A Boy Named Jesus
12-23-07
This morning we hear a story about naming, among other things. Naming a new baby is a challenging process. It’s hard to please everybody with a name. The stereotype is that Dad wants a name with alliteration in it, something that would sound good on a sports report like Sammy Sousa or Johnny Justice. Mom selects a fashionable name and insists on no nicknames, something like Catherine or Benjamin or Cynthia. Grandpa wants to use a hallowed family name from the past, like Reuben or Horatio or Myron. It’s a miracle of diplomacy that a name is ever chosen. Once the name is selected, it takes on a certain fascination. One day a hospital nurse retrieved an interesting bit of doodling from one of the labor and delivery rooms. Evidently, an expectant father had had some time on his hands as he awaited the blessed arrival. Here is what he wrote: "John Paul Jones, J. Paul Jones, John P. Jones, the Rev. John P. Jones, the Honorable J. Paul Jones, Senator John Jones, Dr. J.P. Jones, President John Jones, "All the Way with JPJ!" What if the baby turned out to be Juanita Pauline Jones?!
We have many different reasons for naming a child. There is a specific reason that Victory is named Victory and Charlene is named Charlene. My parents were trying to be original with Melissa, little did they know that I would go to school with dozens of other Melissa’s all spelling their name differently, and all named Melissa for different reasons.
It used to be that children were named based on what the name meant. For example, the name Anne, is the English version of the French name Hannah meaning grace. Cathy, Kathleen, Kaitlyn are all derivatives of the same name meaning either "pure" or "torture". (Just don’t put the two together into pure torture!) James or Jim is actually a derivative of the biblical name Jacob and can mean either "supplanter" or "may God protect." My name doesn’t have such a powerful meaning. It comes from Greek Mythology and means honey bee. Anyone who really knows me knows that it is an appropriate name. I can be as sweet as honey, but I have quite the wicked sting when I want to.
Fortunately, Mary and Joseph did not face the hassle of finding a name for their baby boy. That important matter was decided for them by God. And the naming of their son is a critical part of the Scripture passage before us. In fact, not one, but two important names are given to their child, each helping us to know more about him. The angel said, "He shall be called Jesus." The reading tells us that before Jesus was born, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, informing him that the child Mary was carrying was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and that he should not fear to take Mary as his wife. Further, the angel told Joseph what to name the child. Jesus.
Here’s the thing, Jesus was an extremely common name at the time of Jesus Christ’s birth. It was the Jim or Bob of the first century. The Savior sent by God did not have a name that set him apart from the rest of the human race. There was a Jesus down the street, and probably a Jesus in the extended family. "Jesus" was the name that would have been entered into whatever official birth records were kept in those days. In the case of this particular child, that name was sometimes used in conjunction with further identifiers, such as Jesus of Nazareth; or Jesus, son of Joseph; or Jesus, son of David (referring to his ancestry), but all these were actual labels referring to the one who was born to Mary around the beginning of the first century A.D. It may have been a common name, but it was not a meaningless one. Jesus means "God is salvation." The angel who appears to Joseph alludes to that meaning when he says, "... you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." This child was given a name that would be a constant reminder of the saving grace of God.
Let us reflect just a moment on the concept of salvation. There are a lot of ideas about salvation. I like to think of it as moving from poor relationship with God and others to right relationship with God and others. "For what God did with Jesus was to send him to move us from where we are, from where we cannot be in communion with God, from where we are separated from God, to where we need to be to sit at the table of fellowship with him in the daily round of life as well as in the kingdom to come."1 If that doesn’t work for you, look at the word salvation, it includes the word "salve". Salve is a healing word. Salvation is healing of our bodies, our souls, and of the world. It is reconciliation. "God is salvation."
Jesus indeed is a name that carries the weight of the world. And yet, the Jesus we hold up in our faith has another name to distinguish him and his task. Once Matthew has told us the message of the angel, he continues on with his own observation. He wants to make it crystal clear to his readers that this child born to Mary and Joseph has a divine origin. And so, Matthew refers back to something the prophet Isaiah had written centuries ago. "Understand, says Matthew, this child fulfills a prophecy. "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and he shall be called Emmanuel." Matthew of course changes the wording slightly so that we understand that Jesus must grow, and learn, and skin his knees like any other child. Matthew writes, "and they shall call him Emmanuel." One day in the near future, this baby will become a man of revelation and power. This man shall be a reminder that God is with us. The name, Emmanuel, as Matthew hastens to tell us, means "God is with us." Thus, between his given name, Jesus, and his symbolic name, Emmanuel, this child to be born to Mary makes two important affirmations about God — that God saves us and that God is with us.
Listen closely, because I’ve come to the good news piece of this story. This story reinforces for us not only that God is everywhere, but more importantly that God is present where we are. Those two understandings of God are very different. So, let me repeat that: God is not only everywhere, but more importantly God is present where we are. God is present in whatever situations that you and I find ourselves in. God is working through our lives in our successes and our poor choices. God is present where we are when we have our doubts and our fears and our cynicism, and God is present where we are when we are on fire and passionate about relationships and new opportunities. God is present where we are when we are grieving, and God is present where we are when are celebrating. God is present where we are when we are fighting old stereotypes, and God is present where we are when we are unable to move past them. Likewise, God will hear us from where we are. Even if we don’t have words but only tears and pits in our stomachs, God hears us. I think in order for us to truly experience the powerful healing and reconciliation of salvation, we must truly believe that God comes to us where we are, knows us in our wholeness and our brokenness, is patient with us when we are inconsistent and struggling, is delighted with us when we find a sense of purpose and meaning in life, and overjoyed when we are reconciled. The message of Jesus’ symbolic name is not that God is everywhere, even though that is true, but that God is here with us. God is with us where we are.
So, just as this dream was powerful and revealing for Joseph those many years ago, we too can be inspired by the reminder that God comes to us where we are and offers us healing in many ways. God chose to come to us in a child like most others, who grew into a model for us; Jesus- Emmanuel. Thanks be to God. Amen.
1 Quoted from Rev. Bob Kaylor, Senior Minister of the Park City United Methodist Church in Park City, Utah. From Nov.-Dec. edition of Homiletics, 2007.