1

Jared Alcántara 28 February 2016

“What’s In a Name?” Exodus 3:1-15

What’s in a name? This is a question too few of us ask. Many of us don’t know much about our names: what they mean and why they matter. Some of us may know a lot about our names. Maybe there’s someone in your family who knows about family trees, genealogies, and names. What’s in a name? I would guess that there’s a subset of us who know enough about our names not to want to answer that question. Some of us want to run from our names because they’re connected to stories from the past: stories of pain or familial strife. When I think of running from a name, I think of Juliet’s dialogue with

Romeo in Romeo and Juliet. “What’s in a name?,” she asks. “That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.”

The two star-crossed lovers want to denounce their names.

My name is a curious one, a strange juxtaposition. My first name “Jared” is

Hebrew, and is found in Genesis 5. My last name “Alcántara,” is Arabic, it’s Moorish actually, and it traces back to Spain. My father was born and raised in Honduras. The

Moors immigrated there eventually after fleeing Spain to North Africa during the Spanish

Inquisition. A strange factoid, my uncle Jesus, almost every Hispanic family has an uncle named Jesus, he married a woman named Francisca Matamoros. You may know this, but in Latin America, people keep both last names. So, that side of the family is the Alcántara

Matamaros family. But, there’s one catch. The name “Matamoros” literally means “Kill the Moors” in Spanish. Somehow, the Montagues and Capulets got together! 2

Transition: Names are more significant than we realize. Especially when we read and study the Bible, the answer to the question, “What’s in a name?” is: “Everything!”

When God reveals His name, God reveals something extremely important about who He is, what He’s like, and how He’d like to relate to us. We see this throughout the Bible, and we see it in our Scripture passage for this weekend. READ EXODUS 3:1-15.

Moses is hiding in Midian.

You figured out from our Scripture reading that this text has two main characters:

God and . God does most of the talking, and Moses does most of the listening. This is a good thing, by the way. We learn so many things about God here: His name, His plan, and His call, and we’ll get to that. But, it’s also important to think about Moses’ role in this story. So, that’s where we’ll begin.

Let me try to frame Moses’ backstory with a question. Have you ever made a mistake so embarrassing, indicting, and downright idiotic – perhaps you did this when you were younger – that were your slip-up or mistake broadcast before all your family and friends, you would consider moving to another state? What was it? What did it feel like to be in that place emotionally? Knowing what you know now, my guess is that you’d go back to that 13, 18, 22, or 40 year-old version of yourself, and you’d try to talk some sense into that person.

If this describes you, then you have a small window into Moses’ soul. What we know about Moses from Exodus 2 is that Moses made a big mistake when he was young.

As a side note, if you ever think that making a mistake as a young person disqualifies you from being used by God now and in the future, just look at Moses, and you’ll see a different story. The primary reason Moses lives in Midian rather than Egypt is that he 3 made a foolish mistake. We read in Ex. 2:12 that Moses actually killed somebody, tried to cover it up and, when Pharaoh found out about it, he wanted to subject Moses to the death penalty. Moses had been the prince of Egypt. He had been living in the sumptuousness of the palace instead of the squalor of the desert. He had been a mighty man in Pharaoh’s palace, but all of that is gone now. He once had been, and now he’s a has-been.

At this stage of his life, Moses is hiding in a region called Midian, he’s gotten married to a woman named Zipporah, Jethro’s daughter, and they’ve even had a son named Gershom. The one who was once the prince of Egypt is now, according to verse 1, a shepherd on the far side of the wilderness. He’s been out there for years now. New life, new family, probably trying to forget the past, perhaps wondering aloud whether God can still use him after the mistakes he’s made. We read in verse 1 that Moses is shepherding the flocks on the “far side of the wilderness.” I wonder if that detail’s in the text to help us see that Moses is about as far away as possible from God’s purposes for him. He’s not just in the wilderness. He’s on the far side of the wilderness. It’s been said that one of the most painful gaps in human existence is the gap between the person that we want to be and the person that we are. It’s in this the gap, I think, where Moses has pitched his tent at the beginning of Exodus 3.

My guess is that, in a congregation this size, there are many of you who know what it’s like to pitch your tent in this gap, the gap between the person that you want to be and the person that you are. You know what it’s like to experience the loneliness associated with the far side of the wilderness. Perhaps you live in constant fear that your past sins and past mistakes will return to visit you. Or, maybe you question whether you 4 will ever have what it takes to be the person God has called you to be. Or, maybe you worry that if people ever really knew you, the real person and not the facade, then they’d reject you and protect themselves from you.

