A Sermon by The Rt. Rev. Drew Smith: Advent Four Year A
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Fourth Sunday in Advent Year A 12-18-16 Trinity Church Hartford
And an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and said ….”Mary will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
Have you ever thought about names in the Bible? They’re fascinating. In much of the Biblical tradition, our heritage form the Bible, names have significance, for they bear meaning, and they identify, and shape, the people who bear them.
We could spend days exploring Biblical names, and their significance, but it’s just too busy a season to do that right now. Rather, by looking at just several names, we can see a neat pattern, that feeds right in to the miracle of Christmas.
In both New and Old Testaments, there are two major name-types.
One name-type consists of names that end in the sound “ —iah” Think of some? Prophets? Isaiah. Jeremiah, Zechariah, Zephaniah, Joshua.
The “—iah” at the end of their names is a shortened form for the full name of God, the name God revealed to Moses in the Book of the Exodus, the name of God which except for that one time, was held too sacred even to say, or write. (“Lord” is what we substitute in English for God’s name that cannot be spoken.)
The first parts of their names say something about the God who cannot be named.
Isaiah: “the Lord gives salvation”
Jeremiah: “the Lord raises up” (to the people of Jerusalem under siege)
Joshua : “the Lord rescues”
Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist: “Remember the Lord” whose Name cannot be spoken
The second major name-type in addition to “—iah” is names that end in “—-el.” Here again, are some familiar to us: Samuel, Nathanael, Daniel , Ezekiel.
The “—-el” at the end of those names is Hebrew for the word for “God”. And like the “—iah” names, these names ending in “—el” also identify and shape the people who bore them.
Daniel: “God is my judge” (think of his standing up to King Nebuchadnezzar)
Samuel: “lent back to God” (by his mother, to whom God had given him in the first place)
Ezekiel : “God will strengthen” (the exiled people)
Nathaniel: “God has given” (mercy)
So, many names in Scripture carry very significant meaning, shaping their bearers’ and hearers’ lives and tying those who carried the names to the God whom they served.
Some modern examples of names linked powerfully to God are
The name of the older son of the family from Syria who moved here last week: Abdulraham (in Arabic), which is “servant of the most merciful God.” And a name in English: Christopher, “one who carries or shows Christ.”
What does all this have to do with the Christmas stories? We’re getting there.
In the Advent-Christmas cycle of Scripture we celebrate two births and two namings. And, have you noticed, in both cases the births are miraculous, and in both cases the name of the child born is given, not by the parents, but directly by God through a messenger angel.
The first birth, which we celebrate in Advent: John the Baptist a son born to a woman so old. Remember, the little kerfuffle at his circumcision when it came to naming the child? His father Zechariah (“Remember the Lord”) had been told by Gabriel — there it is again, the “—el” at the end of Gabriel (God is my strength) — of the coming birth, and Gabriel told Zechariah what his name would be; but Zechariah hadn’t believed a word of it, and was struck speechless by God. So it was that Elizabeth, speaking for the family at the baby’s crcumcision, said, “His name is to be John” (Yohanan). In the “—-iah" tradition) “But no one in your family has been named John.” Zechariah asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John!” And he broke into song! The child is John, Yohanan “graced by the Lord.” t was not an unusual name in that day, But did he ever fulfill it in a new way!
The second birth we celebrate in the twelve days of Christmas, a baby born to a woman so young, is of course … Jesus.
Here again, Angels come to the unknowing parents, to bring the word.
We read this morning of an angel coming to Joseph in a dream, to lay out his and Mary’s future, that even though she was pregnant, it was by God and that he was to be her spouse, “and you shall name the child Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
He’s given the same name, by the angel Gabriel, who visited Mary: “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”
Jesus it is!
Jesus. That’s how his name comes to us in English, but it’s been changed as it’s made its way from the Hebrew-Aramaic, through Greek, and then Latin. The root name is Yeheshua, or in the Old Testament English translations, Joshua, in the “—iah” name tradition. Meaning “the Lord saves, rescues” from evil. Again, like John, not an unusual name in that time.
And did you notice in the birth story we read this morning from Matthew, Jesus is given another, second name? Immanuel, the name foretold in the seventh chapter of bahai from which we read earlier this morning. (Isaiah 7:4) And as “Jesus” comes from the “—iah” tradition, “Immanuel” comes from the “—el” tradition. Meaning “God is with us.”
So, in the birth at Bethlehem, combined in this son so precious to God and to us, two names are given by God — Jesus: the-Lord-saves, and Immanuel: God-with-us.
We live in times when so much of what we have known and value seems ready to be tumbled over, and it seems that the economic, political, ethical, and social patterns and aspirations across the world, which we have worked for and with which we have lived relatively comfortably — taken for granted — are no longer secure in our world; they have lost their dominance in the public life. None of us knows what lies ahead.
Remember, as we think of Mary and Joseph and the babe and stable and shepherds and magi, Jesus Immanuel, God saves, God is with us, was born into the kind of world like ours, in fact his times were much more uncertain, vicious and perilous than ours.
He is the names and the names and him, and the ancient promise has been delivered, for real. His names meant something for the people then, and they mean the same for us now! The good news of God’s gift, the gift of him, as then and as now, is that God is with us now, and that the Lord cares for and saves his people now — and is for the whole world..
So, in this season as you hear the stories, cherish his names given of God by the angels at his birth. Immanuel God is with us. Now. Jesus, given in love for the world, saves in all times and all places. Now,
And always trust the good news. Take him into our hearts. Cherish him in his names. And live in him tied to God so that together we and through us the world know and can believe that the holy child has been born Immanuel —God with us! Jesus — to save us in whatever the world may bring.
To whom be our undying thanks, and praise, now and forever.