Sermon: "What's In A Name?"

Readings
Isaiah 43:1-7
But now thus says the LORD, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you. Because you are precious in my sight, and honored, and I love you, I give people in return for you, nations in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you; I will say to the north, "Give them up," and to the south, "Do not withhold; bring my sons from far away and my daughters from the end of the earth everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22
As the people were filled with expectation, and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he might be the Messiah, John answered all of them by saying, "I baptize you with water; but One who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of His sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in His hand, to clear His threshing floor and to gather the wheat into His granary; but the chaff He will burn with unquenchable fire."

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
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There's an old W.C. Fields movie in which he portrays a town sheriff called "Honest John." Asked how he got that name, Fields says, "I'm tending bar one time in Medicine Hat. A fellow used to come in who had a glass eye. He'd take it out and put it in a glass of water. One night he forgot it. Next night he came in, and I said, 'Son, here's your glass eye.' Since then, I've been known as Honest John."

Such is the stuff of names. We have given names, surnames, maiden names, married names, proper names, nicknames, pet names, stage names, pen names, assumed names and titles.

What is a name? It's what we are called. The Spanish phrase "Como se llama?" literally means "How are you called?" What is your spoken identity by which one might get your attention? We call those we care about by name.

Are you one of those people who never forgets a face, or do you have trouble remembering people? Are you good with names? I believe it's a gift, and not everybody has it. I sure don't! I suffer from name drain.

Back when I had a higher profile than I do now, someone was always coming up to me and saying, "Hi, Zoomer!" and I wouldn't know who they were, so I took up the practice of saying, "Hey, Man!" or "Well hello, Darlin'." It sounded cordial enough, but it was highly impersonal.

And there are other ways of dealing with name drain. You might have used some of them yourself:

"Do you know John Smith?"
"Sure. He's old man Smith's boy!"

And my Father's favorite:

"Are you Zoomer's father?"
"My wife says I am."

Fortunately -- and UNfortunately -- I don't have that problem at Manhattan. I know almost all of you on a first-name basis. My mind is a lot clearer now than it was in those days, thank God; but considerably fewer people go to church on Sunday than we used to get in the honky tonks on Saturday nights.

Obviously, if you don't know someone's name, they're not really in your life. We know our loved ones' names like we know our own.

When folks start looking up their old classmates, the most difficult people to locate are the girls. Why? Because they get married and change their names. Then they get divorced and remarried and change their name AGAIN. I have relatives who've been married so many times that I don't know WHAT their names are!

My grandmother's name was Eudola Blanche Baker. About 100 years ago she married Henry Elmer Roberts, and from then until her death in 1976, she went variously as Blanche Roberts, Mrs. E.B. Roberts, Mrs. H.E. Roberts, Blanche Baker Roberts, and so on. It caused some problems when it came time for her children to settle her affairs. I found that sort of funny at the time.

I've got a few names, too. Most of you know me as Zoomer, because that's what my friends call me, and you are my friends. It's not Boomer, Bummer, Zummer, Zimmer, Zommer, Zipper, Scooter or Skipper. That's obviously not what my parents named me. They named me Robert Ray Roberts. In school I was Ray. At the bank and the doctor's office, I'm Robert. A few people call me Bob. The heating and cooling guy calls me Robbie! Then there's Ray-Bob, Zoom-Bob (my favorite), Zoomer Ray, Zoom and just plain Z. Don't call me Mr. Roberts. Mr. Roberts was my Daddy.

God knows all our names. He doesn't call us Man or Darlin' or Dude. He doesn't stare at us blankly and wonder where He knows us from.

Of course, being in [a] relationship with God means we need to know Him, too. He manifests Himself to us when we least expect Him -- when we are totally unprepared. Each of us has an epiphany, a moment of realization, a change in our perception, an instant when everything changes because we have felt the presence of God.

In today's New Testament reading, a crowd has gathered at the river where an odd hermit is baptizing people because they think he might be the Messiah. They WANT him to be the Messiah. MESSIAH is a transliteration of the Hebrew word mashiac, which means "anointed one." It was translated into Greek as Christos, and into English as Christ.

John doesn't exactly say the Messiah is my Daddy (or my cousin, which He was) -- he's much more reverent. But he does say -- summarily -- No, the Messiah will be much greater than I am.

A few short verses later, John has baptized the Messiah, and when He comes up out of the water, a voice from Heaven ~ the voice of God ~ says, "You are my Son, the Beloved..." At this moment, everything changes. Realization. Epiphany. Just think, how awesome it must be to hear the voice of God.

Psalm 29
The voice of God is full of majesty.
Ascribe to God, O heavenly beings,
ascribe to God glory and strength.
Ascribe to God the glory of God's name;
worship God in holy splendor.
The voice of God is over the waters;
the God of glory thunders, God, over mighty waters.

The voice of God called out to Moses by name: "Moses! Moses!" Moses asked God, what shall I say your name is? He told Moses: I AM or I AM WHO I AM or I WILL BE WHO I WILL BE or I CAUSE TO BE WHAT IS.

The scribes sought to prevent people from mispronouncing the divine name -- which was blasphemy -- by making it unpronounceable. When we see the word LORD in the Bible in all capital letters, it represents YHWH, the four consonants which constitute God’s divine name. Scholars call this is the "Tetragrammaton," which is Greek and means "four letters."

The written Hebrew language was all consonants; the vowels were supplied by the reader. This made God's name easy to mispronounce, which was blasphemy. Eventually it was considered too holy to pronounce at all, and the word Adonai, or "Lord," came into use. Our attempts to Anglicize YHWH have given us JEHOVAH.

Jesus called Him ABBA, the Aramaic word for father.

What's really important is isn't so much what we call Him, just as long as we call Him. And to be listening when He calls us. As it says in the old, old song:

When the Saviour calls, I will answer
I'll be somewhere list'ning for my name...