A
Reflection for Feast of the Holy Name
All
Saints’ Church, Southern Shores, NC
January 1, 2017 Thomas E. Wilson, Rector
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.
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