Homily for
The Holy Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Sunday 1 January 2017
The Episcopal Church of the Holy Cross
Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania
A Parish of the Diocese of Bethlehem and The Episcopal Church
Readings:
On
this Eighth Day of Christmas, we keep a feast that commemorates two significant
moments in the life of the infant Jesus: his circumcision and his naming. You may recall that the former Prayer Book
focused more on the first of those moments and called this the Feast of the
Circumcision of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our current Prayer Book calls this the Feast of the Holy Name of Our
Lord Jesus Christ. The truth of the
matter is that whatever name we use for this day we recall both moments.
But
why do we recall both? And what is so
significant about each? Let’s first
consider briefly the circumcision. In
our world, as Christians, we think of this as a medical procedure performed in
a hospital. But let me remind you that
this has not always been the case. In
the Jewish tradition from which we Christians have sprung forth, going all the
way back to the great Patriarch Abraham, the act of circumcision was seen as a
rite of initiation, a religious act. The
best way that we as Christians can understand this is to view circumcision much
as we think of Holy Baptism. The sons of
Abraham, having been taught by Father Abraham, believed that the circumcision
of all male children born to them had a significance deeper than the
flesh. They believed that by being
circumcised that they and their offspring, male and female alike, were set
apart to be a holy people chosen and set apart by God who in thanksgiving to
God devote themselves whole-heartedly to the God who desired them to be the
Children of God.
It
is into this heritage of faith that the Messiah is born of Mary, conceived of
God the Holy Spirit, in fulfillment of the prophets. From his humanity, the fact that this child
is circumcised in the flesh shows him to be offspring of Abraham, born under
the Covenant made with Israel in which God set them apart from all others to be
the Holy People of God. The fact that
Jesus was circumcised therefore reminds us, much to the shock of some of us who
are Christians, that Jesus was in fact a good Jew.
But
Jesus is much more than a good Jew.
Jesus is simply good. Now
remember what Jesus himself will say later in the Gospels about such a
statement. Recall how when a young man
who was an expert in the Law of God sought out Jesus and asked him a question,
addressing him as “Good Teacher,” Jesus asked him why he called him good. He went on to remind this young man that “no
one is good except God alone.” The young
man had no answer for that word from the mouth of Jesus. He could not bear it. But we must.
When we say as I did moments ago that Jesus is good, we are recognizing
and proclaiming that Jesus is God in our midst, for indeed as Jesus reminds us,
only God is good.
Now
let’s go back to the circumcision for a moment, only now keeping in mind that this
child of Mary, this son of Abraham, is in fact the God of Abraham. From his divinity, the fact that this child,
true God in human flesh, is circumcised in the flesh, speaks boldly to the
truth that in the Incarnation of the Word of God, in the coming of the long
expected Messiah, God could not have drawn any closer to God’s chosen people
than this; becoming one among them.
This
is something that ought to amaze us all.
God so loves us and longs for us as to enter into the world and into our
midst and our experiences. If any of
this were missed in the rite of circumcision, the name given to the Son and
Father of the Patriarchs should drive it home.
The Son of Mary is given the name of Jesus; the name given to her and to
Joseph, her husband, by St. Gabriel the Archangel. The name means simply this: “God saves.”
This
is the very reason for the Incarnation that we celebrate in these Twelve Days
of Christmas. In Jesus Christ, son of
Mary, we come face to face with the one who alone is good; God. And in encountering God, or rather being
encountered by God, we are reminded that Jesus is with us in order that he
might save us; that God might save us.
There
are some who would be rather confused at that.
Some who would hear this would ask what it is that they need to be saved
from. Some others would be so bold as to
say that they don’t need to be saved from anything. Oh that this were true! But what is true. The truth is that we all need to be saved
from ourselves and from others. The
simple reason for this is that there is truth in what Jesus said to the young
man: “No one is good but God alone.” We
can fool each other for a time and a season.
But the harsh reality is that we still live in a fallen world stained by
sin. And lest we become too judgmental
against others, at times we need to be reminded that the sin that stains us and
the world is not just someone else’s sin.
It is ours.
If
we miss this fact, we will never quite grasp the full power of the
Incarnation. I say that because Jesus
did not simply come into the world and submit to circumcision be numbered among
the children of God and bear the name that means “God saves” in order that he
could reach out and save someone else!
Jesus did all of this in order that he could save each and every one of
us. This is the extent to which he loves
us. We are not strangers to him. He needs no one to introduce us to him. He knows us and he loves us by name. And this is nothing new. This was true long before creation itself was
brought into being by the triune God whom we worship and adore. There was never a time or a moment when God,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, did not know us, and did not love us.
It
is for reasons such as these that St. Paul tells the Philippians of old as well
as us that the name of Jesus is the name above all names. It is the name, he says, at which all
creation bows and worships. It is the
only name in which there is life and salvation, not just here and now, but in
the world to come, where we are invited by God to love and to live with God for
as long as God lives and loves us. Today
as we begin a new year I can think of no better way to begin and to live in
this new year than that in each day we would be mindful of the name of Jesus
and all that this name means for us and for our very lives. And in that spirit let us lift up the name of
Jesus, that the world around us might be drawn to come to the knowledge of him
who is God with us, God among us, God who saves us.
Father
Timothy
Alleman
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