The Holy Name — 1 Jan 2011

Luke 21:15-21I have already greeted some of you, you, and been greeted, with the words “Happy New Year’s”. But today I just as easily could have greeted you with these words: “Happy Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ Day. “Now there is a mouthful. Maybe even a tongue twister to say ten times fast. And that is probably not the greeting you will hear most on this first day of 2012. No, we will be greeting those we meet with the more familiar words of “Happy New Year.” For indeed it is the first day of the year, and it is only every so often that we actually gather here in church on this day.But take a look at the scripture insert in your bulletin and you will see that we celebrate this day neither as New Year’s Day or even as the Second Sunday of Christmas, but rather as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus. We recognize this day every year on January 1 because of the conclusion of the Christmas story we heard in Luke’s gospel this morning: that on the eighth day after his birth, Jesus was circumcised and given his name.And the name of this day suggests a different focus for us. New Year’s Day can be full of good intentions. We may be clearing our desks literally or figuratively. Resolutions are being made about losing weight, keeping better track of our finances, and our prayer life may be very much about hopes and dreams for the year ahead -an improvement in health, a new job, a new relationship.The traditions around New Year’s day encourage us to look forward and to imagine new and better selves. Another way of putting that is to say that resolutions are about getting more control over our habits, our thoughts, and our attitudes. It is being intentional and focused. And we all know how difficult that can be.But here in church, rather than looking forward we are, invited, as we are every Sunday to look back – to hear again the story. Here, on the cusp of the new year, when we are so pointedly looking ahead, resolving in one way or another to establish more control over our lives, we are reminded that at the beginning of our lives, a decision was made for us over which we had no control. Each of us was given a name. We did not choose it. We were not consulted. We were given a name. Sometimes the name was decided at birth. Sometimes it was earlier. Indeed, sometimes the name was given before we were even conceived. And so it was with Jesus.We know that names have power. Whether we like the names we are given, we do care about them. We care that our name is pronounced correctly. We take umbrage when it is spelled wrong. We forget the names of persons to whom we have just been introduced because, as the grandmother of a friend once astutely observed, when introductions are being made, often the name you are paying most attention to is your own.Names have power. We know that if we were saddled with a derisive or dismissive nickname as a child.We may never hear that name spoken aloud in adulthood, but oh, how it still may define how we see ourselves.Some of us may live with a family name that carries with it a whole set of expectations - resolutions in effect, made for us by our parents or grandparents which we can never fulfill.Some of us may carry the name of a beloved and departed spouse, and to hold onto that name is to hold onto the joy and love which that relationship brought us.Names have power, and they have meaning:“and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” (Luke 2:21b)Jesus, or Yeshua, which is how it would have been pronounced in Aramaic. And that name meant, “the Lord is salvation.” A name not chosen by Mary and Joseph, but by the angel. A name rooted in God’s purpose for that child, and for humanity. A holy name given ultimately by God for God’s purpose.Luke’s account echoes a biblical theme: that for all the ways our lives are shaped by our families and our circumstances, by decisions that are made for us by others at birth and as we are reared, there is yet something and someone more decisive in forming and shaping us:“Before I formed you in the womb,” Jeremiah is told, “I knew you and before your were born I consecrated you. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)The names of persons in the Bible so often define a purpose. Or, names are changed, when persons become aware of the ways in which their lives are being shaped, not by their own decisions, but by God’s claim on them: And so Sarai and Abram become Sarah and Abraham, and Saul the persecutor of Christians becomes Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.I do not know what resolutions you may have made last night, or how you are contemplating changing your life in the year to come. I can no more predict your future than I can my own, or to assure you that you will be able to fulfill the good intentions that you have set for yourself.But what I am more certain of is that in the name of Jesus, we discover Good News for us: God is our salvation. God made a decision for us before we made any decision about ourselves. It is a new year and a time to look ahead. But what if with each new resolution, each intention, and with every prayer, every thought, every word and every deed, we could remember this: before we could do anything to shape our destiny, before we could make a single choice or conceive of a single resolution, there was one who first conceived us and named us, who formed us for a divine purpose.And if we doubt that about ourselves, then all we need do is to look at what Jesus, the one who was named “The Lord is Salvation” did in his life whenever he met another.When he met the lepers whose names were “outcast”…When he met the blind and the lame whose names were “sinners”…When he met the Samaritan woman, whose name was “heretic”…When he met the poor, who had no titles, no respect, no names…He called each of them by their true name.He called them friend.He called them beloved.He called them worthy in the sight of God, and opened to them new life.And so, if this were only New Year’s Day, I might be asking, “And what are your resolutions?” But it is more than that today. It is the Feast of the Holy Name. And so instead, on this day of new beginnings , I will ask you, “Do you know the meaning of Jesus’ name?”For if you do, won’t you also know the meaning of yours?Amen

A Sermon for St. John’s Episcopal ChurchCharlestown, Massachusetts

Preached on the Feast of the Holy NameJanuary 1, 2012by the Rev. Thomas N. Mousin