The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
For most of us it’s not a matter of if, but how much. How much weight did you gain over the Christmas feast? For me, it’s about 5 pounds! It’s not if, but how much.
I’m hoping that by naming the problem, and doing it in front of 60 people or so I will gain control over the problem and that will help me to combat it and lose those extra pounds over the next few weeks! You’ll help me, won’t you? When you see me again in a few days some of you may ask me, how’s it going with that weight-loss? Name the problem and gain control over it.
It’s a proven technique that counselors use in helping people to overcome difficulties in their lives.
It’s a technique that is used by Alcoholics Anonymous to great effect. “Hello, my name is so-and-so and I am an alcoholic” is the way that people introduce themselves in the AA program. Name the problem and gain control over it.
There’s power in a name. Parents take great care in choosing the name for their children. It is the way they will be identified by others throughout their lives. A name can actually be a help or a hindrance in the way a person develops and relates to others. A name with a strong meaning may indeed help a person to become what the name suggests. In earlier generations, people often named their daughters after virtues, obviously hoping the name would help the child develop into the virtue represented in the name. It was not uncommon for them to use names like Charity, Truth, Felicity, Grace, and Prudence. Perhaps it happened with boys, too, but I am not aware of any particular examples at this time.
A good salesperson is going to find out the name of the person he or she is trying to sell something to as soon as possible, and then use that name frequently in trying to close the deal. They know there is power in a name.
The ancient Hebrews knew the power of a name. They believed that if a person knew your name that person had some control over you. He knew something of your identity, something of your nature. Thus, while the Hebrews knew the name for God because it had been given to them through Moses, they never uttered his name. To utter his name would suggest that they had some power over Almighty God. It would suggest a kind of familiarity that was inappropriate when approaching the omnipotent, Almighty Creator of the universe. That familiarity was, of course, inconceivable.
To understand what I am about to tell you about God’s name, you have to understand a little bit about the Hebrew language. In ancient Hebrew texts, vowels were never printed. So you only knew how a word sounded by how it was pronounced in the reading aloud of the text. The name for God is spelled YHWH. However, when a Hebrew came to YHWH in the text, the word was never pronounced. Instead, a substitute word was put in its place, and that word was Adonai, which meant LORD. To this day, Jews will never utter a pronunciation for YHWH.
When the Bible was printed in the King James Version in the 1600s, the translators thought that the pronunciation for YHWH was Jehovah. Since then, translators have decided that pronunciation was incorrect and is more approximated by the word Yahweh. But the fact of the matter is that we still do not know what the real pronunciation is for sure. The tradition of not uttering the name for God is still followed in most Bibles today the places where we find YHWH. In those places in the text, the word LORD is substituted. You can tell where that has been done when the word LORD is all in capital letters.
Just to show you what I am talking about, pick up one of the pew Bibles and turn to page 40. Now look at Chapter 20, verse 2: “I am the LORD your God.” Do you see how the word LORD is all in capital letters? That is because the translators would not print God’s name. Now turn to page 509, the first page in the New Testament. Look at Chapter 1, verse 20. “But while he thought about these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, ‘Do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.’” Notice how the word Lord is not in all capital letters. That is because the English word does not translate the Hebrew name for God. If Yahweh had appeared in the text at this point, Lord would be in all caps.
Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name. On the eighth day after Jesus’s birth, he was circumcised and given the name Jesus. It means Savior. In Jesus, we see who God is in the fullest way possible. As Fr. Bumsted said last Sunday, if we want to know who God is, we look first to Jesus. Jesus is Almighty God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Not only is his name known and utterable, but also he can be seen and touched. He is in the weakness of human flesh. Through Jesus, Almighty God indeed has become familiar to those who know him.
From the beginning of our faith, Christians have understood that the best way to know God is to know Jesus. In fact, we understand that since Jesus entered this world he is the only way to the Father. As his name reveals, Jesus is the Savior and it is only through him that humanity can be saved. As St. Luke proclaims, “there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” St. Paul, in his Letter to the Philippians, elaborates: “God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
In knowing the name Jesus, however, we certainly do not suggest that we have any power or control over him. In fact, it is just the opposite. When we utter the name Jesus we proclaim that he has power over us, that he is our Lord and Savior, that it is he through whom we dare approach God as Father.
And yet, we realize that there is power in his name, just as the apostles realized in the New Testament, and so we pray in his name, we heal in his name, we preach in his name.
Counselors have it right, Alcoholics Anonymous has it right, parents have it right, and the ancient Hebrews had it right. There is power in a name. I may even gain a little encouragement from naming my extra pounds to all of you. Of course, all of that pales in comparison with the name of Jesus.
Sermon preached by The Very Rev. Fredrick A. Robinson
Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
Feast of the Holy Name
1 January 2015