Text: Exodus 6:2-8, Matthew 16:13-20                                                        W 14^th Sunday after Pentecost

What’s in a Name?

            In the name of him from whom, through whom, and to whom are all things, dear friends in Christ: Quiz time:  one of those famous quotations you hear from time to time goes like this:  “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”  I’m sure you’ve heard it; but does anyone remember where the saying comes from?  Anyone? It’s one of Juliet’s lines in the famous play by William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.  And when that phrase is quoted today, it’s used to convey the idea that what you call something really doesn’t matter; it is what it is. Something’s name is only a label we attach to identify it; but it would be what it is no matter what we called it.

It’s the way we look at personal names as well.  Sometimes you’ll hear the question, “What’s in a name?”  The gist is that it doesn’t matter.  People are who they are no matter what they’re called.  Your parents named you what they did because they liked the sound of the syllables, or because they wanted to name you after someone, or because they liked what your name means – even though no one ever thinks about what your name means when they speak to you.  But it doesn’t make any difference:  you would still be who you are even if your parents had named you something else.  Or, say it another way, what people call you doesn’t affect who you really are—for which I thank the Lord, because I certainly wouldn’t want to be some of the things people have called me.  In that sense, I’m grateful that “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

Interestingly enough, however, when Juliet says the line in the play, she is referring to her own name – specifically her last name.  You may remember that the tragic plot in Romeo in Juliet is driven by the violent and bloody feud between the two respective families of the young lovers: the Montague’s and the Capulet’s. What Juliet is saying is her last name doesn’t matter to her, that she is who she is, a young woman in love, and that she’d gladly give up her last name if it meant that she and Romeo could live happily ever after.  But if you remember the sad conclusion to the story, she didn’t get that option.  Her name turned out to be much more than merely a label for her.  In a broader sense – in ways that were beyond her ability to control – it was part of who she was:  a reluctant member of a family embroiled in a bitter conflict.  If she had had a different last name, the story might have ended happily; but as it was, because of her family’s name both she and Romeo are dead when the final curtain falls.

So, it would seem, sometimes names are more than just what you call something. And this is especially true with the names that we encounter in the Holy Scriptures.  And what we find is that usually the names given to people tell us something about them.  If you’re familiar at all with the German language, you know that they have a tendency to name things according to what they do rather than simply to assign them an abstract title.  Instead of saying something simple like “dental floss”, for example, in German it might come out, “string-for-removing-stubborn-particles-of-food-wedged-between-the-teeth-and-preventing-gingivitis”.  And no, that’s not a real example; but it does illustrate the way German works. Biblical Hebrew works sort of the same way, especially when we look at the names of people.  “David”, for example, means “Beloved”; and we know that David was a man dearly loved by God – so much so that the Lord called him “a man after my own heart.”  Or there’s Elijah.  His name means, “The Lord is my God”.  And if you remember his story, you know that he was the one who stood alone facing the 400 prophets of Baal in a mighty contest to determine who really was God, the Lord or the idol Baal.  Elijah’s name was his steadfast confession of faith – it was the cause for which he stood and in which he ultimately triumphed.  Or, one more, take John the Baptizer.  The name “John” means, “From God” or “Of God”.  So really, his name and title together mean, “The Baptizer from God” or “The Baptizer of God”.  And, of course, he was both:  he was the Baptizer sent from God to prepare the way for the Savior, and the one who actually baptized God when Jesus came to him at the Jordan River.  So we see that the names of biblical persons are more than just meaningless sounds or labels of identification; they tell us about who a person is and what he does.

And for no one is this truer than for the Lord God himself.  And what see as we read through the Scriptures is how in his self-disclosure to sinful man and in the unfolding of his divine plan throughout the ages that the Lord God, at various times and places, has revealed different names by which we are to know him.  And each of these names tells us something about him – specifically, they tell us what he wants us to know about him at that point in his revelation.

            So, for instance, we heard a bit ago how he revealed himself to Abraham and the Patriarchs as “God Almighty” (or “El Shaddai” for you Hebrew enthusiasts).  It’s a name that puts the emphasis on his great power and his absolute control of all things.  It calls to mind the infinite force by which he created all things out of nothing, speaking them into existence by the power of his Word.  The name “God Almighty” says, “I am the God of creation and I have the power to make things happen.  If I say it, it gets done.”  It’s easy to see why God revealed himself by this name to Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs.  When he appeared to Abraham, he came to him with a whole list of seemingly impossible promises that he said he was going to fulfill.  He said he was going to take Abraham, who was a worn out old man with no children, and that he was going to make him into a great nation and that he was going to give him a good and fertile land to be his possession forever – a land that was, at the time, filled with militant and idolatrous people who weren’t very much interested in sharing, much less allowing Abraham’s now nonexistent descendants to take over the place.  The natural human response to such grand promises as these would be, “What? Do I just look stupid?”  But by revealing himself as God Almighty, he assured Abraham and reminded him that he was fully capable of bringing about whatever he promised.  And Abraham believed and stepped out in faith in God Almighty.

