I am not a big believer in New Year’s resolutions. My skepticism results from my observation that, at least in my case, they have never worked. Whatever success I have had in changing self-destructive habits has not come from the dropping of the Times Square ball on New Year’s Eve. Quitting smoking, losing weight, getting in shape—it’s possible to do these things, but they require more than mere the tick of a clock. Aside from parades and bowl games, there is not much about this holiday for me to celebrate except the switch from one calendar to another.
But that is not to say that January 1 is an unimportant day. In the Christian calendar this day was historically called the “Feast of the Circumcision”, a term deriving from today’s gospel account of Mary and Joseph bringing the infant Jesus to be circumcised on the eighth day of his life. As in Christian baptism, so in Jewish circumcision, this ritual signified both belonging and identity. Both rites culminate in being given and claiming a name.
When we adopted a new prayer book in the 1970s, we changed the name of today’s holiday from the “Feast of the Circumcision” to the “The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ”. There were good reasons to do this—only half the population will feel a personal connection to the biblical rite of circumcision—but in so doing we’ve lost some of what’s being said by the Holy Family’s obedience to Jewish law. For Jews, circumcision is both an initiatory rite and a sign of God’s promise enacted anew in each generation. In a time of increasing antisemitism it is important to remember that Jesus was Jewish, and that we can only properly understand the meaning of his life, death, resurrection, and ministry in the context of Jewish history and expectation.
But his name is important, too. “What's in a name?” asks Juliet of Romeo; “that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” [Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2] Maybe, but you and I know just how important our names are to us. Back when I used to lead retreats and conferences, I discovered the best of all possible icebreaker exercises to introduce people to each other: ask each person to tell the story of how they were given their first name. You will be surprised that each person’s name has a story, that so much history and meaning are packed into our names.
Take the name “Jesus”, for example. Earlier in Luke’s Gospel [Luke 1:31] the angel Gabriel had said to Mary, “And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.” Why that particular name?
In Aramaic, the spoken form of Hebrew in first century Palestine, the name we translate as “Jesus” was actually spoken as “Jeshua”. And “Jeshua” is the Aramaic version of the Hebrew name “Joshua”. Now for Jews both then and now, the name “Joshua” has religious significance. In the story of the Exodus, it was Moses who led the Jews out of slavery in Egypt through the 40-year period of wandering in the wilderness. But Moses did not lead the people into the promised land. That task was left to his successor Joshua.
For first-century Jews, the name “Joshua/Jeshua” has saving significance. Joshua led the Jews from slavery to freedom by crossing over the river Jordan into Palestine. As the new Joshua/Jeshua, Jesus leads humanity from death to life beginning with his baptism by John in the Jordan’s waters. What’s in a name? For Jews and Christians, a name means a lot. The name Jesus carries a whole history of sacred meaning. It also carries a promise. By naming the infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph are completing the angel’s promise. As Gabriel also said to Mary at the Annunciation,
He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. [Luke 1: 32-33]
In today’s act of circumcision and naming, God reveals Jesus as the bearer of a promise both for Israel and for humanity at large. This new Joshua will bring us from slavery to freedom, from fear to courage, from death to life.
If this all were only a trip down history lane we would have an interesting take on Jewish history and ritual. But there is much more going on here. In the church we reenact the naming of Jesus on the eighth day of his life in our sacrament of Baptism. Some people are baptized as infants, others as adults. Some people never get baptized at all. Like the Jewish rite of circumcision, the Christian baptism service celebrates both belonging and identity. As followers of Jesus, each of us is given both a community and a name. Like the infant Jesus we are connected now to a story much larger than our own. And like that same child, the precious nature of our identity is revealed for all to see. Our destiny is now bound up with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and the community which bears his purpose in the world. And our own individual dignity and worth are now proclaimed by the simple affirmation of our names.
“What’s in a name?” Quite a lot, it seems. Whether you like your name or not, you know how important, over time, it has become. Your name has a story. It has a meaning. It connects you to your family and community. And it uniquely denotes who you are. At bottom Christianity is about two big things: it is about God’s promise of a hopeful destiny for the world, and it is about the unique dignity and worth of every one of God’s creatures. You and I are participants in a story that has a lot of ups and downs but will, in the end, have a glorious outcome. We are important to God not only because of that big story but also each in our own right. We are made in God’s image, known and loved in Jesus, and signified as precious by the bearing of our names. The Holy Name of our Lord Jesus Christ turns out not to be about him only but also about us. We, too, are bearers of God’s love, justice, and purpose in the world, even if we have weird names.
Several years ago, the British newspaper The Guardian {March 10, 2015) ran an article with the following headline "High noon for Gary: why is the once-popular name on the verge of extinction." As the copy went on to explain, "The name is dying out, and not even Garys Cooper or Lineker seem capable of saving it. Why do parents hate it now, and what can we do about it?"
For someone named Gary, as I am, this piece was a bristling read:
Parents just don’t like the name any more. Gary reached its peak in the US in the early 1950s, when it was at one time the 12th most popular boy’s name, with more than 38,000 appearing every year. There were even 90 girls named Gary in 1947.
I remember being one of several Garys in my elementary school class. Clearly the name was overused. But over time fashions in names change, and in the last decades we Garys haven’t been the only losers:
In 2013, English and Welsh parents created just 17 Roys, 15 Keiths, seven Kevins and three Traceys. Compare that with 110 Jaxsons, 167 Romeos, 2,211 Siennas, 3,264 Leos and 4,511 Oscars.
Several of my English friends sent me copies of this article when it ran in 2015. And, if our names were only badges of our fashion, I would find the disappearance of my name cause for alarm. If the name Romeo is on the upswing, it may turn out that Juliet was right. “What IS in a name?”
I have never met a Romeo. Nor, for that matter, have I met a Jeshua. But, as one who tries to follow Jesus, I have met and come to know and love myriad individual people each of whose names have come to signify a complex human person who bears a unique and precious identity. I am grateful that Mary and Joseph followed the angel Gabriel’s instructions in naming their child Jesus. I am grateful that Jesus has become the name which signifies the love, justice, and compassion of God at work in the world. And I am grateful that the name and story of Jesus have become your name and my name, your story and my story.
Know it or not, you and I are now caught up in the Jesus story, and our names signify that his destiny will be ours. “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” This Christmas news is the gift of Jesus’s Holy Name and yours. Juliet, a fictional character, was wrong. Tiny Tim, another fictional character, was right. God bless us every one! Amen.
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