Blessed + be the Name of the Lord:
\nFrom this time forth, for evermore. Amen.<\/p>\n
We are now several hours into 2012\u2014 Some of us have made resolutions for the coming 366; In addition to today being the first of the new year, For Episcopalians, it\u2019s the first: the Holy Name of Jesus. This naming is a very human moment, It is also a divine moment, Certainly, it was a common enough name, in its day; With now-familiar words, Humbled for a season to receive a [human] name, The name of Jesus, Saint Paul tells us, We may not bend the knee every time we invoke it; Name him, Christians, name him, with love strong as death Jesus: all that God has promised in the divine name, And \u201cJesus\u201d has become, as Charles Wesley reminds us,<\/p>\n The name that charms our fears, Of course, we have another “name” for him\u2014 Almost from the beginning, We heard in the Epistle lesson [Gal 4:4-7] And, not unlike those adopted into our own families and communities, Do we embrace that name that we have been given? Ah! The stuff of New Years\u2019 resolutions. . . . Following the chronology of today\u2019s gospel [Luke 2:15-21] some Christians will keep today either as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, or as the feast of the Circumcision of Jesus, or as a feast in honor of Mary, under the title Dei Genetrix, M\u0113t\u0113r Theou,<\/em> Mother of God incarnate.<\/p>\n For Episcopalians, New Year’s Day is the Feast of the Holy Name.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41,1321,91],"tags":[1767,587],"class_list":["post-12881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-episcopalanglican-liturgy","category-homilies","category-liturgical-year","tag-holy-name","tag-homily"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nAnno Domini:<\/em> the year of our Lord 2012;
\nAnno Salutis:<\/em> the year of Savlation 2012\u2014
\nseveral hours into day of new beginnings,
\na day of new opportunities.<\/p>\n
\n(it\u2019s a leap year, you know);
\nsome of us have already broken our New Year\u2019s resolutions;
\nsome of us won\u2019t have the opportunity to see
\nif they hold for some time yet;
\nand some of us\u2014perhaps the bravest and wisest of all\u2014
\nhave resolved not<\/em> to resolve.<\/p>\n
\nit is the octave day, the eight day, of the celebration of Christmas.
\nThe octave day of a feast is a privileged day,
\nand is often kept as a feast day itself.
\nFollowing the chronology of today\u2019s gospel [Luke 2:15-21]
\nsome Christians will keep today either as the feast
\nof the Holy Name of Jesus,
\nor as the feast of the Circumcision of Jesus,
\nor as a feast in honor of Mary, under the title Dei Genetrix, M\u0113t\u0113r Theou<\/em>, Mother of God incarnate.<\/p>\n
\nEight days past, we celebrated his birth;
\nthe appearance of the Word made flesh:
\nnow he receives the name \u201cgiven by the angel before he was conceived.\u201d<\/p>\n
\none that will be bound up with his identity,
\nhis history, his narrative, his life\u2019s journey.<\/p>\n
\none that binds his identity with that of God.
\nWe call him Jesus in English, by way of the Greek;
\nthey named him Yeshuah,
\nor possibly Yehoshua,
\na name meaning (more or less) \u201cGod Saves.\u201d
\nHis name derives in part from The Name\u2014
\nthe one given by God to Moses through the burning bush.
\nEhyeh asher Ehyeh:<\/em>
\nI AM who am;
\nI will be with you as who I am.
\nThis child\u2019s name carries within it
\nthe power and promise of the very Name of God.<\/p>\n
\nperhaps some saw the irony in it when he was nailed to the cross
\nand the placard was hung above his head:
\n\u201cGod Saves\u201d\u2014 but apparently not this one (?!?)<\/p>\n
\nthe Victorian poet Caroline Noel summarizes for us:<\/p>\n
\nFrom the lips of sinners unto whom he came:
\nFaithfully he bore it, spotless to the last,
\nBrought it back victorious when from death he passed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nGod has exalted above every other name, such that
\n\u201cat the name of Jesus
\nevery knee should bend,
\nin heaven and on earth and under the earth\u201d (Phil 2:10).<\/p>\n
\nperhaps, when we remember, we at least bow our heads.
\nInvoke it, nonetheless, we do:
\nin moments of ecstatic joy,
\ndeep grief,
\nand profound frustration.<\/p>\n
\nAnd with awe and wonder, and with bated breath!
\nHe is God the Savior, he is Christ the Lord,
\nEver to be worshipped, trusted and adored.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nall that I AM meant to the people
\nwho waited for him ever so long
\nhas become Emmanuel,
\nGod-with-us,
\npromise fulfilled in Jesus.<\/p>\n
\nThat bids our sorrows cease:
\n\u2018Tis music in the sinner\u2019s ears,
\n\u2018Tis life, and health, and peace.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nthe Hebrew title, \u201cMessiah,\u201d
\nrendered \u201cChristos\u201d in Greek: the Christ,
\nthe anointed one of God.<\/p>\n
\nhis title was treated as a name;
\nas something of a surname, a last name:
\nthus we call him \u201cJesus Christ.\u201d<\/p>\n
\njust a few moments ago, that
\n\u201c[w]hen the fullness of time had come,
\nGod sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
\nin order to redeem those who were under the law,
\nso that we might receive adoption as children\u201d through him.<\/p>\n
\nGod in Christ has bestowed upon us his name:
\nWe are \u201cChristians,\u201d
\nthose who, like Jesus himself,
\nhave been anointed\u2014quite literally in baptism;
\nwe are christened: Christ-ened,
\nconformed to his own Sonship,
\nso that we might be \u201cno longer a slave but a child,
\nand if a child then also an heir,\u201d co-heirs of everlasting life,
\nco-heirs of the reign of God,
\ntogether with Jesus Christ our Lord.<\/p>\n
\nHave we learned to live every moment in and through that Spirit
\nby whom we cry out \u201cAbba! Father!\u201d?
\nAre we signs of the presence and promise;
\ndo we make the Word-made-flesh real for those around us?
\nAre we living as those who have been \u201clikened to Christ,\u201d
\nuntied to him as members of his body through baptism,
\nChrist-ened, anointed with his Spirit,
\nliving by the power of the name of Jesus,
\nwaiting with joy and hope,
\nready to inherit with him the coming reign of God?<\/p>\n
\nand the day is still young\u2014
\nbesides, who ever said that resolutions had to be made right at midnight?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"