What's In A Name?
Sermon
Sermons on the First Readings
Series II, Cycle C
"What's in a name? A rose by any other name smells as sweet."Or does it? This well-known line from Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is true, but only up to a point. A rose named hydrogen sulfide might remind us of that unmistakable rotten-egg odor, causing us to avoid an otherwise lovely flower that emits a delicate fragrance.
The names we are given carry a tremendous influence throughout our lives. The names we are called frequently become synonymous with our identity. A nineteenth-century governor of Texas, James S. "Big Jim" Hogg, named his baby girl Ima.1 He did not discover the significance of this choice until days later, when he received a copy of her birth certificate, which read "Ima Hogg." I cannot help but wonder if he named his next child "Ura."
Many celebrities have been pressured into changing their original names. In earlier days, their studios laid down an ultimatum: no name change meant no movie contract or no recording contract. Leonard Slye thus became cowboy Roy Rogers, while Betty Joan Perske changed her name to Lauren Bacall. We knew Frances Gumm as Judy Garland. Actor Kirk Douglas was originally Issur Danielvitch Demsky and singer John Denver began life as Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.
We must even pay careful attention to what the initials of our baby's name spell. No child will be pleased to wear a monogram such as C-O-W, D-U-D, or P-M-S.
People make judgments about us by the names we have been given before they even meet us. Names have become stereotyped and may reveal our approximate age. Although many names are time-honored classics, your name may indicate that you are either a senior citizen or a youth. It may also reveal your nationality, ethnicity, or gender.
Boys are teased for having girls' names, but girls can usually get away with having boys' names. Country singer, Johnny Cash, recorded a song called "A Boy Named Sue," telling all about the trials and tribulations of a guy growing up with a girl's name.
Most twenty-first-century parents know the gender of their baby ahead of time, and usually have a name ready at birth, but customs were very different at the time Jesus was born. Then, boys were named eight days after their birth, and girls, fifteen days after. Of course, the angel Gabriel had already told Mary to give her baby that name above all names, "Jesus." Gabriel also informed Zechariah of the name for his son, a cousin of Jesus, who would be John the Baptist.
Customs changed again after the Christian church was established. Babies often were not named until the time of their baptism. This naming rite became know as christening, after Christ, or being given a Christian name to add to one's family name. Today christening, or naming, is no longer a function of the church. Instead, christening is reserved for the naming of watercraft.
Through baptism, you are connected with Christians around the world, and become part of one big family. God chose you, before the world began, to be a child of God. We find our identity in relationship to God, others, and to the world. Just as we are initiated into clubs and organizations that humans have created, baptism is our initiation into the Christian church. Our faith journey begins as God calls us by name and says, "You are my child. I delight in you."
Our baptismal liturgy includes words spoken over the water that we refer to as "The Flood Prayer" because of its many water images. The flood, the pillars of cloud by day and fire by night, and the promised land are some of the other significant images mentioned. When we hear of Noah, the exodus through the Red Sea, the baptism of Jesus, and other stories mentioned in the flood prayer, we can rejoice in our own baptisms and give thanks for this gracious gift from God.
In the book of Acts, baptism is regarded as important and life changing. Baptism is not seen as an event that takes only a moment, but as the redirecting of an individual's life. The powerful movement of the Spirit revealed in baptism led the young church in many unexpected directions. The unleashing of the Holy Spirit in baptism led to radical changes in both the individual believers and in the early Christian community. Contrary to what some folks believe, the Spirit is still doing so in the church today.
We Americans are a "feel-good society," and tend to weigh our experiences emotionally. When we don't feel warm and fuzzy all over, we believe something is wrong with a relationship, whether it is human or divine. God has given us our intelligence and the ability to reason. We know that God is present with us at all times and in all places, even when we don't "feel" God's presence in the way we would like.
