Sermon for Advent 4: December 22,
2013
PREACHER: Pastor Carrie Smith
“What’s in a name?”
Grace and peace to you from God our
Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
The website
BabyCenter recently released its annual baby name report, including a list of
the most unusual names of the year. This year’s list includes, for girls: Blip,
Fairy, and Kiwi. For boys, the list contains: Ajax,
Cheese, Danish, Egypt, Jag, Panda, and Rocket. That’s right, I said “Cheese”.
Someday, there could be a little Senator Cheese or Pastor Cheese or Doctor
Cheese in your life.
Oh, but wait: it gets better! On this same website you
can search for other unusual names from past years. You can find out, for
example, that there have been multiple babies named Swag, Hotdog, Butterbean,
Phone, Freak, Poopy, Superman, Mushroom, and Elbow. Actually, in 2009, there
were three babies named Elbow. One
has to wonder if Elbow had a brother named Kneecap and a sister named
Bellybutton. Or, maybe he had a twin named Macaroni…
What’s in a name? Does it matter what we are called?
Naming my first son Caleb was easy: his was the only name (and I mean the only name!) Robert and I could agree on.
In fact, we joked that if he turned out to be a girl, he would simply have to
be Calebina, because we couldn’t imagine agreeing on another name.
Some of you know already how our second child, Zion, was
almost (but not quite) named Micah, with our plans thwarted when we got to know
our pastor’s son, who was 14 years old and also named Mikah. But I don’t think
I’ve mentioned how, once we got around to choosing “Zion” as the alternative,
we got stuck on a middle name. This baby was due to be born 2 days after
Christmas, so Robert and I thought it should be something Christmas-y. This
would have been easier for a girl—you could always go with Noelle, or Holly, or
Ivy, or the ever-popular Mary. It was a little harder for a boy, but even so, we
were very excited to tell some friends we had decided on… “Emmanuel”. Zion
Emmanuel Smith.
To say our friends reacted badly would be an
understatement. “Oh, for the love of all that is holy!” they said. “This baby
is already growing up as the pastor’s kid. Can you at least give him ONE normal
name? Don’t do that to him.”
Yep…And that is how our second child became Zion ROBERT.
Also, he was born nearly 3 weeks early, on December 8, which sort of ruined the
whole Christmas-cutesy thing anyway.
So, what’s in a name? How much does it matter what we
are called? In the birth story of the Messiah that we heard this morning, baby names
are everything. The author of the
Gospel of Matthew says “This is how the birth of the Messiah happened” and then
instead of telling about the labor and the contractions, the story begins with
Mary and Joseph’s engagement, some surprising pregnancy news, and then a dream in
which an angel gives Joseph baby-naming advice. After suggesting he put “Jesus”
at the top of the list, the angel goes on to repeat a prophecy from many
centuries before:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and
they shall name him Emmanuel, which means God with us.”
“You shall name him Jesus” and “They shall name him
Emmanuel.” Have you noticed? In the Bible, no one seems to consult baby name
books or websites before bestowing names upon people. Names in Scripture more often
come from angels or from dreams. Names are even changed after close encounters
with God. In this case, the baby born to Mary and Joseph receives two names: Jesus
is the name Mary and Joseph will give him, following the angel’s advice.
Emmanuel is the name the world will give him.
“They shall
name him Emmanuel, which means God with us.” Just as “Christ” isn’t Jesus’ last
name, “Emmanuel” isn’t his middle name. “Emmanuel” is rather a description of
Jesus’ life and ministry. It’s a title that speaks not only of Jesus as baby in
a manger, but Jesus as healer, as itinerant preacher, and as prophet. This
moniker, “Emmanuel”, tells us something special about this baby: it reveals that
wherever Jesus is, God is present. Jesus is “God with us.”
Remember, the hope of a child being born who would be
called “Immanuel, God with us” didn’t begin with this angel’s announcement in
Joseph’s, but was spoken through the book of Isaiah long before. This was a
hope that carried the people of God through exile and oppression, through times
of persecution and famine. To understand how the hope of “God with us” could be
so powerful, consider for a moment the value of presence. No, not “presents”
like we have wrapped and waiting under the Christmas tree, but presence.
Consider the experience of trying to talk to a customer
service representative on the phone or through online chat, and how sometimes you
would do anything just to have a real person to look in the eyes and ask your
question. Can I get an Amen? Or, consider the modern miracle of Skype and
FaceTime and email. These innovations have changed life for those who live or
travel or work overseas, because now we can see and hear each other instantly
and (nearly) for free. No more Airmail or telegrams or, even worse, weeks with
no contact at all. But ask any grandparent whose grandchildren live in another
country, or anyone whose spouse is deployed overseas, about the value of
“presence”, and they will tell you that the ability to hug and touch and feel a
loved one is far better than cyber communication across the miles. Amen?
“God with us” means God is present with us. God keeps
company with us. The church-y word for it is “incarnation”. The Gospel of John
puts it this way: “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and
truth.” (John 1:14) The writer Frederick Buechner makes it plainer: “Moses at
the burning bush was told to take off his shoes because the ground on which he
stood was holy ground (Exodus 3:5), and the incarnation means that all ground
is holy ground because God not only made it but walked on it, ate and slept and
worked and died on it.” (“Wishful Thinking: A Theological ABC” p. 43)
When the angel told Joseph this baby would be called
Emmanuel, God with us, it was more than helpful naming advice. This was the
announcement that the hope of God’s people was about to be fulfilled: God was
coming near. The divine, holy Other would soon have skin on. God, the almighty,
creator of all things, would not be living in a land far away or housed in a
place or time any more special than this one. The birth of the baby called
Emmanuel means that this is a holy place, right here. This is sacred time,
right now. This is God’s tabernacle, wherever two or three are gathered in his name.
And sisters and brothers, this is what it means for you
that this particular baby, born in
Bethlehem and laid in a manger, is the one who is called Emmanuel, God with us:
If an animal’s feeding trough is a holy enough place for
God to hang out, then so is your car, and your living room, your dinner table
and your work cubicle.
If an unmarried, teenage girl is holy enough to carry
God within her womb and in doing so, change the world, then so are your hands
holy enough to do God’s work for the sake of the world.
And if a newborn baby’s body—crying, hungry, wiggly and
needy—is honored and respected by God as holy ground, then so is your body to
be honored and respected, treated as the holy temple that it is. And, to take
it a step further, if the incarnation means that all ground is holy ground,
then so too is every body a holy body: Yours and mine. Able and differently
abled. Black, white and brown. LGBTQ & A (and every other letter of the
alphabet for that matter). “God with us” means God is with all of us, no
exceptions.
Dear friends, the next time we gather together, it will
be to celebrate what has been spoken by the prophets, revealed in a dream to
Joseph, and announced to Mary by the angel Gabriel: That the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God
is with us.’ Be not afraid--the king shall come! All earth is hopeful, the
Savior comes at last! Mary and Joseph named him Jesus. We call him Savior, our
light in the darkness, prince of peace, and our long-expected Jesus, come to
set the people free. We call him Emmanuel, God-with-us. Thanks be to God, for
the most precious gift of presence. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment