Naming Your God

15th Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 8:27-38

Jesus, the Christ, asks the same question of you and me that He asked of Simon Peter that day. “But who do you say that I am?”

It is a fair question. Since Christ has paid the purchase price for our redemption – since He died for every man, woman and child who has ever walked the planet – I would say that it is a fair question for Him to ask. “But who do you say that I am?”

Are we to name our God??

From the days of Adam, man has been in the naming business. God paraded all the animals in front of Adam, and he gave them names. That’s the story in Genesis. Then God paraded Eve in front of Adam, and he said, “Whoa, man!” Or something like that . . .

Seriously, one of the great privileges of being human is the capacity to name things. I like to watch an episode of Frazier at night, to end my day with a chuckle, and I recently saw one of my favorite episodes. It’s the one where Niles and Daphne are trying to come up with a name for their unborn child so they can get the child on the waiting list for a rather elite Pre-school. They argue back and forth about names, and finally, having come to an impasse, they ask Roz to pick a name – which she does. The show fast forwards five years to the admissions committee of that elite Pre-school, and they ask, “Well, who’s next,” and the person reading off the names says, “Last name, Crane; First name, Ichabod.” They stamp “Denied” on the admission form, insisting that if the couple didn’t take the admission process seriously, how could they be expected to take their child’s schooling seriously at that prestigious academy. Naming things is important.

You were given a name – maybe long before your birth – but you were given a name by your parents. It may have had family heritage attached to it. It may have come from a movie. My mother still swears I was named after Little Richard. And I still swear that I was named after King Richard, from Camelot. Where your name came from makes a difference, doesn’t it? And if you have children, you named them. You know, the Wednesday night crowd gets something of a preview of the sermon most weeks, and I pointed out that Leslee and Nick came up with an unusual name in “Chevelle.” We all suspect what her first car will be . . .

Politicians know the power of naming something. We’ve watched over the last several years as the long standing “estate tax” has been renamed the ominous “death tax.” It makes a difference, don’t you think?

And we get to name our God?

Actually, God has told us God’s name. When Moses saw the bush burning, stammering, He asked God for God’s name. God replied, “Tell them, ‘I Am’ has sent you.” “Tell them the Eternal One, the Ever Existing God has sent you.”

Have you heard the names for God which have been mentioned this morning? The Psalmist concludes by calling out to God – “O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.” Three powerful images are presented in those names. Lord. Rock. Redeemer. Powerful words. Powerful images. Good names for God.

The writer of the 1st chapter of Proverbs calls the Lord “Wisdom.” “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice.” “Listen. Choose. Heed. Grow.” Apply the wisdom of the ages to your own lives, and prosper in the way of the Lord. “Wisdom” is a good name for God.

We have heard other good names for God this morning. Mary read for us from our hymnal – a listing from each book in our Bible of names for Jesus. “The Ram. The Passover Lamb. The High Priest. The Cloud by day and the Pillar of Fire by night. The City of our Refuge.” We hear other names. Bridegroom. Servant. Suffering Servant. Burden Bearer. Savior. Avenger. Restorer. Fountain. Justifier. Resurrection. Fullness of the Godhead. Blessed Hope. Everlasting Covenant. King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. The scripture is replete with wonderful names for our Jesus – our Savior – our Lord. All good names for Christ.

What name did Jesus choose for Himself? Most often, Jesus referred to himself as the “Son of Man.” A name means everything, doesn’t it? And the name that Jesus chose for himself was “Son of Man.” Divine, yet human. Powerful, and at the same time, submissive. A name which identifies Him with us – far more than we would have ever anticipated.

And we heard the choir sing this morning. I have grown to love that hymn – “Be Thou My Vision.” Christ is our Vision. Listen again to the words.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

Be Thou my wisdom, and Thou my true word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord.
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise.
Thou mine inheritance, now and always;
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.

My favorite phrase in that hymn is in that last line – “High King of Heaven.” I love that image – that Christ is the High King of heaven, Who has come down to earth to purchase our redemption. Such an example. Such love.

Which brings us back to the question. Jesus asked the disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” The disciples had answers. “Some say that you are John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets.” Those would have been all the popular answers to the question, in that day. They would have looked to the recently deceased John the Baptist – wondering if Jesus was John reincarnated. Others would have looked to the greatest of the prophets, Elijah. But this Jesus was so different, He may have been the reincarnation of one of the lesser prophets.

I’ve asked some people that question over the years. “Who do you think Jesus is?” Far too many of them answered the question in the past tense – “He was a good man, a great teacher, an excellent philosopher.” And others go the other direction – “He was pure God. He could do everything He did because He was God. Came and lived here among us, but He wasn’t really one of us – because He was God.” I often wonder if they know that Jesus called Himself the “Son of Man.”

His first question was the set up question. Jesus was good at doing that, you know. He would ask a question to draw you into conversation. He would draw you into the premise – and the premise in this case was the importance of Who Jesus was. Others had an opinion. The disciples knew what they were saying – well enough to rattle off a reply to the Master.

But then He asked the real question. “But who do you say that I am?” It’s a fair question. It’s one they needed to answer. Peter spoke up. I’m not sure if he was speaking for the group, or if he was speaking just for himself. “You are the Messiah.” Other gospel writers quote him this way – “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Whichever way Peter actually said it, according to Jesus, he got it right.

Jesus asks us the very same question. “But who do you say that I am?” It’s still a fair question. It really is the question that every person must answer. It certainly is the question that every person in this room must answer. For you see, we are privileged to name our God. And the way we name Him defines just Who He is in our lives.

I have a suggestion for us. We must not skew our belief in Christ in any one direction, as a result of our inability to understand just Who He really is. And we must never trivialize Christ – in any sense. Let me tell you what I mean.

We can name God like the people the disciples had been listening to - people who had skewed their perception of God toward someone who had already lived and died. Good people, certainly. Prophets, absolutely. Then, others had skewed their perception of God totally toward His divine nature, neglecting to acknowledge that God now resided in human flesh. We can skew our concept of Jesus toward that which we already know – that which makes the most sense to us.

In this day and age, it is highly more likely that we would trivialize either aspect of Jesus’ being – His divinity or His humanity. You and I have heard people who say “Well, He was just like us. Nothing special, except He lived a pretty good life.” Trivialization. Or they say, “Well, of course God can live a perfect life – He’s God.” Trivialization.
We hear Him speak again. He calls Himself the Son of Man. Fully God, fully human. The God-man. One of a kind. Never another like Him.

He asks us the same question, Cornerstone. “But who do you say that I am?” It’s a fair question.

It’s a question that God wants us to answer. Sometimes God wants us to answer it out loud. God wants others to know Who we think He is. But more often than not, it’s a question that He wants us to answer in our quiet, personal moments – all kind of moments – moments of sorrow, moments of pain, moments of triumph, moments of great joy. God wants to know what we think – in the private moments of our lives, when it’s just us, and God.

There’s a little chorus in our hymnal. I sing it sometimes when I’m in those private moments – just me and God. It goes like this:

You are my God, You are my King,
You are my Master, my everything.
You are my Lord, that’s why I sing to You.
Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Richard W. Dunn, Ph.D.