What is your name?

There is a story of an old rabbi who, as rabbi's do, often walked through the country side reciting the text and praying. While under the sky and the stars, he was under God's creation and he felt closer to the Creator. One day, deep in the text, he went the wrong direction at the fork in the rode and ended up at a Roman garrison rather than his home town of Capernaum where many other rabbi's lived. As he approached the garrison still focusing on the text rather than his location, a voice boomed out from above, "Who are you, and what are you doing?" The rabbi looked up and answered, "What do they pay you to ask me that question?" The guard, a bit baffled by the rabbi's answer, replied, "Three denarii a week. Why do you ask?" The rabbi said, "I'll double your pay if you come ask me that every morning!"

Who are you, and what are you doing? Good questions. Adonai asks a similar question of Eve and Adam (Gen. 3). Jacob wrestled all night only to be asked who he was and he received a new name (Gen. 32). Jesus asked the wild man from the Gadarenes' his name (Mat. 8). "Legion", he replied. A man with a thousand names, a thousand identities. Known and yet unknown. Kent Dobson wrestles with these questions in his recent message at Marshill (11/28/04). Good stuff.