Year A - Second Sunday after Epiphany - January 15, 2023
What’s in a Name?
God has called you by name to be the hands and feet of God. In the name of the Creator, the Redeemer and the Sanctifier. Amen. Please be seated.
What’s in a name? Many cultures and religions throughout history have had a rich tradition of the importance of names. Names were certainly important for the Montagues and the Capulets!
Some of us go by nicknames, or preferred names, which help to identify us. If you are like me, perhaps you have had a nickname that you still find annoying. My childhood nickname was Pokey-hontas! My parents somehow thought it was a cute idea to combine the name of a woman from a native tribe with the description of me as being Pokey. Hmmm!
Neither here nor there, names are used so that we can be called, and to help us know when to respond. Further, for example, when we baptize, it is important in our tradition that we call the baptismal candidate by name.
Today, we find ourselves in the second week of Epiphany. The season of Epiphany is a reminder to us that Christmas alone is not enough. The birth of Jesus by itself is not enough to establish our theology of what it means to be followers of Christ.
Commentator David Toole wrote, “We need more than Christmas, even if we wait patiently for the arrival of the magi. We need to see Jesus walk into the Jordan. We need to see the clouds part. We need to hear the booming voice name Jesus a beloved Son. We need to hear Jesus himself ask us, as he asks Peter and Andrew in our Gospel reading from John, ‘What are you looking for?’”
Today’s Gospel reading is the parallel reading of Jesus’ baptism in the other Gospels. Last year, we spent a lot of time in Luke. This year, we will spend time in Matthew. But every single year, on the second Sunday of Epiphany, we read John’s account of Jesus’ baptism in which the Spirit appears in the form of a dove as She descends from heaven. In this passage, John names Jesus the Lamb of God and God in Godself. This account is valuable to our theology of Jesus, and subsequently, our theology as followers of Christ.
Let’s take a closer look at the Gospel reading, as well as today’s lesson from the Prophet Isaiah, as we consider our calling. This passage opens with John the Baptist’s emphatic remark, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”
In using the name, “Lamb of God,” the Johannine writer – that is, the author of the Gospel of John, the three Epistles of John, and the Book of Revelation – uses the Old Testament symbol of the Passover lamb from Exodus 12.
The Passover lamb is not the lamb led to slaughter as a sin offering for atonement, but rather the Lamb that preserves and brings salvation to households at Passover. In the Gospel of John, Jesus did not die against his will, but rather dies willingly to bring new life to all of creation. The writer introduces this Lamb of God as Godself, who, in the book of Revelation, sits on the throne and reigns from the heavens, pointing to Jesus’ resurrection and his victory over death.
Jesus as Lamb of God gives us the hope we have, not only for eternal life, but for salvation here and now. When life’s struggles feel particularly defeating, we can hold onto the hope that we have a God who knows suffering. We all can identify with words like “alienation,” “separation,” “isolation,” and “loneliness.” Yet, we have a God who suffers with us, grieves with us, and is present with us when we struggle. And we have a God who has the resurrection power to walk with us into healing.
By announcing “Here is the Lamb of God,” the writer of the Gospel is announcing that Jesus comes to bring justice, peace and salvation, just as the Lamb of God did in The Book of Revelation. And bringing this healing to those around us is the reason why, at church, we emphasize things like hospitality and community, and opportunities for Eucharist not only on Sundays, but also on Fridays and Saturdays! This is the reason why we strive to build connections, to bring reconciliation and healing to those around us. All these things describe is the victory over death that the Lamb of God brings to us. All of these are opportunities for us to heal and be healed, to love and be loved, to be the hands and feet of Christ to one another, and to experience God’s love and healing. Let us always use every opportunity we have, when we are in the company of – whoever it is that is before us – to experience the healing and love of Jesus among us.
Let’s turn our attention to Isaiah for a moment.
Someone called the “Servant” is narrating, just after the Babylonian exile as Israel begins the return to Jerusalem. And the narrator says, “The Lord called me before I was born, while I was in my mother’s womb he named me.” What a powerful statement! “The Lord called me before I was born.”
There are many perspectives regarding the identity of the Servant in these verses. Some say the writer is speaking of the exiled king, King Jehoiachin, who was captured and taken to Babylon in 597 BC. Others say it is the nation of Israel. Still others say it is Jesus, and Jesus only.
I do not think we can dismiss any of these options, as oftentimes our prophets point to more than one person, and certainly many of Isaiah’s prophecies do point to Jesus. But theologian Paul Hanson challenges us to a much broader understanding of Isaiah, writing, “the Servant is both faithful individual and obedient community.”
Regardless of who we identify as “Servant” in Isaiah, these verses tell us something important about the way in which God works in and through creation.
God’s call is not unique to any one person. Rather, God has called you and I, and this community, to be God’s people, to bring forth the healing work that the Lamb of God demonstrates for us.
Bringing healing, people of God, is not always easy or natural for us to do. But it is so simple. It is showing care and kindness to those around us. It is seeing people as more than a means to an end or someone else with whom we have to interact, but rather seeing others as Christ incarnate, as people who may be hurting, who need to experience God’s love. And, as we bring God’s love to those around us, we find healing, community and love in our own lives.
God calls you by name today. How will you respond? Amen.
Mtr. Lisa Aguilar+