Readings: Exodus 20:1-17; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 1:22-25; John 2:13-25
Grace and peace to you dear family of God’s people.
The first reading of today is an account of the Ten Commandments given to us by the Lord. They are God’s permanent and unchanging will meant to guide our lives and behaviours, our relationship with God and one another.
Today, I want to focus on the second commandment, which forbids us from misusing the name of the Lord. It says, “For the Lord will not leave unpunished the man who utters His name to misuse it.”
In Matthew 6:9, when Jesus was teaching His disciples how to pray, He also taught them to have high regard for the holiness of God’s name.
Dear friends in the Lord, the name of the Lord is sacred and powerful and we should consciously hallow this holy name.
I will preach today in four ways that people often disrespect God’s holy name.
A. Profanity
This is when people use the name of God in blasphemy, swearing, cursing or perjury. Some people invoke the name of God to authenticate what they know to be untrue. This is a sin against the second commandment.
B. Frivolity:
This is when people just utter God’s name in a superficial and stupid way. This includes using God’s name is a joke, in a careless speech or a mindless manner.
C. Hypocrisy:
This is when we claim to be people of God but acts in a way that disgraces Him. St Paul says in Romans 2: 24, the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you. This is when children of God, people who are called by His name act or live in a manner unbefitting of that name.
D. Religious insincerity:
This is when people carry out all forms of deception, atrocities, and abuses in God’s name.
This includes those who use God’s name to advance their own names, agenda and ambition.
Those who pretend to be working for God in His church but are enriching themselves.
Those who claim visions, messages, prophesies and revelations in God’s name but are not actually from God. All those who say “the Lord spoke to me” when actually He didn’t.
Those who exploit other people in any way because of their vulnerability and gullibility. This includes those who sexually exploit people who look up to them as models of faith and morality. Those who make sexual advances towards the unsuspecting come to them because of who they represent.
Also pastors and ministers who have turned religion into a business, those who deceive and defraud people who come to them seeking God and salvation.
An example of this deception in God’s name is what we read in today’s gospel. The sacrilege going on in the temple, the corruption, deception, dishonesty, distortion and exploitation of people all in the name of God and worship. This religious corruption was actually contrived by the religious leaders who gained significantly from them.
Just as the anger of Jesus flared up against all those who perpetrate this religious crime, the anger of the Lord is upon all those who disregard God’s name and use it to deceive and exploit others unless they genuinely repent, ask for mercy and do penance.
Dear children of God, let us be careful to give honour to the name, which is above every name and refrain from anything that can dishonour it.
Sermon preached by Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Baraka-Gukena Okami on March 7, 2021