Feast of the Holy Name

1 January 2012 [preached at Church of Our Saviour, Killington, VT]

The lectionary makes us jump in time from what we heard last Sunday—we move from the vastness of the beginning of creation as portrayed by the fourth gospel to a simple incident in the life of the newly-born Jesus. Not only that, but we have switched back to the gospel according to Luke. We have backed up to the shepherds going to worship the Christ child in the manger, seeing and marveling at him and then returning glorifying and praising God. Mary remains quiet throughout this portion of the story, having already declared her great hymn of praise, the Magnificat. Then the gospel readings ends simply with the statement that the child was called Jesus, the name given him by the angel before he was conceived.

In Hebraic thought, to name someone is to know that person’s nature. The passage from Exodus recounts how God reveals the divine name in a single word, Adonai, I AM WHO I AM. Not that we can fully know God’s nature, but in that naming of God’s self, God tells us a bit about who God is—being and life. Then to help us, God provides a summary of God’s character—above all, abounding in steadfast mercy.

Likewise, the name Emmanuel, God-with-us, reveals some of Jesus’ character, namely that Christ is with us and in us at all times for ever. By becoming flesh and dwelling among us, God Incarnate in Jesus, is more present, more real to us. So who is this Jesus whose name we praise today?

Paul’s soaring hymn about the Christ in his letter to the Philippians, a hymn we always hear on Palm Sunday, attempts to express some of the mystery of God incarnate in Jesus. Paul’s words provide the same sort of contrast to the nativity story as the words from the Prologue to the Gospel of John, which we heard last week.

The gospel of Luke does not lack in its numerous names for Jesus. Jesus calls himself: The Christ, Son of Man, Lord/Master, prophet, shepherd, bridegroom, Lord of the Sabbath, Child of Wisdom, the very stone which the builders rejected…

Others call Jesus: Son of the most high, Son of God, Son of Adam, Son of David, Son of Abraham, my beloved Son, Emmanuel, Christ, Holy One of God, teacher/rabbi, prophet, king of the Jews, Christ of God, Master, Lord, Saviour, salvation, my Son, my chosen, the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

I doubt any of us has ever had that many names attributed to us! We know we are dealing with the Holy Name, the name at which every knee should bow, the name at which some of us do bow our heads.

Yet as I think about the rich collection of names the gospel of Luke provides for Jesus, then my mind moves onto the even more rich collection of names for God that humanity as created over the millennia. (Sandy Sasso’s book, In God’s Name, is a wonderful children’s book that I highly recommend.)

Good Muslims call God by one hundred names, names which highlight different attributes of the Divine One. Likewise for Jews, who have a rich storehouse of names for Adonai, the Creator. And you and I can create names for God, based on our experience of the Holy One.

Two experiences speak to the wonder of discovering new names for Jesus and for God… not something to fear, but something to embrace since we can never fully name who God or Jesus are; our language will always be limited.

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The winter of 1988 two dozen women went on a Lenten retreat. During the retreat, they had opportunity to pray some of the embargoed texts that would become Enriching Our Worship. The first time they prayed the Eucharistic Prayer that includes the imagery of the mother hen watching over her chicks, many women wept. It was their first time hearing themselves included in the words. Enriching Our Worship now contains incredible words of Julian of Norwich in Morning Prayer. Julian writes of God:

As truly as God is our Father
so just as truly is he our Mother.
In our Father, God Almighty,
we have our being;
in our merciful Mother
we are remade and restored.

Our fragmented lives are knit together.
And by giving and yielding ourselves,
through grace, to the Holy Spirit
we are made whole.

It is I, the strength and goodness of Fatherhood.
It is I, the wisdom of Motherhood.
It is I, the light and grace of holy love.
It is I, the Trinity,
It is I, the unity.

Some may be and, indeed, have been threatened by thinking of God and Christ in new ways but it can change one’s prayer life in amazing and life-giving ways.

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This past February I travelled to Jerusalem and was able to dip my toes into the three streams of the great faiths that share the holy city. Where else can one go from one holy spot to the next, be it at the Western Wall or the Church of the Holy Sepulchre? And where can one hear the cry to prayer from adjacent minarets? I visited sites holy to Jews, returning whenever I could to the Western Wall, their most holy site. I went to the Muslim holy sites though was not allowed inside. I finally ended up at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, one of Christianity’s most holy places. I stood outside of the Edicule that holds Jesus’ tomb and, in time, was able to go inside to place my hand on his tomb. I saw pilgrims weeping at the tomb, pilgrims weeping at the Western Wall and thought: We are all in it together in our desire and our need to worship God.

No one can claim Jerusalem to oneself because of how the waters of these three faiths flow together. Yet the political realm crashes into that reality (a place I will not wander today). Walking the chaotic and narrow streets of Jerusalem, I understand better that people call God by many different names, yet ultimately the one they experience is the God of all creation.

In this day and age, people are still discovering new names for Jesus. Someone wrote on the separation wall between Jerusalem and Bethlehem: ‘Once a human rights teacher was born in Bethlehem.’ So you can add ‘human rights teacher’ or holy agitator to Jesus’ many names.

What names do you give to your understanding of Jesus? How does calling him a particular name help you stay connected with him, the human being fully alive in God? And how have your names for him changed over time? Which ones work for you today? And how might you find new ways of calling Jesus in the year to come? It is OK to find different names for Jesus… they are all a part of our attempts to apprehend the mystery of God made flesh.

While you and I celebrate in particular today the Holy Name of Jesus and the many, many names by which we know him, may we also remember we are talking about God, the God who abounds in steadfast mercy, not just for you and me, but for all peoples and creation.

May Jesus’ name be praised. May God’s name be praised in all the wonderful expressions that humanity has found to praise the Holy One. May the Holy One’s name be praised now and for ever more.