Carrying On The Name

A Reflection for Feast of the Holy Name                   

All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC 

January 1, 2017                                           Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

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

Carrying On the Name

This is the Feast of the Holy Name, which used to be called the Feast of the Circumcision, where Jesus is brought into the heritage of his faith. The ritual of circumcision was an ancient tradition lost in the mists of prehistory; we have archeological evidence of the procedure dating back to 4000 BC in Egypt. The use of a flint knife in the Biblical witness implies an even earlier practice. Apparently it was usually done at the beginning of puberty as a preparation for marriage, but it was most often performed on Jewish infants during the time of the Babylonian exile as a sign of commitment to their Jewish identity since the Babylonians did not practice circumcision.

The Biblical understanding of a name is not just a way of telling people apart in a classroom or at a factory, but it has a power. To know the name of something was to know the full character of that person, place, or thing. The Biblical story of naming the animals suggests that Adam knew the full being of the animals and that the name would be an outward sign of that being. The name of God, the full being of the Divine Character, was never to be spoken out loud because every finite name was inadequate to the infinite. The name would never be said out loud except by the High Priest at certain prescribed rituals - only that High Priest at that particular moment in the ritual was deemed worthy enough to say the NAME. One of the commandments prohibited as deadly sin the arrogance of invoking of God’s name in vain.

Luke tells the story of Jesus at 8 days old being brought to the Temple for his circumcision and naming.  The name Jesus is a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Joshua which means “God will save”. The name of Jesus is not just a hope expressed, but a dedication that the bearer of that name will be part of the carrying out of that purpose. The name is the beginning of the journey of life, a gift that defines one’s purpose in life. If the reading had gone on longer, we would have had Jesus being blessed by two prophets who were living in the Temple area, Anna and Simeon, who both are able to see that this child will live into the name, the blessing given to him.

In our church we usually see a blessing at the end of the service as we journey out into the world. “The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make the Divine face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up God’s countenance upon you, and give you peace.” The use of “The LORD” in all capitals is a way of saying that the word “LORD” is a circumlocution to avoid saying the Divine name out loud.  The writer then remembers God saying that, through this blessing, the Divine name is put on them so that they are inheritors of the nature of God; they are the image of God. The name of God which cannot be said out loud is secretly hidden within them, within them and you, within the very fiber of being. The blessing of the Name meant that each of them, and us, were not to live our hidden name in vain.

Each of us was given names that would carry our parents’ hopes into the world. My older brother, Paul, was given as his middle name “Norman”, the name of my mother’s father, a kind, incredibly gentle man whom my mother loved and my father respected. The name was given with the fond hope that Paul would grow into that man. The name was meant as a silent blessing on the start of his journey.

My middle name was my paternal grandfather’s first name, Everitt; it was also my father’s middle name. My father thought Everitt Wilson was a giant of a man who strode through the world like a Colossus. He idolized him and spent his own life trying to live into his father’s approval. He wanted me to do the same, and every failing I exhibited would be doubly bitter for him because he might have done it himself while growing up, falling short of the great man’s approval. The name was meant as a silent blessing at the start of my journey.

My little brother, Bruce, was given my father’s name to carry as his middle name at my mother’s insistence because she loved my father so much, and my father was always kindest to him and more comfortable with him than he was with either Paul or me. It could be because he was the youngest, but I think his name said so much. The name was meant as a silent blessing at the start of his journey.

The given name is meant to capture the soul of each person, which as Jung says of a different concept, “after death it rises in the air, where at first it is active for a time and then evaporates in ethereal space, or flows back into the reservoir of life.”

What were the blessings that were meant with your name as you began your journey?

Carrying On The Name

Remembering Jesus gets named for parent's hope

within the context of family passing on traditions.

Parents do the same to claiming renewed missions

in different times and spaces with expanded scope.

First was the name that would be known by others

second was the name to hold the deeper dream

the one that carried passed on an invisible seam.

The third was the inherited baggage of brothers.

My middle name was my father’s father’s first

which was my father’s middle to live up into

the same which he expected for me being too,

living into fame of that giant reservoir’s thirst.

Names are gifts given with of first middle and last

humbly accepted if to bind new future with a past.

Christmas Eve 2016 Reflection and Poem

A Reflection for Christmas Eve                                 All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC     

December 24, 2016                                                     Thomas E. Wilson Rector

Genesis 22:15-18        Isaiah 111-4, 6-11       Luke 2:1, 3-7               Luke 2:8-16

Christmas Eve 2016

We tell this Christmas Story every year.  Some of you already know it by heart, so we only listen to the memories we have of the telling of the story instead. The task we have is to listen again and hear it as if for the first time. 

