The Reverend John E. McGinn, Rector
Saint John’s Episcopal Church
Sandwich, Massachusetts 02563
December 23, 2007
4 Advent
The sermon today is taken
from the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 1, verses 18-25.
Last Sunday I was all
prepared to go, I had my sermon written, I thought it was okay, and then the
weather came and I’m sorry we had to cancel -- so much for that sermon. But this week I came across a wonderful story
about a boy named Fruit Stand.
The story takes place in
Santa Cruz, California. As the hippy era
of the 1960s began to wind down, many of the refugees of San Francisco’s
Haight-Ashbury district moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. As they had children, these hippy parents
never gave them simple names like Anne or Michael. Instead, they gave them profoundly meaningful
names like Snow Princess, Sea Foam and Panache.
People around Santa Crux grew accustomed to their children playing with
Little Time Warp or Spring Fever.
Eventually, all of them,
along with Moon Beam and Earth Love and Precious Promise, ended up in public
school. It was then that a certain
kindergarten teacher first met Fruit Stand.
On the first day of school this hippy child got off the bus wearing a
tag proudly displaying “Fruit Stand.”
The teacher thought it a bit strange, but then again, this was the age
of Frank Zappa naming his son Dweezil and his daughter Moon Unit, so she
welcomed him along with the others. “And
would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?” she asked, “and, Fruit
Stand, how about a snack?”
By afternoon recess his name
didn’t seem much worse than Sun Rays or Fairy Queens. At the final bell the teacher lead the kids
out to the buses. “Fruit Stand, do you
know which bus is yours?” He didn’t
answer. The teacher knew that lots of
kids are shy on that first day. It didn’t
matter anyway, since she had asked the parents to write the name of their
children’s bus stop on the reverse side of their name tags. Just as she put the boy on the bus and said, “Goodbye,
Fruit Stand, I’ll see you tomorrow,” she turned over his bus tag and there
neatly printed was the word “Anthony.”
What’s in a name? What’s in a name?
One of the parishioners for
many years here at St. John’s is Aldas Ridgley, and for almost all of my twelve
years up until several months ago, Aldas, along with Jack Jillson, was the
usher here at the eight o’clock. We
always could count on Aldas being here and greeting people with a smile when
they came in and a smile as they were leaving.
And I could always count on him saying something about the sermon or
just talking to me about things in general -- just a really good person, a very
intelligent person, and Aldas is a very important part of our parish.
A few weeks ago Aldas, who
has for the last year or so been suffering from, we might call it dementia or
we might call it Alzheimer’s; but his health has been poor. He went into Mary McCarthy House, which is a
part of Cape Cod Hospice and Palliative Care, and it is located on the Service
Road. If you have never been there, it
is an absolutely beautiful place.
As I went to visit him, I
walked into Mary McCarthy House, and as I walked in, the light is coming in,
and you can see the trees around and there were birds flying around. It is absolutely beautiful! As I came in, one of the workers came over to
me, and I noticed Aldas sitting in his chair looking out the window. I said, “Could I see Aldas Ridgley?” She said, “Sure, I’ll take you over to him.” And I said, “Oh no, I see him over there.” So I went over, and again, his memory isn’t
good and he doesn’t talk very much, but he knows you’re there; he is just kind of a different Aldas. I went over to his chair, and I looked at
him and said, “Hello Aldas,” and that smile, that wonderful smile, came across
his face.
What’s in a name? What’s in a name?
Matthew writes how the birth
of Jesus Christ came about: “His mother,
Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she
was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. And because Joseph, her husband, was a
righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind
to divorce her quietly. But after he
considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said, ‘Joseph,
son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is
conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus
because he will save his people from their sins.’ And all this took place to fulfill what the
Lord had said through the prophet. “The
virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him
Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”
What’s in a name?
“You are to give him the name
Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and they will call him
Emmanuel which means God is with us.”
Biblical people took names
very seriously. Remember how Abram
becomes Abraham and Sarai becomes Sarah.
Then they named their son Issac which means laughter. Then Issac and Rebecca have twin sons, one of
whom they named Jacob which means one
who strives. Then God changes Jacob’s
name to Israel because he had struggled with God and with people and had
overcome.
Names are important. They have symbolic value.
And much later Josiah, the
prophet who takes Cartelette as his wife, names his daughter No Mercy and his
second son Not My People. He was seeking
to draw his people’s attention to the fact that they had been unfaithful to
God.
Names are important.
In the New Testament we
discover Jesus changing Simon’s name to Peter (rock) because he was the rock
upon which Jesus would found his church.
