September 28, 2025

Indianola Presbyterian Church, Columbus

“The Name That Is Breath"

Sermon by Rev. Trip Porch

September 28, 2025                                                                                                                         Based on Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15

I have recently reconnected with a love of Yoga practice. Which, if any of you have ever done yoga is all about mindful body movement, meditative prayer, and of course centered intentional breathing.

The other day I went to my first Bikram Yoga class. It’s a class where they turn on the heat, literally, with the room getting up to 95 degrees.

I did not know that I had signed up for a Bikram yoga class.

I also did not know just how much I would be sweating while moving through all of these poses.  It was so much work and the heat just added to the strain and before I knew it, my breath was far from centered.
It quickly became more like huffing and puffing.  
I was in good company though, as I started to pay attention to everyone else all around the room, the breathing was loud and intense —- as together in the heat, we were all straining through our yoga class.
The sound was memorable, I had never heard so many people be that loud, just by breathing.
Shhhhh, haaaaaa
Each breath like a prayer from the depth of your soul.

Of course while we were straining through our privileged bougie exercise, our breath prayer would have been nothing compared to that of The people of God, the Israelites, who knew far too well what it was to strain. Even worse they knew what it was to be crushed under the weight of empire.
For generations, they had been enslaved in Egypt—working without freedom, living without dignity, maybe even wondering if God even remembered them and their plight.
Scripture tells us, “The Israelites groaned under their slavery, and cried out. Out of the slavery their cry for help rose up to God.” They groaned, they cried out… Can you hear what that sounds like? Can you hear the noises the Israelites were making under that sort of pressure?
And then, something shifts. Exodus says, “God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant… God looked upon the Israelites, and God took notice of them.”
God took notice.
That’s the hinge of the story. In their suffering, in their despair,  in their groans and cries of desperation, just when they thought God was nowhere to be found, God had been listening already all along.

It is in this moment that our focus turns to Moses, exiled away from his people and community, tending sheep in the wilderness steps foot onto holy ground.
He sees the bush that burns but is not consumed. 
Out of the fire, God calls him by his name: 
“Moses, Moses”
And invites him to take off his shoes, a sign of reverence and respect for this holy encounter.
And when Moses dares to ask, 
“Who are you?”
God answers with God’s name that is unlike any other name:
“I Am Who I Am.”
or In Hebrew: יהוה‎, YHWH. 

You read it from right to left
The Jewish tradition has long held that this name is too holy to speak aloud. Instead, readers of Scripture substitute other words—Adonai (Lord) or HaShem (the Name). Out of reverence, God’s true name is left unspoken. For the purposes of the sermon today, I checked in with the Rabbi at Hillel down the street, Rabbi Aaron, to make sure it was alright that we say it.

But if you try to pronounce these four Hebrew letters together, Yod, Heh, Vav, Heh, these four what comes out is not so much a word as it is a breath. 
A simple exhalation with no consonant sounds:
YHWH.
It’s as if God is teaching Moses: I am as close to you as your own breathing.
You thought I was far away, but every time you breathe in and out, you are speaking my name.
You and your people have been groaning under oppression, but in every groan you were calling out to me in prayer.
Think of what this means for these people in slavery. They believed that God had abandoned them. But God’s name says otherwise: I am here. I have been here all along. Every time you breathed in, I was with you, every time you breathed out, I surrounded you.
Think of what this means for us. When hardship comes, when grief feels unbearable, when the powers of this world weigh us down—it is so easy to believe we are abandoned, that God has gone silent.
But God’s very name is breath.
Every inhale, every exhale is a prayer, whether we know it or not.
In the stillness of meditation, in the chaos of the day, in the hospital room, in the classroom, in the moments of exhaustion: you are never without God’s presence. Because you are never without breath.
God tells Moses to take off his sandals, because the ground he stands on is holy. This wasn’t about sanctifying the ground he stood on, it’s not about whitewashing the evil and chaos around him in Egypt to seem holy, no, it is about remembering that wherever you encounter God is a holy place, even if it’s in the context of things that are far from Holy.

I think the invitation for us today is to recognize that all of life is holy ground, wherever we breathe God in or out is sacred space, and we can either go on ignoring God there, or pause and recognize God there in our midst.
In The grocery line.
The protest march.
The hospital waiting room.
The cluttered kitchen.
The quiet chair at the end of the day.
Holy ground isn’t just out in beautiful remote wilderness before a burning bush—it’s wherever you remember to breathe in and be in God’s presence. Because when you are breathing, you are speaking the most holy name. It’s like what the Psalmist writes in Psalm 150… 
"Let everything that has breath Praise the lord."

So here is the invitation for us, maybe it’s an invitation for today, or maybe it’s an invitation throughout the week.
Try to notice your breath.
Try to remember that every inhale and exhale is speaking the name of God.
Try to trust that even in hardship, God has not abandoned us.
That every breathe whether it is breathing privileged and easy in a yoga class or strained under the weight of oppression is surrounded by God.
Try to find holy ground in the ordinary moments of our lives, even if it’s just to a moment, to prayerfully breathe in God’s name.

