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Grace, mercy and peace …
“O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is Your Name in all the earth!”
In the Bible … names are important. Names mean something. If we were to sit here and look at all the examples in the Bible where a name puts special emphasis on a person, place or thing …we’d be here most of the day.
From Adam naming Eve… to God renaming Abram to become Abraham … to Samuel naming a stone Ebenezer… to Simon, the disciple being named Peter by Christ … the Pharisee, Saul, becoming the apostle, Paul. We see that names are very significant.
What we also see in this… is that it’s no mean thing we do when a Baby is baptized and given his or her “Christian” name. Names are powerful. Think of it, it’s by the names we give our children that God knows them … and it’s those names… the ones we have given our children… that are recorded in His Book of Life.
Today, we see this “naming” by parents being applied to the baby Jesus as well. On the eight day … Jesus was brought to the priest to undergoing the required Jewish rite of circumcision …
We hear these words from Luke’s Gospel .. “And at the end of eight days, when He was circumcised, He was called (named) Jesus, the name given by the angel before He was conceived in the womb.” Luke 2:21
And so, from that record of Scripture we see that Jesus is brought, by God, into His covenant through the Rite of Circumcision … while at the same time, Jesus is also receiving His name from his actual Parent: God the Father… working through his human parents Joseph and Mary as they were told to name their child “Jesus” by the Angel.
The name Je…sus means Yahweh is salvation … or Yahweh saves.
The truth is: Jesus embodies His name … He is salvation, for salvation is found in no other name under heaven.
And so … what we have happening in this account is a very much like what happens at our baptismal font today. As now… since Jesus’ death and resurrection… God brings us into His Covenant of Grace through Holy Baptism.
God is mindful of each and every one of us. So much so, that in Jesus, He took on our flesh and blood … received His name… just as you and I, as one under God’s rule here on earth.
But Jesus died THE death we deserved… and rose again. And as HE did, HE remained flesh and blood … but now with a body that will outlast every galaxy, every star … so that we might spend our eternity with Him in His glory.
And so, now … as we see this baby receiving the rite of circumcision … we are encouraged to look up and beyond that humble setting … the things we see with our eyes…
And see God, the creator of the entire universe: planets and stars and galaxies … being found here on earth as one of His little biological creations … a human being … come to redeem us.
And so, in this New Year … what will be our response to that? Try to be better people? Try to do more good works? Say “no” more often to temptation?
Those are good things in and of themselves … but they are beyond our reach … on our own. God’s goal, as our creator, is that He wants to live each day in our hearts. You could picture it as … the creator of all things wants to be on a first-name basis with you …
…to be your best and your closest companion. That’s His goal … and that we, then, as Godly people … act like Godly people.
And so… when God puts the name “Christian” on us… that’s not so much a name that describes how we worship … or even how we act… but the name “Christian” describes WHOSE we are … and in the final analysis … that’s what really counts. We are Christ’s … that’s what the name “Christian” means.
So … with that name put on us today… we begin a New Year. And to enable us and empower us to BE who we are, God has pledged to meet us, here, in His House… in His Word… and at His Altar.
And to that invitation of God to meet us in His means of Grace … some words are necessary this morning.
We said names are important. One Name we Lutherans have been slapped with is the term “Dead Orthodoxy.” Orthodoxy means correct or right-thinking … being Orthodox is good … but not when you modify it with the word “dead.”
Taken together what they mean is this: We Lutherans are recognized for having right or Orthodox beliefs … we uphold the truths of Scripture as a denomination perhaps like none other … but … to what avail?
In the same vein, another such Name applied to us has been “The Sleeping Giant.” Giant in terms of the strength of our doctrine and beliefs … but sleeping in terms of what we are doing with them.
Dead Orthodoxy … Sleeping Giant. Names. Tags. Applied to us. Trust me on this: Every seminarian has heard those “Names” and has vowed as they have gone out to serve God’s Church as a Lutheran Pastor to make a difference, to get rid of those names.
But the perception of both those tags still persists. Why? Because even though the church is made of individuals … churches themselves have a character all their own. Scripture bears this out.
Paul wrote letters to some individuals … but those were to other men serving in the pastoral ministry … the rest of his letters were written to congregations as wholes … the Corinthian congregation, the Thessalonian congregation … the Philippian congregation.
In the Book of Revelation, we see Christ directing pointed critiques at congregations in places like Philidelphia, Laodicea … and others.
Why? Because, like we see in the secular realm, Cards fans and Cats fans are not the same. Well, neither are churches … even those of the same ilk or denomination … even when they are found in the same town.
Dead Orthodoxy … Sleeping giant. Could those names be stuck on Our Savior Lutheran Church … and School?
What makes a church’s orthodoxy … dead? What makes a giant appear to be sleeping? Let’s suggest ... a couple of things.
Going back to the means of grace … word and sacrament … Notice what those are: Word and Sacrament are … God … serving … us.
What does it say, then, if, on average, only about half those who are members of a congregation are being served by God on a given Sunday … meaning that they are coming to be served in worship?
What does it say if only 60 adults make Bible Study a priority on Sunday morning … and maybe as many or even fewer children … in a congregation of over 500 souls?
What does it say if the church is centered on itself? It doesn’t talk about Jesus and His mission then its leaders meet, but they tend to get all caught up in whether or not God’s provisions will make it through the end of the year or not. Appeals to the membership are budget driven not mission driven.
And, as we noted that cards fans and cat fans are different … so also churches have “personalities” that become entrenched, no matter who the leaders are … or even who the pastor is.
That’s why we have not yet prevailed in changing those names that have been stuck on our denomination. We can’t change it … only God can … and He does it through those who are His … by His Means of Grace … by His Word and His Sacrament.
So … you want to do something about those names? Talk to our New Evangelism Chairman, Jack Hiegel, about getting involved with His GOTEAM.
If you haven’t already attended an “Experiencing God” study here at Our Savior … please join me … beginning next week.
If you have attended “Experiencing God”, make it “priority one” on Sunday morning to attend one of the other adult Bible studies listed in your bulletin … each one of them will address the issues behind those names: “Dead… and … sleeping.”
And, as you’re here, have your children grow in Christ and in their relationships with one another as God touches them through His Means of Grace in Sunday School.
God wants to be on a first-name basis with you. The last thing he wants is tags like Dead and Sleeping stuck on the body of Christ where He meets you. He can and will enable you to change that.
Shall we, then, together? Truth is: people who are living “All for Jesus” are neither dead nor sleeping … How dare we let those tags ever be said of us!!
In Him. Amen.
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