(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “What’s In A Name?”, originally shared on December 28, 2022. It was the 245th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
In Shakespeare’s
“Romeo and Juliet”, Juliet says “What's
in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell just as
sweet.” But, would it? Today, we’re going to find out.
Sally and I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Eve and Christmas
Day.
We celebrated Christmas with a
bi-lingual Christmas Eve worship service in Monterey Park. Trinity-Faith
Lutheran Church, the Mandarin-speaking church using the facilities of St.
Paul’s Lutheran Church where I serve on Sunday mornings and a few hours during
the week, worshiped together with St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Mandarin and in
English. I don’t think that happened in very many places in the world!
Sally and I celebrated
Christmas Day with Holy Communion at St. Paul’s. Later, we had a festive meal
and shared gifts among those gathered in our home.
For an increasing number of
people in our world, that’s it. It’s over. The presents are opened and put
away. The tree already seems a little out of place, and it will be gone by the
end of New Year’s Day.
For many, Christmas ends on Christmas Day.
New Year’s Day at the latest. Christmas is over, for many, when the season of
commercial preparations ends, and then it’s done, it’s really done.
In fact, some businesses and TV programs
marked the 12 days of Christmas as a countdown to Christmas. So when
they’re over, they’re really over.
The Christian Church, however, starts
the Christmas season on Christmas Eve and celebrates it for 12 whole days,
until January 6th, the Day of The Epiphany of Our Lord, as in the song “The
Twelve Days of Christmas”!
So, now we have Christmas pretty much all to
ourselves and those with whom we share it.
There’s no more holiday stress. The long
nightmare of excess and expectations is over. Now comes the Christmas blessing
and we open our hearts to receive it for 12 whole days.
BTW, the cost of the 12 gifts listed in the
song “The Twelve Days of Christmas” went up 5.7%
last year and 10.5% in 2020, to $45,523! Or,
if you bought the items over and over each day as the song suggests (that's 364
total gifts) that will cost you over $197,000!
You
know, those exotic pets like turtle doves, geese, and French hens are
expensive, increasing the most largely because of increased labor and food
costs. 😊
So continue to have
a Merry Christmas and don’t be embarrassed for celebrating Christmas as a
Christian. Be counter-cultural. Don’t take down your Christmas tree, your
lights, or your decorations. Leave them up until January 6th, and be
a witness when you are asked why or when you get funny looks. 😊 As Jesus said, in Matthew
5:14-15,
14 “You are
the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15 No
one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the
lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.
Be bearers of that light. John describes it
in terms of the birth of Jesus, in John 1:3-5,
3All things came into being through him, and without
him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in
him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness
did not overcome it.
God makes that work personal and God gives a
name to that work, and His name is Jesus. We see it at the end of the Nativity
story in the Gospel of Luke. The context is part of the supporting story to the
birth of Jesus that has to do with the shepherds and Mary’s reaction to it all
in Luke 2:15-20,
15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven,
the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this
thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So
they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the
manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been
told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed
at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these
words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned,
glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been
told them.
Then the
story shifts to giving the baby a name, in Luke 2:21,
21After 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.
We saw this when the
angel Gabriel appeared to Mary to tell her what was about to happen and said,
in Luke 1:26-31,
26 In the
sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, 27 to a
virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The
virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And he
came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” 29 But she
was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might
be. 30 The
angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with
God. 31 And now,
you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him
Jesus.
Which is kind of funny because this
makes the answer to the question of the popular Christian song “Mary Did You
Know?” an emphatic “Yes! The angel Gabriel told me!” 😊
But why does his name matter?
Wouldn’t a rose by any other name smell just as sweet?
Well, there are thousands of
people who get paid big bucks because the answer is no, it would not.
There are hosts of
marketers whose job is to sell things by giving them names that would be
attractive to consumers.
Would you buy a car that is
named “The Sloth”, or a beverage named “Sludge?”