Water can feel warm and soothing, or as freezing cold and discomforting as a polar bear swim in January. Water is an element that cannot be destroyed by normal means. It can only change form, from liquid to solid to gas. It has even been known, on occasion, to cause great destruction, by flood or tsunami. The psalmist reminds us that, "The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever" (Psalm 29:10). God is in control, and carries us across the floods of this world.
On the other hand, water seems to be quite gentle and purposeful. It meanders downhill, finding its own way, respecting obstacles in its path until it finds a way around or through them. With one little drop at a time, over millions of years, water can form a huge canyon. Covering most of the earth, water represents both power and serenity. Water heals, cleanses, and nourishes, and is the primary component of our own bodies.
In baptism, God speaks to Jesus with water and with words, "You are my Son, the beloved" (Luke 3:22). The psalmist advises us that, "The voice of the Lord is over the waters ... over mighty waters" (Psalm 29:3). God's voice is "powerful and full of majesty, shaking the wilderness." Jesus belongs to God. Through baptism, Jesus is revealed as human, as one of us. Jesus was born, lived, and died just as any other person. God names Jesus "beloved."
God also names you "beloved."You are God's beloved sons and daughters. Through Christ, God comes in person to tell you face-to-face that God is for you, with you, and concerned personally about you. The prophet Isaiah reminds God's people that God was with them as they passed through the waters of the Red Sea (Isaiah 43:2).
Baptism is tenderly personal, but it is also communal, taking place in a much broader context. You are baptized into a community, the church, into the company of people who care for and about you as well as one another. This is the family of God. Symbolically, you are buried with Jesus in your baptism, and raised to new life with him.
Baptism is a drowning, a putting to death of the old self, and a raising up of a different self to new life. You become a new creation in Christ. However, you do not emerge from the waters of baptism as a mature Christian. You are always in process, growing and maturing in the faith.
Celebrating the baptism of our Lord, we hear God's voice speaking to us. We hear God's voice affirming our essential identity as children of God. God calls you by name, saying, "You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you" (Isaiah 43:4). God knows each of you by name. God knows your special gifts, your needs, your hurts, and concerns.
The prophet Isaiah envisioned a healed, transformed world on the horizon. The name Isaiah means, "the Lord gives salvation."Isaiah was born into a world enmeshed in war, injustice, and corruption. God's people living in Judah had been defeated and carried away to the far country of Babylon. They were living as refugees by the waters of Babylon.
Isaiah preserved for God's people a vision of who they were as sons and daughters of God. This vision provides a challenge and hope for those who live in God. Isaiah opened the floodgates for a thirsty world so people could feel the splash of God's grace and forgiveness. God's people were again given hope in a world that had seemed ready to self-destruct.
In her spiritual autobiography, Holy The Firm, Annie Dillard is surrounded by waters as she describes her vision of Christ being baptized. The setting is an island in Puget Sound, where several spectators are gathered to watch. Jesus and John are bare to the waist as they enter the water. John immerses Jesus, who then rises from the water with beads of water on his shoulders. They appear to be planets, "A billion beads of water as weighty as worlds, and he lifts them up on his back as he rises."2 Inside each bead of water, Dillard sees a world, and all the faces of that world.
All time, past, present, and future is contained within the beads of water. All that has been or ever will be is visible in the transparency of the water. There are no words to describe adequately the brilliance of holiness that scene portrays.
The baptism of Jesus signals the beginning of his ministry here on earth. Jesus is set apart as the chosen servant who will bring justice and healing to Israel and to all other peoples of all times. Your baptism is your commissioning to service in the kingdom of God here on earth. You are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, into this great adventure of following Christ. Your ministry is to be explicit, visible, and active in the world today. Your ministry is both a blessing and a responsibility.
In our baptism, the holiness of God touches us as God comes to each of us in a special and personal way. God initiates the beginning of a relationship with us, bringing us into God's family. God says to you today, "I have called you by name. You are mine. Child of God, through your baptism, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever." Remember your baptism and give thanks. God has "redeemed you and called you by name."
