Luke 2:21 – “On the eighth day, when it was time to circumcise him, he was named Jesus, the name the angel [Gabriel – see Luke 1:31] had given him before he had been conceived.”
When did you receive your name? Most likely you were given your name on the day you were born; and in most cases your parents narrowed it down from a long list of options weeks or months in advance. Perhaps it was picked to honor a relative or to bestow upon you a special trait. Names are far more than insignificant labels.
While many of us may be sleeping in after staying up late to usher in the New Year, the church will be celebrating a special day. On January 1st, the 8th day after his birth in human form on Christmas Day, Mary and Joseph followed the Jewish custom and gave their newborn child his name – “Jesus”. As Luke tells us, that name, which means “the Lord saves”, was told to Mary by the angel Gabriel. But it was Mary and Joseph who, through this simple act, claimed for us our connection to “God with us” by naming this child.
If this day were to fall on a Sunday, as it has in the past, we might have chosen to sing Hymn #416 (ELW) “At the Name of Jesus”. In stanza 3 of the text, Caroline M. Noel captures a poetic and timeless meditation:
Humbled for a season, to receive a name
From the lips of sinners unto whom he came
Faithfully he bore it spotless to the last
Brought it back victorious when from death he passed.
It is amazing to consider that God became a humble servant among us in Jesus. And then when you trace the word “it” used in the last two lines back to its object being “Jesus” or “the Lord saves”, the simple text blossoms into a complete acclamation of the Gospel!
Our hymnals are filled with jewels such as these. Open your hymnal this weekend and preview the text for the Hymn of the Day. Then listen for the connections in the lessons and sermon. It may help enrich your worship experience!
Click on this link to hear the inspiration for my title…
http://www.jwpepper.com/sheet-music/media-player.jsp?&type=audio&productID=10192336
In Christ,
David Krueger