The Value of a Name
The Value of a Name
The Appalachian Lutheran League founded a preaching station on August 10th in Gallipolis, OH, a small city on the river bank of the Ohio River which separates the Buckeye State from West Virginia. After the service of Prayer and Preaching concluded, all twenty-something folks present sat down for a meal. One of the main courses of conversation pertained to the pronouncement of the word Gallipolis. Was it pronounced Gall-i-police or Gall-i-pol-is (the “o” as in “off”)? It was concluded by those native to Gallia county that those who were from the city
pronounced it the former; those who lived in the county the latter. This set off numerous other examples, such as, was the town of Patriot, also in Gallia county, pronounced Pay-triot or Patriot?
On the one hand, however you pronounce either name, everyone will know where you are referring to. On the other hand, it’s important particularly for those who live there, that one pronounces it correctly. This is because there is great value to a name. It’s personal. Personal names separate humanity from the rest of creation. Animals don’t give each other personal names, but my children have yet to capture a toad, snake, or lizard that did not receive a name within minutes of it’s captivity.
When Moses asked God for His name on Mount Sinai, God simply replied, “I am who I am” (Ex 3:14). This “name”, which more describes God’s eternal attribute, was written down only with the consonants Y-H-W-H (this name appears with the capital letters LORD in your Bibles). The reader needs to supply the vowel sounds. Is it pronounced Yahweh? Yahwah?
Yehovah? A lot of people have added letters to their name doing research on this very topic. We may not ever know the proper pronunciation for absolute certain. As the case of Gallipolis demonstrated, perhaps there’s room for more than one!
We know it can be dangerous to misuse God’s name. The Lord says in the 10 Commandments, “Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain” (Ex 20:7). The fear of misuse, however, doesn’t mean we should avoid it. In fact, the Bible tells us TO USE it. “God the LORD” says in Psalm 50:15, “Call upon Me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” How can one call upon God without using His name? Do we just say, “Hey, you, I need help” and assume the holy Triune God knows we are talking to Him? On the one hand He does. He is omniscient. He knows all things. But that’s not the point. When we pray, we direct our petitions to God the Father in the name of God the Son with the help of God the Holy Spirit. Our God is personal to us, so we call Him by name. We are baptized into His name after all, for Matthew 28:19 teaches, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
Calling upon God’s name whenever we are in any trouble, when we pray, praise, or give Him thanks is part of the life of the Christian as the 2nd Commandment teaches. The value of a name confesses we have a personal relationship with those whom we address. When we meet new people or visit new places, one of the most important things to do is learn their names. It shows you care. God knows us all by name. It’s therefore better to mispronounce – or even misspeak – a name than not to say a name at all. It’s offensive to me, for example, when someone does not even try to say my last name. It tells me, “You don’t even care to try to learn it.” As God called you by name in Holy Baptism, so also we call Him by name in prayer and praise. We owe it to our neighbors to do the same. It demonstrates a personal love and care for them. Though the image of God that we have been created in has been smeared by sin, there is still something special about man’s name. Adam, whose name means “Man”, may have been the one to name the
rest of creation (Gen 2:20), but he received his name from God (Gen 2:18). When you name something you claim it. When you claim it, you claim responsibility to care for it. What great value there is in a name! So, use them. “Hey, Mark!”; “Praying for you, Mary!” Don’t ever let the fear of misuse, i.e., getting the name “wrong”, stop you from trying!
In Christ,
Pastor Hromowyk