WHAT’S IN A NAME

We may not often think of it, but we all possess great power in our ability to name things, whether they be names that are attached to people, or to things, or to events. It has always been so, and even the bible acknowledges it. At the very beginning, in the creation story of Genesis, Adam was expressly given the authority by God to give a name to all of the wild creatures that he confronted. And not only to the wild creatures, but to his wife Eve. It is not a small thing to be able to bestow a name.

Maybe the people who understand that best are the politicians, whether in the government or in the church. This past week, of course, we had an impeachment of the President of the United States. Depending upon who’s grabbing the microphone this is either a big hoax or a supreme act of duty—either treason or patriotism. The big contest is to be able to put a name on it that will stick.

In our Catholic Church we presently have high leaders who are either the last defenders of true faith or are the heralds of long-overdue renewal and Holy Spirit. Again, the trick is to succeed in putting a name on a person or an institution before someone else beats you to it.

We do it all the time in less public ways too. Depending upon whom you talk to, the very same person can be named as either inspired or stupid. The very same idea can be named either as brilliant or ridiculous. The very same country can be named as God-approved or as decadent.

Names matter, especially most intimately in the names that parents give to their children. There is usually an important story just behind the bestowing of a baby’s name. That was certainly true in the bible, and nowhere more true than in today’s gospel.

As Matthew reports it, there is so much strangeness and wonder and really unbelievable stuff going on: An angel appears to an otherwise unknown girl in an unremarkable little town in Israel, and predicts a virgin birth to her husband in a dream, and by the way he will be the Savior of the world as the son of God himself. So much strangeness and mystery that it could be easy to overlook what may seem to be the most ordinary bit of news, namely, Joseph is given the authority to name that child, and he is told just exactly what that name is to be: Jesus.

Unlike Adam, Joseph is not free to give any name he chooses to this newborn. He is to be “Jesus,” because “he will save the people”—which is roughly how that name is translated in Hebrew. And the “he” being referred to here is none other than God.

And that’s at the heart of this Advent message: It is God who saves us, through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit. Which means that the only predicaments that are too big to be made right in our world are the predicaments that are bigger and more powerful than God. And there aren’t any such things as those.

This gospel is the best news of all for people and creatures and planets that are in the very most dire and desperate of circumstances. This word of promise is meant most intentionally for those living things that have exhausted every human hope for salvation, who need a miracle, who need something impossible to come at us from God’s side…and who are willing to welcome it however it appears…even in a seemingly very unlikely dream like Joseph’s. The name is Jesus: God saves. That is the one and only name rightly to be given to this child, and we must never forget it.

Human ingenuity does not save us in the end.

Technology doesn’t either, nor wealth nor fame, nor health, nor cleverness.

God saves: Jesus.