In a lot of ways, our worries, our fears, and our regrets bully us into forgetting the truth about the gospel. We forget about the promises God has made to us, what Christ has done for us at the cross. Sometimes, we let lies bully us into submission. I’ll never forget something that Jack Handey wrote in his book Fuzzy Memories. Handey is a humorist who’s better known for his book Deep Thoughts.

“There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons. But then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him five dollars a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.”

The truth about us is that most of us, when give the opportunity for God redirect our steps toward a new direction, just keep on paying the bully.

Transition: But, there’s hope for Moses and, I would argue, there’s hope for us.

God does not give up on us.

Intro- We can’t say with certainty that Moses gave up on God, but here’s what we can say: God did not give up on Moses. While Moses might be in danger of forgetting about God, God has not forgotten about him. We spent the first few minutes talking about

Moses, now I’d like to spend the remainder of our time talking about what this text teaches us about God. So, if you’d let me, I’d like to make a few observations.

5

1. Even in your wandering, God still cares for you. (vv. 1-6a)

Where do we see God’s care for Moses? Look at verse 2. First, it’s the angel of the Lord who appears to Moses in a burning bush. Lots of fire in the first few verses: flames of fire, a bush that’s burning but not consumed, not burning up, but still on fire – five times we hear about fire in just a few verses. God suspends the laws of nature in order to get Moses’ attention so that, in verse 3, Moses says, “I will go over and see this strange sight,” literally “great sight.” Then, in verse 4, it’s the LORD himself who calls to

Moses from within the bush.

How do we know that God really cares? We have a few clues. Look at verses 4-5.

1) God calls Moses’ name twice: “Moses! Moses!” He’s not just calling his name; he’s also demonstrating his benevolent care. Doug Stuart:

“In ancient Semitic culture, addressing someone by saying his or her name twice was a way of expressing endearment, that is, affection and friendship. Moses would have understood immediately that he was being addressed by someone who loved him and was concerned about him.”

2) Even though God communicates to Moses that he must show appropriate reverence on account of His holiness, it’s reverence in the context of relationship. Although God is set apart, Moses is not struck down here. We see holiness and relationship. 3) If you look closely at verse 4, you’ll see two names for God. You have the “LORD,” or Yahweh at the beginning of the verse and “God” or Elohim at the end. Elohim communicates that

God is the one true God above all other gods. Yahweh communicates that He is a covenant-keeping God, the God of , , and . God is not just the God above all gods. God is also the covenant-keeping God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and

Jacob. 6

Now, this final clue is important. We need to hear it again: The God who sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth is also the God who cares for you and for me. The

One who sits between the cherubim and seraphim is the same one before whom we cry,

“Abba, Father.” The God whom angels and bow down to worship is your God and my God. He knows your name. He knows my name. “My frame was not hidden from you when I was woven together, when I was made in the secret place, your eyes saw my unformed body,” says in Psalm 139. You and are a treasured children of a God one who wants to be in relationship with us. Even in your wandering, God cares about you.

That’s good news!

Transition: But, this passage reveals something else important about God.

2. Even in your self-doubt, God still calls you. (vv. 7-10, 11-13)

Notice Moses’ reaction to God at the end of verse 6. Moses is afraid! And, who can blame him? I don’t think he was planning to be encountered by the Living God, the

God of His fathers, when he took the sheep to the far side of the wilderness that day. We learn from verses 7-8, which we’ll get to in a minute, that God’s plan is to deliver His people from bondage. Before we get there, look at vv. 9-10. “The cry of the Israelites have reached me,” the Lord says in verse 9. “Now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh,” in verse 10. Let’s just say that God’s plans for Moses are very different than Moses’ plans for Moses.

Now, what unfolds in chapter 3 and chapter 4 is that Moses makes a series of excuses in his interactions with God. The first excuse is found in verse 11. “Who am I?,”

Moses says. In a sense, this is not a bad question. Moses’ questions his own worthiness to 7 be the man God calls him to be. Verse 13: “Suppose I go and tell them you sent me, but they ask me about your name, what should I tell them?” That’s another way of saying,

“What if they press me on this so-called divine summons? I won’t know the answers to their questions. Chapter 4:1: What if they don’t believe me?” Now, he’s casting doubt on his own credibility. By the way, he didn’t really leave Egypt under the best circumstances. Verse 10: “I’m not eloquent. I don’t know how to speak.” He’s basically saying that he doesn’t have what it takes to be the leader he needs to be. Verse 13: This one’s the most desperate. “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” You may know the phrase from , “Here I am, Lord. Send me!” Moses says: “Here I am,

Lord! Send anyone but me.”

