Pentecost VI - Charles Dale

From the Gospel according to Mark: “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us? And they took offense at him.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Do you ever hear a song that you can’t get out of your head? For me, the last time was a few years ago and the song was “One of Us” by Joan Osborne. Do you remember it?

What if God was one of us? Just a slob like one of us?
Just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home.

This song is full of questions - questions that, if you think about them seriously, do not have easy answers.

If God had a name, what would it be?
And would you call it to His face if you were faced with Him in all His glory?
What would you ask if you had just one question?

Well, this first question is interesting in a couple of ways. The Bible makes a pretty big deal out of the name of God. In Exodus, chapter 3, we read:

But Moses said to God, "If I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' what shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM." He said further, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'I AM has sent me to you.'" God also said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you': This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.

In Hebrew, the name of God is written with four letters, יהוה (yodh he waw he). This is referred to as the tetragrammaton, and is pronounced in English as “Yahweh” or “Jehovah”. I know people who never write this out, even in English. They write G-d instead. This is to avoid all possibility of using the name of God in vain. As you may know, my wife is Jewish, and I’ve been to quite a few Jewish services over the course of our 31+ years together. Something that strikes me about many of the Jewish prayers is that they begin with the words, “Baruch atah Adonai elohaynu melech ha'olam...”, which means “Blessed are you O Lord our God, King of the Universe...” Two things about this are worth noting - there’s no mention of Yahweh, even though we translate it as “Lord our God”. The word “Adonai” is literally “Lord” and the rest is understood. And even “Adonai” is not written out. It is abbreviated as יי (yodh yodh). As it has been explained to me, the Jewish faith holds God as the unapproachable, omnipotent, omniscient Creator of Everything, whose name is so holy that humans dare not even speak it.

Compare that, for a moment, with the name that Jesus taught us to use - “Abba”, which is often translated as “Father”. But it’s even more personal than that. If you grow up speaking Hebrew as Jesus did, the first words you learn are most likely “imah” and “abba”, so perhaps we could get a better sense of them as “mommy” and “daddy”, terms of endearment from a young child to his or her loving parents.

Wow. Talk about contrasts. So, which is it? The unutterable, unknowable Immensity? Or the loving Papa? I think it’s both. As Christians, we grow up saying the Lord’s Prayer - “Our Father, who art in Heaven...”, but I think we would also do well to hold on to a bit of “Baruch atah Adonai elohaynu melech ha’olam...”.

I think Joan Osborne gets at this by inviting us to consider how we would address God if (and here it should really be “when”) we come face to face with Him in all His glory. It makes me shudder just to think about it.

And, what would you ask if you had just one question?

One question? Really? I have too many to count. Think for a moment. What would you ask? Why are we here? What happened before the beginning of the universe? Why is there so much suffering in the world? Why do we have to die? What is the meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything? Are we the only intelligent beings in all of Creation? Why is the mass of the Higgs boson 125.3 GeV? But I digress... Philosophy, Science and Religion have all tried to answer these and countless other questions throughout human history. Just one question? I wouldn’t know where to begin. The good news, I suppose, is that I am certain that when we come face to face with God, we will have all the answers we could ever hope for. Perhaps this earthly life is, in part, our opportunity to learn the questions.

If God had a face what would it look like?
And would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe
in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets?

Again, we read in Exodus, chapter 33:

Moses said, "I pray thee, show me thy glory." And [God] said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you, and will proclaim before you my name 'The LORD'… But," he said, "you cannot see my face; for man shall not see me and live." And the LORD said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand upon the rock; and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen."

I’m pretty sure that Joan wasn’t reading Exodus when she wrote this song, or else it would have read, “And would you want to see if seeing meant that you would die?” Yikes! I’m guessing her song would not have been nearly as popular...

But when God entered the world, everything changed. God showed us His face – the face of Mary’s son, the face of a carpenter, the face of a slob like one of us. And what of the people who saw Jesus face to face? In a way, they did die. Their old lives were ended and they were reborn! Jesus was not someone you could go visit once a week for a nice chat. He said, “Follow me”, and they dropped everything – EVERYTHING – and followed him.

The people in today’s Gospel reading who took offense weren’t stupid and they weren’t evil. They simply couldn’t fathom how this guy could possibly be the King of the Universe. In fairness, it wasn’t until after the Resurrection that most of Jesus’ closest friends and followers came to fully realize who and what He was. God – the creator and ruler of all time and space – became a human being – one of us. “What if God was one of us?” God is one of us! Alleluia!

So come to the table! Come with love for Abba, the Father. Come with awe for Adonai, the Lord and King of all creation. Come with thanksgiving for Jesus, who became one of us so that we all might be saved. Meet Him face to face in all His glory and be changed forever.

Amen.