The Tetragrammaton
My Dear People,
Over our heads, every Sunday, hovers the Tetragrammaton.
A gilt Tetragrammaton, no less, set in a triangle, which in turn is set in a gilt sunburst. Among the many notable features of our church's architecture, it is one of the most distinctive and striking.
"Tetragrammaton" is the Greek for "[word of] four letters." "YHWH" are the four letters, standing for the Hebrew "Yahweh," the name of God, as given at the Burning Bush; "Yahweh," in turn, being the Hebrew for "I AM WHO I AM."
By ancient tradition the name of God (YHWH) has in and of itself been considered very holy. (See the Third Commandment.) By tradition most Jews do not even speak the name itself (YHWH), but instead speak of the LORD ("Adonai," in Hebrew).
While certainly respecting the Jewish tradition of not speaking God's name, we Christians have not followed that particular custom, feeling free to speak God's name, albeit always with reverence, presumably.
With all of this in the way of introduction, I must say, I never expected anyone to use the words "YHWH" and "Miss America contest" in the same sentence. And yet I did, week before last.
Walter Brueggemann, one of the most respected Old Testament scholars alive today, was speaking about the Twenty-ninth Psalm, the psalm for this coming Sunday, when he summed up the whole text, saying, "It's like a Miss America contest that YHWH wins!"
(There was, in my memory anyway, a collective, delighted gasp from the couple of hundred people in the room.)
The Twenty-ninth Psalm is indeed one of those classic praise psalms, celebrating YHWH's dominion over the whole of the cosmos.
Of everything that Brueggemann said that morning, aside from his cheeky Miss America reference, what will stay with me most is when he drew our attention to where YWHW's throne is set:
The Lord sits enthroned above the flood;
The LORD sits enthroned as King for evermore.
How about that? A throne sitting up above the waters of chaos.
As Brueggemann said, "The problem is not guilt, it is chaos!"
By "the problem," he meant the problem for most of us, if not all of us.
There is, indeed, much chaos in this world of ours, and, truth be told, in our lives. Wars. Terrorism. The Economy. For starters.
But, in the face of it all, Brueggemann reminds us: the God who, "in the beginning," brought order from chaos; that very same God is still with us; he is devoted to us; and he reigns over the chaos of our day.
The psalm closes as follows,
The LORD shall give strength to his people;
The LORD shall give his people the blessing of peace.
"The God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus," as the Letter to the Hebrews puts it; he is with us in the face of it all, bringing life from death, bringing order from chaos, bringing healing from hurt, bringing hope where there was despair, bringing into existence things that have never been before. That is the God we proclaim. That is the God who reigns over our church and over our lives. That is the God we worship every Sunday and every day. That is the God who is with us, every day, and every moment, of our lives.
From under the golden
sunburst,
your brother in
Christ,
Wallace+
