The Holy Name
HOLY NAME
Numbers 6:22-27 • Psalm 8 • Galatians 4:4-7 • Luke 2:15-21
I remember a day in seminary when our New Testament professor took us over to the chapel and handed out little slips of paper to everyone that bore different names for Jesus. We sat spread out in the chapel and read out the various names popcorn style. There wasn’t a particular order in which we were to speak, just call out the name when it felt right. Once we exhausted the paper slips, we added in more names from our own readings of scripture and prayer lives. I remember a sense of awe at how each name for Jesus echoed through the chapel inviting us to take in a different piece of who Jesus is. We sat in the presence of Jesus of Nazareth and of the Cosmic Christ.
When I think back on that lesson, I am reminded of how, like a gemstone, there are many facets to Jesus. Each facet might be named differently and together they create a grander picture of who God is. The facets are numerous and expansive.
Today is the Feast of the Holy Name. It’s the day when we remember Jesus receiving his earthly name. Eight days after his birth, according to Jewish custom, Jesus was circumcised and named. Mary and Joseph called him Jesus, the name the angel gave before Jesus’ conception.
Remember back to Luke chapter 1:
The Angel Gabriel comes to Mary at the Annunciation and proclaims, “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom, there will be no end.”
He will be named Jesus and he will be called Son of the Most High. Already, there are two names for Jesus before he is even conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit!
The name Jesus was shared by plenty of other Jewish men before Jesus of Nazareth whom we celebrate. We know Jesus by this Greek name that in Hebrew would have been Yeshua or Joshua. It was a common name shared by many, including the Joshua for whom the book of the Bible is named. But to be offered this name as the Son of God and to be given the name by an angel bears another layer of significance.
The name “Jesus” quite literally means “The Lord is Salvation.” That is a weighty title!
Our names are very important in our experience of the world. Our names are an expression of identity, of both our individuality and our connection to others. Our names indicate the family to which we belong. Our names may pay homage to important Biblical, cultural, or familial people. Our names might indicate the hopes our parents had for our lives.
Each of our names tells a story. Maybe you use your given name and maybe you use a name of your own choosing that is a better depiction of your identity. For transgender and non-binary people, choosing a name is a marker of more fully expressing an identity to the world. Some people change their names because the name they received from their family of origin holds hurt or trauma. Marriage and adoption can also be occasions to change our names to represent more of our story.
Maybe you have nicknames from the people who love you. Family or chosen family may have special names for you—goofy nicknames or grandparent names. Sports teams and other extracurriculars can be a source for nicknames as well. My dad calls me doodlebug, or Rev. Doodlebug if we are being formal!
The point is, we all have lots of names, and they all tell unique stories about who we are.
My first name, Adelyn, is my maternal great-grandmother’s name. She was a woman who was well ahead of her time. She loved math and art. She collected bells. She lived until just short of her 103rd birthday. In sharing her name, I am encouraged to create my own path, even if there is resistance. I pray I share her health and longevity as well!
My middle name, Elizabeth, is my paternal grandmother’s name. She is a fierce caregiver and protector. She is a quilter who has always let me dig through her fabrics and play among her beautiful scraps. And Grammy also loves a pair of red boots! In bearing her name, I am called to create and to generously care for family and friends.
And my newly married last name, Tyler-Williams, is a reminder of the family who lovingly raised me and continues to support and care for me. It is equally a reminder of the family who brought me in much more recently and still calls me a daughter and a sister. It is assurance that my wife’s family is my family too.
Of course, Jesus’ many names tell a grand story. Let’s look at just a few of those names.
The name Jesus meaning the Lord is Salvation sums up so much of what we need to know. It is a reminder that Jesus’ life on earth is part of our salvation.
The name Messiah means anointed one. Kings were anointed, but Jesus offers a different sort of kingship—one that subverts earthly powers.
The name Emmanuel states clearly that in Jesus, God is with us. God took on our human form and dwelt among us. Today, and forever, God is with us, by our side loving and caring for us.
The name Son of God helps us to understand the relationships of the Trinity. It sets Jesus apart and identifies the importance of a relationship with God.
Each of Jesus’ names would have been a reminder for him of his heritage—being of the lineage of Abraham, David, Rahab, Bathsheba, Tamar, and Ruth. It would be a reminder that he is both divine and human. It would be a reminder that his life is part of God’s plan for salvation. With a name that states, “God is our Salvation,” I imagine that Jesus would have been constantly reminded of the significance of his earthly life. He would have known that his life fit within God’s plan for our salvation and liberation for all people.
When we hear the name of Jesus, and the many other titles we use for him, we are also reminded of the significance of God walking among us. When I utter the name Jesus, I know that through Jesus I have received the gift of eternal life, I have been redeemed of my sins, and I have a place in God’s kin-dom.
Paul shares these reminders and lessons in a different way when he writes to the Galatians. God sent his Son to redeem and save. God sent Jesus “so that we might receive adoption as God’s children.”
Much of Paul’s writing helps to explain what it looks like to enact a life of faith and outlines what it is that we believe. When Paul writes to the Galatians in particular, he is writing to a group of people under Roman rule who are trying to uncover what it means to follow Jesus first, before earthly rulers. They are trying to determine what it is to live a life that follows Jesus, a Jewish man, and is also distinct from the practices of Judaism. The Galatians would have had some uncertainty about their place. They might have been unsure of their identities and their belonging.
For Paul to make clear to them that their role in the world shifts because of Jesus would likely have offered some clarity. Through Jesus, they are children of God and thus they are heirs of God’s kin-dom.
This passage in Galatians celebrates a different sort of naming—while it does not offer earthly names as in the case of Jesus today, it does offer a title that gives identity and is a reminder of our role and of our belonging. The Galatians are reminded of perhaps their most significant title in their lives of faith—children of God.
Through this lineage of faith and through our own belief, we receive the same title of belonging. Just as our given names, chosen names, and nicknames give us a sense of connection and belonging, our faith offers us a holy name that grounds our lives.
In our baptisms, we are marked as Christ’s own forever. We are brought into this way of being and place of belonging. When we are named as children of God, we know that we will always be loved and we will always belong.
As Jesus knew well, the world does not always make us feel this sense of love and belonging. There are times when our connection to God and to our community can feel muddied. Still, the name child of God is something that can remind us of what is core and eternal. It can assure us that we are beloved, enough, and worthy exactly as we are. We are children of God, created by God.
The Good News for us today on the Feast of the Holy Name is this:
God calls you Beloved. God calls you a child of the kin-dom. You are named Beloved Child. And what a holy and glorious name that is! Thanks be to God!
© 2023 The Rev. Adelyn Tyler-Williams
St. Paul’s Episcopal Church – Fayetteville, Arkansas