On Faith
Rev. Mike Young
God’s name is
hidden from humanity"God" is not God's name. The Old Testament contains a trick that keeps us from saying (or even knowing) God's name. It is a very useful reminder of how little we humans know about God. Sadly, few people know about that trick, and it is rarely taught in Sunday school.
In ancient times, many cultures believed that if you knew the name of the god, you could invoke that god to do your will. Judaism developed a wonderful method for thwarting this arrogant temptation. When reading the Hebrew Scriptures (what Christians call the Old Testament), you may have noticed the curious typeface for "the LORD." You see it when the prophet says, "Thus sayeth the LORD." This is a translator's convention.
The word that occurs in the Hebrew is untranslatable and unspeakable because no one knows the vowels. Hebrew is written all in consonants with no a, e, i, o or u. In some ancient manuscripts the vowels are indicated by little marks under the letters: jots and tittles. The ancient Hebrew writers substituted the vowels for the Hebrew word for lord, "adonai," in place of the original vowels in God's name. The resulting word, Jehovah or Yahweh, is an intentional puzzle to conceal the original name.
I think this curious piece of biblical trivia would be appropriate for us all to remember. There is a lot we humans don't and can't know about God.
Every time we are tempted to assert that our god is the right one, and someone else's is not, that word -- LORD -- should remind us that we don't fully know what we're talking about. Even in our commitment to strive to do God's will, that word might contribute a healthy humility about what God's will may be.
In every religious experience, the LORD reminds us of a humanly impenetrable level of mystery. Everyone who demands or assumes certainty in matters of religion might well remember that our knowing is always wrong, at the very least, to the degree of being inevitably incomplete. The LORD is not through with us yet. And the fullness of that enigmatic puzzle will not fit inside the human brain.
When we are tempted to invoke the name of God to get the laws of nature suspended to our benefit, may we be reminded of the narrowness of our own point of view. The name of the LORD has been withheld from us for a reason.
And, if the power to invoke the name has been denied each of us, how much more appropriate that it should be denied the government. The second commandment, against idolatry, is about things made by human hands. But does its wisdom not apply as well to things made by human minds and imaginations? Our words, our doctrines, our books, our interpretations, the long list of our alleged certainties stumble upon that ingenious Jewish trick for reminding us what we do not, cannot, know.
For all our loyalty and commitment to our particular religious tradition, is it not conceivable that the LORD might be able to work through conceptions other than our own? The "more" that is hidden in those missing vowels might well contain Islamic, Buddhist, Hindu, even Unitarian insights and experiences. And each is at least as incomplete as the LORD reminds us our conceptions are. May the LORD be with you!
The Rev. Mike Young is the minister of First Unitarian Church.
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