2402AAFC011223 – He Knows You! (2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time) ← 😊 PODCAST LINK
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1 Samuel 3:9 c-10 – So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 10 Now [again] the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”
Psalm 40:1 –
1 I waited patiently for the Lord;
he inclined to me and heard my cry. {emphasis added}
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple* of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body. * Also translated ‘sanctuary/’
John 1:41-42 – 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas [kepha –In Aramaic – Rock]” (which is translated Peter [petra – Rock – in Greek).
I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, and to call him by Name as he has called you by your name. (↔ Music Link) The part of that sentence in italics is from Ephesians 1:17. Today I will start with the illustration for the Key Verses. Can you see the label on the gold key? It says “Your Name.” It is our names that unlock much about who we are. “Hi there! What’s your name?” is often the first question adults ask children. We are known by our names. My given name – also referred to as my Christian name, my baptized name, my family name – is Charles Olin Todd, III. Since 1964, the world has pretty much known me as Chick Todd – a name I gave myself. We are not our names. When we say “ostrich” we think of an animal, a flightless bipedal galliform. When we say “That ostrich’s name is Gertrude,” we know the meaning of both of those names. A noun represents (is the name of) a person, place, thing, or idea, but is not actually the essence or corporeality of the object named.
“OK. The grammar police are here again! What’s the point, Captain Wallaby?” The point is that over the centuries, the giving and using of names is an essential part of being in community with one another. If we go back to Genesis 2:19-20, we read 19 So out of the ground the Lord God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name (↔ Music Link). 20 The man gave names to all cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the man there was not found a helper as his partner. So, even to God, the idea of names was and is important. Adam was named because he came from earth (dirt, like I always say) – in Hebrew Adamah. God was Adonai because he was the Master, the Creator.
Let’s look at another famous name – Noah. In Hebrew that is Noach (no-ahkh’) It means “rest.” His father was Lamech, a son of Seth, and in Genesis 7:28-29, Lamech (at the ripe old age of 182) names his son Noach: 28 When Lamech had lived one hundred eighty-two years, he became the father of a son; 29 he named him Noah, saying, “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil of our hands.” What Lamech could not have known was that ALL OF HUMANITY would experience that “relief from work” would be the annihilation of every earthling except Noach’s family. Lamech knew that the world in which he lived was way bad, messed up, gone dreadfully wrong (even worse than today!).
Let’s also recall Jacob whose name means “supplanter” because at birth he was second-born of twins but came out of the womb grasping his brother Esau’s heel. (See Genesis 25:19-28 for this really cool story) Later, he wrestled a being who was an angel, and his name was changed to Isra-El (Yisrael) “God Strives” which comes from a root word sarah which means to persevere or to have power as a prince (or Princess in the case of Abraham’s wife!).
We know in the Bible that names are important, but what about today? Many cultures name children, locations, even animals after natural characteristics or aspirations for future providence. Perhaps we know of parents who have carefully named their children with names that denote Peace (e.g., Katherine), or Richard (Brave ruler). Crucita is named for her father Cruz (“cross” in Spanish) with a female-diminutive suffix “-ita” which means small. My first name means “Strong,” my middle name means “recalls [his] ancestors, our last name means red or fox (from Eastern Scotland), and the III is the designation that I am the third person in my family with that name. (There is also a IV and a V in the family!) My “Confirmation name” is Timothy (which I gave to my son along with “Olin”) and Timothy – from Τιμόθεος – means “honouring God.” Now, perhaps we can recall that God calls us by name.
Isaiah 43:1 –
1 But now thus says the Lord,
he who created you, O Jacob,
he who formed you, O Israel:
Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine. (↔ Music Link)
Did God choose to name me with that name of my ancestors? Perhaps, in a way we could consider that, but the name he gave me which I love the most is “son.” And, Belovéd, isn’t that the name all the children of God treasure most? Even שְׁמוּאֵל – Shemuel whose name meant “Name of God” was literally called by name in today’s Key Verse. If you access the passage in-context, you’ll see that Samuel spoke to God directly the first time God called him by answering, “Here I am.” The next two times he ran to Eli – whom he assumed called him. Finally Eli got the picture so to speak and told Samuel to reply, “Speak Lord. Your servant is listening.” Ah, dearly Belovéd! Would that all of us would quickly answer like that on God’s first call! Sometimes, though, it is difficult to hear his call amid all the distractions in our daily lives. Nonetheless, we can rely on our Heavenly Father to make it easier. When we feel we cannot quite reach high enough to whisper into God’s ear, God helps us out as the Psalmist wrote: he inclined to me and heard my cry. God is always listening, always answering. Why?
