This morning, as you know, is the fourth Sunday of Advent.
The 21st of December, this is the last Sunday of Advent — and the Sunday that we dedicate to the theme of Love.
Love.
There is no theme that is more appropriate to prepare us for Christmas Eve than love.
Indeed, Christmas Eve is a few short days away. On that evening, we will celebrate a wonderful birth.
Whose birth?
You know who…
Jesus.
Jesus is the name of the person who was born on Christmas — we all know that.
But there is more to this naming of Jesus, than meets the eye…
For one thing, this morning’s reading from the Book of Matthew reminds us that, Jesus did not come by his name in the normal way. Unlike you and me, Jesus was not simply given his name by his parents.
The text says that
“…an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph,” who told him, among other things, that his betrothed, a young woman named Mary, would bear a son, and that he, Joseph, “was to name him Jesus.”
The Angel of the Lord said “Name him Jesus.”
This doesn’t sound like a request.
The angel of the Lord did not say: “I suggest that you name him Jesus.”
The angel of God made God’s intention perfectly clear. The Angel said:
”Name him Jesus.”
That sounds like a command.
So when the child was born and Joseph named him Jesus, Joseph was following orders.
He was doing what he was told.
If you didn’t know better, you might think that this child, was named by his parents, just like everyone else.
But Joseph knew — and now you and I know — that the child was actually named by God.
Named by God.
What does it mean to be named by God?
**
God may have given Jesus his name, and when we refer to him we usually use this name, but this does not stop us from using our imaginations to dream up, and use, all kinds of other names and titles.
The other name that we most often use is “Christ.”
This is actually not a name as such — it is more of a title. “Christ,” it turns out, is the Greek translation of the Hebrew word “Mashiakh” — or “Messiah” which means “The Anointed One.”
We sometimes call Jesus “Lord”
Our savior.
The Son of Man.
The Prince of Peace
The Lamb of God.
These are names and titles that we have given Jesus over centuries of Christian tradition.
So God is not the only one who named Jesus.
We did to.
We — the community of faith — have given him many names.
Named by a community.
What does this mean?
To be named by a community?
**
Named by God.
Named by the community.
If this is not enough, there is yet another way that the naming of Jesus is unusual.
We can see this third way of naming demonstrated in the two scripture readings that Laurie just read for us.
In the first reading, which comes from the 7th chapter of Isaiah, the Jewish prophet tells us that God will give us a sign — that a…
young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.
In the second reading, which comes to us from the Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel writer specifically tells us that the circumstances of Jesus’ birth were in accordance with Isaiah’s prediction:
All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
As a former English teacher, I enjoy moments like this, when one part of the Bible refers to another part of the Bible. In academic speak, we call this a “self referential” moment in the text — a phenomenon that, in this case, reveals the way that scripture was a living presence in the community.
If the details of Isaiah’s prophecy had not been widely known in Jewish culture, Matthew would not have bothered quoting him. Matthew was clearly eager to show how the particulars of Jesus’ birth, and the way he was named, proved that Jesus was none other than the mashiakh — the fulfillment of Jewish prophecy.
Named by prophecy.
What does this mean?
To be named by prophecy?
***
The three different namings of Jesus present us with three questions:
What does it mean to be named by God?
What does it mean to be named by a community?
What does it mean to be named by a prophecy?
To begin to answer these questions, why don’t we start with what is familiar to us?
Nine times out of ten, in our experience, if the naming of a child reflects anyone’s intention — it is the intention of the parents.
Parents often name an infant after someone in their family. This is done to honor that ancestor’s memory. If the child is not named after someone in the family, the child’s given name is likely to be associated with someone the parents admire. If the child is not named after someone, names sometimes project an aspiration for the nature of a child’s life. Names like “Grace” and “Hope” fit into this category.
Whatever the motive might be in naming a child, one thing is abundantly clear – the act of naming is not something that is taken lightly — it is an intentional act that is carefully made… as well it should be. After all, the child will live with this decision for the rest of his or her life, and it will, for this reason, inevitably become integral to his or her identity.
A carefully thought out act, the act of naming reveals the earnest hopes of the one who names, to give meaning to the one who is named. In this way, the act of naming reveals relationship… the relationship between the namer and the named.
