Scripture: Psalm 20: Matthew 7: 21-13
Sermon: Lord, Lord
Topics: name of the Lord, caution, confidence,
Preached September 8, 2013
Rev. Mike Abma
PSALM 20 (a military psalm)
1 The Lord answer you in the day of trouble!
The name of the God of Jacob protect you!
2 May he send you help from the sanctuary,
and give you support from Zion.
3 May he remember all your offerings,
and regard with favour your burnt sacrifices.
4 May he grant you your heart’s desire,
and fulfil all your plans.
5 May we shout for joy over your victory,
and in the name of our God set up our banners.
May the Lord fulfil all your petitions.
6 Now I know that the Lord will help his anointed;
he will answer him from his holy heaven
with mighty victories by his right hand.
7 Some take pride in chariots, and some in horses,
but our pride is in the name of the Lord our God.
8 They will collapse and fall,
but we shall rise and stand upright.
9 Give victory to the king, O Lord;
answer us when we call.*
Matthew 7:21-23
21 ‘Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord”, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only one who does the will of my Father in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, “Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?” 23Then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.”
This is the Word of the Lord
Thanks be to God
INTRODUCTION
The other day I was at the Seminary for one of their Orientation events for new students.
I overheard one young man say to a young woman:
“The Lord laid it on my heart to ask you to pray for my cold.”
“The Lord laid it on my heart…..”
I simply had to smile at that.
I couldn’t help but assume that this earnest young man was simply looking for a reason to talk with this young attractive woman.
But to package it as something the Lord had “laid on his heart” seemed a little
…well….almost ludicrous.
And it got me thinking how easily, how loosely, how flippantly we are ready to use the Lord’s name.
This is in stark contrast to the more observant Jews.
Ever since the exile, the Jewish community has been reluctant to speak the Lord’s name out of fear of misusing it.
That is why, in my Jewish Tanach (that is the Jewish version of the Old Testament) whenever the personal name of God occurs, whenever the Hebrew YAHWEH occurs, the English translation is not YAHWEH, or LORD, but simply HASHEM – the Hebrew word for “the Name.”
TWO PASSAGE S TONIGHT
The Name of the Lord is the connecting theme for this message.
The name of the Lord is what connects our two Bible passages:
Psalm 20 and Matthew 7:21-23.
The name of the Lord features prominently in each passage.
But where Psalm 20 is a psalm of confidence,
Matthew 7 is a teaching of caution.
Let’s look at Psalm 20 first.
As I noted before reading it, this is, in all probability, part of a pre-war or pre-battle liturgy.
The king with his armies are about to leave the city,
And this psalm is read, leaning on the Lord for victory.
Others take pride in their chariots and horses to prevail,
But we have the name of the Lord.
Even as I am explaining it, I think you can sense how such a psalm could be abused and misused. Humanity has a long history of trying to manipulate God for our own purposes.
When I was in Graduate School studying Medieval History, I wrote a thesis on Religious Observances in Medieval Warfare. The truth is, priests, and bishops, kings and dukes, knights and regular foot-soldiers all did whatever they could to convince themselves that God was on their side.
They also did all they could to convince God that he should be on their side.
But we know the danger of that.
That is why we do not teach our children to pray to win.
We do not teach them to pray for victory
on the soccer pitch
or football field
or tennis court.
Instead, we teach them to pray
for good sportsmanship,
for a game well-played
for safety on the field
and friendship off of it.
Our passage from Matthew 7 is a good counter-balance to Psalm 20.
Jesus is very clear that not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven.
Even victory or success or winning is not a sure sign of God’s blessing.
Many will say
“Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not cast out demons in your name?
Did we not do many deeds of power in your name?
And the Lord will want nothing to do them.
There is no doubting that these seemingly wonderful things were done –
the prophesying, the casting out demons, the deeds of power.
The doubt is that they were actually done
in the Lord’s name and with his blessing.
In the Sermon on the Mount, it is remarkable how uninterested Jesus is in
glitzy or astounding things supposedly done in his name
and how much more interested he is in
ordinary people doing ordinary things
that conform to the will of his Father in heaven;
the common, seemingly mundane acts of kindness, goodness,
generosity and hospitality.
We find this same kind of teaching in the early church.
One of the earliest writings we have from the early church is called the Didache.
It was written close to the same time the New Testament was written.
It was written as a manual of teachings for the young church.
In it there are instructions on how to tell true prophets from false prophets.
