Who has love can forgive.

Sunday closest to August 30

Year A, Proper 17, RCL, Track 1

Exodus 3:1-15 Psalm 105:1-6, 23-26, 45c

Romans 12:9-21

Matthew 16:21-28

Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall so you could hear what was happening in the back room? Today we are given that privilege. We observe what happened to Moses in a most auspicious moment. As he is herding sheep, he sees a bush on fire. This catches his attention, yet he notices that the bush is not consumed. I wonder how long he waited, mesmerized by this flaming bush, before he realized that it kept on burning.

It is not unusual for the Old Testament Patriarchs to recognize the voice of God. But what is significant today is the conversation that takes place. Moses asks, “What is your name?” Something that God will not answer, for a name is powerful.

Knowing someone’s name establishes a certain authority. You can yell someone’s name from across the parking lot, and they will often stop and look in the direction from which their name was called. If you know someone’s name, you can praise them, bless them, or curse them. This is a powerful ability that is found in most cultures. In the anime series Death Note, for example, all the main character needs to do is know a person’s name, write it in a magical book, and that person dies. Though this is fantasy, we see similar power in witchcraft and in the way “Boy” can be used to show one man’s dominance over another.

In creation, God gave Adam the authority to name all the creatures of earth. Theologians agree that this ability to name was part of the authority God gave Adam over the creatures of creation. In the New Testament, we find stories of demons calling out Jesus’ name. His name frightens them, for they know who he is, the Son of David, and Jesus knows who they are. For us today, God refuses to give a name. God knows that there is power in a name. And to this day, we do not know the name of our God.

In our modern translations of the Bible, we often find the Creator being called God. God, by the way, is not a name but a title. The word translated as God was historically represented by four letters: YHWH. Since the original Hebrew script had no vowels, we do not exactly know what these letters represented or what they would sound like when spoken. Yet we find that the various translations of YHWH ultimately mean something similar. Most commonly, it is “I AM Who I Am.” But there are many others: “I Shall Become Who I Am Becoming,” or even, “I Am That I Am.” However it is parsed, these translations all state that God is a being beyond our understanding. “I am Who I Am,” for example, does not really give us anything except God’s existence. It would be like telling someone that your child’s name is “a tiny thing that cries. It states an attribute, but it is not a name.

Last week Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” Paul doesn’t reply, “You are Jesus,” but instead offers an attribute and a title. You are the “anointed one,” or in Hebrew, “the Messiah.” YHWH is most often pronounced YAHWEH, which is still not God’s name but an acronym of YHWH, “I AM That I AM.”

Our Gospel story continues from last week, when Peter announces Jesus as the Messiah. Yet, even after that proclamation, Peter still does not seem to connect that Jesus is God. If God tells us how something is going to work out, we should pay attention. Jesus says he needs to die at the hands of his enemies. And Peter doesn’t think, “Who are we to rebuke what God is telling us?” Instead, he tells Jesus, “There must be another way. So, right after Jesus praises Peter, telling him that he is the foundation of the Church, and that he has the keys to heaven, Jesus now says, “Get behind me, Satan!”

For me, this is all too encouraging. St. Peter, a human, went from perfection in the eyes of the Lord to a complete disappointment; all this by just opening his mouth one too many times. I, like many of you, know that we have done this on more than one occasion. Yet, like Peter, we can continue our journey, following the Lord we love as we try to walk in his ways more faithfully. One day we will be perfect, free from the burden of sin. But until that day when Christ takes us to heaven, we will be on a turbulent course with ups and downs, never truly perfect, yet never truly evil. And because of this grace that is given to all, we should extend this courtesy to all the people we meet.

This is where Love comes in. A person who has love can forgive. Love and forgiveness are healing. When we forgive another, we are offering them an opportunity to heal from the damage they caused. But that healing doesn’t end there. We are healed as well. If we can’t forgive, then we hold on to that hate, anger, or frustration. Each time we see that person, it likely feeds our inner nature, bringing up the pain we experienced. This inner nature makes us think we are better than others; smarter, stronger, or whatever our ego desires. This is the same ego that desires vengeance or payback. If we can let go, we can more easily roll with the punches, knowing that the pain being inflicted on us is not from God but someone else’s fragility.

It is through forgiveness that we starve the ego, in which it becomes weaker. As a result, we become more compassionate and easygoing, and we gain emotional intelligence, which also brings us closer to God. Often it is our ego that prevents us from following Christ more closely. We don’t want to give up control. We don’t want to wait for God to bestow God’s vengeance. We want to take the law or punishment into our own hands, much like in a lynching. This is why God tells us, “Vengeance is mine!”

We see all of this played out in our passage from Romans. We are encouraged not to outdo one another, at least in ways that give us power or control. We are encouraged to outdo others in how we honor people and in the zeal we have in serving the Lord. Maybe our energies should not focus on our gain, but on the Lord our God, not by trying to control one another, but by opening ourselves to the love around us.