What’s In A Name Feast of The Holy Name of Jesus 2023

 

What’s In A Name         Feast of The Holy Name of Jesus

“After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” – Luke 2:21

 

Much of the Bible centers around names and naming. The great procession of creation as outlined in Genesis chapter 1 finds God speaks a single word: Light! And light appeared as the first order of taming the darkness and chaos that had existed so far.

 

Then in Genesis chapter 2, Adam, the first man, is given the task to name all the animals. In Deuteronomy, the people are given the task of building the Jerusalem Temple: “then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name.” [i] Making clear, God does not live in the Temple, only God’s name.

 

Which name is revealed in Exodus as Moses is addressed by a bush that burns but is not consumed. The bush tells Moses to take a message to God’s people held hostage and enslaved in Egypt. When Moses asks, “Who shall I say sent me?” The voice from the bush replies, “YHWH, I am who I am. Tell them ‘I am’ sent you; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” [ii]

 

Throughout scripture we find examples of God recognizing something more in the essence of someone than their name captures. God often gives the person a new name as when God renames  Abram and Sarai. The name Abram meant “exalted father,” but God calls him Abraham, meaning “the father of nations.” Sarai meant “quarrelsome,” but God calls her Sarah, which means “princess.” God took Jacob, which means “heel grabber” and named him Israel, meaning “the one who struggles with God.” Jesus does the same when he calls Simon, whose name means “to hear” or “to listen,” by the name Cephas or Peter, both of which mean “rock.” Saul, who is the persecutor of the first followers of Jesus, is given the Greek name Paul for he is sent to bring the Good News of God’s salvation found in Jesus to the Gentiles, who would otherwise remain left out of the coming reign of God. [iii]

 

And so on the eighth day after his birth, the child born to Mary and Joseph is given the name Jesus, the name given by God’s messenger before he was conceived. Jesus, or Yeshua in its Hebrew form, means “YHWH saves, or God saves,” connecting this child directly to the voice from the Burning Bush all the way back in Exodus. In Biblical terms this means that Yeshua is not simply his name, but his essence and purpose in life is to be “God saves,” or “God is salvation.”

 

From there, throughout the New Testament texts, Jesus is called by nearly 200 other names, beginning with Christos, “God’s anointed,” and Emmanuel, “God is with us.” Later, the community who gives us the Gospel of John call him the Logos, or the Word, through whom, as in the beginning, all things come into being. Further, the Logos is a light like the first light that shines in the darkness, and which we are told has not been overcome by the darkness. This Logos, this Word,  comes to us and sets up a tent to dwell among us and stand beside us.  

 

All of which connects this eight-day-old child to YHWH, to “I am who I am,” the one who begins the entire story with one single word, “Light!” To underline this connection, the Fourth Gospel presents Jeus frequently saying “I am”: e.g I am the good shepherd. I am the bread from heaven. I am the vine, you are the branches.

 

There has long been some mystery as to how these four Hebrew letters, yodh-he-vav-he, are to be pronounced, as well as the long-standing tradition that in public readings of the texts, when the four letters appear one is to substitute another name for the God of the Bible, usually Adonai. There is one other interesting conjecture about the Holy Name of God – that it may be pronounced “Yah-wheh,” and is meant to represent the sound of breathing in and out: yah…wheh…yah…wheh. This gives God’s name the distinction of being the first word we “speak” when born with our first breath, and the last word we “speak” with our last breath when we die.

 

The Franciscan, Richard Rohr, takes interpretation to a deeper understanding of the name of God. It levels the playing field for there is no rich or poor way of breathing. There is no European, African, American or Asian way of breathing. No male or female way of breathing. There is no Islamic, Christian, Jewish, or Buddhist way of breathing. The air we breathe is one and the same air throughout the world, and the divine ruach, the divine breath or spirit, blows where it wills, which appears to be everywhere. No one and no one religion can control the spirit and breath of God. When understood in this way, God becomes available through the very thing we all do – all persons, all creatures, all plants – which is to breathe!

 

Being conscious of all this, and breathing consciously, we come to realize that we are all connected, all humanity and all creation, from cave men and women, to astronauts, the animal kingdom, and plants, shrubs and trees! And science now tells us that the very atoms we breathe are the very same stardust that came out of the Big Bang of creation. The Oneness of all creation throughout all galaxies and the universe itself, is no longer “a vague mystical notion, but a scientific fact.” [iv]

 

It would seem that this Feast of the Holy Name is the prefect way to begin the New Year: to ponder the name of God in all its depths of meaning; to know that our God stands with us, even in our darkest moments; that the true light shines through all darkness to guide us in the Way of the Christ Child, the Way of Love; that we are inherently all connected to all of creation and need not let anyone or anything divide us; that not only every year, but every day we can begin again, with a clean slate in the company and the name of Lord God beside us. This is the Lord who descended from a cloud on Mount Sinai, passed by Moses and said, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love to the thousandth generation.” [v] This God is with us with every breath we breathe. All of this and more is embodied in the name we remember today, Jesus, Yeshua, Yahweh saves! Amen.

 

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[i] Deuteronomy 12:11

[ii] Exodus 3:14

[iii] The Right Reverend Frank Logue, Sermons That Work, January 1, 20023

[iv] Rohr, Richard, The Naked Now (Crossroad Books, NYC:2009) pp.25-26

[v] Exodus 34:6