Thinking about Names

Names can be pretty critical.  They can make you sound distinguished, or feel down right silly.  My grandfather was Peter Albert Kliewer… now doesn’t that sound distinguished?  And he was.  However then there are the clever names like Wrigley Fields, and Justin Credible, and odd hippy kind of names like Misty Dawn or what can only be called redneck names - like Bud Light… son of Steve Light?

Biblically?  Well the role of names In the Bible is considerable.

Biblically lots of people get name changes – or have names that have significance

Abram (father) to Abraham (father of many)

Jacob to Israel (one who wrestles with God) changed after his fight with the angel of God in Genesis

Simon to Peter (the rock and foundation of the church)

Saul to Paul - After Paul met Jesus on the Damascus Road he was a new man with a new heart. The old man with the old beliefs were a thing of the past. Paul may have believed that this new man with a new heart required a new name.

What is critical about a name….well it identifies us.  Reveals things.. like culture (Hussein)… perhaps age (Mable)  But there is more!  If you have a person’s name…. Well it changes things.  You have a certain access.  In a crowd – works a lot better to say, “Hey Chris”, than “Hey You”.

On the internet – you have a name and you have just about everything – or you can Goggle it.

Names also give us a certain power!  When you say I love you it is oh so much more powerful when there is a name

I love you Sarah

I love you Susan

I love you Scott

I love you Josh

No wonder Moses wants a name when he meets God in the Burning Bush

Does Moses really get a name?  (I am – or actually ‘he is’)  But he wanted access to God, and yes, perhaps a little bit of a claim on God.

At the end of Paul’s gospel we have a chapter (16) that is very, in many ways, mundane.  We have Paul greeting the people he is writing to by name.  A name, a little piece of information, another name…

But I think this list of names is more than mundane.  I think it reminds us that the church should be the place where people have a name, or to use the words of the old Cheers song…. “where everybody knows your name.”  The church should be the place where people know God calls them by name

And where people name each other……Bottom line?  Where people know… and are known - where we know each other….

But let’s face it, we are at least a tad uncomfortable with familiarity, closeness.  However you want to think about it.  This is downright scary.  For a lot of reasons! The more we love the more we can be hurt.  But probably the big problem is that the more we are open.  The closer we get to one another.  The more personal we become…. the more real we have to be…

And that is really, really scary!  Because there are things about us we really rather not have others know.  There are things going on we’d rather not talk about.  Anthony de Mello in his book “The Song of the Bird” tells of a time a preacher put this question to a class of children:  “If all the good people were white and all the bad people were red, what color would you be?  Little Mary replied.  “Sir, I’d be streaky!”

We are all streaky…so getting close is risky

But being a part of God’s family is about being personal

About being known by God, by name

And by knowing, and naming, each other

Think about that list at the beginning of Romans 16:  Greet Priscilla and Aquila.  Greet also the church that meets at their house. Greet my dear friend Epenetus, greet Mary, greet Andronicus and Junias - greet Ampliatus, and Urbanus, and my dear friend Stachys. Greet Apelles,  Aristobulus, Herodion, Narcissus, Tryphena and Tryphosa, Persis, Rufus….. On and on it goes, name after name… ending with these words  Greet one another with a holy kiss. Talk about being familiar.  Greet one another with a holy kiss….I am not sure what a holy kiss is but I know it isn’t a handshake… or even holding hands in a circle!

This is about knowing and being known!  Openness, reaching out, connecting, risking.  This is about knowing each other by name

Do we dare do this?   Can we dare do this?

Lay it all out there?  Share who we really are?

Learn about each other, about who we really are?

Yes… we can.  Because this is all about God.  We are indeed all streaky.  But in God we are all white as snow.  We all have strengths and weaknesses.  But we are God’s people. We have Christ in us.  We have the Spirit.  Yes don’t forget that, not today, because today is Pentecost, the day when the Spirit fell upon God’s people.

We can dare to be real

Because we are all justified by faith and grace

We have our standing by faith and grace

We are part of this fellowship by faith and grace

As streaky as we are….

And it is as we know each other, as we are real, that we can minister to each other

It is as we know each other, that we can support, and care, and give to each other.

Help each other, and be helped by one another.

We need to know each other’s strengths. We need to celebrate them.  And use them!

We also need to know each other’s weaknesses

If I know a person is frightened I can pray for them

If I know they are struggling with a deep hurt, I can offer them loving kindness

If I know a person is afraid, I can offer them support

If I know a person needs money for fuel, I can help with that too….

If we don’t know strengths how do we know where to turn for help?

If we don’t know each other’s weaknesses, how can we care effectively?

If we don’t offer our strengths, how can we be in ministry?

If we don’t share our weakness, how can we be ministered to?

I am not suggesting that we put a sign out front that says “Abandon Boundaries, all who enter here!”

But I am suggesting that God’s people need to know each other by name…

And it really is OK

Toward the end of his little book “Love Wins”  Rob Bell writes “Jesus invites us to trust that the lover we fear is too good to be true is actually good enough to be true…Jesus invites us to become, to be drawn into this love as it shapes us forms us and takes over our lives… Jesus calls us to have our minds and hearts transformed so that we see everything differently.  It will require a death, a leaving behind of the old mind.. it will require and opening up, loosening our hold, and letting go, so that we can receive, expand, find hear, see…. And enjoy!

To that, I can simply say…. Amen!