What’s in a Name?

The Feast of the Holy Name
January 1, 2012
The Rev. Dr. Phillip C. Bennett

“What’s in a name?” Juliet says to Romeo. They have been separated by their warring families of the Montagues and the Capulets. Juliet pleads with Romeo,” “Tis but thy name that is my enemy.. What’s Montague? It is nor hand nor foot…What’s in a name?” that which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

But this is not the Biblical view of a name. A name was not just some interchangeable label; something stuck on a person for easy identification. Instead, a name was a vital part of a person’s identity. To know a person’s name was to know her essence, her true calling. A name told you about a person’s origin and destiny. Like the Native Americans, the Hebrews believed that names were given as a sign of a person’s true calling in life. When that calling changed, the name changed: Abram and Sarai were called by a mysterious God into an unknown new land and are given new names: Abraham and Sarah. Jacob’s name was changed to Israel because he strove with the angel and prevailed. Saul of Tarsus became Paul at his conversion.

We may not always have such a lofty idea of names. We may a child a name that sounds pleasing to us. We may thumb through a baby name book, for the time and season and weather when a child is born. Or a name may have more gravitas:  a family name, the name of a deceased or living favorite relative;  Although none of these carry the strong sense of the spiritual power of names which the Hebrews and others believed in—or still believe in certain cultures—even we in our enlightened, scientific world know how intimate and important they are. If we misspell someone’s name, mispronounce it, use an unwelcome nick name—all these bother us even though we may sometimes be too polite to say something. When someone doesn’t remember our name or get it right, we feel less than known by them. (Which is why, in a parish this size, nametags—-as artificial as they may seem—do have a very useful purpose. Having said that, I often don’t wear mine. But it is a new year, right? And the name tag books are there in the back of the church!)

In a positive sense, to hear our name called is to feel a sense of being recognized. When God wanted to get the attention of a certain person in the Bible, God didn’t shout, “Hey you!” Instead he called, “Samuel, Samuel” in the temple when the young boy was sleeping. “Do not fear, Mary!” announces the angel bringing news of Jesus’ conception. “Saul, Saul why do you persecute me?” cries the voice of Jesus when Paul is knocked to the ground at his conversion. 

On this New Year’s Day we celebrate the Feast of the Holy name of Jesus. Previously in the Book of Common Prayer it was called the Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord. Eight days after his birth every Jewish boy was taken to the temple to be circumcised and given a name. And so our readings and hymns make frequent mention of the holy Name:  In the Book of Numbers, the Lord commands Moses and Aaron to “put his name” on the Israelites and he will bless them. The Psalmist cried, “How is exalted is your Name in all the world!” Philippians says that God has given Jesus a name so exalted that at the name of Jesus everything will bow; in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

But for the Hebrews, the understanding of the Sacred Name was deeply paradoxical.  On the one hand they could speak of blessing in the name of the Lord of calling on the name of the lord, and yet the actual name was so sacred that it could never be spoken directly. The sacred name “Yahweh” which is variously translated, “I am that I am; I cause all things to come into” and other similar meanings was so sacred that it was only spoken once a year by the High priest in the Temple at Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.  Otherwise “Yahweh” was always translated “Adonai”-“Lord”—a tradition than even our Book of Common Prayer and most translations of the Bible continued until fairly recently.

It is only against this Hebrews tradition of the unspeakable sacred name of God, that the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus makes any sense.

As Christians we claim that the God beyond all names; I am who I am; the source of all that was and is and shall be, has taken a human name. “Yeshuah”, “God saves. No wonder Jesus created such a scandal when he said “Before Abraham was I am.” Everyone knew that he was using the Sacred Name to refer to himself.

What’s in a name? In the name of Jesus we can now address God intimately and directly. The God who creates, the Great I am, is now made fully present in a new way in creation: as our own flesh and blood, the same flesh and blood which we receive again this morning. God continues to put God’s self into our hands to be known and called upon. The mystery of the Nameless God can now be intimately addressed as Jesus. In the Incarnation which we especially celebrate at this season, God becomes fully human so that we may be fully united with God. God’s “I am who I am”, meets our “we are who we are”, so that we are who he is and he is who we are. In the words of St. Augustine which we sometimes say at the breaking of the bread:  “Become what you are; may we become what we receive.” The Holy Name is now cradled in our own flesh and closer to us than breathing. O come let us adore him!