SUNDAY JUNE 2, 2024 - HOLY IS YOUR NAME
June 2, 2024
Deborah Laforet
Holy Is Your Name
Let us pray. May the words from my lips and the meditations of my heart be guided by
your Spirit and be words of wisdom for this day. Amen.
Friends, the news I have to share with you this morning is grim. There are people
walking around, friends, family, neighbours, who don’t feel loved, who don’t feel worthy or
deserving of love. They carry shame. Many of them wear a mask, hiding their true selves from
the world. Some have hardened their hearts or numbed their bodies in order not to feel the hurt
and the pain they hold. We may be able to name them, but some are hidden so well, we would
be shocked to know it. Maybe you are one of these masked, hurting, pain-filled people.
Our society does not do well with expressing emotions. We’re good with ideas, with big
thoughts, with words, with logic and reason, but when it comes to feelings and emotions, tears,
anger, sadness, grief, the illogical and sensitive, we are uncomfortable. We prefer not to see it,
except maybe in art - music, a movies, a painting. Humans are a combination of both reason and
emotion. Ignoring one over the other makes us unbalanced and unhealthy, but we tend to hold
back our tears, save our emotions for therapy, suppress our feelings, sometimes with drugs and
alcohol, work or busyness, and sometimes we just shut down.
When you receive an email from me, there is a quote at the bottom. I’ve often thought of
changing it up and trying something new, but the words still speak to me and sometimes to those
who receive it. The quote is by Dr. Howard Thurman, theologian and civil rights leader. It
reads, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because
what the world needs is people who have come alive.”
Grace read for us part of the Magnificat, a song by a Palestinian, Jewish woman in
Galilee - Mary, the mother of Jesus. This song was sung about six months into her pregnancy, on
a visit to her cousin, Elizabeth, who was about to have a child of her own. This song and these
words are from one who is alive. She might be scared of this gift from God within her womb.
She might worry about this Son of God that she is carrying and what the future might hold for
them, but she was also thankful and full of praise. Her soul, she says, magnifies her god, and her
spirit rejoices. She has been chosen to carry this child and she feels blessed. Now, if you read
on, and please do (chapter two of the gospel of Luke), she is rejoicing in a god who brings the
mighty down low and uplifts the lowly, and who scatters the rich and brings together the poor.
I think Mary was a woman of strength and imagination. I think she knew she was loved,
new she was worthy of being loved. She knew that God had chosen her, a lowly servant, but one
basking in the blessedness of her god. She is one of these people Thurman mentioned that the
world needs, one who had come alive. This song that she shared with her cousin and to all who
would listen, shared that her god is amazing and magnificent and that her life magnifies that.
Holy is the name of her god.
Those of us in the United Church have a difficult time making these kinds of
proclamations. You might say we’re shy. You might say we’re humble. You might say that
we’re afraid of being compared to right-wing evangelicals. But might it also be that our faith is
not as strong as Mary’s. Might it be that we struggle with the knowledge that we are loved,
wholly and completely, by the Almighty, and that we magnify God’s magnificence?
The second reading we heard, from Psalm 139, means so much to so many faithful
people in the LGBTQIA+ movement, because it's a message of being known and loved, from the
very beginning of life. The psalmist cries out, “You created my inmost being and stitched me
together in my mother’s womb...I thank you for the wonder of myself, for the wonder of your
works - my soul knows it well.” The psalmist proclaims, “How precious your thoughts are to
me, O God! How impossible to number them! I could not more count them than I could count
the sand; and suppose I could? You would still be with me!” This is a song of praise with words
of gratitude for such an abundant and wondrous God, from one who magnifies that wonder.
For one who is born attracted to the same sex and told they are immoral, sinful, perverse -
for one who realizes they don’t identify with the sex stated on their birth certificate and are told
they are an abomination, that they are a perversion, that they also are sinful and immoral - for
one who doesn’t identify with either sex or gender and professes they are non-binary and want to
be recognized with the pronouns “they” and “them” and are told “that’s nice, dear,” and ignored,
or are told it’s too difficult, or it’s just a phase, or are told that they are sinful and immoral - for
all those who are handed bible passages without context or historical critique that judge them and
and provide said proof that they are wrong, that they are broken, and that they are against God
and therefore not loved by God until they give up these immoral ways - to all of these people,
passages like psalm 139, or like the love story between David and Jonathan, or the story of
Joseph and his princess dress, or the stories of eunuchs, the gender misfits of the bible, these
passages show that even thousands of years ago, people struggled with their orientation and
identity in a world of hetero, cis-gendered people. Knowing they are not alone and that they are
stitched together by God and loved unconditionally can be a source of relief, can be a lifeline in
their faith, and can me a source of connection and affirmation. If we can use the bible, not as a
weapon, but as a symbol of love, with the goal of loving ourselves and our neighbours, we can
turn this book from one of judgement and hate and condemnation, to one of love, compassion,
and human kindness. Imagine!
