Let Your Name Be Holy (Exodus 3:1-6, 13-15)

Have you ever felt in your body that you were somewhere special?  Call it awe or reverence. You knew, deep down, that the ground beneath your feet was was special. Different. Sacred. That’s what’s happening when Moses encounters God in the burning bush. God assures Moses that he can go to Pharaoh because God promises that he will be with him. This assurance is embedded in God’s strange, wonderful, mysterious name. When Moses asks about God’s name, God replies, “I Am that I Am.” God is—present, located here, with us, among us and God is active, engaged, doing, alive. God’s name is a twofold reassurance. God promised to be with Moses and to work through Moses. God was also with us and present and working in and through the life of Jesus. Jesus kept God’s name holy. Set it apart. Among us and different from us. When Jesus teaches us to pray the Lord’s Prayer, he invites us to participate in keeping God’s name holy. “Our Father in heaven, help us keep your name holy.” And as God did with Moses, God promises to be with us and empowering us to what is impossible for us to do on our own: Reflect and reveal Christ. Show the world who God is. In the world, but not of the world. Be among, but be different.