{"id":1905,"date":"2022-08-22T07:41:12","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1905"},"modified":"2022-08-22T07:41:12","modified_gmt":"2022-08-22T11:41:12","slug":"naming-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/08\/22\/naming-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Naming God"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the month of August,\u00a0we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.\u00a0 They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d \u00a0<\/em>
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What\u2019s in a name?
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Valparaiso, Indiana, native Orville Redenbacher admitted that he was a \u201cfunny-looking farmer with a funny-sounding name.\u201d\u00a0 He also was tirelessly committed to creating the best variety of popcorn anyone had ever experienced.
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It took a while.\u00a0 Over several decades he and partner Charlie Bowman crossbred more than 30,000 corn hybrids.\u00a0 Yes, you read that right. \u00a0They conducted more than 30,000 botanical experiments.\u00a0 Their goal was to improve on the historic benchmark of popcorn kernels expanding to 20 times their size.
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In 1965 they concocted a new kernel that expanded to 40 times its size.\u00a0 It was time to go public.
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They named their new product Red Bow \u2013 a nod to Charlie\u2019s last name and Orville\u2019s signature bow ties.
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Sales, however, were flat.\u00a0 The new popcorn cost twice as much as other brands.\u00a0 No major company chose to invest.\u00a0 Bowman and Redenbacher were reduced to selling their creation out of the back of a station wagon.
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That\u2019s when they hired a Chicago marketing executive to help them with branding.\u00a0 As historian Rick Beyer tells the story, they paid $13,000 for this advice:\u00a0 Name the popcorn after the funny-looking farmer.<\/em>
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\u201cThey came up with the same name my mother did for free,\u201d the funny-looking farmer later said.\u00a0 Orville Redenbacher\u2019s Gourmet Popping Corn, despite its price, immediately became the top-selling brand of America\u2019s favorite treat.
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Names are not trivial.\u00a0 They connote something of a person\u2019s (or a product\u2019s) identity, worth, and reputation.\u00a0 Marketers are well aware of this.
\u00a0
Any car can get you to the grocery, but \u201cVolvo\u201d means safety.\u00a0 <\/em>Every watch tells time, but \u201cRolex\u201d means expensive quality.\u00a0 <\/em>Any soft drink can slake your thirst, but only \u201cCoca-Cola\u201d is The Real Thing<\/em> \u2013 even though Coke hasn\u2019t used their most famous advertising slogan for decades now.\u00a0 \u00a0
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And then there\u2019s God.
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God\u2019s name represents his reputation.\u00a0 His character.\u00a0 His intentions.\u00a0 \u201cO Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name<\/u><\/em> in all the earth!\u201d (Psalm 8:1).\u00a0 \u201cOur Father in heaven, hallowed be your name<\/u><\/em>\u201d (Matthew 6:5). \u00a0We \u201challow\u201d God\u2019s name by affirming that he has no rivals in the cosmos.\u00a0
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Things get interesting when we consider the names associated with Jesus.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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Jesus<\/em> (a first century rendering of the name Joshua<\/em>) means \u201cthe Lord saves.\u201d\u00a0 Christ<\/em> derives from the Hebrew word Messiah<\/em>, which means \u201cAnointed One\u201d \u2013 that is, the true king.\u00a0 Having launched the book of Ephesians with a single, spectacular run-on sentence (verses 3 through 14), Paul the pastor now downshifts into verse 15:\u00a0\u201cFor this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God\u2019s people\u2026\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>
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Paul calls Jesus \u201cLord.\u201d\u00a0 In fact, he calls Jesus \u201cLord\u201d 180 times in his letters.\u00a0
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This is a very big deal.\u00a0 In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the word kyrios<\/em> (\u201cLord\u201d) applies only to the one true God.\u00a0 Now, in the New Testament, the same word describes Jesus.\u00a0 Does this mean Paul is saying that Jesus is the one true God?
\u00a0
It took the brightest and best Christian thinkers more than three centuries to formulate an answer to that question.\u00a0 The result was the doctrine of the Trinity \u2013 the recognition that the Creator God is one with regard to essence, but three when it comes to personhood (Father, Son, and Spirit).\u00a0
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Just a few years after his resurrection, Jesus\u2019 first followers \u2013 and Paul in particular \u2013 were not only using God-language to describe Jesus.\u00a0 They were using Jesus-language to describe God.\u00a0
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This matters more than we can imagine.\u00a0 \u00a0
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It\u2019s theologically correct to say that Jesus = God.\u00a0 But the real revolution happens when we turn that equation around: God = Jesus.\u00a0
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Most of us would admit that it\u2019s hard to picture God.\u00a0 Should we bring to mind a force-field, a king sitting on a throne, a blinding light, or an old man with a flowing beard like Michelangelo\u2019s portrait of the Creator on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?\u00a0 \u00a0
\u00a0
Jesus gives God a face.\u00a0 How does God respond to those who are hungry and poor, and to people who are crying out for help?\u00a0 Read the Gospel accounts of how Jesus feeds the crowds and heals the sick.\u00a0 What does God think about those religious stuffed shirts who only seem to care about keeping the rules?\u00a0 Check out the ways that Jesus gives grace to people who are spiritually demoralized, but challenges the smugness of the Pharisees.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0
When you want to think about God, picture Jesus.
\u00a0
In the words of biblical scholar N.T. Wright, he\u2019s \u201cthe one in whom the identity of Israel\u2019s God is revealed, so that one cannot now speak of this God without thinking of Jesus, or of Jesus without thinking of the one God.\u201d
\u00a0
By calling Jesus \u201cLord,\u201d Paul is elevating him to the highest possible place.\u00a0
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As Orville Redenbacher learned, when we get the name right, good things follow.
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And when we trust the right Name, life itself can become a treat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the month of August,\u00a0we\u2019re taking a close look at 23 verses of the New Testament.\u00a0 They comprise Ephesians chapter one, which paints one of the Bible\u2019s most comprehensive pictures of what it means for ordinary people to be \u201cin Christ.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0What\u2019s in a name?\u00a0Valparaiso, Indiana, native Orville Redenbacher admitted that he was a \u201cfunny-looking farmer with a funny-sounding name.\u201d\u00a0… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[480,491,492],"class_list":["post-1905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-ephesians","tag-gods-names","tag-trinity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1905"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1905\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}