News

The Name of Jesus. Like this year, The Name of Jesus follows Christmas, eight days following the birth of Jesus according to Luke. This year it happens to fall on New Year’s Day. In Luke’s gospel it is also the time of circumcision for Jesus, but the church throughout the years, has focused instead on the naming.

Jesus, as you have heard me say many times is the Greek equivalent of Joshua. Both mean “Yahweh (God) saves. It may be the name Jesus is given at his circumcision, but the New Testament has many names and titles for Jesus. Matthew’s gospel has two names for Jesus at its very beginning: Jesus and Immanuel, God with us.

Think of the many names of Jesus in the New Testament: Alpha and Omega, Bread of Life, Bridegroom, Cornerstone, Lamb of God, Word, and so on. We can add titles such as Savior, Messiah, Lord, Son of God, Son of man, King of the Jews…you get the picture. But don’t forget Old Testament names looking forward to the Messiah: Wonderful Counselor, Everlasting Father, Mighty God, and Prince of Peace.

Over the centuries such names and titles did not seem sufficient for some. The mystic Julian of Norwich called Jesus “Mother.” He did so because he said it is from Jesus we are born anew. In the Ankan culture of Africa, Jesus is often called, “Ancestor” to emphasize the pre-eminence of his standards over all others. In Korea he may be known as “The Great Yin-Yang”, that is, the one whose divine-human nature represents a perfect complementarity of opposites.

Maybe you have your own personal favorite name for Jesus. A popular hymn of the years calls Jesus a friend, for example. What name do you prefer that seems to sum up who Jesus is to you?

My point here is this: Why so many names and titles? It is probably not to compete with royalty, who often have many titles. Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Charles V had 81 titles. His stationery must have been two pages just to list all those titles! We can only imagine how his business card may have looked.

It seems the church and followers of Jesus found the greatness of Jesus to be far too much to be contained in a single word. No one word captured all that Jesus was and is. These days it seems many are all about branding, that is being able to be known for one major characteristic and or name or label. Jesus cannot be so limited. Jesus cannot be restricted to a single concept or understanding. Jesus is not only many things, many expressions of God, Jesus is all of these to all people. Some faith groups, some cultures, may have a favorite. You and I may as well. However, in Jesus’ interaction with us, Jesus does not bind Jesus’ self to those favorites.

As I think about all this, I am also convinced Jesus is more than the sum of Jesus’ parts; that is, we cannot add up all the names and titles for Jesus and think we now have captured Jesus and Jesus is ours. Jesus is not restricted to the names we give to Jesus. Jesus is not bound by what we think of Jesus or think Jesus to be. Jesus is bound instead to revealing God to us again and again throughout our lives and throughout history.

You and I as followers of Jesus have won the bonus round. The surprising thing about Jesus, as one scholar puts it, is that his name has been given to us. God puts the name of Jesus Christ on us in our baptism. We have been given that name and from that day forth our identity will be determined by that name. We will be known as “Christ-ian”.

I wonder if in our prayer life we use the various names for Jesus over time if we might
then develop a much broader and deeper understanding of who Jesus is. I wonder if in so doing we might also develop and deeper and broader understanding of who we are as followers of Jesus in relationship with Jesus. Perhaps Epiphany can be a good time to pursue this and possibly discover if this is true.

In the meantime, we can all go with Paul’s counsel to the Philippians: “so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

What is your favorite Christmas carol? No, I’m not talking about those Bing Crosby, Perry Como, or Andy Williams tunes that play incessantly over the airwaves one after another. (By the way, our college students listen to them as often as do we older ones) I mean those found in hymnals, and apt to be sung Christmas Eve or, this year, Christmas day.

Various surveys list different ones as number 1. I learned a long time ago I cannot have a Christmas Eve worship service without O’ Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night, and Joy to the World. Somehow “Go Tell it on the Mountain” even in a state as mountainous as Colorado is no acceptable substitute for Joy to the World as an ending Christmas Eve tune. Funny, it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Having said this while leaving out one of the big three will garner complaints, omitting one hymn in particular is apt to get more than complaints. Even I am smart enough to include Silent Night each of the 43 Christmases in which I have served as a pastor. Substituting another tune for Silent Night Christmas Eve? Pastors have been fired for less.

What is it about Silent Night that gets to us? The part about silence? Nighttime? The tune? And I also wonder: is Silent Night accompanied by candles or are candles accompanied by Silent Night? Either way for most who are frequently found in worship, Silent Night sung in complete candlelight is usually the worship highlight of the year.

Originally Silent Night was composed for a guitar as the alpine Austrian church in which it was first played had an organ damaged by flooding. Over the years the tune has been tweaked a bit until ending up the music by which you and I and countless others know it.

Perhaps it is a combination of words and tune that speak to us. Written after the Napoleonic wars, we can imagine the great need for a simple hymn of peace in both lyrics and music. In our time of hectic activity, wars, pandemic, threats, racism, anti-Semitism, and division, anything peaceful is greatly needed. During the singing of Silent Night we look around, grateful for those sitting by us should we be so fortunate. We think of those no longer able to be with us and those spending Christmas with others. Sometimes our burdens are lightened just a bit as we sing this hymn even with great solemnity. Gratitude, sadness, togetherness, and loneliness all mixed together in one emotional stew.

Likewise, the same ingredients seem to combine in a spiritual stew. Christmas, a time of great joy, is also a time the manger’s splinters and the gift of myrrh remind us of a cross and death yet to come. The one who comes as God’s gift and brings great joy is one who will be rejected and killed. The mother tending to him tenderly in a barn will be with him at the end, a grief-stricken witness to the violence that will befall him.

Silent Night. Sacred night. As we seem to feel God’s presence in this song, so we are reminded God is present in all those feelings we have as we gather or do not gather at Christmas. So is God present in a barn and a cross. The baby does not know any of this. The baby just knows when it wants feeding, changing, and holding. So it is with us. We are very aware of our hungering, our need to repent and change, and a desire to be held tight by all that is good and reaffirming.

The infant Jesus was placed in a feed trough. In this Jesus God continues to feed us and our emotional and spiritual hungering. Silent Night. Holy Night. We are fed, we shall be changed, we are held. Redeeming grace dawns. Jesus is Lord at his birth.
Jesus is Lord still.