The temptation might be to come down hard on Moses, but let me submit to you that Moses does exactly what we do when God is calling us to step out and take holy risks. We say, “Lord, Who I am to do what you’re calling me to do? I’m not eloquent.

Jesus, my life is too messed up for what you’re asking from me. God, as soon as I arrive at financial security, then I’ll be able to do what you ask. Lord, as soon as I put my hosue in order, then I’ll follow your call for my life. Lord, I have to shampoo my carpet later today. Lord, I need to power wash my siding. Here I am, Lord. Send someone else.”

What we want is clarity from God in order to move, which He has never promised to give us, by the way. What we need is faith in God accompanied by a willingness to take holy risks for God. What we want is clarity. What we need is trust. Mother Teresa Story:

“In 1975, the Jesuit philosopher John Kavanaugh paid a visit to Mother Teresa and the Sisters of Charity in Calcutta, . He was already in the country for a year of prayer, service, and ministry, and he asked Mother Teresa if he could spend a month with her working at the House of the Dying, a former 8

temple that was turned into a home for people found dying in the streets. Kavanaugh describes his experience with Mother Teresa as life transforming for him. Seeing her connection with the poor, her willingness to suffer alongside them, was deeply moving for him. As the time neared for him to depart, he was faced with a decision. He wasn’t sure if he should go back to the U.S. and become a professor of university or continue working with the poor. Kavanaugh asked Mother Teresa to pray for clarity. She refused his request. She told him that she wouldn’t do such a thing. Kavanaugh recounts (paraphrase): “She told me she wouldn’t pray for clarity…She said what I needed was trust.” He told her that he always assumed that she had clarity all the time, knowing who she was, what she was supposed to be doing with her life. And she responded (paraphrase): “I have never had clarity; all I have had is trust.”

You may have a lot of self-doubt as you listen to this sermon, perhaps even some self- loathing. You might be dying for more clarity in your own life. What you need to know is that God still sees enough good in you to be able to use you. God sees enough hope for your life to call you into something greater.

Transition: Even in your self-doubt, even in the absence of clarity, God still calls you. The question isn’t a question of clarity. It’s a question of trust.

3. Even in your weakness, God still comes for you.

The language of verses 7-9 is so beautiful. God sees the misery of his people. If you look back to Exodus 2:24-25, God hears His people’s groans and, in verse 25, God is concerned about his people’s suffering. We see a similar pattern in verses 7-8. God sees the misery of his people and says, “I am concerned.” We read again at the beginning of verse 9: “The cry of the Israelites has reached me.”

Now, let this sink in for a moment. You and I have a God who hears our groans and who is concerned about us. God is not distanced and detached. God is not ambivalent or archaic. In Jesus Christ, we have a savior who has born our griefs and carried our 9 sorrows. If there is ever one who knows and understands what you’re going through, it’s

God. According to Exodus 3, he hears your cries, and he is concerned about you.

So, what does God do? Notice the language of verse 8. “I have come down to rescue them…and to bring them up.” God fulfills the promise he made to Jacob way back in Genesis 46:4 when He said, “I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.” God is a promise-making and promise-keeping God. God comes down.

Not only does he come down to help the Israelites break free from the yoke of slavery oppression, but also God comes down to set all people free form sin and death through

Jesus Christ.

What you have in Exodus 3 is a beautiful juxtaposition of the names of God. In verse 13, Moses says to God, “When people ask, ‘What is his name?,’ what should I tell them?” And, the Lord’s answer is in verse 14, “I AM WHO I AM.” That’s another way of saying that before the mountains were formed and the seas were hung in the balances,

God was there. Before time began to run and the sun began shine, God was there. God was and is and will be. Did you ever think about it? God was before was was. Yet, even so, in all of God’s omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence, God is also the God of

Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. “This is my name,” the Lord says in verse 15. “The

LORD, the God of your fathers.”

So, how can this be, that God is both I AM WHO I AM and is simultaneously the

God who is with you? The answer is simple, really, but it can never be simplistic. The

God who Is beyond you is also the God who is with you. Look at how the Lord answers

Moses in verse 12. Moses has his doubts. Moses isn’t sure about God’s plans, but God says to Moses what he also says to us. “I will be with you.” You see, the God who is 10 beyond Moses is also the God who promises to be with Moses. He is “I Am” and He is “I will be with you.” The God who is beyond you is the God who is with you.