Because he loves us! Pretty much everyone knows John 3:16 – for God so loved THE WORLD … and we’re part of everything God Loves because God Loves all that he created. “But what about Noach, and all the people – and everything else! – that died in the Flood? Or what about all the people in Canaan against whom God ordered genocide? And Sodom and Gomorrah?” God Loved them, and gave them many, many chances to repent. They did not cease their sinning; and what are the wages of sin? “But what about mercy? Where was the mercy in all that?” Mercy is the Love and forgiveness we most need and least deserve. Mercy is the outcome of God’s Grace working in God’s Power. Grace is unmerited favor from God, a Gift only he can give, and gift that is ours to accept or reject just like obedience is a gift we can offer or deny to God. For example, God gave us these totally-incredible, living, yet fragile machines originally made from Adamah. He gave them to us in the hope we would take care of them just as he gave the Earth to us in the hope we would take care of it.
Here’s one of the Bible verses we often slide right past: Genesis 2:15 – 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. – from שָׁמַר (shamar) {shaw-mar’) to keep, watch, preserve protect, defend. Adam’s job was to defend the Garden and everything in it. He flubbed it by letting in a Serpent who tricked his wife into disobeying God by lying to her. That slicked-tongued beastie should never have gotten into the garden in the first place. When Adam saw it, he should have clubbed it a good one and tossed it outside the Gate. God already had an Absolutely Perfect Plan that immediately went into effect. God did not place the Serpent in the Garden for God tempts no one. The “Angel of Light,” ha-Satan, the accuser, was beautiful and at the same time terrible. Read about his beauty in Ezekiel 28:11-19, and understand that this was no hissing, forked-tongue, talking reptile but instead a magnificent creature on his exterior and a completely malevolent creature on his interior. Our First Parents fell for appearance over substance. We still make that mistake today, don’t we?!? God named that creature as loathsome and abhorrent. We still occasionally see him as beautiful and desirable.
The Apostle Paul reminds us in our Key Verse from the Epistles that our bodies are to be a Temple of the Holy Spirit, the bodies we received from God. We say in our hearts and in the pride of our eyes, “This is my body and I shall do as I please to pleasure me.” The Apostle Paul says, “Do you not know you were bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.” And what was that price? Well, it was not a price we had to pay, was it? For those among us in the world who cannot bring their bodies to conformance and their hearts to repentance, the price is ruined health and perhaps physical death. The Eternal price for those sinful choices is eternal Death, and the Eternal Gift for repentance is Eternal Life (Yup. YOLO-F). Seems like an easy choice, doesn’t it? Yet in just one sitting watching or hearing the Syndicated Mass Media Organizations we can be convinced that MOST (yes, I MEAN most) of the World is making the wrong choice. (Singular because there is only one Choice: Obedience or Death.) What shall we do?
How about we follow the example of one of the first evangelists, the Apostle Andrew. Here is our Key Verse from the Gospels: John 1:41-42 – 41 He first found his brother Simon and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated Anointed). 42 He brought Simon to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You are to be called Cephas [kepha – In Aramaic – Rock]” (which is translated Peter [petra – Rock – in Greek). First, he understood that Jesus must be the Messiah. Then, he went and found someone to tell – his brother Simon, AND he brought Simon to meet Jesus (and Each-One-Bring-One hadn’t even been invented yet!). Just imagine the surprise of these two brothers when Jesus looked right at Simon and said “You are to be called כֵּיפָא Cephas.” (Κηφᾶς is pronounced kay-fas’ not see’-fus, כֵּיפָא is the Aramaic word Kepha). John politely gives us the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word Kepha as πέτρα (petra) – a very nice word-play in Greek. Now, if Jesus taught in Aramaic or Hebrew, how could he be doing Greek word-play? Well, everyone in Jesus’ day spoke some Greek. Koine Greek (↔ Significant Learning Link) was the “lingua-franca” in the Roman Empire – a bridge language, also called a trades-language, used throughout the region as a language that could be spoken by nearly everyone so that language barriers were more easily overcome. English is the lingua-franca in today’s World. In English, because of John 1:12, we are named “Child of God.”
Belovéd, it is our name that unlocks our future with God, and if our name is “Child of God” as in John 1:12, then our future is absolutely endless. Use that name, “Child of God,” to unlock the Treasure House of Blessings prepared for us since the Words “Let there be …” were first spoken, and the next-to-the-last thing was us.
Whatever, whenever, wherever, whoever, however, if ever, forever —
at your service, Belovéd!
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Unless otherwise indicated, all scripture passages are from the New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition (NRSVCE) New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Biblical languages inserts from Bible Hub (Bible Hub: Search, Read, Study the Bible in Many Languages) Visit at http://biblehub.com
Aloha Friday Messages by Charles O. Todd, III is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License
