God is Our Salvation

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            Happy New Year!  In addition to being the first day of the year, today is recognized in the church as the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus Christ our Lord.  But some of you might remember when today’s feast was called something else.

            If you remember going to church when we still used the 1928 prayer book, then you would remember calling today the Feast of the Circumcision.  Yes, you heard me correctly.  And in case you were wondering, we still have the hymn card in the sacristy that reads circumcision.

            As we see in today’s lesson, Jesus’ circumcision is clearly important enough to be recorded in scripture.  After all, this ritual is a part of the Hebrew tradition that dates back to the covenant that God made with Abraham.  On the eighth day all male descendants of Abraham shall be circumcised as a sign of God’s covenant to Israel.

            While this ritual is a critical part of the Hebrew tradition, most of us, if not all of us, do not have Jewish heritage.  Biblically speaking, we are Gentile Christians.  And as St. Paul made clear to James, the brother of Jesus, we are marked through the waters of baptism.

            So it seems more appropriate for us to put the emphasis on the naming of Jesus which takes place at the circumcision in much the same way Christians formally name their child at baptism. 

While there is certainly a sermon in that fact that a sign of God’s covenant involves the seemingly meaningless bloodshed of an infant boy, but who really wants to listen to me talk about circumcision for the next 10 minutes?

Now that I have your full attention, let’s talk about the name of Jesus and what it means to our faith. But first let’s talk about our own names.  Most of you know the story behind our name.  Most of you were named after your parents or ancestors. 

In case you were wondering, our son John Bryars Alvey, bears the name of myself and my father, John, and the maiden name of my wife, Bryars.  Some of you might bear the name of your parent’s favorite movie star or pop-icon.  If John was born right after the World Series, I might have named him Cubs Win or Harry Carey or Holy Cow or Ben Zobrist the series MVP.      

You have married names, maiden names, nicknames, titles. You have names from high school that you’d rather everyone forget about.  Names are used to build people up or tear people down.  Names hold power. 

On Mt. Sinai the Lord introduces himself to Moses as, “I AM Who I AM.”  Could there be a more powerful name than this: I AM Who I AM?  The name of the Eternal One is first given to humanity as I AM Who I AM.  Who can argue with that?

Even more, the Israelites, the first to hear the name of the Lord, are asked to bear witness to the name of the Lord by showing the world that theirs is a God who brought the people out of darkness to see the great light, by showing the world that theirs is a God who gives freedom to the oppressed.  But interestingly enough, Jews to this day will not say or spell out the name of God except during the reading of the Torah and the prayers.

Most will tell you this is because of the commandment which reads, “thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.”  To the Jewish people the name of God is so holy that if it is uttered by human lips it is likely to be used in vain so they’d rather be safe than sorry.  A part of me wants to disagree with this tactic because it feels telling a 3-year old not to touch their Christmas presents – just look at them – you might break them.

But then again, we as Christians, have done a lot of harm in the name of God or in the name of Jesus.  We have killed in the name of God.  We have waged war in the name of God.  We have oppressed in the name of God.  We have enslaved in the name of God.  We have murdered in the name of God.  We have done a lot of terrible things in the name of God.

Too often is the name of Jesus used to exclude and condemn a group of people.  Too often is the name of Jesus used to shame non-Christians or non-believers. As the verse following the famous John 3:16 passage tells us, Jesus did not come into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

In Jesus, God is reminding us that we have a heavenly Father who wants to know us and love us and show us the way to life.  God renews our relationship with himself through Jesus.  And the kind of renewal that God wants his people to experience is announced in the naming of Jesus.

In Greek, Jesus means, “God is our salvation.”  And if you were taking notes in The Story Sunday School class, then you remember Hebrew word for “God is our salvation” is Joshua.  And Joshua is the one who finally delivered the people of Israel into the land of promise.  God names our Savior Jesus to remind us that we have a God who wants to save us from sin and death.     

During this season of Christmas, when we celebrate the incarnation, we remember that God gives us a face and a name that speaks to the truth of our salvation.  This face and name is Jesus, of course.  And as we behold the incarnate Word of God lying in a manger, we are called into a relationship with God that is both intimate and risky.

When we look at the face of an infant child, we can’t help but to feel completely vulnerable.  We start doing things that we would otherwise not be caught dead doing in public – like ooing and making silly faces.  When we behold the face of the baby Jesus in our lives, we start doing things that others might look upon as strange or even offensive and we begin to find that the way of the cross is none other than the way of life and peace. 

When we look at baby Jesus, we also risk pain and disappointment – that is what happens when we make ourselves vulnerable.  But the truth of the gospel also tells us that the only way to know true love is to become completely vulnerable, to let down our guard and open ourselves up to a world that is hungry to know that it is loved and valued – no matter the price.

And as we behold this child lying in a manger, as we learn to hold this infant in our arms, we soon discover that we are the ones who are being held, we are being held by love, by the love of God that will never let us go.

Like Mary, when we name the baby Jesus, we are giving power to the truth that says God is our salvation.  When we call our Savior Jesus, we are giving power to the truth that God, too, calls us each by name and declares us his own beloved sons and daughters.  

Like Mary, when we name the baby Jesus, we speak to the truth that our belovedness doesn’t depend how many titles we have, we speak to the truth that our belovedness doesn’t depend on what people call us behind our back. 

When we call on the name of Jesus, we speak to the truth that our belovedness is a found in a name that we get to spend our entire lives growing into.  Don’t let anyone ever convince you that you are less than a beloved child of God.

Beloved, may this new year be marked by the name that you have been given in God through our Lord Jesus Christ.  May you find the grace to throw away the names that make you think too highly of yourself and the names that make you think of less of yourself so that you may cling to the only name that has the power to truly save you and that is the name above all names – Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.