The Name of Jesus 2006  January 1 

Names are powerful things.  Being able to name something gives you a certain amount of power over it.  This has been true for centuries, and certainly has found its way into our culture today in any number of ways.

The young boy, new in a school, comes home to parents and reports that kids are picking on him.  But the parents and teacher are helpless to do anything about it until the child can learn the names of those guilty.  Being able to name your assailant is part of the process of getting justice.  A young mom tries to calm her child, fearful and trembling in her arms.  Helping the child to name her fears is part and parcel of a parent’s task in such moments.

Modern science fiction and fantasy novels carry such themes as well, as they explore the depths of the human psyche.  It is no coincidence that in the Harry Potter books, few people will speak the name of the one who could not be mentioned, “Lord Voldemort.”  Those that do, like Harry, seem less vulnerable to his evil powers.  Certainly in these post 9/11 days, naming our fears has been the key to calming our lives.

There is something about “naming” things out there that brings them to a human level.  In fact, we invent names for things in order to tame them, or else give ourselves the illusion that we have tamed them.  People also have gotten a lot of power and prestige by attaching themselves to the names of powerful people.  We drop names in order to make ourselves feel, for a moment, more important.  We invoke names of others when we want to add weight to the things that we say.

No doubt about it, names are powerful things.  Certainly, the giving of a name can have a profound effect on a child’s life thereafter.  Some names have innate power in our culture.  Other names denote plain or mundane attributes.  What we name something or someone will inhabit their psyche and place in the world for the rest of their lives.  We know all about Johnny Cash’s  boy named “Sue. ”Certain names have dropped off of our culture’s list of most popular.  You don’t hear of too many children named Ezra or Naomi, though at one time they were much more popular.

The people of Israel knew that the name of God was important.  One of the Ten Commandments is dedicated to the sanctity of the Name of God.  This commandment was taken so seriously that the Hebrew Scriptures were written in such a way that the four letter name of God was carefully punctuated so that the reader would say “The Lord” rather than the actual name of God.  God’s name had power that must not be abused.  To guard against this abuse, God’s name became something that was not used at all.

Our lessons for this Feast Day of the Name of Jesus make it clear that something extraordinary is being said, theologically, when Jesus is named.  It isn’t only that Jesus’ name has meaning.  (Jesus comes from Yeshua, or Joshua, and means “God is my salvation.”) It is that Jesus is named at all that is striking.  It reminds us how committed God is to us, to our existence, that God would choose to become human, vulnerable, one of us.

This is not a distant God, who is so other that we cannot look at God’s face, lest we die.  This is not only a terrible God who strikes only fear into the hearts of humans.  This is God loving us at face value and allowing us to know a name, a face, a life lived among us.  This is God expressing divinity within the confines of what it means to be human, with in the limits of our existence.  When God chooses a name, God is choosing to limit how we see and how we understand who God is.

So God does not choose to be named because of God’s need to have a human face.  Rather, God chooses to be named because we need to know God face to face, to have contact with God’s love from within our existence.  God chooses to be vulnerable, not because God can somehow be contained, but rather so that we might see the limits of our existence not as something to resist, but rather as something that God also knows and has hallowed.

What God in Jesus allows us to do is see the face of God and know the mind of God.  Despite attempts by those who would ignore the commandment and use God’s name to consolidate their power and prestige, God gives us a name to call upon, Jesus, that is the very name of self-giving love and grace in the world.  Our lesson from Philippians today offers us a glimpse of what that means.  We see the name of Jesus connected with the emptying of self, the giving of self, even to the point of death on the cross.

Certainly having Jesus in human form gave the illusion that we might have power over God.  Humanity was able to grab hold of Jesus and use our ultimate power to hang him on the cross.  But this did not ultimately provide for any power over God’s love or serving purpose.  The cross undoes the power of death over Jesus and through Jesus, over us.  When we invoke the name of Jesus, it is always connected to the cross.  It is here, paradoxically, where Jesus is most human, most vulnerable, that God’s name becomes most powerful.  At the same time God is limited by the use of the name, we also discover something new about what it means to be God in the world.  For in choosing to be the crucified one, God has rendered all other names, all other

powers, all other claims upon our lives penultimate.  The name of Jesus now speaks for all humanity who live within the shadow of death.  The name of Jesus is now stamped as the servant sign of the cross upon the forehead of every one who is baptized.  The name of Jesus we now bear into the world as we too become vulnerable and weak on behalf of those who suffer from poverty and injustice.  We discover a God that is impossibly more complex than just the one who takes on humanity, who allows that we might call on a name.

In naming Jesus, we also claim the power over sin and death that only he bears into the world.  By clinging to the name of Jesus, we cling to that name that transforms our existence and gives it hope, joy and meaning beyond ourselves.  By placing our hope in Jesus, we are rejecting the names and the hopes that lead us only to dead ends and despair.  For no other name will do.  This is the only one that makes the world whole again.