__________
1. "Ima Hogg," Famous Texans, http://www.famoustexans.com/imahogg.htm [Accessed September 1, 2005].
2. Annie Dillard, Holy The Firm (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 67.
The names we are given carry a tremendous influence throughout our lives. The names we are called frequently become synonymous with our identity. A nineteenth-century governor of Texas, James S. "Big Jim" Hogg, named his baby girl Ima.1 He did not discover the significance of this choice until days later, when he received a copy of her birth certificate, which read "Ima Hogg." I cannot help but wonder if he named his next child "Ura."
Many celebrities have been pressured into changing their original names. In earlier days, their studios laid down an ultimatum: no name change meant no movie contract or no recording contract. Leonard Slye thus became cowboy Roy Rogers, while Betty Joan Perske changed her name to Lauren Bacall. We knew Frances Gumm as Judy Garland. Actor Kirk Douglas was originally Issur Danielvitch Demsky and singer John Denver began life as Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr.
We must even pay careful attention to what the initials of our baby's name spell. No child will be pleased to wear a monogram such as C-O-W, D-U-D, or P-M-S.
People make judgments about us by the names we have been given before they even meet us. Names have become stereotyped and may reveal our approximate age. Although many names are time-honored classics, your name may indicate that you are either a senior citizen or a youth. It may also reveal your nationality, ethnicity, or gender.
Boys are teased for having girls' names, but girls can usually get away with having boys' names. Country singer, Johnny Cash, recorded a song called "A Boy Named Sue," telling all about the trials and tribulations of a guy growing up with a girl's name.
Most twenty-first-century parents know the gender of their baby ahead of time, and usually have a name ready at birth, but customs were very different at the time Jesus was born. Then, boys were named eight days after their birth, and girls, fifteen days after. Of course, the angel Gabriel had already told Mary to give her baby that name above all names, "Jesus." Gabriel also informed Zechariah of the name for his son, a cousin of Jesus, who would be John the Baptist.
Customs changed again after the Christian church was established. Babies often were not named until the time of their baptism. This naming rite became know as christening, after Christ, or being given a Christian name to add to one's family name. Today christening, or naming, is no longer a function of the church. Instead, christening is reserved for the naming of watercraft.
Through baptism, you are connected with Christians around the world, and become part of one big family. God chose you, before the world began, to be a child of God. We find our identity in relationship to God, others, and to the world. Just as we are initiated into clubs and organizations that humans have created, baptism is our initiation into the Christian church. Our faith journey begins as God calls us by name and says, "You are my child. I delight in you."
Our baptismal liturgy includes words spoken over the water that we refer to as "The Flood Prayer" because of its many water images. The flood, the pillars of cloud by day and fire by night, and the promised land are some of the other significant images mentioned. When we hear of Noah, the exodus through the Red Sea, the baptism of Jesus, and other stories mentioned in the flood prayer, we can rejoice in our own baptisms and give thanks for this gracious gift from God.
In the book of Acts, baptism is regarded as important and life changing. Baptism is not seen as an event that takes only a moment, but as the redirecting of an individual's life. The powerful movement of the Spirit revealed in baptism led the young church in many unexpected directions. The unleashing of the Holy Spirit in baptism led to radical changes in both the individual believers and in the early Christian community. Contrary to what some folks believe, the Spirit is still doing so in the church today.
We Americans are a "feel-good society," and tend to weigh our experiences emotionally. When we don't feel warm and fuzzy all over, we believe something is wrong with a relationship, whether it is human or divine. God has given us our intelligence and the ability to reason. We know that God is present with us at all times and in all places, even when we don't "feel" God's presence in the way we would like.
Water can feel warm and soothing, or as freezing cold and discomforting as a polar bear swim in January. Water is an element that cannot be destroyed by normal means. It can only change form, from liquid to solid to gas. It has even been known, on occasion, to cause great destruction, by flood or tsunami. The psalmist reminds us that, "The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord sits enthroned as king forever" (Psalm 29:10). God is in control, and carries us across the floods of this world.
