Carrying God's name
Clare L. Hickman
St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Ferndale
October 3, 2026—Proper 22A
Exodus 20:1-4, 7-9, 12-20; Matthew 21:33-46
(the word study in this sermon leans heavily on the work of The Bible Project podcast, episode 522 “3rd Commandment: Do Not Carry the Name in Vain”)
(To borrow a phrase from Bill Clinton) It’s the responsibility, stupid!
It’s about what’s been given into our hands,
what we’ve been commissioned to do.
It’s about the things and the people we’ve been called upon to care for.
And it’s about the ways in which we neglect or even betray that responsibility.
Jesus pulls zero punches in the story he tells.
And despite the ways in which the Church has insisted that
this parable is simply a victory lap for Christianity as it replaces Judaism,
if we pay attention, the blow still lands.
Because any and ALL religious systems can drift into neglect.
Warped by greed, seduced by ease,
we lose track of our core values
and forget the responsibility we have been given.
Which is no more and no less than to carry the name of God to the world.
It’s right there in the Ten Commandments,
though we’ve obscured that meaning a bit, over the years.
But it’s there: You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain.
Honestly, it’s one that we tend to gloss over a little,
to treat as though it’s one of the smaller asks in the list.
“You shall not take the Name of the Lord in vain,”
has entered our psyches as a prohibition on saying things like,
“Oh my God,” or perhaps, “I swear to God.”
The translation we heard today was,
“You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the LORD your God,
for the LORD will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.”
Which gives it a bit more heft, but still,
A priest friend pointed me toward an episode of the Bible Project podcast
that goes through the commandment word by word,
connecting it to the overarching mission of the people of God:
to carry the name of God to the world.
They started with the word, name. Ha shem, in Hebrew,
which is how the Jewish people often refer to God: The Name.
Which makes sense, given the close connection
between the name of God and the actual person of God.
We often use it similarly:
If your name is erased from history,
it is you who have been forgotten.
Or, think about the phrase,
“You’ve dragged my name through the mud.”
Your name is your reputation;
it is what people think of you because of what you do;
it is the way they feel when you are mentioned.
The idea of name is also tied up with ownership and identification.
If you give someone your name (marriage, adoption),
you are claiming them, taking responsibility for them.
You might even be taking legal possession of them.
But you are certainly identifying them with you,
tying yourselves together somehow.
God has given us His name,
has identified us with Herself,
has put Their reputation in our hands.
Because we carry the name of God.
That’s what the verb in the commandment is:
“You shall not carry the name of the Lord in vain.”
Nasa, which literally means to lift up and have in your hands.
We have God’s name, God’s reputation, God’s authority in our hands,
and the commandment tells us that we need to be VERY careful how we use it.
Because it is a sacred task, a trust, to carry a name.
When Aaron enters the holy of holies,
he literally carries the names of the twelve tribes with him,
inscribed on his shoulders and breastplate (Exodus 28).
It is written onto him that he is representing the tribes to God.
In turn, the people have God’s name laid upon them,
so that they represent God to the world.
It’s a risky move on God’s part,
to put the divine reputation in human hands,
and our record is patchy.
The prophet Ezekiel despairs of the ways
in which Israel has profaned God’s name.
How? By mistreating each other (“devouring each other,” as the text puts it),
sacrificing their children, and following other gods (Ezekiel 36).
When God finally returns them to the land,
their task is to restore the holiness of God’s name,
by returning to the commandments of Torah, to the ways of God.
Which is all to say,
we are fully capable of ruining God’s reputation.
Think of the way in which the name of Allah
(which is really just the Arabic word that means God)
has been profaned by those who carry out suicide bombings.
To do such things “in his name” is to borrow his authority,
is to claim his approval of what they are doing.
And in this, they profane the name of Allah to the nations.
Many of whom now think that such acts are the essence of Islam,
are the will of Allah.
Christians have our own history of the same:
holy wars, past and present, not to mention The Inquisition.
And on a different level, as a Christian in this country,
I am often confronted by those whose impression of God and the Church
has been wholly shaped by those who claim the name of Jesus
but speak of nothing but condemnation of various sexual behaviors
God shall not acquit those who misuse his name.
Those who misrepresent God.
Those who use God to enrich themselves, to justify themselves,
to dominate or oppress
Those, in other words, who carry God’s name in vain.
Which brings us to the word shav.
In the psalms we see it suggest lying and deceitfulness,
which tallies with the idea of using God’s name and reputation
as a reference for an oath you have no intention or ability to live up to.
To swear by God to tell the truth, and then to lie,
is to have taken God’s name in vain in this way.
And I would argue that slapping God’s name on your war
is an even greater offense of this kind.
At the same time, we translate shav as “in vain,”
because it carries the implication of emptiness,
of something that does not fulfill its purpose,
something that has little significance.
And there’s a commandment that’s worth sinking our teeth into:
Do not carry the name of God as if were something with little significance!
Do not neglect the purpose for which God laid God’s name upon you!
Our purpose is to represent God to the world;
we are a chance for the people around us to get a glimpse of God.
There is great power in this,
and we must not mis-use it,
in any of the ways I’ve already mentioned.
But we should also take care not to dis-use it, not to neglect it.
This, I think, is the problem we find at the progressive end of the church.
We are shy about claiming the name of God
as the inspiration for what we do,
of Jesus as the power that animates our work.
I’m not sure if it’s that we are embarrassed,
or that we’re leery of claiming some kind of special status,
or that we simply don’t have the words
to connect our values to the work of the Kingdom.
But we tend not to do it
That, and sometimes we just allow ourselves to be distracted.
We might not be using the name of God to condemn or demonize others,
but we do let ourselves slide into self-indulgence and inaction,
paying more attention to the wants and needs of our own lives
than the responsibility of carrying God’s name to the world.
Which means we are carrying it lightly,
as though it is of little significance.
Which means that we’ve forgotten
that people learn about God from watching us (who claim the name of Jesus).
That it is, in fact, our purpose, our mission, our responsibility.
We shall not take the name of the Lord our God in vain.
With God’s help, may it be so. Amen.