THE NAME of JESUS

First Sunday after Christmas

January 1, 2012

Text: Luke 2:15-21

Rev. Dale G. Bauer

Typically the Sunday following Christmas and the Sunday following Easter my method of preaching is different. Rather than write a sermon and memorize it, as I normally do, I put together a letter to God. That’s right, a letter to God. I’d e-mail him. But don’t have an address. I don’t know his website. I’d text him but don’t have a phone. I’d Facebook him, but I’m not into that. Consider this letter more of a prayer that I read aloud to you. And letter writing is, of course, acceptable, since most of what we call the New Testament is letters.

Dear Creator of Heaven and Earth:

Today, January 1, is known as New Year’s Day. The month January is named after the pagan Roman god, Janus. His temple in ancient Rome was oriented east to west as our church buildings are. The sun, of course, rises on the east and sets in the west. At the eastern entrance to Janus’s temple was a statue of him with a young face; at the western entrance was a statue of him with an old face.

As you know, the Church has chosen this day to honor the faithfulness of Mary and Joseph, who take Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem to receive the sign of the covenant of Abraham, circumcision, and receive his name, Jesus. So this day is known as the Circumcision and the Name of Jesus. It is also known as the Octave of Christmas, the eighth day after the birth of Jesus, when he was circumcised and named. It’s all biblical, as you know:

After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child and he was called Jesus ... (Luke 2:21)

As the years have separated us from our Jewish roots, the name of Jesus has taken center stage. And what a name. It is an utterly ubiquitous name. I’d guess that the name of Jesus is used billions of times a day, in prayers, the Lord’s Prayer, in pleas for help, and in epithetical expressions (you know what I mean). It is a powerful name:

Jesus is Lord

That at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow

My understanding is that the name ”Jesus” is the Latin for his Greek name, Jesous, which is derived from the common Hebrew of Jesus’s time, Yeshua, derived from more formal Hebrew, Jeho-shua, which is Latinized to Joshua. The name actually means, Yahaweh, God, saves. Joshua should ring a bell, because we know he led the people of Israel across the Jordan and into the Promised Land. He’s also the one who “fit the battle of Jericho.” The parallel is important: Joshua led the people of Israel into the Promised Land just as Jesus leads us into the kingdom of God.

So, it seems to me (tell me if I’m wrong) that on this day we remember the power of his name. Jesus, by his grace, saves us from the power of sin and gives us the kingdom, now and forever. He is light in the darkness. He is the beginning and the end.

Jesus of Nazareth didn’t stand long as his name. It was transformed, maybe mostly by the Apostle Paul, to Jesus Christ. To the name Jesus was appended the ancient Hebrew word for the “anointed one of God, Messiah. It in turn is in Greek Christos. So we have in Greek Iesous Christos, Latinized in the familiar Jesus Christ. He is the anointed of God for us. Of course, you, God, know all of this; it helps me to think it through, because it is the name above all names.

Speaking of names, here’s another one. Cross of Hope. It’s the name of this little part of the body of Christ. It has a specific history. A specific character and a specific purpose:

Calling and
Educating Into Christ

Apostle Paul, in his letter to the little church at the Greek city of Corinth, says that three things last forever: faith, hope, and love.

People of faith live by hope. Apostle Paul tells us that hope is believing in that which is not seen. Paul also describes you as the God of all Hope, the piece of Scripture on which this congregation was founded.

People here have certainly lived by hope. From the sending of mission pastor Ronald Barth at the beginning of the 1980’s, to a hardy band of faithful people who put up a building in 1985, then again in 1988, then again in 2004. A people who started a preschool and an elementary school. A people known as friendly, warm, and accepting. A people who constantly reach out in the name of Christ Jesus to the poor, the imprisoned, the homeless; reaching out to teach the faith in koinonia, in music, in the early stages of motherhood; calling to all in worship, in giving, in caring, and in learning. Hope itself may be a big, sometimes vague, word. But this community of faith has tried over the years to give it concrete expression.

Names are certainly important. First and foremost is the awesome name of Jesus, the Christ. It is a name we especially honor today. We remember that you name us as beloved children of you, creator of heaven and earth. Now as the community of hope, a name surely given to us by you, may we always seek your will boldly as we call ourselves Cross of Hope.

Well, enough. You know all this stuff. Forgive me that I have to remind myself of it.

Yours,

Dale