On the other hand, water seems to be quite gentle and purposeful. It meanders downhill, finding its own way, respecting obstacles in its path until it finds a way around or through them. With one little drop at a time, over millions of years, water can form a huge canyon. Covering most of the earth, water represents both power and serenity. Water heals, cleanses, and nourishes, and is the primary component of our own bodies.
In baptism, God speaks to Jesus with water and with words, "You are my Son, the beloved" (Luke 3:22). The psalmist advises us that, "The voice of the Lord is over the waters ... over mighty waters" (Psalm 29:3). God's voice is "powerful and full of majesty, shaking the wilderness." Jesus belongs to God. Through baptism, Jesus is revealed as human, as one of us. Jesus was born, lived, and died just as any other person. God names Jesus "beloved."
God also names you "beloved."You are God's beloved sons and daughters. Through Christ, God comes in person to tell you face-to-face that God is for you, with you, and concerned personally about you. The prophet Isaiah reminds God's people that God was with them as they passed through the waters of the Red Sea (Isaiah 43:2).
Baptism is tenderly personal, but it is also communal, taking place in a much broader context. You are baptized into a community, the church, into the company of people who care for and about you as well as one another. This is the family of God. Symbolically, you are buried with Jesus in your baptism, and raised to new life with him.
Baptism is a drowning, a putting to death of the old self, and a raising up of a different self to new life. You become a new creation in Christ. However, you do not emerge from the waters of baptism as a mature Christian. You are always in process, growing and maturing in the faith.
Celebrating the baptism of our Lord, we hear God's voice speaking to us. We hear God's voice affirming our essential identity as children of God. God calls you by name, saying, "You are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you" (Isaiah 43:4). God knows each of you by name. God knows your special gifts, your needs, your hurts, and concerns.
The prophet Isaiah envisioned a healed, transformed world on the horizon. The name Isaiah means, "the Lord gives salvation."Isaiah was born into a world enmeshed in war, injustice, and corruption. God's people living in Judah had been defeated and carried away to the far country of Babylon. They were living as refugees by the waters of Babylon.
Isaiah preserved for God's people a vision of who they were as sons and daughters of God. This vision provides a challenge and hope for those who live in God. Isaiah opened the floodgates for a thirsty world so people could feel the splash of God's grace and forgiveness. God's people were again given hope in a world that had seemed ready to self-destruct.
In her spiritual autobiography, Holy The Firm, Annie Dillard is surrounded by waters as she describes her vision of Christ being baptized. The setting is an island in Puget Sound, where several spectators are gathered to watch. Jesus and John are bare to the waist as they enter the water. John immerses Jesus, who then rises from the water with beads of water on his shoulders. They appear to be planets, "A billion beads of water as weighty as worlds, and he lifts them up on his back as he rises."2 Inside each bead of water, Dillard sees a world, and all the faces of that world.
All time, past, present, and future is contained within the beads of water. All that has been or ever will be is visible in the transparency of the water. There are no words to describe adequately the brilliance of holiness that scene portrays.
The baptism of Jesus signals the beginning of his ministry here on earth. Jesus is set apart as the chosen servant who will bring justice and healing to Israel and to all other peoples of all times. Your baptism is your commissioning to service in the kingdom of God here on earth. You are baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, into this great adventure of following Christ. Your ministry is to be explicit, visible, and active in the world today. Your ministry is both a blessing and a responsibility.
In our baptism, the holiness of God touches us as God comes to each of us in a special and personal way. God initiates the beginning of a relationship with us, bringing us into God's family. God says to you today, "I have called you by name. You are mine. Child of God, through your baptism, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked with the cross of Christ forever." Remember your baptism and give thanks. God has "redeemed you and called you by name."
__________
1. "Ima Hogg," Famous Texans, http://www.famoustexans.com/imahogg.htm [Accessed September 1, 2005].
2. Annie Dillard, Holy The Firm (San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1977), p. 67.
