Why No Word for God, including "God" Ultimately Works

In the moment, you don’t even notice it.   You think.  I’ve made this wonderfully compassionate comment.  I just said something profound and insightful.  But then it comes, that awful moment.  You realize, your insight wasn’t that profound.   Your comment wasn’t that compassionate. It might have been even painfully embarrassing, like what I said when Sally, a member of the church I served in New York, shared about her husband, John and his prostate. 

In that congregation, you see, people shared prayer concerns during worship.   And that morning, Sally shared how John was having his prostate removed.   Now when Sally said prostate, I heard in my mind, gall bladder.   So, in my kindest pastoral voice, I said.  “Sally, don’t worry, my mother had that surgery last year.  She is doing great.”    Now Sally did look puzzled.   I did hear some laughter. 

But I still had no clue.   Only after worship when someone came smiling up to me and asked.  “Your mother has a prostate, really?” did I get it.     I, Kennedy had made a bonehead move.  

Fortunately, everyone laughed, including my mom.   But I haven’t always been so lucky.  A few weeks ago, I made a comment after a sermon on a particular provocative image of God.   I implied that anyone who was unduly disturbed by my talk could be guilty of idolatry.   I know what I intended by the comment.  But I still wish I hadn’t have said it.  It didn’t come across so much as insightful or profound as it did a bit smug and self- righteous.

And not because what I was saying wasn’t true.  It was.   It just wasn’t true enough.  Here’s the truth.  It doesn’t matter what word you use for God.  Every one of them can become an idol.   But when you realize that, it opens you up.  It opens you to see everything, yourself, this world, and above all God as more wondrous and amazing than you could have imagined.   How does that happen?  In this story, God shows you the way.   Let’s hear what God has to say.

1 Kings 19:9-18

     

How do you talk about God without making God into an idol?   In this story, God tells you.  God shows you that no matter what word you use for God, every word will fall short.   And when you know that, then who God is becomes bigger, grander, and more beautiful than ever before. 

Now, Elijah learns that very thing ironically after God gives him his great moment of triumph that then quickly turns into his greatest defeat.    How did that happen?  Let me give me some of the backstory.    Elijah served as a prophet during a time when a pagan god named Baal had become the god of the ruling elite.   The king, Ahab, had married, Jezebel, a daughter of the king of Phoenicia, who also served as a priest for the Phoenician gods, Baal and Asherah.   And Jezebel brought with her these gods.    And King Ahab bought into them hook, line, and sinker.  He built a temple for Baal smack in the middle of the capital city and supported hundreds of priests to staff it. 

So, Elijah called for a public showdown between Baal and the God of Israel.   Here were the rules.  The hundreds of prophets of Baal got an altar to sacrifice on.  Elijah got one too.   But neither could light the altar.  Only the Lord or Baal could do that.   Elijah even let the prophets of Baal go first.  But nothing they did worked.  They danced. They cut themselves.  They cried out.   But no fire.

Elijah was loving it.   He taunted them.   Hmm, perhaps Baal went on a trip.  May he fell asleep.   He even said.  Perhaps he is deep in thought (as the translators put it), but what he really said was; maybe he’s gone to the bathroom.    After hours, the priests had to give in. 

Then it was Elijah’s turn.   And Elijah had a flair for the dramatic.  He asked for water to be poured all over the altar, enough to create a moat of water around it.  Then he called on God, and boom God answered.   God sent flames that destroyed everything, not only the animals and the wood, but the water and the stones.   

And when that happened, the audience of Israelites that had been watching went nuts.    And Elijah took full advantage.   He told them.  “Kill these prophets.  Don’t let any of them escape.”    And they did.

But then, nothing else happened.  Ahab still remained king.  The temple to Baal still stood.  And Elijah had to flee for his life, from a very angry Queen Jezebel, who wanted revenge. 

And after a long journey along which God gave Elijah food and rest, he ended up at Horeb, the mountain of God a very depressed, a very discouraged prophet.   That’s where we take up the story as Elijah tells his sad tale.  Here I am, God, I’m the only one left. 

