God's Holy Names

And another thing!

On Trinity Sunday, we take some time to talk about the Trinity: one God in three persons. I taught the children that God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is true. Those are the names Jesus uses when he talks about himself and the other members of the Trinity.

What we didn’t have time to get into is the fact that those are not the only names for God. The Scriptures use different versions of God’s name throughout the Old Testament and the New. Devout Jews make a practice of not pronouncing the name God gave to Moses at the burning bush, believing it too holy for mere mortals to say.

We also have feminine images of God in the Bible. Jesus says he wants to take Jerusalem under his wings like a mother hen. Deuteronomy 32, Hosea 11 and 13, Isaiah, and Psalms all have verses where God is motherly toward Israel. We could say, then, that the Trinity is Mother, Child, and Spirit.

There are also times where we talk about the Trinity in terms of their roles. You might have heard God referred to as Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Again, these are true, but not the fullness of God. All three persons of the Trinity create, redeem, and sanctify (make holy), though we usually associate each activities with one person in particular.

To be fair, there are no words in human language that can fully express the identity of God Almighty. God is bigger than gender—Genesis tells us that both male and female are created in the image of God (1:27). God is older than time and fresh every morning. God is the one who punishes wickedness and who lavishes grace upon sinners. God is more than we can comprehend or describe.

Luther tells us that we are to use God’s name “in every time of need to call on, pray to, praise, and give thanks to God.*” Knowing that no name is enough, we worship, pray, and teach in the best and fullest way we can. God is and does abundantly more than we can ask or imagine. For who God is, what God does, and all God’s holy names, we give thanks to God!  

*Small Catechism, explanation to the Second Commandment (ELW p. 1160).