What do we call you?

06Jun08

People often ask me, “what should we call you ‘Father,’ ‘Reverend,’ ‘Pastor’?  I know that there are good reasons for calling priests by those names, But I usually say “they call me… ‘Tim’.     ( for you Monty Python fans).  Really I say “you can call me whatever you feel comfortable calling me, but I’m Tim”  

I just don’t like being referred to by a title, I am a person, created in God’s Image- a dad, a husband, a son, a brother, etc, but more than a functionary.  

I was at an Emerging Church seminar today and much was made of the “Trinitarian” model of the Emerging Church, i.e., that it has the qualities of the “dance (perichoresis)  of the Creator, Sustainer, Redeemer”.   I guess I just don’t think that we do justice to God and perhaps even take his name in vain, when we don’t refer to God by the names He has given us to use- The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit.  Does God have those qualities?  Absolutely.  Is that all? Absolutely Not.  Why can’t we just use God’s given names?  I know that people have issues with their fathers, I had a great dad, not perfect, but great.  But my dad, as great as he was, was a pointer, a dark mirror, of the God who is our Father.  Perhaps it is we who should seek to be changed by God rather than trying to change God?

A further comment:

This past Sunday we looked at the covenant that God made with Abraham.  A covenant is essentially someone putting themselves on the line, saying “this is what I am going to do”.  It is a statement of personal intention and action.  In God’s case, He is saying I am “I am putting myself out there for you.”  

At the same time it is also a statement of personal vulnerability.  I am going to do this regardless of your response.  You can break my heart, you can trample on my purpose and treat me like crap, you might even kill me, or try to- but I am going to keep my word and be faithful to my covenant.

One of the stories that my father read to me and lived out in his life was Horton Hatches an Egg, by Dr. Seuss.  Horton says “I said what I meant and I meant what I said, an elephant is faithful one hundred percent.”  That is the nature of a covenant- see Genesis 15.

One of the great problems with referring to God in functional terms- Creator, Redeemer and Sanctifier, is that we take that personality away.  Sin is reduced to a trespass on a proposition, a difference of opinion, or interpretation of a point but not the breaking of a heart that has bent itself to covenant.

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