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    Dec 08, 2019

    The Wonder of a Name

    The Wonder of a Name

    Passage: Matthew 1:18-21

    Speaker: Rev. Vivian McCarthy, Pastor

    The gift of wonder is the ability to be amazed by little things – to see more when other people see less; to be surprised again by the beauty you’ve seen a hundred time, feeling about it he way you did the first time you saw it – and to wonder how life could give you such a marvelous gift. ~Rob Renfroe

    When our first child was on the way – the first grandchild on my side of the family – the predictable conversations ensued about what to name the child.  The most interesting of those conversations, though, was when I was debating what our child would call my mother.  My grandmothers were Granny – which was fine, but I didn’t want my mother to be called Granny.  That just seemed old.

    Much to my surprise I learned that my father’s mother had had a similar dilemma when her first child was expected, because she absolutely, no way, no how wanted to be called Mamaw, though I’m still not sure whether that’s because she thought it would make her sound old or because it was too “hillbilly” and she was trying to leave her hillbilly behind.

    So, one day my father and I were talking, and out of the blue he said he had heard that we were debating what Mom’s grandmother name would be.  He looked me in the eye and said (with a bit of a twinkle), “I don’t see what the problem is.  The child can just call me Mr. Crouse!”

    Naming is serious business – right?  How many of you have pored over the baby name books – or nowadays baby name sites?  Or maybe your family has a serious naming convention?  No matter how we arrive at a name, naming is serious business.

    Biblical naming was at least as serious as naming is today – well, probably more so.  We may delight in finding out the meaning of our names, but in biblical times, the meaning was extremely important.

    When a name is changed in the Bible, it usually means the person is receiving a new identity and purpose – a divine purpose and an identity in the context of God’s transformation and the acceptance of God’s calling on the person’s life.

    Back when I was doing program work for the annual conference, I also learned how important it is to get people’s names right.  I was the primary organizer for what we at that time called Leadership Days – 3 days of training on Saturdays in 3 areas of the annual conference, drawing up to 1600 people at each location.  Let’s just say that no matter how good the administrator was who helped me, it was likely that somebody’s name would be incorrectly entered and therefore wind up wrong on their name tags.

    And believe me, that did not always have pleasant consequences!

    I finally learned how to defuse the situation instead of just standing there apologizing.  I’d say – “Oh wow!  Do you remember what happened in the Bible when somebody’s name got changed?  Something REALLY important happened to them that day!  I hope you let me know what happens today!”

    Of course, they’d laugh, get their nametag corrected and go on to class.

    What do you remember about names changing in the scripture?  No fair talking about Paul.  We just had a huge course on that one!  Can you name someone whose name was changed? 

          Abram (exalted father)/Abraham (father of multitudes or many nations)

          Simon (listen)/Peter (rock)

    Listen again to what the scripture says about naming the Child:

    Matthew:  She will give birth to a son, and you will call him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

    Luke: Look! You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus.  He will be great and he will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of David his father. He will rule over Jacob’s house forever…

     Matthew’s version is clear – he will save.

    Luke’s reference to saving is a little more oblique.  The angel says he will rule over Jacob’s house forever – connecting Jesus to Joshua.  The author of our devotions and reference book says this about Joshua and the connection:

    Born into slavery in Egypt, Joshua was given the Hebrew name Hoshea, meaning salvation.  Being a slave, his name conveyed a hope, not a reality 0r at least not until many years later.

    In Numbers 13:16…Moses changed Hoshea’s name.  He took two words – Jehovah (God), the proper name of the God of Israel, and Hoshea, meaning salvation – and wove them together to form a new name, Joshua, meaning “the Lord is salvation,” or God saves.  When Moses died, it was Joshua whom God chose as their leader.  He is the one who led them out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land.

    Let’s be very clear.  The name Jesus was no accident.  It is filled with meaning.  It means, God saves.  And friends, have you ever given much thought to that?  Why would Jesus’ name mean God saves if we didn’t need saving in the first place?

    Jesus came to save – to save each of God’s precious children, no matter who they are or what they have done.  And, make no mistake, we all need saving, given that every single one of us, even when we do our dead level best to live a godly life, every one of us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We are pulled by so many things.  Does that mean we’re unworthy of God’s love?  No!  It means we’re human.

    In an amazing act of love and grace, God sent a baby to love us – to show us how to love – to show us forgiveness – to show us how to forgive – to show us how to heal – to heal us – and most of all, to save us. 

    It’s a wonder – a heart-stopping, thrilling, deeply mysterious wonder – that deep, deep love of God.  Today I hope you revel in that wonder – that it stops you dead in your tracks and speaks into your life.

    Because here’s the thing:  our lives are different – touched  - filled -  transformed when the wonder of Jesus’ name and purpose take such root in our lives that we surrender – that we don’t simply gaze at a cute baby in a manger but find in that manger the deep desire to surrender to that Love and make the Baby the most important thing in our lives.