Before we conclude, let me ask you a few questions that I hope will force you to think more deeply about what we’ve talked about today, and then we’ll draw things to a close. First, what it would it look like for you to take holy risks for God? Jesus is still looking for women and men who are willing to take holy risks, to cross borders for the sake of the gospel, people who are willing to give, to serve, to , to save their lives by losing them. How might God be calling you to step out from the wilderness of Midian in order to step forward into the work to which God has called you?

Second, if you’ve decided that God is not able to use you, who has the problem?

You or God? If God is who he says he is, which I believe that He is, and God can do what He says He can do, which I believe that he can, then I assure you. God is not the problem. Is it God who is holding you back from saying “yes” or is it you who’s holding you back?

What would change in your life if you really believed what God says about himself in this Scripture text and, for that matter, what God says about you in this text?

If the God who is beyond us is the God who is with us, then why are our prayers so small? To borrow a line from earlier, why do we insist on paying the bully? If God really cares for us, calls us, and comes for us in Jesus Christ, then why are we so easily pleased with lesser gods?

Conclusion

Years ago now, I taught a seminary student named Earl Jones. Earl grew up in the black church in , and Earl wasn’t one of those cranky seminarians. He was 11 happy to be there. What Earl used to say to his fellow seminarians – it always stuck with me – is the same thing I leave with you this weekend here at Christ Church. Earl used to say to seminarians, “No matter how unsure you are about you, God is still sure about you!” You might feel like you have nothing to offer of consequence. You say, “I’m too old. Too young. Too proud. Too weak.” How you feel about yourself is not what is most important when God calls you. What is most important is that God is still sure about you! You might say, “I’m not spiritual enough, not gifted enough, not attractive enough, not rich enough, not wise enough. But, your capacities are not what are most critical in this context. What is most critical is that God is still sure about you! “You might say,

I’m not eloquent, they won’t believe me, Who am I to do what God has called me to do?

Lord, please send someone else.” But, God is not looking for someone else. God is looking for you…because even if you don’t believe it, God is still sure about you! 12

Illustrations Gen 46:4: “I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again.”

Romeo and Juliet Juliet’s dialogue: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, So Romeo would, were he not Romeo called.” (Act II, Scene II)

Jack Handey, Fuzzy Memories (1996) “There used to be this bully who would demand my lunch money every day. Since I was smaller, I would give it to him. Then I decided to fight back. I started taking karate lessons. But then the karate lesson guy said I had to start paying him five dollars a lesson. So I just went back to paying the bully.”

Doug Stuart “In ancient Semitic culture, addressing someone by saying his or her name twice was a way of expressing endearment, that is, affection and friendship. Moses would have understood immediately that he was being addressed by someone who loved him and was concerned about him.” (see pg. 14 for commentary information)

John Cavanaugh and Mother Teresa In 1975, the Jesuit philosopher John Kavanaugh paid a visit to Mother Teresa and the Missionary Sisters of Charity in Calcutta, India. He was already in the country for a year of prayer, service, and ministry, and he asked Mother Teresa if he could spend a month with her working at the House of the Dying, a former temple that was turned into a home for people found dying in the streets. Kavanaugh describes his experience with Mother Teresa as life transforming for him. Seeing her connection with the poor, her willingness to suffer alongside them, was deeply moving for him. As the time neared for him to depart, he was faced with a decision. He wasn’t sure if he should go back to the U.S. and become a professor of university or continue working with the poor. Kavanaugh asked Mother Teresa to pray for clarity. She refused his request. She told him that she wouldn’t do such a thing. Kavanaugh recounts (paraphrase): “She told me she wouldn’t pray for clarity…She said what I needed was trust.” He told her that he always assumed that she had clarity all the time, knowing who she was, what she was supposed to be doing with her life. And she responded (paraphrase): “I have never had clarity; all I have had is trust.” - Source: Clayton Berry, “SLU Jesuit Philosopher Recounts Transforming Time Spent with Mother Teresa.” Louis University, September 4, 2007. See also www.catholiceducation.org/en/faith-and- character/faith-and-character/jesuit-philosopher-recounts-time-with-mother-teresa.html

Commentaries

John I. Durham, Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville: Nelson, 1987) • Theophany and call are brought together in this text. Defined: “Theophany describes the advent of God’s presence; call describes the opportunity of response to that Presence. Theophany provides both stimulus and authority for response; response, despite a choice, is virtually inevitable following theophany.” – p 29 13

• Experience of Moses in 3:1-2 foreshadows Israel’s experience in Egypt and Sinai. The pattern of “Presence-response” shows itself repeatedly. – p 30 • 1- The significance of the mountain is theological rather than geographical in that “neither here nor anywhere else in the OT is the location of the mountain preserved.”- p. 30 • 2-3- the fire is mentioned five times in these verses. • 5- The verb Karab in Hebrew, “approach” / “come closer,” is used a lot in the OT in the context of approaching God in worship. • What makes this text important?: “It provides first of all, and most immediately, the introductory context for the revelation of the tetragrammaton and the only explanation of this unique divine name.” – p. 33 • 11 & 13- Moses shifts question from “Who am I?” in v. 11 to “Who are you?” v 13.