It stands to reason, then, that a good way to discern what it means to be named by someone, is to take a look at the name that that someone chose to give.
**
When the Angel of God came to Joseph in a dream, Joseph was instructed, in no uncertain terms, that God wanted the child in Mary’s womb to be named “Jesus.”
“Jesus”
Well…
Actually, “Jesus” is the Greek version of the name Hebrew Yeshua, which, in turn, is a shortened variant of the older Hebrew name Yəhôšua. If that name sounds familiar to you, it should – it is the name that we know as Joshua. Yeshua and Yehosua are both built upon Yahweh – the Hebrew word for God. These names, which come down to us as “Jesus” all have a similar meaning.
They mean Yahweh Saves.
Or, in our language: “God Saves.”
When God expresses a divine intention to name this child who is to be born on Christmas Eve, God gives a name that means “God Saves.”
If this is what it means to be given a name by God, we see that God intends to do something.
God intends this child to “save.”
But from what? What does God intend Jesus to save us from?
The answer to this question appears in the words of the Angel of God who appeared in Joseph’s Dream:
Mary will bear a son, the angel says, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Save his people from their sins.
**
There is a crucial difference between the way God named Jesus and the way the Christian religious tradition gave that same person names and titles.
The difference is that God, like parents, named Jesus before he was born. When the Christian tradition gave names to Jesus, it did so during or after his life.
You might say that we had the advantage of hindsight, so we could be more descriptive.
The Cornerstone
The Good Shepherd
The Resurrection and the Life
There are many descriptive names like this for Jesus – each highlighting a certain quality of his character, or symbolic hope that he embodies.
But by far the most common name that the community has given Jesus is the title “Christ.”
“Christ” usually shows up after “Jesus” – hence the name and title combination “Jesus Christ” that is so familiar to us that it just rolls off the tongue.
If you didn’t know better, you might think that “Christ” was Jesus’ last name!
But the word Christ can show up before “Jesus” too – sometimes we say “Christ Jesus” – which sounds more like a title.
But, as I mentioned earlier, Christ is a title that means “Anointed One” in Greek.
The name refers to an act – or rather that this individual has been distinguished from others through an act – the act of anointing.
To anoint someone is to touch them with holy oil.
This is an ancient practice that shows up frequently in the depths of the Hebrew Bible, where important priestly and prophetic figures like Moses’ brother Aaron, the prophet Samuel, and King David, were recognized by God through the act of anointing.
To be anointed is to be set apart as holy.
So, in a sense, anointing makes a person uniquely holy.
But the beauty of it, is that any of us can be anointed – and in a sense, many of us have been anointed through the sacrament of baptism.
So Christ is unique…
Uniquely holy…
But so are we.
Christ was unique – but he created a community. The community that he created shares a commitment to seeking holiness.
When we join the Christian community we do so through a process of anointing.
A process of becoming uniquely holy.
***
Finally the naming of prophecy.
What does it mean to be named by prophecy.
The prophet Isaiah gave a name – Emmanuel. “God who is with us.”
When Matthew invoked Isaiah’s prophecy, he repeated that name: Emmanuel. “God who is with us.”
I am very partial to this name.
The thing that strikes me about Emmanuel, when I think about it now, is the choice of the preposition.
Emmanuel does not mean “God who is in us.”
It means “God who is with us”
This, to me, suggests that God fills the space between us.
God appears when we are together.
This gives depth to the assertion that I have made over and over from this pulpit – that Christianity is a religion that comes alive when it occurs in community.
Is this what it means to be named by prophecy? To be named by the collective and enduring hope of a culture is to be named in a way that brings us together?
I hope that this is so.
This morning’s speculations lead us to these notions:
That to be named by God is to give us a chance to saved from our sins.
To be named by community is to be made uniquely holy, and to share that unique holiness.
To be named by Prophecy is to bring about a holiness that occurs when we are together.
In a manner of speaking, though Jesus Christ, Emmanuel was named at his birth so many years ago… we too were given a name.
For all these centuries, Jesus has given us a name.
We are named after something for which we have lit a candle today.
Something that we invoke as we prepare for the coming of Christ on Christmas Eve.
Jesus named us.
He named us love.
Amen