Making a Name for Yourself?

The world pressures us to make a name for ourselves. Pad your resume. Show off your feats on social media. Climb the corporate ladder. Seek awards and accolades. 

But one episode in the Bible in which people were collectively working to make a name for themselves didn’t end so well. That happened at a place called Babel where people were building a great tower as a monument to their own achievement. But the Lord put a stop to it. He confused their languages and thwarted their designs at making a name for themselves apart from Him. (See the full story in Genesis 11:1-9.)

This past Sunday, we resumed our summer series on the Ten Commandments by focusing on God’s name. The Second Commandment teaches us, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God” (Exodus 20:7). This Commandment shows that God cares about how His name is used among us. After all, He’s both our Maker and our Savior! Why would we want to do anything to dishonor His great name?

God reveals Himself to us most personally by taking on our human flesh and assuming a human name, the name of Jesus. This name was revealed by angelic decree as the name which Mary and Joseph were to give to her son, “for He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). 

The name Jesus means “the Lord saves.” Every time we hear that name, we’re meant to be reminded that that is why Jesus came for us – to save us from our sins, from hell, from hopelessness, and to save us for an eternity in the joy of His presence!

Because of Jesus, we don’t have to make a name for ourselves in the eyes of the world. He sets us free! We don’t need to live under the tyranny of what other people think of us and our achievements because we know what our God thinks of us!  In Jesus, God sees you as His new creation, bearing the name of His Son Jesus Christ to whom you now belong, by Baptism and belief in Him. 

God has made a new name for you! He makes you His Christian, calling you by the name that is above all names, that of His Son, your Savior Jesus Christ.

Don’t stress about making a name for yourself in this short life on earth. Instead, thank God for giving you access to Him through Jesus, so that you can call on His saving name, and joyfully bear His name as His beloved son or daughter in Christ.

"The Hub"

What does a Ferris Wheel - much less any wheel - have to do with the Ten Commandments? 

This summer in our Sunday services, we're focusing on the meaning of God's commandments. The First Commandment gets the most detail in the original passage. The Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20:1-17, but the First Commandment is the focus of the first six verses.

The First Commandment is this: "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3). Martin Luther offers this explanation of the meaning of the First Commandment: "We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things." This First Commandment is the foundation for each of the individual commandments that follow. Commandments 2-10 spell out the most important ways in which we are meant to fear, love, and trust in God in our daily lives. 

This is why I think about the First Commandment as the "hub" of the commandments. Looking at the Ferris Wheel above, you see a clear hub at the center. Connected to it are the spokes which form the connecting structure of the wheel. (You see the same structure on a bicycle wheel or other type of wheel.) A commandment such as the Eighth Commandment is one of those "spokes" among the Ten Commandments. By teaching us that we are not to speak falsely against our neighbors, God is first teaching us one of the ways in which we fear, love, and trust Him. 

The point is that the Lord our God is the center of the commandments, but more than that, He's the center of everything: our lives, the church, and the whole creation! 

However, an honest assessment of our lives reveals that we have treated God as anything but the center. The commandments are necessary and good in teaching us about the true God and His will for our lives, but they will always show our sins and shortcomings. 

Ultimately, our hope is not found in our level of obedience to God’s laws but in the One who fulfilled the whole Law of God in our place – His Son, Jesus Christ. Trusting Him for forgiveness and salvation, we make it our aim as Christians to fear, love, and trust our God who is much more than the Lawgiver. He is our Savior. God be praised for that!

The Pastor's Windshield article for June 2023

What do you think of when you hear about the Ten Commandments? Are they a relic from the past? Truths that need to be recovered? Oppressive rules? 

In the view of many people, the Ten Commandments represent a harsh, judgmental, impersonal God who is basically a cosmic killjoy, wanting to stamp out all the fun in life by telling us not to do all the things that we want to do. But is this really the case?

What about you? Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with the Ten Commandments, or it has been so long since you’ve looked closely at them that you’ve largely forgotten their details.

Whatever your first impressions, level of familiarity, or past experiences, I want to invite you to explore the Commandments with me on Sundays this summer at St. Matthew. On June 18th (Father’s Day), I’ll have an introductory message about the Ten Commandments with specific focus on the context in which the Lord first taught these words to His people. Together, we’ll see that the Commandments have much to teach us about God our Father and about our identity as His children.

Now it is true that the Ten Commandments are mostly arranged to state what we shall not to – “You shall not steal” (Ex. 20:15), for example. And, you shouldn’t misuse the Lord’s name, be unfaithful to your spouse, tell lies or spread gossip about your neighbor, and so on. 

These are prohibitions. We need them, even though our human nature is inclined to resist prohibitions. For a historical example, think of the Prohibition era in American history. Prohibiting the sale of alcohol was well-intentioned by some, but vehemently resisted by many around the country and subverted by the widespread production of homebrewed alcohol. 

We naturally don’t like to be prohibited from doing whatever things we might feel like doing. We love our independence, and yet, as creatures, we are dependent upon our Creator for life and all that fills and sustains it! Everything that we are and have and anticipate comes only from His generous, fatherly hand.

So, if God is so generous and caring, why does He give us these prohibitions? The important thing to remember about the Ten Commandments (and godly laws in general) is that they are given to protect us. God first wants to protect our relationship with Him. He wants to protect our families, marriages, and relationships with our neighbors. And ultimately, God wants to protect our hearts, as He tells us in Proverbs 4:23, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

As we focus on the Ten Commandments this summer, we’ll do so through the lens of both God’s Law and Gospel. We’ll consider what the Commandments are prohibiting and what they are protecting. We’ll see how the Commandments show us our sinfulness (and societal sins as well), but we’ll also see how Christ alone fulfills the commandments in our place and provides the life-saving forgiveness and deliverance we all desperately need. 

In general, the Ten Commandments reveal what is good and God-pleasing (God’s will for our lives), and they simply remind us of what is good for us. They don’t provide a path for saving ourselves, but they do show us how to respond to our Father who lovingly saves us through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

These are at least some introductory thoughts about the Commandments. I invite you to join us this summer at St. Matthew as we rediscover our Lord’s “Ten(der) Commandments”!

Peace in Christ,

                        Pastor Kory Janneke