Eiric's Sunday Sermon; Of What God do We Speak?

Well we are quite cognizant of the fact that around here we “think” of God as a God of your relationship. God is not held to a man conceived mold. God does not have to follow rules. It never seemed important here but we reckon that God could not love a particular human. Maybe?

In this home of worship (no not a house) it is well practiced that my wife’s and children’s Lord is not the same as mine. Or perhaps all metaphysically it just might be the same God but we have different universal or cosmic perspectives. Theologically and religiously we are supposed to proclaim one God for all. Shoot I am father and I am not the same father for all my children – how rude, unloving and pompous would that be. Each child is different, even from day to day not to mention decade to decade. My love is different for each child and the half dozen or so I helped to raise as my own. I was adopted and my mom treated me differently than my siblings. To others it might have seemed with less love. Ha Ha what a joke on them. Boy was she nurturing to me. But later she might as well have named me Sue. I think God loves me so she must have done a good job. At gatherings all my 5 siblings and so many other semi-adopted kids have the same story told differently and sometimes we argue lovingly. Same mom. Same Holy Father. It really reminds me of two truths.

Take a husband and wife and give them cameras and take them on a tour of Italy. Oh my their stories are not really the same. Yet they are. My favorite of all times are the 4 Gospels. They are so cool. Same story yet different versions and perspectives from closest to that one given the most authority to an historian to a great writer. How cool is that, like a 360 degrees 3D view. All we are required to do is open our hearts and our minds.

Now we look at the notion of names. We are well advised to call our Lord by the name that best opens our hearts to our Lord. Way back in a book called Genesis there is this story where a child of God is instructed to instruct others the name “I am” is the name of their Lord. This concept is way deep, but I suspect instructional or at least a direction to more thought. Here is the theological, linguistic philosophy concept. If I call you “I” well it is me that calls you I and therefor I that I am referring to. Take it easy please it is not that complicated. Note this concept of God did not say to call Him “you am”. Trippy. So just by this utterance the people were invited to call God “I am”. Kind of like all of us being a part of God. Well welcome to the party of love. Leave your drinks, notions and covers at the door please.

If I say I am and you say I am, is there a conflict? It sure don’t look like it unless you are an NBA basketball star or boxer. We are united unless we feel compelled to separate ourselves. I have these two in my life that are just striking in their aura. One is my big brother and if you watched “Into the Wild” you have seen his softer side. He is a renowned outdoorsman especially with expeditionary and technical river running. He stands 6’6” and is as powerful of a presence than you maybe ever met. The other is my son. Yes he is a model of some renown. If you go to malls you have seen him for sure. But he is a leader of a band that does well in SF Ca. A songwriter and poet and an artist. He has a fancy pantsy degree from a great school. But many call him Adonis. They are not Gods by themselves. But they are a part of what is God. Just like a tiny baby. Just like you. So when we call God by a name we must be cognizant that we are also calling others that name and ourselves. So easy for me I just call God Love.

Maybe we have this all wrong. Maybe we think labels and names are what is important. I think that we should not. My little one called me over for a question on something he was concentrating on. I hollered “just a second friend I will be right there”. Was I wrong to call another human being friend, even though he be my youngest son? I called my wife “honey” the other night. Was I wrong not to call her by her given name? Let us look at this further.

So easy to say “what’s in a name?”. And so easy to say that “a rose by any other name is still a rose”. And so easy to say that if it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck and looks like a duck it probably is a duck.

I was in litigation law for a while. I called the judges sir. It actually is just as acceptable as “your honor” yet it irritated some. I wonder why. I know why I did it to much consternation of colleagues. It was so in front of a jury the man sitting above in a black robe was just another sir. That his gestures, machinations and rulings were just human like them. Effective? You bet it was. And a few others tried it but I must say they lacked the… Panache and no one bought it.

Do you call your doctor using doctor and her last name? Two times for me maximum and I have had a lot of docs. Sometimes I just call them doc, but usually just by their first names. What is in a title? Funny but my kids feel all oogie inside if they call me Eric. Dad it is. I have to admit I have had some trouble with Miss, Ms., Mrs., Ma’am, Lady and hey you, and the worst hey baby. Hi hi hi. My mom was always mom or Mrs. Dr. Dierker, she was kind of tough.

But I hope we are getting someplace here. At least I hope I am. If you think of Christ as Mr. Honorable Jehovah well you certainly have a basis for that. And at the extreme like me if you sometimes call him “buddy” there is certainly a basis for that. Do our words define our relationships including names? Or do our relationships we have dictate the names or words we call each other including our Lord?

I am the author here and I pass no judgment. Who am I to tell you the intimacy of your relationship with your God? Not likely that is going to happen until lightning strikes me dead and then maybe I could tell you if I was around.

"Why did God make us so differently if He did not want us to act like it?" ED 2003