Thank you, O Holy Trinity, for giving us the blessing of your name. Amen.
With apologies to Shakespeare, a rose would not be just as sweet by another name. Names matter. Think about watching a movie and seeing a familiar face and not being able to let it go until you can remember the actress’ name. Or how about a child getting into a bit of trouble – an adult will ask “what’s your name,” because when you have someone’s name, there is a sense of power that comes with it. So how glorious it is that out of God’s grace and love for us, we know the name of our salvation: Jesus. It is as that old hymn puts it, “How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear, it soothes our sorrows, heals our wounds, and takes away our fears.”
Every
January 1st is the Feast of the Holy Name. It’s pure coincidence
that today is also New Year’s Day – but it is fitting that every year begins
with a reminder of the salvation we have in Jesus’ name. The reason why we celebrate
this feast today is that today is the 8th day of Christmas. As we
heard in the reading from Luke, it was on the 8th day that Jewish
male children were circumcised and given a name. Being circumcised was a marker
of the family’s faithfulness to the covenant made with Abraham, and as the
child was brought into this promise, they were given a name. So since Christmas
was on December 25th, that makes January 1st the eighth day. It happens
that January 1st fall on a Sunday this year, so it ends up getting
more focus than it usually does. There are two points that I want to make about
the Holy Name of Jesus. The first is to reflect on the blessing of this name and
the second is to see ourselves as being brought into this holy name.
The
blessing of the Holy Name is seen in the blessing that Aaron speaks in Numbers,
“The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon
you, and be gracious to you; the Lord
lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” One thing to make clear
about this passage, and really all of the Bible, “you” is plural. I know that “y’all”
isn’t considered scholarly or erudite, but our understanding of Scripture
really would be better if Bible translators were more comfortable with saying “The
Lord bless y’all and keep y’all,”
because that’s what it says. And we get into so much trouble when we read Scripture
as speaking to us as individuals because then it immediately turns into a me-versus-them
interpretation. The Bible, and this blessing, are about all of us.
It
is no accident that this prayer begins “the Lord
bless you” instead of “God bless you.” “The Lord”
is not a generic name for a deity, when we find it in Scripture in all capital
letters, that means it is translating the Divine Name of the God of Israel, the
proper name given to Moses at the burning bush. Most faithful Jews will not even
attempt to pronounce this name because of its holiness – but instead, when they
get to that word in the Hebrew text, they say haShem – the name. This blessing
is rooted in the name of the Lord.
This is made even clearer when, after giving the wording of the blessing, the Lord says “So they shall put my name on
the Israelites, and I will bless them.” Knowing the Holy Name of the Lord is a blessing in itself.
A
name brings you into a relationship with someone, and being in a relationship
with the Prince of Peace, with our Good Shepherd, with the Alpha and the Omega
is where the blessing flows from. Today, we tend to think of a blessing as a
set of nice words. At the end of every liturgy, the priest pronounces a blessing
– but what do we think is actually happening there? Is the blessing just a nice
way of summarizing the theme for the season and reminding us of what we’re
supposed to do when we leave this place? Hardly.
Think
about when someone asks for a blessing today – it could be when someone approaches
a parent and asks for the blessing of marrying their child. The person isn’t
asking if the parents will say a few nice words at the wedding, they are asking
to be welcomed into the family, to be supported in marriage, to be entrusted to
care for this person’s child. And if that blessing is not given, there will be
a lot of strife. That’s the sort of blessing that Numbers is talking about – a solemn
and deliberate act by which specific and concrete opportunities and advantages
are granted. A blessing is a tangible thing – something we either have or we
don’t. Consider Jacob and Esau and their father Isaac’s blessing – when Jacob
tricks his father and steals the blessing of the eldest son from Esau, there is
nothing that Isaac can do about it. He can’t just take it back or issue a
second blessing because blessings are not just words, they are actual things.
