If you are like me and every time you hear the terms:

faceless men

or going forward

or great big new tax

or back on track

or action plan

or any of the other endless mantra’s being siren – sung into our psyches

over these last few weeks

then you would be conscious of the rising rage that burns

snake like

in the gut

and the sense deep within that a spell is being cast over you

and that if you are not vigilant

and you do not

‘stay awake’

then you will lose your sense of what is

real

and what is not

and find yourself drifting along into the voting ballot and ticking the box

of whoever managed to spin their web the thickest in your mind.

Last week the Uniting Church has called on politicians running for election

to share their vision for Australia and not to limit their discussions

to cheap populism and slogans.

President of the Uniting Church, Rev Alistair Macrae believes that

Australians are eager to hear messages of hope for the future

and has expressed his disappointment

at the tone and quality of political debate thus far.

“I’m hearing plenty of sound-bites but no real substance.

Australians are looking to our politicians to display real leadership

and talk honestly about their vision for our country.

Instead we’re seeing cheap political point-scoring that’s not connected

to any substantial vision for our future.’

We dismiss the power of language at our peril. We dismiss the power of words to inspire,

ensnare

and even devour

at our peril.

And we dismiss the insidious sound bites infiltrating our psyches at our peril

because by dismissing (or by mocking or by imagining that we are ignoring)

we allow mediocrity to become the status quo and all vision for transformation

to be lost.

So I have been thinking about all this

and about the power of words

and of naming

and remembering how in ancient Greece knowing the name of the deity

is one step along the way to altering the universe.

There is a story about Jesus and an unclean spirit.

An unclean spirit who knows Jesus name. Who says:

I know who you are

And when the unclean spirit names Jesus

his response is

so unexpected and so new that it is almost as if

he is filled with the power of the name that is given to him,

He is called Son of God and so Son of God is who he becomes.

In a sense we can see that Jesus stepping into himself

Into the wonder of who he was born to be.

There is a double naming which occurs within this story.

The demon, who is hidden inside the afflicted man

names Christ as God’s messenger and is, in turn, called out and silenced.

If Christ had rejected the truth of the name given to him by the demon

or if he had been unable to see the demon hiding in the man

then there would no homecoming for either Jesu or the man possessed.

It takes courage to step into your true name:

Who am I who am I to be the child of God?

Who am I to be sister or best friend?

We have all, I imagine, had the experience of being called by our true name,

a name that resonates, clear like a struck bell,

even if we did not know that such a name was ours before we heard it

For some the name may have come with a position,

a job or vocation, which feeds our soul.

Perhaps that name is teacher, or nurse; maybe it is gardener or politician.

For others the true name may be simpler, it may be mother or brother,

it may be beloved or son.

I wonder what it would be like if all of us,

even Julia and Tony,

took the time to be still for a moment and to listen deeply

to the call of our own true name

(their name, your name, my name, I have called you by your name, do not be afraid)

the call that is whispered by the still small voice within.

The call that says step into the best of who you can be,

step into who you were born to be.

Step now child of god.

because there is work to be done

and time

is running

out

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