In a moment, Mackenzie Murray will come up to lead us in an intentional breathing exercise to practice breathing God’s name.
May it allow you to know that the ground beneath your feet is holy.
May it allow you to know that the breath in your lungs is prayer.
May it allow you to know that the God who is “I Am" is with you
as close as your breathing, 
as constant as your life.
Amen.

WE GATHER IN AWE AND PRAISE

PRELUDE                                                                     “Fanfare Festiva”                                                                                Barbara Werner 

INTROIT                                    “Be Joyful in the Lord”                                                                    Donald Moore

WELCOME                                                                   

One: This is the day that the Lord has made

All: Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

*CALL TO WORSHIP 

One: God calls to us from the fire, from the silence, from the breath.

Many: We come to stand on holy ground.

One: God hears the cries of the oppressed and remembers the covenant of love.

Many: We come to trust in God’s presence, nearer than our very breath.

All: Let us worship the Living God, whose name is life itself. 

*HYMN 406                           “We Are Standing on Holy Ground”                        HOLY GROUND 

*PRAYER OF CONFESSION                                                                                                                                            Michael Ayers

God of Breath and Being, we confess that we forget you are as near as the air in our lungs. We act as though you are far away, hidden or absent. We turn from the cries of our neighbors and the suffering of the world, fearing we have little to give or no words to speak. Hear our prayers…

Silent prayer is offered

Forgive us O God,
For doubting your presence and resisting your call. Draw us back to you, and teach us to stand barefoot on holy ground, to breathe deeply of your Spirit, and to live as witnesses of your love. Amen 

*ASSURANCE OF PARDON

*RESPONSE OF PARDON             “Dona Nobis Pacem”                             DONA NOBIS PACEM

*PASSING OF THE PEACE                                       

     One:   The peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all,

     All:      And also with you.

WE LISTEN FOR GOD’S WORD

ANTHEM                              “How Can I Keep from Singing”                        arr. Jeffrey Honore

CHILDREN’S RECESSIONAL 175      “Seek Ye First” vs. 1

   Children: May God be with you here

     Congregation: May God be with you there                                             

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION

SCRIPTURE   Exodus 2:23-25; 3:1-15; 4:10-17    CEB

A long time passed, and the Egyptian king died. The Israelites were still groaning because of their hard work. They cried out, and their cry to be rescued from the hard work rose up to God. God heard their cry of grief, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God looked at the Israelites, and God understood.

Moses was taking care of the flock for his father-in-law Jethro, Midian’s priest. He led his flock out to the edge of the desert, and he came to God’s mountain called Horeb. The Lord’s messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire in the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was in flames, but it didn’t burn up. Then Moses said to himself, Let me check out this amazing sight and find out why the bush isn’t burning up.

When the Lord saw that he was coming to look, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

Moses said, “I’m here.”

Then the Lord said, “Don’t come any closer! Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.” He continued, “I am the God of your father, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God.” Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God.

Then the Lord said, “I’ve clearly seen my people oppressed in Egypt. I’ve heard their cry of injustice because of their slave masters. I know about their pain. I’ve come down to rescue them from the Egyptians in order to take them out of that land and bring them to a good and broad land, a land that’s full of milk and honey, a place where the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites all live. Now the Israelites’ cries of injustice have reached me. I’ve seen just how much the Egyptians have oppressed them. So get going. I’m sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.”

But Moses said to God, “Who am I to go to Pharaoh and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”

God said, “I’ll be with you. And this will show you that I’m the one who sent you. After you bring the people out of Egypt, you will come back here and worship God on this mountain.”

But Moses said to God, “If I now come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ they are going to ask me, ‘What’s this God’s name?’ What am I supposed to say to them?”

God said to Moses, “I Am Who I Am. So say to the Israelites, ‘I Am has sent me to you.’” God continued, “Say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord, the God of your ancestors, Abraham’s God, Isaac’s God, and Jacob’s God, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever; this is how all generations will remember me.

SERMON                                                                                                                                                                                      Rev. Trip Porch

                                                                    WE RESPOND TO GOD’S WORD

*HYMN 286                             “ Breathe on Me Breath of God”                                                       TRENTHAM 

 PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE  

TIME OF OFFERING    online giving is available at  www. indianolapres.org/give

OFFERTORY                                “Prelude to Sunrise”                                                                     Saundra Eithun

*OFFERTORY RESPONSE 709            “God We Honor You”                               ABUNDANT BLESSINGS

*PRAYER OF DEDICATION 

God of Life, receive these gifts as signs of our love and gratitude. Use them to bring justice where there is oppression, bread where there is hunger, comfort where there is sorrow, and holy ground wherever your people breathe your name. Amen.

*HYMN 10                                “Sing Glory to the name of God”                          LASST UNS ERFREUEN

TIME OF COMMUNITY SHARING

CHARGE & BENEDICTION

CHORAL RESPONSE                         “Amen”                                                              Peter Lutkin

POSTLUDE                                ”Holy Ground”                                                        Geron Davis

                                                                                                                                                      arr. Philip Keveren

 Acknowledgments: Unless otherwise indicated, all texts and music are printed and broadcast under OneLicense.net license #A-702452