633 sligo avenue, silver spring, md 20910
633 sligo avenue, silver spring, md 20910
Rob Noland, January 1, 2005
Exodus 34:1-8
Psalm 8
Romans 1:1-7
Luke 13:15-21
...and he was called Jesus, the name given to him by the angel...
Grace and peace to you, my brothers and sisters, from God our Father and our Lord, Jesus Christ.
Our Gospel begs the question, what's in a name?
In the history of American corporate culture, General Electric has a good name. "They bring good things to life." Despite what you make think General Electric makes, however, consider that it is one of the largest financial firms in the world, financing everything from industrial equipment to industrial plants. GE also makes railroad locomotives and aircraft engines.
Church of the Ascension has a good name with 75 years as a religious center. We are known as a welcoming, accepting church. We've had our fractures but we're still going strong.
People of a certain age will remember Sears, Roebuck as the original catalog retailer. Now less than 10% of their revenue comes from catalog sales. Interestingly, Sears has come full circle with its purchase of Lands End, an upscale catalog retailer.
In Jesus' time one's name was taken very seriously. It was one's self-identity. Self-hood was expressed in the name given to a person.
The name Jesus comes from the Hebrew Yeshua. Yeshua means, "Yahweh saves." Yahweh is the Hebrew name for the Lord, as it was translated in today's reading from the Hebrew Bible. You may remember that in the first meeting of God and Moses, Moses asks God God's name. And God replies, "I am that I am." The word, Yahweh, has as its root the verb "to be."
Yeshua means "Yahweh saves." The Lord saves. God saves. Yeshua also is translated as Joshua. And in Greek it is "Iesous." (ΙΗΣΟΥΣ) God saves. Luke refers to Jesus as "son of the Most High," son of God.
And the angel who delivers the joyous news to Mary of her pregnancy call Jesus, "Messiah and Lord." Messiah is Hebrew for "anointed one." In Greek, anointed one is "Christos," from which we get Christ. So Christ is not Jesus' last name but his title. In fact, Jesus name in Hebrew was Yeshua bar Yousef, Jesus son of Joseph.
And, the angels bringing the news of Jesus' birth to the shepherds called him, "Emmanuel," "God with us." So we have God saves, son of God, anointed one and God with us: all names or titles for Jesus.
In the baptismal liturgy in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer, there comes a point when the priest directs, "name this child." Baptism is the rite of Christian initiation and the Gospel places us at Jesus' circumcision, the rite of initiation into the Hebrew nation. Part of the initiation is the rabbi or priest asking for the name of the child. It will be that name by which this son of Israel will be known. When the child is presented, Joseph answers that the child's name is Jesus, Yeshua, God saves. And as now, candidates for baptism are presented. For Jesus, he was to receive the mark of the covenant by which he was incorporated into the Hebrew nation. At your baptism, you were incorporated into the body of Christ.
So we celebrate today not only the rite of initiation of Jesus but recall our own baptism, our own rites of initiation, into the body of Christ. Remember the theology of baptism: that we are buried with Christ in the water of baptism and we rise with Christ out of those waters. Our identity is in Jesus as we are named, as we become heirs of Jesus through baptism and become members of his body. We, too are marked; marked with the sign of the cross on our foreheads as Christ's own forever. As such we have an obligation to perform the service that God sets before us.
Recall the collect earlier in the service,
You gave to your incarnate Son the Holy Name of Jesus (God saves) to be the sign of our salvation; Plant in every heart the love of him who is the Savior of the World.
Yes, plant in every heart the love of Jesus! Let us also perceive in each of our hearts the love that begins in the stable, the love that begins with the marginalized, the love that begins with the poor, the love that begins with the refugee, the stranger. This is the reality that the Prince of Peace, God with Us, the Son of the Most High was born into. It is not pretty and it is not ordered. God has given it to us to help establish God's kingdom on earth - right here and right now. Jesus is our model of living righteously (living in right relation with God) and with justice (living in right relation with our neighbor). It is Jesus who did the right thing, died for it and in so doing gave us our salvation. Can we do less?
Jesus: God saves!
Jesus: God become human!
Jesus: God with us!
Jesus: God saves!
Amen.