14th Sunday after Pentecost – The Rev. George S. Yandell
Proper 17A
When I call out the name Phoebe, what person springs to mind? Yes, Phoebe from Friends. The singer Phoebe Snow? Maybe another Phoebe will surface for us. Today’s sermon is all about names.
What’s in a name? In the early history of the Hebrew people, the name for God was ‘El.’ One of the first conversations I had with a man named Elroy in Memphis, was about his name, which can mean ‘child of God.’ Beth-el in Hebrew means ‘house of God.’ From the time of Abraham, about 4000 years ago, 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 @ 1650 BC. You remember the story- Jacob’s 12 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.
Then 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 baby’s mother hid him, then built a tiny raft and floated him 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, suggested to Pharaoh’s daughter she could find a wetnurse for the baby, went and got the baby’s mother, and the baby and mother were reunited. The mother raised the baby to a teenager, when 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.
The child Moses went in a moment from being a slave of a down-trodden people to living in magnificent privilege. He lived in the household of the world’s most powerful man.
Then one day, strolling amongst the construction sites, Moses saw an Egyptian policeman beating a Hebrew slave. Moses was filled with outrage. He killed the policeman, and then had to make a run for it. He fled to the land of Midian, over 400 miles. Moses identified so strongly with his people’s plight he killed a man, marking him forever as an enemy of Pharaoh.
One day years later, while tending the sheep of his father-in-law, Jethro, God appeared in a flaming bush near Mount Horeb. (Maybe this is where Jethro Tull’s parents got his name?!) Moses had to see more. God told Moses “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. If you knew someone’s name, you gained power over him or her. In this moment the God known only as “El” told Moses God’s 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.” What a name! From that moment on, Yahweh hasn’t 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 ‘Yahweh saves.’ 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.
Today’s Matthew reading is the turning point in Jesus’ ministry- open the pages of his gospel, and this passage is smack dab in the middle. Jesus tells it clearly to those closest to him- he will suffer at the hands of the Jewish leaders in kahoots with the leaders of the Roman occupation of Israel- he will be killed and on the third day be raised.
He delivered this challenge to those men and women who loved him most- “you must deny yourselves and take up YOUR crosses and follow me. Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those lose their life for my sake will find it.” “There are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in HIS kingdom.”
And today’s epistle is a zinger- this passage from Romans is a directive from Paul on how to serve the resurrected Jesus. Written about 25 years after Jesus’ death and resurrection Paul wrote: “Let love be genuine- be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord. Live in harmony with one another; don’t be haughty, associate with the lowly. Live peaceably with ALL. Do not repay anyone evil for evil, but take thought for what is noble in the sight of all. If your enemies are hungry, feed them; if they are thirsty, give them something to drink. Overcome evil with good.”
We might overlook the setting in which this epistle was delivered- there were as many as 6 congregations of Jesus followers from the different boroughs of the largest city in the Empire. They’d been summoned to a gathering where Paul’s letter was to be read- by a woman named Phoebe. That’s who Paul chose to deliver his strongest, longest letter to the bourgeoning fellowship of Jesus at the center of the Roman Empire. This letter was to pave the way for Paul and Peter’s upcoming visit to Rome. (from In Search of Paul- How Jesus’s Apostle Opposed Rome’s Empire with God’s Kingdom, Crossan and Reed, p. 114, 2004). If I were Phoebe, I’d have been reading and rehearsing his letter ceaselessly all the way from the eastern Mediterranean to the massive heart of the empire. She was to read and explainPaul’s letter. She was likely a deacon. A woman of independent means. She carried this letter from Corinth in company with other leaders of small congregations of Jesus followers from across the eastern Mediterranean basin. She must have been quaking in anticipation of how it would be received. Don’t you know after she delivered it, there were questions after questions about Paul’s meaning and intent? Whew- she had to answer patiently all their questions about Paul and Jesus- it could have gone on for hours.
What’s in a name? Identity, being, mystical relationship, salvation. By acting to draw out Moses, by acting through Jesus, in Jesus, God has made us whole. That’s where our story begins.
As we live out our lives, we yearn to know God personally. 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. And we do it in company with all those others who yearn to know and follow Yahweh as revealed in Jesus. So when we pass the peace in a bit, if you’re seated next to someone you don’t know, you might ask their name- but be prepared- your life may be redirected by getting to know them. After all, this is Jesus’ family all around you- and he means for us to be transformed more and more into the people drawn out to be Jesus to all we encounter. He’s alive you know.