Names

Robert E. Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

January 17, 2010

Text: Isaiah 62: 1- 5

It makes a difference how you see yourself.

This is true for nations, families, communities, churches, and individual persons.

The issue is naming and identity: Who are we are and what do we live for?

Eugene Peterson, on page 19 of Living the Message, in the reading for January 16, writes: “Christian faith is not neurotic dependency but childlike trust. We do not have a God who forever indulges our whims but a God whom we trust with our destinies. The Christian is not a naïve, innocent infant who has no identity apart from a feeling of being comforted and protected and catered to but a person who has discovered an identity that has been given by God which can be enjoyed best and fully in a voluntary trust in God. We do not cling to God desperately out of fear and the panic of insecurity; we come to him freely in faith and love.”

It is such convictions as these that we can imagine in the heart of the prophet Isaiah as he tells us that he cannot keep silent, he must tell the Good News right now. Fred Craddock suggests that we can imagine a child who comes home from school and simply must tell you, right now, of the neat things that happened. He cannot keep silent! Or someone on the phone who starts telling you, upon answering, of the wonderful thing that has happened: the birth of a grandchild, the gift in the mail.

Jerusalem? Who were they and what did they exist for? They had lived so long without shalom or security. Their name was Forsaken People, Desolate People. They may have returned from exile, but they still worshipped among the ruins. And the people did not want to give up their adapted ways of looking out only for their private selves and their families and tribes and taking advantage of the helpless and the poor. (from Texts for Preaching Year C)

Haiti? This is not the way the world is supposed to be, not the way God has willed the world to be. Exploited and oppressed population, barely existing: living in homes that could not withstand earthquakes. There must be richness of culture there, and many gifted people and responsible leaders. But I have heard so many times them named as the basket-case of the western hemisphere. They need a new name, a new affirmation from God that they are significant. It is my prayer that, out of the rubble, a new nation might emerge, with the help of people across the globe.

The people of Jerusalem? Crops and lands were often seized by foreign overlords while the people went hungry. They would say, “We work all day and they take it away.”

But the prophet sees and feels a different future on the horizon. He is a man of hope. He sees in his mind’s eye a day coming when their city, their nation, they as a people of God, will shine out like the dawn.

And God is giving them a new name! A new identity!

Instead of calling themselves Forsaken, Abandoned, Desolate, they will be called “My Delight is in her,” and “Married.” (Beulah-land.)

Why will God do this? Because the Lord God delights in them, because God rejoices over them. Because they are the people of Abraham, blessed to be a blessing.

What’s in a name?

Identity and promise together make a name.

At a church I know of, Charge Conference minutes were on display in the book case, dating from the early 20th century. The DS had commented that the church was “walking orderly, but in need of refreshment.” Did the name shape their destiny?

I attended the General Conference in April of 2000. On the ride in from the airport top the hotel. One of its citizens, returning home, volunteered to me that the nickname of Cleveland was “The Mistake by the Lake.”

My home town was known in that region as The Resort City, because of its Mineral wells which had restorative powers. Now, unfortunately, it is known as the city with a crumbling Baker Hotel at its center-----like an Albatross around its neck. The old hotel says “Hard Times,” Or “Our Fading Splendor.” Broken windows and falling roof tile on the sidewalk say, “Hopeless.”  (For the umpteenth time, I hear that some investors are going to restore it to its former glory. Renovation and Restoration City instead of Resort City?!)

Cities gain or are given identifying names that stick: The Big Apple, the Big Easy, Cow Town, Motown, Mile High City, Golden Triangle.

Some re-naming is cruel. There was the young man with a weight problem who was nicknamed “Tiny.” The man who stuttered who became Skippy. Or the shortstop known as Pee Wee.

Then there are beloved nicknames, like “Rocky,” “Lucky,” and “Babe.”

All through the Bible, people and places get renamed:

Jacob (which means “grabby”) becomes Israel, “wrestler with God.”
Abram (exalted leader) becomes Abraham, “father of multitudes.”