There is a new translation out of the 2011 Japanese book, Absolutely On Music, Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Marakami which I bought for my son-in- law for Christmas. The author, Marakami, is a writer of fiction, and he speaks of how he developed a kinship with the Symphony Conductor Ozawa. While one’s art is writing and the other’s music, they shared common traits.  They recognized in each other people who kept the same “hungry heart” that each had as a youth - to keep digging and pushing further in their art. Their concentration on finding what is there in their art is why Ozawa will get up early in the morning to read and re-read the score until he uncovers all of its the nuances, translating the “complex symbols amassed on a two dimensional printed page” from the past so he can “spin his own three dimensional music” of the present. The journey from the flat page to the living space is by the use of what Dimitri Mitropoulos, the 20^th Century Greek composer, pianist, and conductor called the “Sportive element, that factor of curiosity, adventure and experiment.”

The art of music is not just the matter of hitting the right notes or, like the art of writing, finding the correct words, but of capturing the living presence of the deeper meaning. So it is with faith; faith is not an intellectual encounter with long-ago stories and saying the prescribed formulas of ritual but of living into the presence of the deeper spirit in the encounter with the Divine. Each of the readings ends with an invitation to hear what God’s Spirit is saying to God’s people.

We start with the stories that we have heard today. We know the story of Abraham and God’s promise to him. But God makes a promise to each of us,  and in your prayers tonight before you go to bed, try to listen to God’s Spirit to continue the journey of discerning what’s God’s promise is to you. For Abraham it was about raising a child to know the God in whom Abraham lived and moved and had his being. God is speaking to Abraham after God has stopped Abraham from sacrificing his son Isaac. Isaac was being taught that he was a child beloved by God given to his father and mother to love not to destroy for their own purposes. Each of our lives has a purpose when we see that God is walking with us as God was with Abraham.  Each day the sun rises there is an opportunity to be and do a gift of love. Ask for the Spirit’s power to love, and give, yourself tomorrow.

In the Second reading we have heard the Song of Isaiah where he sings of God’s peace intended in this world where what seem to be natural enemies live in peace. Tonight in your prayer before you go to sleep listen to the Spirit to remind you of those for whom your heart is hardened and listen for ways that the chasms of separation might be filled with peace. You will not be able to change that other person, but you do have the power to ask for the strength to forgive her or him, and to pray for them to know God’s peace within themselves. To forgive doesn’t mean to approve, but it does mean that you don’t have to be a prisoner of your own hate.

The third lesson is from the Gospel of Luke in which the arbitrary and corrupt government makes Mary and Joseph go way out of their way. Corrupt and arrogant governments do that to their people because they have their own agendas in mind and not the welfare of their people. However, even in the middle of this abuse there in the birth of the Jesus, the Christ is there as a sign of the redemption of all things. Tonight in your prayers before you go to bed, pray to be granted the serenity to accept that things you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference, and to find the Spirit’s guide to how each day is redeemed. There is always redemption.

In the fourth lesson, The Spirit, in the form of angels, God messengers, come to Shepherds, those dwelling in the darkness of night, and shine a bright light for them to find the way to find the hope of so many years. Tonight, in your prayers, before you go to sleep, ask God’s angels to shine a light in the dark recesses of your soul so that you might find to way to reclaim your hope. Tomorrow morning as soon as you awaken may you write down part of what you can remember of the dreams given to you in the dark. Then share them with someone you trust, as the shepherds did with each other on that Judean hillside, to think about how you may visit your hope. Then share your hope with those who have lost much and still walk in darkness.

Tonight hear what the Spirit is saying to God’s people:

Christmas Eve 2016

Old man helps push old woman up the stairs,

they don’t think of themselves as really old,

but they laugh as it shows without being told.

Old woman takes her man’s hand for prayers,

giving thanks for all the time they had to spend

over the days and years to give in love returns.

The old man holds the old woman in his arms,

as they sigh and cry about the loss of a friend,

with tears of thankfulness for chance of loving.

The old woman puts the ornaments on the tree

the old man with no good sense of symmetry,

spends time the old familiar songs humming

volunteers the snacks and drinks assembling.

The old couple is laughing and remembering.

Poem for My 70th Birthday

Reflection On My 70^th Birthday.

“Mothers, Prepare to Receive Your Babies” new each morning.

came the call from the loud speakers blaring out their warning

the day after my mother waddled off the train to go in hospital

through 20's Midwestern cold; snow on ground was but a little,

my father holding on to her, loving each other in new situation

as Nana cares for the one year old, prepares for coming invasion.

My parents married during the war, each no longer feared losing

but looking forward to gaining. He no longer worked destroying,

now back from the war in a school learning of building bridges

and how to plan roads being able to climb over mountain ridges

at the same time learning of peace and being husband and father.

It was almost Christmas, the second he’d spent with my mother

in the five years they had been married, building for one more

child to follow and live dreams of peace perhaps for evermore.