But then God shows up, but not immediately.  Before God shows up, God sends three demonstrations of power, a mighty wind, an earthquake, and then fire.   But in each one, God doesn’t show up.   Only in the end, in a moment of sheer silence does Elijah sense God’s presence.   What is God doing?

To get that, you need to go back to the story where it all began.  After, God sends the fire.  Elijah brings some fire of his own.   He orders the Israelites to slaughter the prophets of Baal.   It seemed the right thing to do.  Cut this spiritual cancer out by cutting down its prophets.  But is that what God wanted?   From what happens next, the Bible implies, maybe, not so much. 

First, his prophet massacre doesn’t defeat anything.  It only incites more resistance from King Ahab and his wife, Jezebel.   Violence doesn’t defeat violence.  It just creates more violence.   But more importantly, Elijah doesn’t find himself full of joy.  Instead, he finds himself collapsing into despair.  He falls into the deepest depression of his life.  

And God is saying.  You are depressed, Elijah, because you don’t know who I am.  You think that if something impressive or amazing isn’t happening, then God can’t be there.  You think God only shows up like that.   But, God says, don’t limit me.   Impressive things can be happening, and I am not in them at all.   On the other hand, even in sheer silence, I will show up.   Basically, God is saying.   Elijah, don’t assume you know who I am or what I want.  I am always bigger than you think.

And if Elijah doubted that.  God then tells him that not only is he not the only believer, but God has thousands of others, Elijah doesn’t have a clue about.   Then God gives stunning marching orders. He tells Elijah not only to anoint a new king and prophet in Israel, but to go and anoint a new king for a pagan country, Aram (what we now call Syria).   God is saying.  I’m so big that I will even work through a pagan king, Elijah.     

You see.   In all of these orders, God is saying not only to Elijah but to everyone.  I am always bigger than you think.  That’s exactly why God shows up here in silence.  Not only will no act, no matter how miraculous, tell you all that I am.   No word will either.   When it comes to me, God says, words will always fail.

Now, when you think about it, doesn’t that make sense?   Don’t words fail in describing you?  You could describe me in any number of ways, by my name, Kennedy or with words like pastor, father, husband, bald guy, Southerner, lover of fried chicken, the list could go on.   But I don’t care how many words you came up with or even I came up with, it still doesn’t fully describe me.  It’s why I hate when people put labels on other folks, and act as if that label defines them.   No label defines anyone, not even a whole bunch of labels.  Each of you, each of us, encompass far more than that. 

Not if that’s true of you, how much more true is that of God?   No word, no matter how powerful, can ever describe God, not even the word God.   That’s why the first name, God gave to the world through Moses will simply, this: I am who I am. 

Over the last several weeks, we’ve spent some time looking at images of God from the scripture.  The Bible has described God as clothing, as a smell, as fire, as a mother even.   In each of those images, you get a glimpse of God, but you definitely don’t get the full picture.   No words can do that, not even the central words we will use in just a moment, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In fact, those words describe something that essentially can’t be described, a God that exists as a Trinity, one God in three persons, a living relationship that is God.   If that befuddles your brain, it should.     If God could be comprehended, then God wouldn’t be God.   And the very difficulty of those words is what makes them central.    

And we do still need to use words. After all, no one word may encompass you, but if someone wants to talk to you, they have to say something, right?   And words do matter.  Some words for you describe you.  Some words do not.   And not every word describes God.   For example, if you call God, Baal, then you and I are probably not seeing God in the same way.  And that’s important.   

Still, no word, no matter how wonderful, describes God fully.  But that doesn’t mean that you can’t know who God is.   Obviously, Elijah did.  When God showed up, Elijah recognized God’s presence.   What did he recognize?   He recognized the God who in his despair, didn’t condemn or judge him, but fed him and forgave him.  He recognized the God who loved him.   And you have more than Elijah had.  For God showed up in an even more unexpected place than silence.  God showed up in a human being.  No, more than that, God who showed up on a cross, where in Jesus he gave up everything to bring you home.   And that’s what you need to know most, that this God, who is beyond words, loves you in that same way.  This God loves you with a love so infinite, so beautiful that no words will ever adequately describe it.   And what is more wondrous or amazing than that?