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The Feast of the Name of Jesus, 01/01/2017
THE GIFT OF GOD: JESUS!
Sermon on Luke 2:21, by Samuel D. Zumwalt
Luke 2:21 © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers]
21 And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
THE GIFT OF GOD: JESUS!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“The Greek name ‘Jesus’ is the equivalent of the Hebrew name ‘Yeshua,’ meaning ‘The Lord Shall Save’” (Nelson’s Illustrated Bible Commentary, 1141).
In St. Luke’s time, all Jewish boys were circumcised and named on the eighth day of their life. Thus, very early in His life, the Lord Jesus was given the common name commanded by the angel Gabriel at the annunciation of Jesus’ conception. But the promise contained in Jesus’ name was anything but common. This Child was unlike any child before or since. This Child was and is the Savior of the world.
Quoting from an early Christian hymn, St. Paul tells us that this name is above every other name. Yes, “…at the name of Jesus, every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:9-11). For God has come down to earth in the flesh of His only begotten Son Jesus in order to save the whole world from our sins by dying on His lonely cross in obedience to the Father.
This is the name that bears such hope. Hymnist Charles Wesley writes: “The name of Jesus charms our fears and bids our sorrows cease, sings music in the sinner’s ears, brings life and health and peace” (O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing, LBW #559).
This is the name that bears such appeal. Hymnist Isaac Watts writes: “To him shall endless prayer be made, and praises throng to crown his head; His name like sweet perfume shall rise with every morning sacrifice” (Jesus Shall Reign, LBW #530).
This is the name that bears such power. Hymnist Edward Perronet writes: “All hail the power of Jesus’ name! Let angels prostrate fall; bring forth the royal diadem and crown him Lord of all” (All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name, LBW #328).
This is the name that is included in the Second Commandment: “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain” (Exodus 20:7). Martin Luther writes: “What does this mean? We are to fear and love God so that we do not use His name to curse, swear, lie or deceive but call upon Him with prayer, praise, and thanksgiving” (The Small Catechism). Luther explains that we cannot possibly draw upon the power of God’s Holy Name when we misuse it. God’s Holy Name should only be used in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving.
How often is the name of Jesus misused? It’s the second most popular form of swearing. You would think people believe Jesus’ last name is Christ and God’s Damn.
I can understand why Jewish comedians often misuse the name of Jesus. It is an infantile form of retribution for Christian anti-Semitism. In his movie History of the World, Part One, Mel Brooks had a good time poking fun at the name of Jesus just before his musical send-up of the Spanish Inquisition. Funny, yes. Educational, no!
It should be said that we Christians ought not to cast many stones about the misuse of Jesus’ name by Jews. Many Christians, even biblical scholars, routinely write and say the Holy name of God that pious Jews consider to be too holy to pronounce, that name which the Hebrew Bible abbreviates “YHWH”.
That having been said, my question is: “Why do so many Christians misuse Jesus’ name as a form of swearing?” In my childhood, my Baptist father was not always clean in his speech. But certain words were never to be said and would quickly be rewarded with a strong rebuke or worse. The name of Jesus, the title of Christ, or the name God was only to be used as prayer, praise, or thanksgiving. My father was not amused when his Italian Roman Catholic relatives casually peppered their speech with all of the above.
A former parishioner of mine with some 25 plus years of sobriety in the Alcoholics Anonymous society told me that after he had been sober a number of years he found he could no longer misuse God’s name without knowing that he had regressed spiritually. He said that any time he found himself misusing God’s name it was a sign that he had not been spending enough time on his knees in prayer. He came to know in recovery that God’s name in any number of its forms was too holy to be tossed about casually. This God had brought him back from certain ruin and moral degradation.
I think of that conversation every time I hear kudos handed out to foul-mouthed preachers whose cutting edge ministries are lauded and applauded. My late former parishioner would say: “Nope! They’re not working a good program!” But they keep getting paraded before the youth in churches and before attention-hungry clergy at conferences. Heretics have always been more popular than orthodox clergy and laity!
When I was a teenager and finally in possession of my license, I remember driving with three friends to attend the State Fair of Texas in Dallas. We were feeling very grown up on our own in a metropolitan area of then more than three million people. As we walked around on the Midway, we were smoking cigarettes and feeling very cool.
We were riding all the rides and finally worked up our nerve to ride a rickety old wooden roller coaster. Seated on the very back seats, we were cursing at the top of our lungs as we rode down the first big hill. I’ll never forget what happened next. A father with his two younger boys was sitting in front of us. He said, “Would you boys please clean up your language in front of my children?” That’s exactly what my father would have said if it had been some foul-mouthed teenagers sitting behind him on that ride. I’m sure my face turned very red.
There’s something very common about the experiencing of leaving childhood behind. So many of us have to try all those things that our parents warned us about when we were small children – especially if our parents were from the school of “Do what I say, not what I do.” Adolescence becomes a time for rebellion. Sad when it continues!
