Feast of the Holy Name

The sermon for today:
"What's in a Name?"
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What’s in a name? We’ve all heard children’s names and thought---oh man what were they thinking? There are any number of names which make me think, these parents never thought about what this kid would go through in middle school…there are stories attached to many name choices. My parents had quite a process for choosing names----the name needed to be biblical and if the first name wasn’t biblical then the middle name had to be. Otherwise the middle name was a family surname and on and on. When I was born my older sisters named me. I think my parents were just out of girl names so they gave into my sister’s who wanted to name me after the Chatty Cathy doll. Yes, there are often stories attached to our names.

Jesus’ name was no different, although his story is a little more well-known. At the Annunciation-- the angel Gabriel told Mary:
“and now you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you will name him Jesus.” (Luke 1: 31). Boom, no reason is given for naming him Jesus, Gabriel just tells her to do this and being a very devout and faithful young woman, Mary agrees.
Not unlike the naming of John when Zechariah and Elizabeth insist on giving John a non-family name, Mary simply agrees to do what she has been told. Joseph in Matthew’s account of Jesus’ birth, is told in a dream to take Mary as his wife, in spite of her pregnancy and to name the son Jesus. Both Mary and Joseph, willing, able and faithful servants do as they are told. Being faithful Jews they continue their obedience on the eighth day following Jesus’ birth by having him circumcised. It is according to Jewish custom on this day, the day of the circumcision, when a male child is named.
Faithful and obedient Mary and Joseph follow their custom and their religious law by ritually naming their son on this eighth day.

Naming. To name something is to take action, to take a stand. We name our preferences, we name our choices, we name our loves.
Naming is a definitive and assertive act. When committed to helping someone, no matter what, we tell them, “just name it.” Just name it and I’ll do it. We encourage people who struggle with standing up for themselves to name their needs—
By naming something---a feeling, a stand, a need, a child we claim it as our own. By following angelic directions, Joseph and Mary do not name Jesus as their own, that would involve a discussion between the spouses weighing the pros and cons of various names and then choosing one which holds significance for them and their own history---no they name him as instructed with a name holding no significance for either of them.

Jesus’ name means, depending on what translation you adhere too—God saves, Jehovah is salvation , or deliverer. But all in all I think we can say that Jesus’ name tells us if we trust in the incarnate God, we will be changed. Forever. For it is through Jesus we encounter God in a personal intimate and very human way. By naming Jesus as God did, we receive a very important message: salvation, hope, deliverance comes through the Son of God. By naming Jesus as directed by God Mary and Joseph do not claim their son as their own. By naming him as directed Mary and Joseph serve as messengers for God’s claim that Jesus is His Son and that his name promises what God intends: that Jesus will save us, Jesus will deliver us, Jesus is God’s gift to us.
By naming Jesus God gives us a way to relate to the Almighty. Remember in ancient Judaism one did not utter the name for the almighty one would not say God. Jesus, not only with his being but also by his naming is a portal to the almighty God, a way to be one with our Creator.

This Feast of the Holy Name is a continuation of our celebration of the Nativity---the Incarnation. By celebrating the Holy Name, by pronouncing Jesus as Lord we are announcing that we are God’s own and we are welcoming God naming us as His own. Today we claim our place, with Jesus, alongside our Father, Abba, God. Forever.

In this New Year’s season of resolutions, of fresh starts, of hopeful plans, in this season of beginnings, in this season of miracles and in this season of claiming one’s name I challenge us all to renew our commitment to a faithful life, a life rejoicing in the power of God’s love for us, manifested through the gift of Jesus, named before he was in the womb, marked as God’s own from the start and given to us to claim as our own as well. Let’s do it, let’s take this day of Holy Name and name ourselves as one of God’s beloved. After all, God has named us his own, isn’t about time we claimed God, through our savior Jesus Christ, as our own as well?