When the Lord blesses us, it is not empty speech –
it is what scholars call a speech-act; they are words that accomplish
something. When a priest says “I now pronounce you husband and wife,” it is so.
When an umpire yells, “Strike three,” the batter is out. When a judge
pronounces, “Not guilty” there is a freedom that comes with those words. Having
the blessing of the Almighty given to us means that God is intending to give us
all that we need to flourish: life, joy, health, family, and land. The blessing
is a pronouncement that God is on our side, and that means we are never alone,
never abandoned, never without hope.
And
the Lord intends to keep, guard,
and protect us in this state of belovedness. Though the world will challenge us
and we might doubt ourselves, God remains on our side. This is further
illustrated when the prayer notes that the Lord’s
face will shine upon us and divine favor will be upon us. God is turned towards
us, always seeking us out when we are lost, always welcoming us back into the
arms of mercy, always feeding us from the abundance of God’s daily bread.
The
result of having this blessing of Lord’s
name placed upon us is grace and peace. Grace, means that God loves us because
God has chosen to love us and there is nothing that we can ever do to lose that
love. And peace means utter fulfillment. As St. Augustine famously wrote, “Our
hearts are restless until they rest in God.” Well, in being blessed by God, we
are given an entrance into that peace that passes all understanding, that love
that makes all things well, that mercy that covers over our sins, that eternal life
that is stronger than death.
And
this is true because the powerful and majestic name of God has been given to
us. In Christmastide, we celebrate that the Lord
took on flesh and was born among us. Not only are we blessed in being told that
the Lord’s face is shining upon us,
but in Jesus, we see that face and we have a name to go with that face. The
name of Jesus is derived from the Hebrew name Joshua, which means “the Lord saves.” Jesus’ name literally is
salvation. And that name wondrous name of love has been placed upon us. We are
Baptized into Jesus and his name becomes ours. This is the second point to
cherish today.
After
the Creed, we’ll use the Litany of the Holy Name. Yes, it’s a little long, yet it
is but a fraction of the full grandeur of the name of Jesus. As we pray that
liturgy, let those names of Jesus wash over you. Hear those names as what we have
been brought into by God’s grace. Listen for which of those names most deeply
resonate with you, and then use those names for Jesus as a way to pray and draw
closer to Jesus.
Throughout
the New Testament, St. Paul uses a phrase to describe what it means to be a Christian:
“in Christ.” As we heard in Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God
sent his Son to redeem us, so that we might receive adoption as children.” In adoption,
we are given the family name – the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit –
and we share in the family inheritance of grace, mercy, and peace. There is
such power in remembering that we are in Christ, that the name of God’s love
and salvation has been made known and given to us in Jesus.
Jesus
is such a comforting, mighty, and gracious name. The name of Jesus reminds us
that we are loved, that we are redeemed, that we are chosen, that we are empowered.
With the name of Jesus, we can stand up against injustice. In the name of
Jesus, we can be confident that we are forgiven. In the name of Jesus, we trust
that death has been overcome. In the name of Jesus, we have the courage and
hope to face anything because the name that made all things has been given to
us to call on, to trust in, to carry as our own.
There
is an ancient prayer called the Jesus Prayer that I would commend to you on
this New Year’s Day and Feast of the Holy Name: “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy
on us.” Sure, reading the Bible daily or having a healthier lifestyle are good,
but no resolution will save us because we have already been redeemed. So
instead of setting goals for 2023, how about if instead, we rest in the peace and
love of Jesus’ name? Use the Jesus Prayer to surround yourself with the grace
of God. Repeat the Jesus prayer when you’re struggling with an issue, or
sitting in traffic, or getting ready for bed. We have been given a tremendous
gift at Christmas – receiving the Holy Name of Jesus as our salvation. It is a
name that blesses us and makes us children of God. The Jesus Prayer is a gift
of the Christian tradition – allowing us to be steeped in and surrounded by the
Holy Name of Jesus. Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us.