So it is that once many of us are confirmed, we don’t keep growing in our faith. Instead many of us are never exposed to serious Bible study. Many of us become very sporadic in worship as if it were only for children and old people. Many of us never read anything that is spiritually challenging or enriching. Many of us never give much thought to what Christian faith has to do with the rest of our life especially when we keep God far away from the rest of our life. Many of us trivialize the Christian faith without every having explored it. Many of us reject what we have never seriously examined. We baby boomers are the proverbial poster children for trivializing all that is holy, good, and true.
Again, sometimes pastors and other Christian leaders are extremely complicit in the trivialization of the faith. In a vain attempt to make God cool, many immature pastors and other immature adult Christians trivialize worship and prayer. Because they themselves are immature, that’s all they have to offer to the young people in their charge. Go to any large Lutheran youth gathering or church camp and you will see how many adults misuse God’s name by the way they try to make God “my buddy” or the way they turn God into a projection of their own spiritual immaturity and rebellion.
Imagine if a parent brought a child for instruction in advanced math, and the teacher spent the whole time teaching the student elementary math, or worse, gave the wrong information. Imagine if a parent brought a child for advanced piano, and the teacher spent the whole time teaching the student the basic notes of the scale, or worse, gave the wrong information. Imagine if a parent brought a child for advanced football, and the teacher spent the whole time teaching the child about basketball.
No parent would stand for leaders that clearly didn’t know what they were doing in a classroom or on a practice field. But because so many adult Christians misuse God’s name in speech and in action, they simply cannot recognize when others do not have what they also do not have. I have worked with and been in classrooms with people whose grasp of the Christian faith was so tangential that even a half century ago they might well have been excommunicated for heresy. Today we ordain them and even make some of them bishops and, God help us, seminary professors. Some of them used to know better but have chosen to abandon the faith of their fathers and mothers. Sadly some of them really don’t know any better at all. It’s the blind leading the confused.
God did not become human in Jesus Christ simply to leave us the way we are. He became human, suffered, died, was buried, and raised that we might be His own. Jesus is Lord, and we are not. If we persist in spending our lives misusing God’s name in words and deeds, God cannot save us from ourselves. And even pastors and bishops can go to hell – as C.S. Lewis so winsomely portrayed it in The Great Divorce. Could that be you?
St. John Chrysostom, the greatest preacher of the early Church, said that it is a miracle for a priest (or pastor) to be saved. He meant that those who become so familiar with holy things that they trivialize the holy are risking the loss of their faith and indeed the damnation of their souls! Christians beware!
What we say with our mouths says everything about what is or is not in our hearts. If we misuse God’s name by casual swearing, it shows that we are trying to be in charge not God. As my late parishioner in recovery said: no one who spends enough time in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving will be able to mutter God’s name as a form of swearing without shame!
What we do with our bodies says everything about what is or is not in our hearts. Gestures are pregnant with meaning. No one confuses a raised middle finger with a complimentary pat on the back. So it is that dipping our hands in the water to make the sign of the cross, bowing our heads at Jesus’ name, kneeling at the altar with upraised hands, and closing our mouths to casual conversation outside the doors of the sanctuary say everything about what is in our heart. Coming to the altar flippantly and thoughtlessly is no different than raising the middle finger to God. It is no differently than cursing in God’s house. It shows spiritual immaturity no matter how old one is.
There are large churches filled with people jumping and shouting Jesus’ name, but, at the end of the day, you really can’t tell any difference between most of those that worship there and the rest of the people outside. As one teenager said in an article in the New York Times, “It really doesn’t matter what I do with my body. God loves me and forgives me.” St. Paul had some rather sharp words about that kind of trivial faith in his Letter to the Romans. Trivial worship leads to trivial faith leads to a trivial life lived not under Jesus’ Lordship but under the devil’s lordship masked as one’s personal faith!
Again, sadly, the same can be said of people in our churches, too, because what is said with the lips in worship often has no impact upon what is said and done in daily life.
The name of Jesus means “The Lord Shall Save”. He has given His life on the cross for you and me that we might be His own dear children. In the washing of Holy Baptism, we have been buried and raised with Him so that the life we live is no longer our own. In the Holy Communion, He always comes to us: either to fill us with His forgiveness and mercy or to convict us in our unbelief if we simply go through the motions as if He were not there. By the promise of His Word, the Lord Jesus is always present in the bread and the wine whether anyone believes. He wants to give us His gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation. But those who refuse to call upon Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving, He already knows and sees in our unbelief and disobedience!
Many of us have made some New Year’s resolutions. How about these? Let us each consider the state of our souls and indeed the state of our lives before God as we begin a new calendar year. Will we obediently “name” Jesus as Mary and Joseph did on this day? Will we “name” Him as the only Lord and Master? Or does the old sinner in us already claim that role? Will we bend the knee to confess Him with our bodies and souls?
Let us pray with Martin Luther, “Into thy hands I commend my body and soul and all that is mine. Let thy holy angel have charge of me, that the wicked one may have no power over me. Amen.” Amen! So be it!
In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
STS Samuel D. Zumwalt
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net www.societyholytrinity.org