by now we would get it right, but from the media to the locker room to the office to the street, the Lord’s name suffers greater abuse than ever.
And think not that the second half of this commandment will not be fulfilled:
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not leave him/her unpunished who takes His name in vain.
Do you remember when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray?
Jesus taught them the Lord’s prayer. What is the opening statement?
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed be thy name…
“Hallowed”, sacred, holy be your name oh Heavenly Father. The early devout Jew would not dare to say the name of God; the very name of God was considered too sacred to use- they had substitute names they used instead. The people of Moses’ day thought if your enemy found out and spoke the real name of God, then your enemy could use the power of God against you.
To call or to speak the true name of God was to call down God’s power to help and to save you.
Something that we have all noticed happening in our society is the loss of the sacred. Professional people that were once held in high esteem simply
because of their position are no longer given the respect that was once assumed, like the classroom teacher, the parish priest, the president, because of such things as the sexual abuse scandals in government and the church and schools.
Look at the grueling examination that a supreme court nominee must face or for that matter the negative campaigning and dirty tricks that are played during a presidential campaign, and these are considered (the president, a supreme court justice) two of the “most respected and highest offices” in our government.
This tearing down of people or of an office or worse of our God is what I mean by a loss of the sacred. When we look at the riots from the Muslim
world due to the cartoon caricatures of their god, Allah, you see a stark reminder that for some people in the world there is a hostile and bitter
resistance to profaning, taking in vain, someone or something that is sacred and still respected.
That’s what this third commandment is all about. The issue goes way beyond swearing or using the Lord’s name in vain. What is at stake is
holding in deep reverence Someone so holy and sacred, so perfect in
beauty and love, so complete in purity and righteousness, so
overwhelming in power and majesty that like Job you say with a trembling and broken voice:
I have heard of You, Almighty God, by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes (inner eyes mind you) see YOU (the purity, the power, the majesty, the righteousness); therefore I abhor (HATE) myself and repent in dust and ashes.
How rare is such a feeling in our lives today; this highest honor, this deepest respect; this feeling of overwhelming and terrifying awe before such holiness --- hallowed, sacred be your Name, Oh Heavenly Father.
You want to pray about something tonight; pray to God that His name would become sacred to your lips, that anytime the thought of God enters your heart or mind that a special feeling of holiness reserved for only the highest and the best would come over your whole being. Like it came over Isaiah
and he said: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Host, the whole earth is full of His glory.
As you read the Bible every day and believe more and more in the God of the Word, you will find in your prayer life an increasing yearning not
only to know your Savior but to hallow all that He is for you including His name.
There is one other point I need to make about this third commandment and the use of God’s name. You have heard the expression and no doubt spoken the phrase: “use my name”. From time to time we develop certain relationships with people whom we have come to trust and rely upon for some service or need. Someone at work, a friend, or family member wants help or a favor- I hear your company has a loge can you get me in and the friend says call so and so and use my name tell him I said to give you a loge ticket. Or you happen to be a close friend with a highly skilled surgeon who was an old high school buddy; now your neighbor needs an operation and has heard of this doctor and you offer to your neighbor your surgeon’s friend’s name and tell your neighbor to call the doctor and to use your name and he will see you otherwise he would be screened out or delayed
indefinitely. You know what I mean.
What I want to say is what we have sung in that praise hymn which we seldom give a thought too:
There is STRENGTH in the name of the Lord; there is POWER in the name of the Lord; there is HOPE in the name of the Lord; Blessed is He who comes
in the name of the Lord.
Demons are cast out in the name of the Lord; healing is done in the name of the Lord; we are to pray in the name of the Lord.
But all of that is not possible until we have come to Hallow the name of the Lord.
God wants us to use His name to love, to save, to heal, to glorify.
Listen to Jesus praying to His Father in John 17:
“I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world….Holy Father keep them in your name, which you have given me…while I was with them, I kept them in your name….I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
I say again that these Commandments are not just rules to be obeyed but the very doorways opening to the overflowing, overwhelming love of God for us. Let us therefore with all diligence heed the command of our Lord:
Thou shall not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain
Hallowed, Oh Heavenly Father, hallowed be your name.