            Then we heard how when God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, he gave his personal name that we usually translate “The Lord”. When we do that, we’re actually following an ancient Jewish convention that substituted the words “The Lord” for the name God gave to Moses because that name was considered too holy to speak aloud.  And the fact is, because no one ever said it, we really don’t know how to pronounce it today.  “Jehovah” is one attempt that you’re familiar with, but most scholars think “Yahweh” is probably a better guess.  But however you say it, what’s most important is what it means.  And the divine name given to Moses that we translate “The Lord” actually means “The One Who Is”.  Or, to be more precise, it could be “The One Who was, Who Is, and Who Will Be” – which just happens to be a name by which God refers to himself in the Book of Revelation.  Certainly it’s a name that highlights the timeless eternity of God; but more than that – and more to the point – it reveals that he is the One who exists independently.  He alone is the self-sufficient One.  God is.   Always: past, present and future, he is. Everything else in the universe, including us, became.  We became because of the One Who Is.  We are therefore dependent upon the One Who Is for our existence and for everything else.  And our dependency upon “The One Who Is” is the key to understanding why it is to Moses that God reveals himself by this name.  Why? Because Moses is God’s Old Testament agent for saving his people, for rescuing them from the terrible situation that they were in.  It’s people who know that they cannot save themselves who are most acutely aware that they need help.  So, the personal name of God that says, “You depend upon me”, is given in the context of salvation; for it is here, as he reveals this name to his people, that he says to them, “I will bring you out from under the yoke of bondage.  I will free you from being slaves.  I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.  And I will take you to myself as my own people.”  This name that when we encounter we say, “The Lord”, by which God reveals himself, is a name that calls us to trust in his perfect plan and mighty work to save us.

            Okay then, so far we’ve looked at two names by which God told us about himself in the Old Testament.  Now let’s turn to today’s New Testament reading from St. Matthew where we hear two more names by which God has made himself known.  Jesus mentions one when he speaks to Peter and says, “This was revealed to you by my Father in heaven.”  Elsewhere Jesus encouraged his disciples to pray to “Our Father in heaven”, so it’s clear that he intends that each of us call God “Father” as well.  And what this name emphasizes is the special intimate personal relationship we have with the Lord.  The Lord God Almighty is an awesome title; but he wants us to know that he is not just a distant monarch who governs all things from a lofty throne high above us; no, he is our Father and he wants us to know that we are his children.  As Father he is one who cares for each of his children, who knows and loves us with a father’s concern for our well-being and development.  This name also speaks volumes about his role in providing for us, protecting us from harm, disciplining us, and raising us up in his ways because that’s what a good father does for his children.  And I want to stress that when the Lord invites us to call him Father, it isn’t just a name.  It isn’t like he’s saying that he is kind of like a father to us. No, he’s saying that he is our Father in an absolute sense.  Earthly fathers, even the best ones, are only shadowy representations of him who is our real Father.

Very well, moving on then, it turns out that I’ve already mentioned the remaining name of God that is revealed to us in the Gospel lesson for today: it’s the name Jesus. That’s what Peter confesses when he looks at Jesus and says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” because God’s Son can be none other than God himself.  How this is so belongs to the mystery of the Trinity, which we’ve discussed at other times and don’t want to go into this morning.  Suffice it to say that Jesus is a name by which God makes himself known to us.  And what’s especially interesting is that it’s a personal name rather than a title like “God Almighty” or “Father”; and what it means is “The Lord saves.”  To be specific, it’s a contraction of the Old Testament personal name by which God revealed himself to Moses, “The Lord” or “Yahweh”, and the Hebrew verb that means, “He saves”.  That’s why the angel told his parents, “You shall call his name Jesus (the Lord saves) for he shall save his people from their sins.”

And this is key.  Remember that when God revealed his personal name, The Lord, to Moses, it was as he was beginning the mighty work to save his people from their physical bondage on earth.  Now, as he begins the far greater work of eternal salvation for both the bodies and souls of all his people, he gives us the name by which he is to be known: Jesus, which means “The Lord, the God who saves, saves.”  It’s as emphatic as it can be.  And rightly so, for with this name he declares, “I will bring you out from under the yoke of bondage – out from under the crushing burden of sin that you bear. I will free you from being slaves – slaves to sorrow, to death, and to decay.  I will redeem you with outstretched arms – bloody arms outstretched on a cross and held by nails, and with mighty acts of judgment – the judgments of God against the sins of all people unleashed upon me when I suffer and die for your sins.  And I will take you as my own people.”  And in fulfillment of this last promise we remember how after his resurrection from the dead, Jesus breathed his Holy Spirit upon his disciples and commissioned them to spread the good news of forgiveness of sin and life in his name, and how he sent them out to gather people from all nations to be part of the family of God.  All of this is incorporated into meaning of the name Jesus.

And so what we see this morning is that our God communicates a great deal to us about himself simply in the names he has given us to address him by.  His names tell us of his power, his love, his care and concern for us, and most of all of his mighty work to save us.  And these are only a few of the names of God revealed in the Scriptures; there are others by which he tells us even more. But, to what will certainly be your relief, I’ll save them for another time.

Instead, what I’d like to say now is the best part yet, and that is that God has done much more than just tell us these names of his.  He has actually placed his names upon us.  We witnessed him do it just a bit ago for young Brayden who was baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and who was thereby spiritually reborn into the family of God.  We all have names we go by.  They serve as labels of identification.  But the name that matters most is the name of our God that was placed upon us by water and the Word.  It’s the family name.  And like Juliet’s last name was for her, it’s more than just a title.  But where her family name resulted in death – as indeed the name of all earthy families must for by them we inherit sin – God’s name upon us means life:  life now as we are forgiven each day for Jesus’’ sake and empowered to live as God’s children, and life eternal when he calls us home to be with him in heaven.

So, what’s in a name?  If it’s a name that our God has revealed to us, we are.  To him be the glory forever.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria!