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The Importance of Naming: A Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Name, Year A

Just because the Gregorian calendar says it's a new year, our lectionary decided it wasn't going to provide a new Gospel. OK, so this time we heard verse 21 from the pericope out of Luke 2. But my goodness this was the third service that we were hearing the story of Jesus' birth with the angels and the shepherds. 

Thanks be to God for verse 21...the only thing that links this Gospel to the action that would have been  happening in the Temple on the eighth day after Jesus' birth....

Text: Luke 2:15-21

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I imagine everyone here has a story about their name…whether it’s your first name, middle name (if you have one), or maybe even your last name…where your Family came from originally.

The story my mom told me about my name is that she chose  “Susan” because there were too many “Lucys” in our family.

I had an Aunt Lucy…and then she had daughter…my cousin Lucy.

 I think there might have been yet another Lucy somewhere else on my mom’s side of the family.  

We don’t often hear people’s middle names…except when a parent invokes it… and that’s when we know we’re in trouble, right?

My middle name…”Chase”…came from my father’s side of the family.

Rufus Chase was my maternal great-great-grandfather.

He was a shoemaker in Haverhill Massachusetts…and died in 1865.  

I shared my middle name with my Aunt Helen…who was Helen Chase Gage. She would add a name… Miller… when she married my Uncle Arthur.

Women taking their husbands last names at marriage. That’s become something of a postmodern discussion point: A lot of women are choosing to keep their family names. Some couples decide to simply hyphenate both their last names.

Sometimes people change names.

We all know Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz as Judy Garland…who grew up with the name “Frances Gumm” in Minnesota.

People who are transgender often arrive at a new name… one that feels more fitting to who they are.

In massage school… we were offered the opportunity to choose a new name for ourselves. No one in my class did. But it made sense why the school opened that door for us. The experience of massage school education can be a very transformative journey especially for anyone healing from any type of hurts that come from living in a world where people are hurting each other all the time.

In many cultures…names are carefully chosen.

Shannon Crossbear…an elder in the Ojibwe Nation of Ontario Canada… says First Nation people have a Naming ceremony where they choose a sacred name for a child.

Grandparents…who can be simply close friends of the family…spend time praying for the newborn…asking

“Who is this child?”

“What has this child come to do?”

When the name emerges from their prayers… they have a ceremony to announce the name…which serves as a life guide for that child.

Names… and naming things… is so important.

We can see that here in the last verse of our Gospel story.

The Holy Family is taking part in the Jewish ritual… called the brit milah… or bris milah…as the Eastern European Jews call it.

This ritual involves the circumcision of male babies and then giving them their Hebrew name.

It’s one of the important ceremonies in the life of any person in the Jewish faith.

And lest we forget Mary, Joseph and Jesus are Jews.

This Naming Ceremony is a sign of belonging to God and it brings the newborn into the tribe of Israel… and giving them a name to live by.

One source says that the reason this ritual happens on the eighth day is to signify it’s something that occurs beyond the bounds of the natural order of things. There are seven days in the week; the eighth day makes it extraordinary.

Tip the number eight on its side and it’s the symbol of infinity… the never ending…and ultimately boundless nature of God and God’s Love.  

Just as with the naming ceremony for First Nation people… Mary and Joseph give the name the angel told them to give to their baby…Jesus…the Hellenized version of “Joshua.”

His name means “God saves.”

How fitting for the life and mission of this one who has come into the world to reclaim and redeem God’s people.   

Sometimes I think there is such a focus at Christmastide on Baby Jesus that we don’t remember that the name given to him carries an extraordinary weight.

Baby Jesus is going to grow up.

And this God incarnate is going to experience all the trials and tribulations that are part of human existence… not because he has to but because he wants to.

By becoming one of us and joining with those struggling to breathe free in an occupied land… Jesus is bringing God and humanity closer together.

His persistence…and laser-focus on a mission to bring good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release to the captives and freedom to the oppressed…will be encouraging to some…and will irritate and anger many others.

The powerful never take kindly to being told that they should use their talents to make things better for other people.

And it is through Jesus… we… too… have that same adoption into the fold of God through His name.

When we’re baptized…our parents or sponsors announce our names to the whole congregation. They make a commitment to raise us in the Christian faith.

The people of the congregation offer prayers on our behalf.

And then we are baptized in the Name of the Holy Trinity…Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

We are anointed with oil…made one with Christ’s Body throughout the world as we are marked and sealed as Christ’s own forever.

We may not receive a Hebrew name…or a special sacred name…

But our given name has now been christened into a life of faith, hope, and love.

We have gained a relationship with God…as our Galatians reading says… which is so intimate that we are right to call out to God as if he is our daddy… our papa… or whatever name you would use for a loving father.

As children of God… we have gained an inheritance to do the work of love in our families and our communities.

We…like Jesus… have the power to lend our names… our hands and our hearts… to the mission of making this place where we live, work, and play a more just and merciful society than what has existed before.

We can name those things that are right, and good, and joyful…while also naming those things which need to change.

Because that act of naming is powerful and important.

In all that we do…may it be done in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.



This post first appeared on Wake Up And LIVE, please read the originial post: here

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The Importance of Naming: A Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Name, Year A

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