GOD HAS A NAME!

               “What’s in a name?” asked Juliet. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” And it would. But the name of that particular flower is “rose.” And when one hears its name, even without that flower being present, one can see it and know it’s fragrance. Or, if “rose” doesn’t turn you on, try “bluebonnets.” Can you see them? Can you smell them?

               Or try “Hazel.” Hazel was the name of one of our neighbors when I was growing up. She and her husband, “Emil”, had three children, the oldest of which was a daughter my age. “Ruth” and I went through 12 years of school together. And three or four years of junior choir, and two years of confirmation classes. And it’s with those latter two that I will forever associate the name of “Ruth’s” mother: “Hazel.”

               Rarely do I hear that name without remembering “Hazel” driving Ruth and me to junior choir or confirmation class in their family “Oldsmobile,” the praises of which “Hazel” never ceased to sing every time I got into it (so much better, you know, than my family’s “Ford”), reminding me that not every farmer could afford to drive an “Oldsmobile.”

              So there we were, “Hazel” driving us in the “Oldsmobile” down U.S. Highway 16 to the church. Now, U.S. Highway 16 was one of those old highways with a raised concrete curb running along each side up and down every hill, to channel away the water when it rained. With “Hazel” behind the wheel of the “Oldsmobile” those raised curbs became invitations to disaster if not to quick and ugly death.

               You see, “Hazel” didn’t like to meet other cars, probably because the road was narrow and the “Oldsmobile” was wide. So every time an oncoming car got close, “Hazel” would give the “Oldsmobile’s” steering wheel a quick jerk toward the side of the road to get out of the way. Which didn’t present any real problem on some parts of the highway. But on the hills, where those concrete curbs ran along the edge of the road, the result was terrifying, and potentially deadly.

               Because when “Hazel” would whip the “Oldsmobile” to the side of the road to get out of the way of the oncoming car, the “Oldsmobile” would hit that raised curb and bounce back toward the oncoming car! Which was even more frightening when the oncoming car happened to be a truck! Somehow we managed never to get hit. Probably because we were on our way to junior choir or confirmation class and God was giving us special dispensation.

               “Hazel.” “Oldsmobile.” A person, a car, by any other name…. But for me the names “Hazel” and “Oldsmobile” will forever bring to mind that particular woman, that particular automobile, and those death-defying rides down U.S. Highway 16 in Southeastern South Dakota.

               Names do that sort of thing. They have a power about them. A power to make real the thing or person to whom the name belongs. A power to bring that person or thing into our presence, even though they’re absent. A power to evoke memories both positive and negative of what that person or thing has been to us, done for us, or done to us in the past; as well as of what that person or thing is to us now and promises to be in our future. What’s in a name? A great deal! And not least, a great deal of power.

               God has a name. God is not an unknown something or someone, a nebulous spirit floating in some unapproachable, unknown realm. God has a name. And God’s name brings God into our presence. It’s God’s means of making contact with us, our means of making contact with God. God’s name—containing within it everything that God is, the memory of everything that God has done, the promise of everything that God will be. Who God is, God’s identity, is made real and present in the knowing and the speaking of God’s name.

               God has a name. And in the miracle of the Incarnation, the miracle we celebrate at Christmas, God has made that name known to us. We know that God’s name is “Salvation,” “God will save,” for that is what the name “Jesus” means.

               God has placed the divine presence into our midst, literally, in the person of Jesus. In Jesus God has reached out and embraced us, and in making God’s name known to us in the person of Jesus, God has given us access to God who brings us, God who is, our salvation. God of creation and redemption. God of birth, and life, and death, and resurrection. Jesus, the “salvation of God,” for you and me.

               “What’s in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” But God’s name is “Jesus:” “…honey in the mouth, music in the ear, a shout of praise in the heart,” to quote St. Bernard. “Jesus”/”Salvation,” the name of God—reminding us forever, and making real to us forever, who and what God is.

               But God has gone even one step farther. Not only has God made God’s name known to us. God has also placed that name upon us (made it a part of us), and in so doing has given us the salvation promised by that name and by God who that name identifies. “Thus you shall bless the people of Israel,” God said to Moses and Aaron. “You shall say to them, ‘The LORD bless you and keep you; The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.’ So shall they put my name upon the Israelites, and I will bless them.”

               That ancient benediction pronounced over God’s people is not just a lyrically pious way to conclude a gathering of God’s people. It is the way of making God and God’s power present to God’s people, individually and collectively. The benediction is God placing God’s name upon God’s people, with the understanding that when God’s name is present with the people then God is present with the people, to give the blessing being pronounced, to bring about the salvation being promised, the salvation that God is. The name of God placed upon us in the benediction we now know is “Jesus,” the Christ; and that name includes in it all that God has done for us in our Incarnate Lord.

               In baptism, in holy communion, in the proclamation of God’s word, in the phrases of the benediction; from birth to grave, from life’s beginning to life’s end, God’s name, the name of Jesus, is given to us, placed upon us, so that all Jesus is and all Jesus has done is given to us and placed upon us as well.

               What’s in a name? Life, that’s what. And salvation. Because the name of God is “Salvation,” “Jesus.” And God has placed God’s name upon us. AMEN.

Copyright © 2006 Robert J. Karli