Elizabeth Scripturient (the delinquent, ecumenical (hermionesviolin) wrote,
Elizabeth Scripturient (the delinquent, ecumenical

"Jesus said to them again, 'Peace be with you.' " (John 20:21)

Today is Mother's Day [Note to self: hernewshoes' post.] and Pentecost.

The former got basically ignored at my churches -- which I'm okay with, as I'm not into the fetishization of motherhood.

CHPC had lots of hymns using Spirit, and the sermon was a bit about "What Is The Holy Spirit?"  I wore red and did the Scripture readings (Acts 2:1-21, and John 20:19-23).

CWM had A Service in Remembrance and Celebration of General Conference (though, as last year, it also had a blessing of the mothers, with a typically inclusive interpretation of "mothers" :) ).

One of the readings was Jeremiah 29:1-11 (the source of GC's theme this year: "A Future With Hope").  Tiffany changed some of the language (e.g. using "partners" and "children") but I'm just c&p-ing from oremus.


-Jeremiah 29:4-14 (NRSV)

When I was looking at Christianity Today online the other day, one of the links on the front page was: "Blessed Be the NAME of the Lord: Why 'Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier' is somewhere between heresy and idolatry" (A Christianity Today editorial - May 8, 2008). 
But Jesus is speaking out of his own relationship to God, right?  Yes he gives his disciples the "Our Father" as a template for how they should pray, but there is an entire Old Testament tradition of lots of metaphors for God.  There's a poster I left at my parents' house that I got when Ruthie was doing young adult Christian Ed at UCN that has lots of different names/metaphors/titles for God (or possibly Christ, or both, I honestly don't remember) found throughout Scripture, and I feel like we probably picked that up at some evangelical Christian store, not some crazy queer liberal place.  And honestly, the Good Shepherd is the idea of Jesus that immediately comes to my mind if I were to think of the primary image of Jesus in the Gospels -- for whatever that's worth.
Leaving aside the fact that I'm weirded out by not capitalizing God's pronoun, doesn't this statement to Moses say that God's true revealed name is I AM?  Or LORD?  Or GOD?  Honestly, I read that Bible excerpt as saying, "I am the Lord the God of your ancestors, that is enough, you don't need a specific name to pin on me."  (I'm totally good with the "God's desire for a personal relationship with God's people," and I respect the communal thing, even as it's still not my default approach to Christianity.)
I appreciate the reminder that all three persons of the Trinity are involved in all that God does, but is associating the distinct persons of the Trinity with different actions of God necessarily a bad thing?  I mean, if they were interchangeable then wouldn't we just talk about different aspects of a single God?

I think modalism has been largely how I understand the Trinity, and while I'm not terribly concerned about being a heretic, I'm also not sure how else I'm supposed to understand the Trinity.  If you wanna argue to me that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct entities ... I would totally be willing to listen, because that seems like it would be much more sense-making, but I don't see that as being the traditional orthodox understanding of the Trinity at all.
Okay, I think the reminder that we humans can create bad things from God's good gifts is neatly crafted here, but, um, didn't we already establish that the one time God specifically revealed God's name, God said, "I AM who I AM" (I have also heard it suggested that a more accurate translation is "I will be who I will be")?  Yes Jesus refers to God as "Father," but I AM is the actual answer to God being asked "What shall I tell the Israelites your name is?"  And okay, at this point I'm actually pulling out the exact citation.

God said to Moses, "I am who I am. [Or I will be what I will be] This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

-Exodus 3:13-14 (NIV)
In Judaism, the name of God is super sacred and holy and not to be used lightly, so people mostly talk around it, using titles and metaphors and suchlike.  Do we need a personal name for God in order to have a personal relationship with God?  The article insists on "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," but I would argue that Father (and Son) isn't really a name, it's a mode.
Tags: holidays: mother's day, pentecost, religion: christianity

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