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

Today, on the eighth day of Christmas, we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name.

NAMES are important.

When we are baptized into the Body of Christ we are named before the Lord, marked as his own forever as we are presented for His service.

The names we give to our children will impact them for their lifetimes.

When someone important to us forgets our name, it hurts; and, more positively, when someone remembers our name when we had not expected that particular person to remember our name, our self-esteem is lifted.

Politicians seek to develop particular skills in remembering names of potential supporters.  Clergy and schoolteachers recognize the power of calling parishioners and students by name.

Tennis shoes were just tennis shoes until Nike launched the Air Jordan in 1984.  Carrying the name of Michael Jordan, Nike has introduced a new version of the ever popular shoe yearly, keeping the adoring public in expectation of the newly introduced collectors’ item for over 30 years.  We are now up to Air Jordan XXXI “Chicago”; get your pair from Nike for $185.00.

Names are a “control thing.”  Naming rights signify control.  Super Bowl 2017 will be held in NRG Energy Stadium in Houston, Texas on Sunday February 5.  NRG Energy, Inc. is a large US-based energy company with corporate offices in Houston.  The stadium is part of the enormous NRG Energy Park sports complex, which received its name in the year 2000 as the result of a 32-year naming rights contract at a cost of $300 million.  Throughout Super Bowl evening, we’ll learn more about NRG and we can expect the half-time show, the instant replays, and the scoreboard to boast names of other significant corporate contributors willing and able to purchase mere moments – dollars per second – of the limelight of our attention, hoping that their names will be seeded in our memory.

Names are a “control thing.”  We can trace the history of naming rights to the creation of the world and throughout our biblical history.

Today, the eighth day of Christmas, we celebrate the Holy Name – the name that is above every name.  In verse 21 of the second chapter of Luke’s Gospel we learn that eight days following Jesus’ birth, the time had come for him to be circumcised and named.  This second chapter of Luke, from which our Gospel lesson comes, recounts the only and very minimal information in the entire Bible of Jesus’ childhood and youth.

These ritual acts associated with Jesus’ birth and naming that are described for us in our lesson from Luke are in keeping with the traditional Jewish laws of Moses.  Jesus and his parents were faithful Jews loyal to the Jewish traditions of their heritage.

Yet, Jesus’ name was not the typical family heritage generated name.  At the Annunciation, Mary had been instructed by the angel to name her child Jesus.  The Encyclopedia of the Jewish Religion states, “proper names in ancient times had a significance to which no parallel exists to the present day.  The name was taken as representing the essence of the bearer.”  We note in Biblical history that when a significant change in mode occurred in a person’s life, the name was changed to represent the point of change of being.  A name was changed to signify a person’s newly accepted covenant with God.

So, we see that from the beginning of time until today, name holds great significance.  In our story of the nativity, when the angel appears to the shepherds, he announces the birth of a Savior, Messiah, Lord.  The Greek translation of Lord is Kyrios.  Kyrios is the very same term as that used for God’s holy and personal name throughout the Greek translation of the Old Testament.  In today’s lesson, Mary, as instructed by the angel, names the child Jesus – the Greek form of the Hebrew name Joshua, which translates “The Lord has saved.”  Thus, the name Jesus means “the Lord has saved,” – Lord being the same term used as God’s holy and personal name throughout the history of God’s people and until the birth of Jesus.  Jesus’ name affirms him as Lord – God eternal, true God from true God.

This significance of the name “Jesus” is emphasized in today’s excerpt from Paul’s letter to the Philippians.  Here, Paul meticulously points our attention to the reality of the humanity and the reality of the divinity of Jesus Christ; the reality of these two natures of humanity and divinity is expressed through the name Lord.

For Paul, the name of Lord carries with it its secular historical meanings of master and owner, later evolving politically into an official title for Roman emperors and, then religiously, as a title for Greek and Roman gods.  For Paul, the name Lord encompassed all these historical, political, and religious meanings.  Jesus as Lord is Master and Owner of all life, King of all Kings.[1]

These familiar verses that we read from the second chapter of Philippians have come to be regarded as the Christ Hymn.  “Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  [NRSV Philippians 2:9-11]

Jesus, the name that speaks the essence of the bearer – the Lord has saved.

The prophet Jeremiah says, “You, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name.”  [NRSV Jeremiah 14:9b]  Let us not forget, we are the Lord’s covenant people, called by His name.

Our Christian sacrament of baptism has replaced the Jewish tradition of circumcision and naming on the eighth day.  Whether we are baptized as infants or teenagers or mature adults, as we are baptized, we are named, and presented to the Lord for service as Christians in the Body of Christ serving the world.

There is no $300 million contract necessary in order to be called by the Holy Name; you will not need the newest pair of Air Jordan’s; the price is paid.  Jesus, true to the essence of his name; Jesus the Lord has saved.