Renamed, the people of Jerusalem see themselves and their future differently. God has not abandoned them. And their new life will bless all the nations, or better said, God will bless the whole earth through them.

This chapter has so many applications.

For us as a nation, insofar as we have a purpose to fulfill in God’s will for the world. The ideals of liberty and justice for all, of equal protection under the law, of freedom from oppression: are we the “Last, best hope for humankind?” Can we live into this identity, this Name?

And we are called to build our cities, whatever their names into places of neighborliness and justice, of beauty and prosperity.

Or, to use a different “we,” the church. Tarrytown is a place name, a way of identifying where in the city our church buildings are located, where we reside when we are gathered. But what has God named us? Or, what are our identity and our peculiar mission?

What would we be like if we took Isaiah’s words to heart? What if we saw that the grand pronouncement of a name is for us, too, now?

By the grace and mercy of God, their ancient story is ours, too as we rehearse every communion service in the Great Thanksgiving. We who were far off have been brought near. We who were strangers, separated from God, alienated from God’s ways, without hope in the world, have been saved by grace through faith.  

Can we hear God’s affirmation of us as a Christian community: that we are not forsaken or desolate---- that we are “God delights in her” and “as joyful as husband and wife to each other?” Can we see our blessedness, not as something we have earned but as a great gift? And a gift with great responsibilities?

I pastored a church once where their name was “We just can’t do that.” No matter what the need was: supporting missions, building a new sanctuary, hiring a youth director, adding an additional service, fixing the AC, their first answer was “We just can’t do that.” Blessedly, they always had some leaders who were not swept along by their mantra; and, in time, they envisioned and are realizing a great dreamland of a future which blesses their community and the wider world.

Think about this: if all churches live under God’s delight as a gift perhaps each particular church may have its own God-given name----just as each Christian has his or her own identifying “given” name or nickname.

If God named us, what would our name or phrase name be insofar as that name is both identifying us and challenging us?

“Loving Hospitality, Loving Service”

“Healing Fellowship, Generous Outreach”

“Lively Traditional”

“Blessed and Obliged”

The truth is, just as with persons, churches can too readily identify themselves by their weaknesses or their failings. “We are rich and satisfied.” “We are middle-class and complacent.” “We are not as friendly as we ought to be.” “We ought to be doing more to help others.” When we concentrate on our failings, we gain some satisfaction in our honest confessions, as if confessions alone confirm our bleak outlook and our captivity to our lesser natures. There are too many times when we would rather be self-critical (as if the script has already been fully written) than faithfully obedient; it costs us less when we ourselves as victims.

But Jerusalem did not become delightful or lovingly faithful to God just by being named such. Such a name is not simply identity, it is hope. And in the re-naming there is power. We live and work toward our destiny as God’s people. We are being transformed, day by day into the church God is calling us to be.

As individual Christians, we can hear Isaiah’s word of naming, too.

If God were to name you personally by a characteristic, a gift or a trait, what would your name be? Think of  Dances with Wolves! Sons of Thunder (James and John, Disciples of Jesus); or Simon, who became Peter.

Consider these possibilities:

Healer, Ambassador, Caregiver, Helper, Faith-bearer, Giver of Hope, Faithful Steward, Compassionate friend, Advocate for the Poor, Justice-seeker, Witness, Discerner, Fervent Prayer,  Joy-bringer, Memory Keeper, Artist, Wordsmith, Keen Observer, Honest prophet, Light-bearer, Builder, Re-builder, Peace-maker, Forward Looking, Hope-filled, Sees the Invisible, Jumps in to Assist, Friend to Strangers,  etc. (You might ask those who know you best what your identifying appellation should be.)

When we baptize persons, we do so in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This is a re-naming, with great power. This One God, in all this God’s glory, love and power, is affirmed and claimed as a gift to this child or adult. They are identified as “a disciple of Jesus Christ.”

We can march on because we are named by the God who goes before us.

.