Would you be more likely to
watch a movie with a leading man named “Archibald
Alexander Leach” or one named Cary Grant? (They’re the same guy.)
Would you be drawn to an action
movie staring Marion
Robert Morrison (or John Wayne), Billie Eilish Pirate
Baird O'Connell (or Billie Eilish), John Roger Stephens (or John Legend) Dua
Lipa (Wait, that’s her real name)?
Would you rather eat an
Alligator Pear (what it’s called in Florida and was proposed for Southern
California) or an Avocado?
Names are important, but they
were even more important in Bible times, both the Old and New Testament times.
When we think of how to
describe a human being’s true self, we may use the words “heart” or “soul” or
“spirit”. But in Bible times people would say it is in a person’s name.
That’s why God does
not have a proper noun for a name. The “name” of something was believed to
contain the fundamental reality of the thing it named in Bible times. That’s
why when people went through some life-changing experience their name had to
change, i.e. Abram and Sari was changed to Abraham and Sarah and Jacob was
changed to Israel. Saul’s name was changed to Paul.
When Moses asked the
voice from the bush that was burning but not consumed for its name, God
answered “I am”. He gave a verb not a noun because it is impossible for a human
being to know anything of God’s fundamental reality, except that which God
choses to reveal to him or her.
When the angel Gabriel, a
messenger from God, told Mary and, separately Joseph, to give the child a name,
and a specific name, “Jesus”, that’s a big deal.
“Jesus” is a masculine given
name derived from the name “Joshua”. In Hebrew the name Jesus is “Y’shua”, and
it means “The Lord is salvation” i.e. “Savior”.
Jesus was given his name at his
circumcision, as we give names at a person’s baptism.
It was done 8 days after his
birth, as baptisms have frequently been done, though not always today,
throughout Christian history. Martin Luther was baptized on the eighth day of
life after his birth.
It was and is done on the 8th
day because that was commanded for male circumcision in Genesis
17:9-13, sometimes thought to be the week of creation plus one day, to bring
the child into the Jewish community.
In the Christian church, baptism brings us
into the Christian community, and it happens traditionally on the eighth day
for male and female children because, as Paul writes, in Christ there is no
male or female. And, that’s why baptismal fonts are often made in an octagon
shape. Eight sides.
People spend big bucks to put their names on
buildings. You see them everywhere Walk around any college or university
campus. Look at the name on the top of multi-use commercial buildings. Think of
buildings like the Lucas Oil Stadium, or the Sofi Stadium, or the Walt Disney
Concert Hall. Probably the weirdest is the change from the Staples Center in
downtown Los Angeles to the Crypto.com Arena. Many thought that most people
would eventually call it “The Crypt”. (?!) Which seems strange from a marketing
point-of-view.
But you can be named with the most
significant name in history and it won’t cost you anything!
The name of Jesus can be written on your
heart because Jesus paid the cost on the cross.
You can take on the name above all names as
a gift!
You can receive the true self of God. You
don’t have to be a rich donor. Just open your heart and ask Jesus to enter in.
We will celebrate the Name of Jesus Sunday
this coming Sunday as part of the Christmas season. It’s a reminder to us not
just of what happened, but what the birth of Jesus means!
We hear it in Paul’s letter to the
Philippians in what is thought to be the words to one of the first Christian
songs. It tells the story of Jesus birth and it shows us what is truly in a
name, in Philippians 2:4-11
4 Let each of you
look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. 5 Let the same mind
be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
6 who, though he was
in the form of God,
did not regard
equality with God
as something to be
exploited,
7 but emptied
himself,
taking the form of
a slave,
being born in human
likeness.
And being found in
human form,
8 he humbled himself
and became obedient
to the point of death—
even death on a
cross.
9 Therefore God also highly
exalted him
and gave him the
name
that is above every
name,
10 so that at the name
of Jesus
every knee should
bend,
in heaven and on
earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue
should confess
that Jesus Christ
is Lord,
to the glory of God
the Father.
The meaning of Christmas is found in Jesus’
name. Amen!