Those who demand money are false.
Those who give to the needs of others are true.
Those who order a meal and eat it themselves are false.
Those who order a meal and distribute it to those in need are true.
That is the way it has always been.
You can tell a tree by its fruits.
You can put the name of the Lord on many things,
but if it is not holy, righteous, honorable,
then the name of the Lord does not belong.
BEARING THE LORD’S NAME
That is the heart of the matter in
Hallowing God’s name in the Lord’s prayer
And in not misusing God’s name in the 3rd Commandment.
It is all about how we bear that name,
How we carry it,
How we wear it.
We’ve had a number of baptisms lately, and I have been thinking about how in baptism we begin to carry, to bear, to wear the name of our Lord.
That whole concept of bearing a name is woven into the Biblical Story.
When the High Priest wore his ephod and breastplate,
One of the things he carried were 2 onyx stones,
And on those stones were carved the names of the 12 tribes of Israel.
He carried those names into the Holy of Holies.
The High Priest also had a turban.
On that turban were the words Holy to the Lord – or more literally,
Belonging to Yahweh were written on that turban.
In other words, he carried the name of Yahweh.
He carried the mark of divine ownership.
He was branded with the name of God.
Of course, the High Priest, represented the nation of Israel.
The whole nation bore the name of the Lord.
And as a nation, they represented the Lord wherever they went.
They represented the Lord in whatever they did.
As God says in Deuteronomy 28:10
“All the peoples of the world will see that you are called by the name of the Lord.”
Or to translate that sentence more literally,
“All the peoples of the world will see that that Yahweh’s name is read on you.”
It was when Israel behaved like all the other nations
that they profaned
and defiled
and blasphemed
the name of the Lord.
Ezekiel 36 says it bluntly,
When Judah went into exile
when they came to the nations because of their unbelief and sin,
they caused the holy name of the Lord to be desecrated.
Why? Not so much because of how they misused the name of the Lord in their spoken words,
but in how they tarnished and betrayed God’s name
in how they lived, how they behaved, and how they mistreated one another.
BEARING GOD’S NAME
I will tell you that as a pastor, one of the most difficult things to do is to counsel or advise someone who is full of God-talk;
someone who wraps everything —
everything they want,
every twisted desire
every selfish motive —
in pious sounding talk of the Lord’s leading.
The weight of this has been especially heavy this fall.
People I love,
I pray for,
and yet people
who are so convinced God is with them,
that the Lord is leading them,
as they walk down a path of deception,
a path that leaves nothing but destruction in its wake.
It is the most heart-breaking thing there is:
the name of the Lord used to condone toxic behavior.
I mentioned Graduate School earlier.
When I was in Graduate School, we once had a get-together of grad students, and faculty.
It was a panel discussion followed by a social gathering – an opportunity for the older academics to mentor and advice the younger ones.
One of the grad students asked what was the best piece of advice they could give us younger students as they entered the incredibly competitive world of academia.
There were all kinds of answers given.
But the one I remember was from a retired prof.
He simply said, “Be good at what you do,
and, more importantly, be good, period.”
Be good at what you do – strive for excellence in your given field.
And more importantly be good, period. Be a good person.
For us baptized believers,
believers branded with the name of Jesus Christ,
being a good person has
a very clear shape,
a very clear look,
a very clear spirit.
Something that people, all people,
will notice,
will recognize,
will respect.
CONCLUSION
About two years ago,
one of the world’s most well-known atheists,
Christopher Hitchens,
passed away.
I’ve been reading different things Hitchens wrote, and different things about Hitchens life.
I learned that Hitchens’ father had passed away several years earlier.
I was also rather surprised to learn what Christopher Hitchens read at his father’s funeral.
He read from the Bible.
He read from Philippians 4:8
Finally, beloved,* whatever is true,
whatever is honourable,
whatever is just,
whatever is pure,
whatever is pleasing,
whatever is commendable,
if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about* these things.
Think about these things.
He stopped reading there, but the next verse continues:
Keep on doing the things that you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, and the God of peace will be with you.
The God of peace will be with you.
The God of peace will be stamped upon you.
The name of the Lord will be stamped upon you.
People of God,
We are branded with the name of the King of kings,
The Lord of lords,
The great and mighty and majestic God!
In the spirit of Psalm 20
may we bear that name boldly.
In the spirit of Matthew 7
may we bear that name humbly.
Amen
0 Comments