And still later, Saul, the persecutor of the early Christians, becomes
Paul, the apostle to the gentiles. These
are but a sampling; but a person’s name is very important in the biblical
narrative.
Especially important is God’s
name. Remember Moses’ encounter with God
in Exodus 3 when Moses said to God, “Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to
them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is
his name? Then what shall I tell them?’”
God said to Moses, “I am who I am, and this is what you are to say to
the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you.”
We sometimes expand this name, which contained only consonants, to Yahweh; the
word Jehovah is a derivative of that name.
And sometimes God is referred to as Elohim, and occasionally by other
names in Scripture. Jewish tradition
holds that the name of God is so holy that it may not be uttered. The only time it might be uttered was once a
year by the high priest when he entered the holy of holies in the temple. And even today, rather than using God’s name,
orthodox Jews refer only to Hashem, meaning “The Name.” One of the Ten Commandments is, of course,
that the name of God is not to be taken in vain. The name of God is holy.
Remember how Jesus in the
Lord’s Prayer taught us to pray, “Hallowed be thy name.” We play too loosely with God’s name in our
modern world. It is a sign of how far
we have fallen from what God would hope we would be like. We can’t even say the word “Christmas” today.
Names are important in the
New Testament as well as the Old. No
name is more important than the name Mary and Joseph gave their new-born
son. “You are to give him he name Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.” The name Jesus literally means “salvation,” a
theme that is found throughout the New Testament. There is power in the name of Jesus.
The writer of the Gospel of
John put it this way: “But as many as
received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name.”
And Paul in Romans, chapter
10, verse 13, gives this testimony: “Who
so ever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
In Matthew, chapter 18, verse
20, we read: “Wherever two or more are
gathered in my name.” And we are
gathered here today in God’s name.
In John, chapter 14, verses
13 and 14, we read: “And I will do what
ever you ask in my name so that the sun will bring glory to God. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I
will do it.” We offer our prayers in
Jesus’ name. Time will not allow me to
list all the ways that Jesus’ name is used in Scripture, and the book of Acts
makes frequent mention of worship and service and suffering in the name of
Jesus.
And, of course, in
Phillipians, chapter 2, verses 10 and 11, “It is at the name of Jesus that
every knee will one day bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Of course, you and I are not
likely to experience that power until we make Jesus’ name our own. He was called Jesus the Christ, and Christmas
is the celebration of Jesus the Christ.
Those who are followers of Jesus are, of course, called Christians. Do you bear his name? If someone asked you if you were one of Jesus’
followers, how would you answer? It
makes a difference how you regard Jesus’ name.
I read about an Episcopal
priest who had an extraordinary experience.
It was just before Easter. The
priest’s duties took him into an area that required a ferry ride home. This particular night he was returning home
on the ten p.m. ferry. As the boat
prepared to dock, he was out on deck
looking toward the water at the beautiful moon. The other passengers were already headed for
their cars or getting ready to disembark at the other end.
One of the ferry workers, an
African-American man, was working near by.
The priest said aloud, “What a beautiful night!” And the ferry worker
said, “Yes, but it’s been a tough day, and I’m really glad that it’s over.” “Why? What happened?” asked the priest. “Well,”
said the man, “Today a man that was drunk got onboard, and he was loud and
abusive. I sat down with him to try to
calm him down a little bit. Then he
started calling me names - all the things that hit me right in the gut, and one
in particular. I wanted get away from
this man, but then I looked around at all these other people, including
children, and I realized that if I left, he’d just go after them. So I stayed and took his abuse and nobody
else had to deal with him.”
After a time, the priest said, “You know, this
is Holy Week for Christians. We think of
Jesus as taking all the garbage of the world as Jesus hung on the cross.” And the ferry worker just shrugged. The priest said, “By the way, what is your
name?” “Emmanuel,” the ferry worker
said, “Emmanuel is my name.”
Back to today’s Gospel
passage from Matthew: “You are to give
him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins, and they
will call him Emmanuel, which means God is with us.”
I was wondering this morning
if it would be alright if I named all of you Emmanuel. Would you be willing to take the garbage of
the world upon yourself. That’s part of
what it means to follow the one whose birth we celebrate this Christmas
season. Jesus didn’t just change the
world. Jesus came to save the world, and
Jesus is doing his saving work through people like you and me.
This past week, we at the
office were passing out toys for the Toys for Tots Program which is run by the
U.S. Marine Corps and Reserve. To see
the women and the children who were receiving these toys - it is wonderful - it
makes your heart leap - it makes you realize that you are doing Jesus’ work in
this world. “If you give him the name
Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins, and they will call him
Emmanuel which means God is with us.”
Amen