A Sermon preached on January 1, 2023 at St. Augustine’s and St. Christoph
Numbers 6:22-27; Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21
You probably all know Juliet’s famous line from the play Romeo and Juliet: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
Well – without spoiling the play for you, just in case you do not know the ending – it tuns out that quite a lot depends on a name, in this case the family name Capulet or Montague: They stand for identity – in this case a divisive and fatal one.
So, what’s in the Holy Name? What is this feast about? It commemorates the naming of the child Jesus. We celebrate it on January 1 because that is the eighth day after Christmas, and it was on the eighth day after birth that Jewish boys would both be circumcised and receive their name. As we heard in the Gospel: “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21) So we have a whole feast day for one single verse from the New Testament!
What’s in a name? Well, also quite a lot in this case. It must be important, after all it is the name given by the angel! The name itself, Jesus, is not unique. Jesus was a very common Hebrew name, both centuries before and long after Mary called her firstborn child by this name. Jesus is the same as the names Joshua, Hosea, and Isaiah, all of which come from the same Hebrew phrase "yesha'yahu, meaning “God saves” or “God is salvation.” Now not everyone with this name will have lived up to the promise of its meaning, though the ones we know so well, who have books of the Bible named after them, all did their very best to fulfil the promise of their name whether as warriors, leaders, or prophets.
What’s in a name? In Jewish thought, a name signifies the essence of someone, their identity. Throughout scripture we find examples of God giving someone a new name as it better describes who they are in God’s eyes, or who they are becoming: First, God renamed Abram and Sarai. The name Abram meant “exalted father,” but God called him Abraham, meaning “the father of nations.” According to one source I found, Sarai meant “quarrelsome,” but God called her Sarah instead, which means “princess.” God took Jacob, which means “heel grabber or supplanter” and renamed him Isaac, meaning “the one who struggles with God.” And then in the New Testament, Jesus calls Simon, whose name means “to hear” or “to listen” by the name Cephas or Peter, both of which mean “rock.”
Jesus was not renamed; he was called “God saves” even from before his birth and God’s salvation was to be the very meaning and purpose of his life. While the Gospel – and the angels and shepherds - still look forward to Jesus’ life and work, Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, is already looking back. He sees the promise of salvation, the victory over sin and death, the restoration of our relationship and fellowship with God as having been fulfilled in Jesus’ life and work but also through his incarnate identity: Having become a human, he “emptied himself, … being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.” (Philippians 2:7-8) It is particularly through this sacrificial, selfless action that he is exalted: “Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name…” The name of Jesus is powerful, because of the story and the life behind it.
What’s in a name? Unlike the gods of the surrounding nations, God has no proper name in Hebrew Scripture: God is unknowable and beyond description. When Moses asks for his name, God answers “I am who I am” (Exodus 3:14) and the so-called Tetragrammaton, literally the 4 letters that we render as YHWH is traditionally interpreted as the Hebrew abbreviation of that phrase (and Jehovah is just an English version, not a name as such). Devout Jews do not even speak this name out loud but use Adonai – Lord.
Why then, in the first reading this morning, from Numbers (6:27), did we hear God say, “So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” The name in this case is – as Moses has been told in Exodus – not a given name, but God’s role as Lord and God of their forbears. It stands here for identity: The identity of the Israelites as God’s people and therefore blessed by God’s presence and protection. But this identity is not just a passive one. When Abraham is called by God and sent from his ancestral home, he is told: “And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you … so that you will be a blessing.” (Genesis 12:2) When Moses is told to put God’s name on Israel, God wants this people not only to be blessed, but to be a blessing, a sign of God’s love, a light to the world, to take on an active identity.
What’s in our name? We no longer tend to give our children speaking names like “Praise God” or “Perseverance” or “Be faithful” as the Puritans did, at least not recognisably. Translated from the Greek, my name Christopher means “Christ bearer” and both my grandson’s name Theodore and the name Dorothee mean “gift of God,” to name two examples close at hand. It is probably a good thing we don’t always have that meaning in front of us! Living up to it every day would be challenging!
Collectively we have also all been given a name, we are Christians, that is followers of Christ. This name stands both for a passive and an active identity. As Christians we belong to Christ as “we confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:11) And as Christians we are called to live as Jesus lived, to make the story and the life behind his Holy Name part of our own lives. I will finish with two verses from the hymn we just sang, “At the name of Jesus.” These beautiful words by Caroline Noel encapsulate this idea of identity, of how Jesus’ name becomes part of who we are:
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4 Name him, Christians, name him, with love strong as death, name with awe and wonder and with bated breath; he is God the Savior, he is Christ the Lord, ever to be worshiped, trusted, and adored.
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5 In your hearts enthrone him; there let him subdue all that is not holy, all that is not true; crown him as your Captain in temptation's hour; let his will enfold you in its light and power.
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Amen.
