December 31, 2020 – New Year’s Eve Texts: Matthew 1:24-25, Luke 2:21
Dear Friends in Christ,
What you are named is important. It identifies who you are, it tells others what you are about. It shapes how you think of yourself. Do you like your name? Have you ever wanted to change it? Modify it? Take on a nickname?
I have always given my parents credit for my name. In 1965 it was different. Not many had my name. It set me apart. It has been a huge part of my identity. I have always been comfortable going against the crowd, if needed, and I believe it all started with my name.
Jesus is now eight days old. It is time to get him circumcised and more importantly it is time to give him a name. His parents have already been told what his name will be. His name will set Him apart. His name will identify what He does. His name will be a blessing. His name will be improperly used and become a profanity. He will be comfortable going against the crowd. His name will mean life for some and others will struggle to identify with it. It is time for . . .
“THE NAME”
What I hold in my hand is a piece of paper Toni and I used to name our children. I keep it in my desk drawer at home. Since we did not know the sex of our children before their birth we had to have a male name and a female name. The boys know what they would have been named if they came out of the womb a girl.
Many of you who have been at Good Shepherd for years already know the story. Toni put a list of names she liked on a piece of paper. I put down names that I liked. Toni’s list came from names she had heard through the years. My list came from AAA maps of Europe. We go back to my name and thinking outside the box. We then set down one night at the dinner table and just started matching names. We would sound them out. Do they flow? Will we scar our kid for life? We they still love us and invite us to their home someday? This led us to Karson Calder Lueck. Karson from Toni’s list, Calder a community in Scotland from my list. A few years later the same exercise, Holden Shay Lueck. Holden a community in England from my list and Shay from Toni’s. It is really the boy’s opinion and we pray they like their names but we have had a few people say to us that the names fit our boys.
The name we see given tonight fit the person. “And at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” The angel had told Joseph in Matthew that they would have a son “and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save people from their sins.” Joseph then woke from the sleep, did as the angel told him and he took Mary as his wife but did not have sexual intercourse with her. “And he called his name Jesus.”
All of this is important for you and me because we are sinful people living in a sinful world. A world that for the most part wants nothing to do with the Triune God. Being a person in that kind of world means that I have and will have…problems…anxieties…worries…some traumatic situations. Does Jesus know all this and relate to me . . . to the person who knows himself? You bet He does. The very act of circumcision was an act of His willingness to put Himself under the law in order to pay for my sin. The Jewish Law required that baby boys be circumcised on the eighth day after birth. Circumcision was for a sinful, fallen people that God would claim as His own. Jesus became like us – but without sin. I’d say He knows us quite well.
P.E. Kretzmann writes, “For here (in Jesus’ circumcision) He paid the first drop of blood as the price for our souls, the full payment being completed when He committed His soul into the hands of His heavenly Father on the cross.”
Doesn’t it all make sense? The Lord promises and gives us a new start. What an appropriate thought on New Year’s Eve. It gives us the assurance of forgiveness and peace, anxiety free living in the work and person of Jesus Christ as we cross over into 2021. Jesus stands before us with open arms to clean up our messes of sin and death and hell.
You can count on his abiding presence. You can call on His name at all times. You can look to His wisdom and power when faced with questions that seem to have no answers. As you exist down here, Jesus the name that is above every name, will provide comfort and stability in a shaky world.
We do not know what is before us and that certainly makes daily living interesting. He has our attention, doesn’t He? Rest assured that He who bears the name “Savior” will never leave you nor forsake you.
It has been a wonderful journey these last few weeks. Celebrating with Joseph and Mary. Traveling with them. Being at the birth. As we all did with our own children – what will they become? You know the outcome, but it never gets old for those who know the name . . . JESUS THE CHRIST.
Amen.