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Epiphany. The church season following Christmas. It begins with a star and an unknown number of wise men, called magi following said star. Unlike many men, they apparently did not have a hang up stopping and asking for directions. According to Matthew, they discovered the baby Jesus in a house.

Throughout Epiphany we continue to see who is this Jesus announced by angels, visited by shepherds, and given gifts from magi. In Epiphany there are texts of Jesus’ presentation at the temple, the changing of water into wine at a wedding celebration, the calling of disciples, debates about righteousness, and more.

All these texts and the supporting texts of Old Testament and letters in the New Testament point in one way or another to who Jesus is. Angels may have said to the shepherds there was a Savior, a Messiah, a Lord, born in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling clothes and placed in a manger. Epiphany texts spell out what this and what all these titles mean.

You and I are called to be a bit more than the shepherds and magi. We are called to do more than go back to work and praise God like the shepherds or be overwhelmed with joy and return home as did the magi. You and I are called to follow the one praised who can overwhelm with great joy.

Follow means inward feelings are not what all this is about. More is expected. Yes, we too are to return to our various work stations in life. Those work stations, however, are not to be places devoid of any hint of following. They are part of the arena where following this Jesus needs to be lived out. Following Jesus is not always about what we might do as a vocation, it is about how we do it.

We tend to have freedom in our vocations, that is, what work we do. As followers of Christ, however, we are to operate in a way in those vocations that serve and benefit others. We may receive reward in terms of income, yet it is about serving others and serving the common good as much as it is about ourselves.

I have so far used the word follow or following a few times in just a handful of paragraphs. It is an important word for Christians. It means that is exactly what we do: we follow Jesus. It also means we are not Jesus. Epiphany and its texts very much remind us of this. Too often we see ourselves as replacements of Jesus instead of those who follow Jesus and those through whom Jesus works.

You and I are called to be Christians, not called to be Jesus. Too often we Christians think we have to “out Jesus, Jesus”. That is, we have to equal and even better Jesus. We cannot do so. Quite possibly you have already learned this. Or perhaps you are in the midst of becoming painfully aware of this.

So like the shepherds we are to witness and proclaim. Like the magi we can be overwhelmed with all God has done in Jesus for us and all the world. But like those Epiphany texts depicting the calling of disciples, that is, followers, we are to follow along the path already made by Jesus. Like those disciples, because we are not Jesus, we will too often wander off that path, but because Jesus is Jesus, we will be pulled back onto its way. In Epiphany we discover who Jesus is. Occasionally we even learn a bit about ourselves in the process.

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.”