Holy Name + A Name of Power + 1.1.23
M. Campbell-Langdell
All Saints, Oxnard
(Numbers
6:22-27; Psalm
8; Philippians
2:5-11; Luke
2:15-21)
After the blast of Glorias in the sky sung by the angel
choir, the Christmas story seems so quiet. The angels exit stage left and it
all seems to be back to Silent Night.
Today we have Holy Name, and in the scripture from Luke a
good many things happen in a very short time. The shepherds go to tell Mary and
Joseph the improbable news. They are not a little amazed. Mary ponders these
things. The shepherds leave, and we imagine Mary and Joseph getting to be
normal newborn parents, that is zombies without sleep for a bit. Or perhaps he
was a perfect angel, but I am sure he needed to feed incessantly, being after
all flesh and blood and in need of milk. And then they go and circumcise Jesus
when he is eight days old and he is named “Jesus”, or “Jeshua” or “Your
salvation.”
Already they timidly hope big things for this little babe.
Very big things indeed. You can imagine them believing and yet not believing
these things. But they hope them all the same!
Reflecting on Psalm 8:
“When I
consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, *
the moon and the stars you have set in their courses,
What is man that you should be mindful of him?
*
the son of man that you should seek him out?
You have
made him but little lower than the angels….”
(Ps. 8:4-6a)
What is the son of man that you should seek him out? Jesus
came into the world and in so doing God sought us out. Wanted a relationship
with each and every one of us. The cosmos shifted. The heavens came and touched
the earth. And ordinary folks, folks like the shepherds and Mary and Joseph,
interacted with the angels. And they were amazed! It all seems so quiet after
the angelic exit. But some things of great power are happening.
Novelist Marilynne Robinson points out in her study of this
psalm that because God seeks us out, we have so much potential even in our
limitations. As one reader summarizes: “What [Robinson] cherishes in the psalm
— the compound of God’s majesty and human diminutiveness — is the very thing,
she says, that accounts for the mixed nature of experience. Beauty and miracles
are everywhere, but they come hemmed in by the defects of time and temperament.
Robinson calls it ‘possibility in a sleeve of limitation.’”[1]
This is what humanity is, with God in the mix. With Jesus in our lives, in our
world, we can wade about in the divine. Even though we are still human, still
limited in our own ways. But we touch something sublime, so much more than we
are. And God enables us to do so in relationship with the Christ.
Science fiction writer Ursula Le Guin uses the power of names
in her work. In her Earthsea series, a name is not just a name, but if
you know something’s name, you have a certain power over it and you understand
more about its true nature. In Wizard of Earthsea, a character says: “My
name, and yours, and the true name of the sun, or a spring of water, or an
unborn child, all are syllables of the great word that is very slowly spoken by
the shining of the stars. There is no other power. No other name.”[2]
Knowing a name gives us power, according to Le Guin, but it
is also interesting that she states that there is a cosmic name that is above
all others. Perhaps to us as Christians, that is the name of Jesus the Christ.
The name that brings salvation.
Of course, we must be careful not to say that in knowing the
name of Jesus we have power over God in some manipulative way. But just like when
Jacob wrestles with the angel, who may be a representative of God, and asks for
a name, somehow having the name does convey a certain amount of power in the
relationship. The human Jacob is renamed Israel because he has wrestled with
God and won. Mary and Joseph give Jesus a name that supports everything they
have been told about him, in accordance with what they have been told by the
angels. Since he is the Savior, he will be given that name. Then he will own it
more fully as he lives to adulthood. This name will be lived to the maximum in
his death and resurrection. But in naming him, they began the slow process of
the world’s recognition of just who he was. This circumcision was not just a
rote activity but it reminded everyone what this was all about. They may be a
very humble family, being informed by other humble people who have been visited
by angels, but they knew God really was acting through and within this baby.
And when you think about it, Jesus’ name truly is powerful.
Jesus tells his disciples to heal in his name. And when they do so, they see
miracles! This is not control of God’s power. But this is God giving humans a
chance to collaborate. A chance to be part of healing the world.
Today as we mark Holy Name day, how can you share about the power of Jesus’
name? Can you pray for healing for someone, in body, mind or spirit, in Jesus’
name? Can you ask God to help in a situation that seems unable to be helped by
human remedies? Jesus’ name is as powerful as it was all the way back when, back
in the temple where a humble pair walked in to circumcise their child and claim
for him a name of power. A name that would speak to the healing of us all.
Amen.
[1]
Catherine Holmes, “Review: Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Jack’ brings ‘the weight on
the family’s heart’ back home,” Post and Courier, January 17, 2021, Review:
Marilynne Robinson's 'Jack' brings 'the weight on the family's heart' back home
| Book Reviews | postandcourier.com.
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