Over the summer we looked at how our Words define the Story we tell ourselves about life, and God. That Story in turn impacts our Action. For the past couple of months we’ve visited fictionalized stories of the lives of a few marginalized women and men in our history to see if entering their story can give us empathy and insight.
For the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at some of the
Names of God found in the Bible, and how they can inform how we see Ourselves,
our Story, and our God. We’ll start with some Old Testament names, then look at
names Prophets used when talking about God. In November we’ll consider some of the
Gospel and Epistle Names of God. When we limit our concept of God to Lord or
Father or Master or even Holy One, we miss the richness of all the ways we can relate
to God.
The Hebrew Bible isn’t the only one with many names for God.
In Islam there are 99 Names that are supposed to be memorized by the devout. An
inspiring book of prayers by women representing the three Abrahamic faiths
(Jewish, Islam, Christian) which includes those 99 names is Three Paths, OneGod
Thanks to the Rev. Sylvia Miller-Mutia for introducing 33 of
the Names for the Women of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. Mother Sylvia found
these names in the book: Anglican Prayer Beads: God the Father by Jenny Lynn Estes and Carol
Raines. You can view her presentation and perhaps be
inspired to pray these names on the Women’s Ministry website.
Today we are looking at Names of God found in the Old
Testament. The Hebrew word “El” means God, so these Names identify God as one who Sees, Creates, etc. Next week, we’ll see that
later Old Testament writers, like the prophets, focus more on attributes the
recognized in God.
For me one Name that encapsulates
these Old Testament Names is Qadosh Yisra’el—Holy One of Israel. To Name
God as the Holy One of Israel gathers all the other Names and acknowledges that
God has claimed Israel and named her Beloved. That claim extends to all who are
“descendants” of Abraham. As the Sunday School songs says, “Father Abraham, has
many sons [and daughters], Many sons has Father Abraham. I am one of them,
and so are you, So let's shout to the Lord…” In the fourth chapter of his
Letter to the Romans, St. Paul offers a long argument about why everyone, even
Gentiles, are descendants of the faith of Abraham.
What then are we to say was gained by Abraham, our
ancestor according to the flesh?...3For what does the scripture say? ‘Abraham
believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.’…9 Is this
blessedness, then, pronounced only on the circumcised, or also on the
uncircumcised? We say, ‘Faith was reckoned to Abraham as righteousness.’…11He
received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the righteousness that he had by
faith while he was still uncircumcised. The purpose was to make him the
ancestor of all who believe without being circumcised and who thus have
righteousness reckoned to them, 12and likewise the ancestor of the
circumcised who are not only circumcised but who also follow the example of the
faith that our ancestor Abraham had before he was circumcised. 13 For
the promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his
descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith…16 For
this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace
and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law
but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all
of us, 17as it is written, ‘I have made you the father of many
nations’)—in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the
dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist… 22Therefore his
faith ‘was reckoned to him as righteousness.’ 23Now the words, ‘it
was reckoned to him’, were written not for his sake alone, 24but for ours
also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord
from the dead, 25who was handed over to death for our trespasses and
was raised for our justification.
Because we are inheritors of that faith, we can also believe that the Holy One of Israel claims and loves us/me, too. How does this understanding affect how we/I might live into the Story God is writing in and through us/me? And, this is also the God who Creates and Sees, as well as the God who is our Master, the Most High, Almighty, and Everlasting. God is both intimate and near, and high and lifted up.
If I truly trust that the Holy One who Created all things,
and continues to See and care for all things, loves me; then my response should
be to love in return. I can do this in care for the Creation and by trying to see
with eyes of Love. I may also find myself remembering that God, who is the Holy
One is also in charge as the Almighty, Everlasting God and that nothing is
outside of God’s control. As Paul notes, I am convinced that neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be
able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans
8:38-29)
What do these Old Testament Names of God say to you?
I invite you to prayerfully read through this list of
names slowly, breathing in the Hebrew words and breathing out the English
translation. Do this several times letting your mind and heart be filled with the
meaning of the words, the reality of Who our God is.
What images come to mind? What feelings fill you? Is there
one Name that really impacts you?
If one of the Names causes your soul to leap, pause and sit
with that Name. Explore what God is saying to you.
Next week we’ll consider the Names and attributes which
later Old Testament writers used for God.