We live in a broken world. A world where genocide can happen because we don’t see the
sacredness in all life, human and otherwise. A world where people are judged for being different
from the majority. A world where people in a land of abundance go hungry and live without
shelter. A world where people can be cruel and not be held accountable. A world where
privilege is based on the colour of our skin, our abilities, our gender, our sexuality, and the
amount of money we have in the bank. Much of this brokenness is because we live in a world
where people have been hurt and are hurting, where they feel they do not deserve love and who
can’t find it within themselves to see the divine, the sacred, within and in others.
If we can affirm people for who they are, if we can affirm that Christ lives in each one of
us and that it is not our job to judge and change people to our liking, we might create people who
can profess the holiness of God’s name, who can look upon this universe as a place of safety,
sanctuary, and unconditional love, who can look upon themselves and everyone else with
compassion and kindness. We might create people who magnify God’s awesomeness,
magnificence, and wonder, and who come alive, and with joy sing of the sacredness of all
creation.
Every Sunday, in the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, we say, “Hallowed be your name.”
God’s name is sacred and sanctified, blessed and holy. Can we truly say this with authenticity if
we cannot see the blessedness and holiness in the those around us? Can we profess in a sacred
and sanctified God, in whose image we say we are created, if we can’t see ourselves as sacred
and sanctified? To truly live into these words in the prayer Jesus taught us, to be able to say,
“Hallowed be your name,” maybe we first need to be able to see the holiness in ourselves.
I started by saying I had grim news to share. I’ll end by saying that there is also good
news. We live in an abundant and beautiful world, where healing is happening all around us and
where people are coming alive. And this is what at the world needs. Maybe like Mary, we can
one day say, with joy and with wonder, “My soul magnifies you, O God, and my spirit rejoices in
you, my Saviour, for you have looked upon us with favour and all generations will call us
blessed. For you, the Almighty One, have done great things for us, and holy, or hallowed, is your
name.” Thanks be to God. Amen.
Luke 1:2-4 - Lord’s Prayer series
(Introduce yourself.)
This morning, I’m going to read two short passages. The first one is from the
second chapter of Luke and it’s one we often hear during Advent. I will read four
verses from what is commonly called Mary’s Magnificat, a song of praise for God,
which connects with our theme on the Lord’s Prayer as we talk about the
sacredness of God’s name. I’m reading verses 46 to 49.
46 And Mary said,
“My soul magnifies you, O God,
47 and my spirit rejoices in you, my Saviour,
48 for you have looked with favour upon your lowly servant,.
and from this day forward all generations will call me blessed,
49 For you, the Almighty One, have done great things for me,
and holy is your name. (Inclusive Bible)
Our second passage connects to our celebration of Pride. Many in the gender
identity and sexual orientation equality movement have held up psalm 139 as an
affirming passage, one that holds each person awesomely and wonderfully made,
right from the womb. I’m reading verses 13 to 18.
13 You created my inmost being
and stitched me together in my mother’s womb.
14 For all these mysteries, I thank you-
for the wonder of myself,
for the wonder of your works -
my soul knows it well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you,
while I was being made in that secret place,
knitted together in the depths of the earth;
16 your eyes saw my body even there.
All of my days
were written in your book
all of them planned,
before even the first of them came to be.
17 How precious your thoughts are to me, O God!
How impossible to number them!
18 I could no more count them than I could count the sand;
But suppose I could? You would still be with me!
May the Spirit guide our understanding of this sacred scripture. Amen.
Genesis chapter 2, verse 7
Then God formed the human from the dust of the ground and
breathed into the nostrils the breath of life, and the human
became a living being.
Exodus chapter 3, verse 2
There the angel of God appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out
of a bush; Moses looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was
not consumed.
Exodus chapter 13, verse 21
The Holy went in front of the [Israelite people] in a pillar of
cloud by day, to lead them along the way, and in a pillar of fire
by night, to give them light, so that they might travel by day and
by night.
Exodus chapter 19, verse 18
Now all of Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the
Holy had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the
smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently.
Psalm 33, verse 6
By the word of God the heavens were made
and all their host by the breath of God’s mouth.