January 1: The Holy Name of Jesus

Numbers 6:22-27; Psalm 8: Philippians 2:5-11; Luke 2:15-21

What’s in a name?  A lot, actually.  The name fixes that identity and gives a shape to what has been fluid and vague.  The name enables people to point at one another and say, “she’s like that,” or “he’s just that way.”  Names make the world into things.

This is why the Israelites learned not to name the Holy One.   “God” is not only not a boy’s name, as Lyn Brakeman reminds us; it is not a name at all.   “The LORD” is a substitute name, a gesture rather than a proper name.  But over time gestures become names, until we think we know the one named.  Then we run the risk of idolatry, of making our image become a thing that we can control or invoke.

And yet, we humans need to be able to relate to this energy and source in human terms.  We need names and faces to approach and worship the divine.  And so we meet Jesus, the name that lets us approach and worship.  We meet the one whose name means “God saves,” and in that encounter we can approach `God.’  

At Coffee Table Communion we talked about this conundrum of needing names and knowing their limits.  We talked about Jesus’ emptying himself completely.  If Jesus did not empty himself and become like us, he would have fallen prey to the temptations represented in the desert: ego inflation, self-gratification, abuse of power.  It is safe for Jesus to be glorified precisely because he has emptied himself.  I don’t mean it’s safe for us to glorify him; I mean it’s safe for Jesus.  It’s not a danger to him, to his human self, to be exalted.  We need to see him, and we need to be able to see the glory of God shining through.  But only one who let go of self could do that without falling prey to idolatry.

This may sound abstract, but it’s important for us all.  As we go through our days we routinely name ourselves, and others, and our world.  We say “how it is” as though it’s fact, but often we miss the ways we shape others by our perceptions and names.  We lose the mystery and settle for certainty.  

Today I invite you, and myself, to notice the names you use and how you use them.  Yes, we need names; and yet everyone, every thing, exceeds its name.  Surprise yourself by encountering an object without relying on its name.  If you don’t name it, how does it show up for you?  You might then try a person.  Then, you might try “God.”  What shows up for you beyond the name?