Another Joseph's Dream

A Reflection for IV Advent                                       All Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, N.C.  December 18, 2016                                                            Thomas E. Wilson, Rector

Isaiah 7:10-16             Romans 1:1-7              Matthew 1:18-25        Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18

Another Joseph’s Dream

This week, the 4^th Sunday of Advent, we have lit the 4^th candle on our wreath, the candle symbolizing love, and we tell a story of love. Last week I talked at the Adult Forum as we were looking at the Gospel of Matthew. I suggested that Matthew was a good Jewish boy who knew the Hebrew Scriptures through the Greek translation called the Septuagint. He relies on the translations because he doesn’t know Hebrew and does not understand Hebrew poetry, but he keeps looking for ways that the Prophets could have foretold what had happened in the Christ experience.  He turns to the first lesson from Isaiah and finds where Jerusalem is surrounded by the Assyrian enemy and it looks bad for the Jewish people. Except Isaiah, a prophet, a seer who sees the world with the eyes of God, sees a young woman who is pregnant, and this new hope will be an outward sign of Emmanuel - God is with us. The very name of this child will be a sign of hope. He suggests that we look at this child and before it is born, we will know that God is indeed with us. So what happens?

The 2^nd Book of Kings tells us that the Assyrian army lays siege to the city, ready to stave it into submission. However, unknown to the Assyrians, the King of Judah, Hezekiah, had prepared for the siege with a tunnel leading from the water source of the Gihon spring to the other side of Jerusalem. This allowed them to withstand the siege, AND then a plague broke out in the Assyrian camp, AND then there was a coup back in Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, AND the Assyrian army had to rush back to Nineveh to deal with the new administration. The people looked at these developments and attributed them to God being with them, Emmanuel. The pregnancy of the young girl had been an outward and visible sign of love and became a metaphor for the deliverance from the enemy as a sign of God’s love for God’s children in Judah.

In the Greek translation of Isaiah that Matthew is using, the Hebrew word for young girl, Almah, is translated into the Greek word Parthenos which can be a technical term for a virgin. Being a literalist, Matthew fixes on the virgin term and ascribes that to the birth of Jesus by the Virgin Mary. But his interest in her is not to tell the story of Mary - he will leave that to Luke who is more interested in women - but of Joseph’s love. Joseph loves Mary, but what is he to do? The evidence tells him that he has been betrayed. The law requires him to expose her shame and be ready to cast the first stone as was his right. He loves her so much that he refuses to do what his honor demands and is ready to quietly put her aside so that she can go off to a faraway cousin’s house in the country and stay out of sight.

Matthew is well aware of the story in the Hebrew Scripture of Genesis of another Joseph, the dreamer, who dreams of his brothers bowing down before him, but who is betrayed by those brothers and sent into Egypt.  But Joseph turns the betrayals into the feeding of those who betrayed him, rescuing them from starvation, delivering them from their troubles. Joseph forgives his brothers by saying to them, “Do not be afraid! Even though you intended to do harm to me; God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people.”

In this story that Matthew tells, Joseph, like his namesake, will also have a dream. A dream, like the prophet Isaiah’s vision, is a gift from God to see in a different way. The dream asks him to see the young woman Mary’s pregnancy as a sign not of despair but of hope, not of betrayal and shame but of love, not of defeat but triumph. He awakens and takes the shame upon himself; people in his town know how to count to nine. After the child is born he will retrace the path of his namesake and go into Egypt. He will make himself an object of betrayal so that he can forgive and pay the price himself. He will take defeat and allow God to turn it into triumph. He will raise this child as his own and teach him how to love by how he lives his life. Joseph is part of the birth of a whole new way of loving and living.

Matthew’s little story of Joseph becomes a metaphor for what Jesus will do in his ministry. Jesus will see with the eyes of God. Jesus will be vulnerable so that he is willing to be betrayed and will forgive the unforgivable. Jesus will take the shame upon his very self in the cross and offer his life to pay the price of love. Jesus will take the defeat of the crucifixion and allow God to redeem it with the victory of the resurrection. In this small story is the Gospel told in miniature.

Joseph had a dream given to him. But the dream is not only his, that dream is ours as well to cherish for ourselves. Can we say that we are helping in the birthing of a new way of life for our children and our community? Can we say that we are willing to give of ourselves so that others might find peace? Can we give up what we consider our rights so that others might live? Can we take the evil that others do and with God’s strength turn it into good?

Another Joseph’s Dream

Let me dream Joseph’s dream today.

Not the dreamer of brothers’ bows

to the one who everything knows,

but who listens to what angels say.

He strips himself of his bedclothes

putting on the new servant garb

finding a way the news to absorb

that an ego wasn’t what God chose.

Taking the shame of other on him

absorbing all the gossip sneerings

walking proudly into the clearings,

shadows abandoned, singing hymn

of thanksgiving for being worthy

so to help birth the new world be.