Peter Enns, NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2000) • Notice: Moses’ vocation is preparing him for the work ahead. “He who will soon become the shepherd of God’s people undergoes training in Midian.”- 95 • “This episode, then, presages the upheaval of the natural phenomena in the plagues and the crossing of the Red Sea. Bushes do not remain unscorched when on fire, but neither do rivers turn to blood. Frogs, flies, and locusts do no not normally invade a nation. Gnats are not formed from dust….Moses would have been wise to learn a lesson from this burning bush. The God who is calling him is the God over creation.”- p. 97 • The verb “to bring up” (v 8) is “the typical expression used to describe Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.”- p. 99 • Sequence: Moses doubts himself (11-12), Moses doubts his reception (13-22), Moses doubts his reception some more (4:1-9), Moses refuses God’s call (4:13-17) • V. 14: In a sense, God answering Moses’ question with “I AM WHO I AM,” signals a “refusal to dignify Moses’ question with an answer.”- p. 103 • Common elements in a call narrative: 1) “God initiates contact” – 117, 2) leaders seem to have this in common “mundane or ordinary vocation the leaders were engaged in at the time of their calling”- 117, 3) recipients of call “often jolted by the thought of what God intends for them. Hence, they respond in humility or disbelief.”- 117, 4) They discover that “God is greater than their inadequacies, lack of experience, or talent.”- 118 • Call: “It is precisely in our inability that his light shines brightest in our hearts.”- 121

Victor Hamilton, Exodus (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011) • God in the mundane: “God does not reveal himself to Moses so spectacularly when Moses is praying, or fasting, or meditating, or engaging in some profound metaphysical thought. It happens when he is alone, working, and probably unexciting menial work at that.”- p. 45 • Fire: God’s fire always does one of two things in Scripture. Either it destroys (think of Sodom and Gomorrah’s fire), or it purifies (think of Isa. 6).”- p. 46. • 11- Moses’ excuse here is the first of five excuses he will make to God: v. 11, v. 13, 4:1, 4:10, 4:13). 14

• 12- Although “I am with you,” appears only once in Exodus, “this exact promise appears over a hundred times in the OT.” – p. 59 • 13- there’s no passage in which the Hebrews bring the objections before Moses that he’s worried they’ll bring. “Maybe, like some of us, Moses excels at raising problems and issues that never emerge as problems and issues.”- p. 63 • 13- it’s unclear as to who needs to know God’s name who doesn’t know His name. Some think it’s the Hebrews who’ve been in Egypt for quite some time. Hamilton: “The majority of biblical commentators think that what the writer of Exodus implies is that Moses himself does not know the name.” – p. 64. • YHWH: “I suggest that the dominant idea is presence. Goldingay (2003:33) makes a very apropos statement: ‘Moses asks after God’s name….Yhwh responds by providing not a label but a theology.’ That is to say, God will always be there for his people, in a distant Egypt too, even if that divine presence is questioned and imperceptible. He will always be whatever his people need him to be in any given moment, in any given place. If they need a deliverer, that’s YHWH. If they need grace and mercy and forgiveness, that’s YHWY. If they need purifying and empowerment, that’s YHWH. If they need rebuke and chastisement, that’s YHWH. If they need guidance, that’s YHWH.”- p. 66.

Doug K. Stuart, New American Commentary: Exodus, vol 2 (Nashville: B & H, 2006) • Moses does not have “substantial means of his own” in that he’s still working for his father-in-law. This is a far cry from being the prince of Egypt.- 108 • Moses’ name twice: “In ancient Semitic culture, addressing someone by saying his or her name twice was a way of expressing endearment, that is, affection and friendship. Moses would have understood immediately that he was being addressed by someone who loved him and was concerned about him.”- p. 114 • V. 11: Stuart doesn’t see this as a lack of self confidence, but as “polite acceptance of honor rather than an attempt to decline it.” (118) • The name Yahweh was used by early generations in Genesis and by the , but “it was not used, or not prominently used, by any of the children of Jacob.”- p. 120