Luke 2:21

December 31 2009 Sermon New Years Eve

New Year's Eve: Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus

What's in a Name?

²¹And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

Sermon

Tomorrow, New Year's Day, is the eighth day of Christmas. Eight maids a-milking and all that. And we're certainly very much still in our mode of Christmas celebration—not only as we gear up for New Year's Eve parties tonight, but also here in worship. This night, however, our Gospel lesson, our text, gives us a scene we don't often notice, still part of the infancy narrative of our Savior but without all the photo ops of angels and shepherds. This night we attend a small gathering, attended perhaps by no one but the little holy family and an officiant. About as noteworthy as when a nurse comes by the new mother's hospital room and asks her to verify the information for the birth certificate. The Baby is sleeping in the mother's arms and dad smiles proudly, but no one else even notices.

This event, the eighth day in Jesus' life on earth is nevertheless significant: "And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb" (v 21). By God's command in the Old Testament, every male child was to be circumcised on the eighth day, tomorrow, if we count from Christmas Day. By this the child was incorporated into God's covenant with Israel. This isn't the visit to the temple in Jerusalem when Jesus was forty days old and witnessed by Simeon and Anna. This wasn't a big temple event. The circumcision was done locally, wherever the family lived, and without fanfare.

But besides incorporation into the covenant, the circumcision was also the ceremony at which a child was given his name.

The focus of our Scripture Readings tonight has to do with names. And what's in a name, really? Isn't it just a label, a way to identify someone? In the Bible, names always have significance.

The Name of God: We bracket our worship with God's name. We begin with the invocation in the name of the triune God and we end by placing the Lord's name upon us in the Aaronic blessing, which we just heard in the Old Testament reading. Through this blessing God places his name on us. During the Confession, we ask for forgiveness in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the Absolution, forgiveness is pronounced in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And we ask in the Lord's Prayer that his name be hallowed.

It's clear from Scripture that where the Lord's name is, so also is his presence and his power. When God told Solomon to build a temple, he told him to "build a house for my name, that my name shall dwell there."

In our Epistle, God tells us that those who have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ (Gal 3:27). In Baptism he puts his name on us.

By naming him Jesus, Mary and Joseph obeyed the command of God given them by the angels. Literally, the word Jesus is formed by taking part of the name of Yahweh and part of the word for rescue or salvation. Taken together, the name Jesus means Yahweh or God Saves.

In our world today we often underestimate the importance of names. Most of us were given our names simply because our parents liked how they sounded or to honor some relative.

But, your "good name" is your reputation; it is how you are known as a person. Companies spend immense sums of money to try to make their brand names recognized and respected in the marketplace. But God's name is different: for where the name of God is, God himself is present.

There are hundreds of times that Scripture speaks of the name of God. And now, as we observe and celebrate the naming of God's one and only Son as "Jesus," we also remember how important the name of God and the name of Jesus are to our faith and to the blessings that our Lord provides us each and every day. We invoke God's name frequently, we call upon it, because we desire his presence, his power, his blessing upon us. We want this in all we do, and especially during our worship.

Little children who desire and need comfort and rescue when they are afraid or in danger cry "Mommy" or "Daddy". So we can call upon the name of our Father in all our needs. We know and trust that our cries of "Abba, Father" reach the ears of the Lord who knows each of us by name. Knowing his name, calling upon his name, we have his divine parental blessing and protection against all that could truly harm us in spirit.

The name of God is more than just an abstract representation of God; the name of God is genuinely the presence and power of God in all its fullness. And that is why his name is to be hallowed, to be treated with great care for its holiness. It is the name of the Lord that Scripture tells us is to be praised, rejoiced in, feared, trusted in, called upon, and exalted. This could only be true if the name of God is fully and truly an expression of God himself.

By calling on God's name, Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal. David went forth against Goliath—not really with a sling and five smooth stones but with the spirit of the Lord upon him. It was God's name that was placed upon the great temple built by Solomon.

So important is God's name and the need to keep it holy that it ranks second in all the Commandments, ahead even of keeping the Sabbath, ahead of not disrespecting those in authority, ahead of murdering, committing adultery, stealing, lying, or being envious of others. There are numerous warnings against taking any action or saying any words that will profane the name of the Lord. Blaspheming the Lord's name was punishable by death.

And while all about the name of the Lord is good and pure and holy, we know that our use is not always holy.

We know that there are those who use God's name insincerely, without a second thought. They speak as though the name of their Creator is nothing more than an exclamation of surprise or worry, much like simply saying "Wow!" or "Oops!" But we, his children, baptized into the name of God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, desire that it should never be so among us, for we know that our Lord's name is to be kept holy and not taken in vain.

We often use names in sinful and destructive ways. It was at Babel that men in their arrogance wanted to build a tower up to heaven so as to demonstrate their power and make a name for themselves. What they really wanted to do was make themselves gods. In similar circumstances, Jeremiah prophesied that the temple in Jerusalem, which bears the name of the Lord, would be thrown down—not because his name lacks power, but because the people had begun not to trust in the name of the Lord.

When Israel was suffering calamities due to internal strife, external threats, and disasters of every kind, God promised he would come to their aid if only they would repent and rightly confess his name. We, too, suffer from these abuses; we fail to properly calling on the Lord's name and in call upon ourselves or upon others in our needs. We likewise often apply names to our fellow creatures that label each other in ways that are anything but God-pleasing. Stupid. Lazy. Stubborn. Good-for-nothing. Shallow. Mean. Selfish. Even if these names are sometimes accurate descriptions, they hurt those we love, and who love us! And how greatly it pains our Lord, who knows each of his own by name. Where we use harsh labels for people he calls, "Precious child."

It is for this very reason that we need another name, the name that is above every name: Yahweh Saves, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jesus the Anointed One. He whose names we heard prophesied by Isaiah: Wonderful Counselor, Almighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And in coming weeks and months, we will hear his name called in many other ways: the Lamb of God, the Son of Man, the Redeemer of Israel.

Jesus spoke with the authority of God, in the name of God. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And blessed, too, is he who died with a sign overhead with his name on it: Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews. Through him, blessed are we who can call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In his name we begin a new year. In his name we are baptized into belief and are given "the right to become children of God" (Jn 1:12). In his name we pray and the Father will not refuse what we ask—not because we are simply using the words, but because if we are truly confessing Christ.

The seventy-two disciples whom Jesus sent out to heal and to preach returned with great joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!" (Lk 10:17). Jesus told them: Rejoice That your Names Are Written in Heaven.

With his name and the name of the Father and the Holy Spirit written upon us, our names are written too: in the Lamb's Book of Life. And because they are written there, we will not be thrown into the lake of fire. Because they are written there, we are made pure and will enter with the heavenly throng into that city of light and life. The Shepherd calls us each by name, and his sheep follow him.

Jesus says in the Book of Revelation of him who perseveres in faith to the end "I will never blot his name out of the book of life. I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels" (Rev 3:5).

What's in a name, then? Power, love, forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life, if it is the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. On Account of Him Whose Name Is above Every Other Name, We Rejoice That Our Names Are Written in Heaven.

In his name, your name is written in that Book of Life. You receive these blessings, and they are made your own. In the holy name of Jesus. Amen.