January 11, 2004
By Jack Price

            What's in a name?  Shakespeare tells us, "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."  Yet, we do call that sweet flower a rose.  A name is a dear possession.  Our names identify us to each other.  Family names connect to our past,           whether for good or ill.  Our given names reflect parental hopes and dreams.

            Names are very important.  Changing your name is a tremendously powerful act.  Culturally and traditionally, wives have taken their husbands' last names.  The expectation of this name change has engendered a variety of feelings:  pride, sadness, and joy.  There is a sense of excitement in embracing a new identity and grief at the loss of identity.  Now, many wives don't take their husband's family name.  Some husbands take their wife's family name.  Often there is a blending of the names.  As a celebrant for weddings, I find that the "name" question must certainly be asked and not assumed.

            People choose new names for themselves -- first or last names, or both.  Whether the reasons for changing for positive or negative, the process is always powerful.  Kansas author Marlo Morgan writes of her experience in a walkabout with an Australian Aboriginal tribe in the book Mutant Message Down Under:

"At birth is named at birth, but it is understood that as a person develops, the birth name will be outgrown, and the individuals will select for themselves a more appropriate greeting.  Hopefully, one's name will change several times in a lifetime as wisdom, creativity, and purpose also become more clearly defined with time."

            Isaiah, chapter forty-three, was written against the backdrop of Babylonian exile.  The prophetic voice reflects a "naming" process as he speaks on behalf of Yahweh:

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine."  This is the "Maker talking to the made."  The creation is addressed by the Creator who proclaims the end of exile and calls the people to return "Home".  God expresses passionate love for people.

            Growing up in church, especially in a minister's family, you hear a lot of stories.  The story is told of a boy who love to carve wood.  He was really good at it.  After spending many months carving a fine piece of wood into a beautiful sailboat, the fateful day came when he took his creation to the stream to see if it would really sail.  When he lovingly placed it in water, a gust of wind filled the sails and off it went.  He walked along side and soon began to run alongside.  Sadly, the stiff wind and an ever-widening stream soon took the boat out of sight.  The boat was gone.  Searching was to no avail.  Heartbroken, the boy returned home. 

            Weeks later, he went with his parents to visit a small town a few miles downstream  from his own home.  To his amazement, in a shop window, he saw his very own boat.  There was no mistaking his creation.  He raced inside and announced to the owner, "That's my boat in the window.  I made it and then it got lost."  "Sorry, son," said the merchant.  "I bought that boat from someone who brought it into my store.  It sure is beautiful.  It's for sale.  You could buy it."  But the sale price was far too much.  The sympathetic merchant agreed to give boy two months to earn enough money.  The kind shop owner agreed he would not sell the boat to anyone else for two months.  With great effort and personal sacrifice, the boy returned two months later with the money in his hand.  Good  to his word, the merchant had boat and the transaction was completed.  As the boy cradled his precious creation, he was heard to say, "I made and I have bought you back.  You're twice mine."

            "I have made you; I redeem you; you are mine."  Identity is the key.  Identity is basic to discipleship.  Israel's identity is "the one who belongs to Yahweh," who are "called by my name."  There is a wonderful spiritual, "I've got a new name and it's over in Zion."  This idea of being "re-named" by God is throughout scripture.  In Genesis, Jacob, whose name means "deceiver and supplanter," was changed to Israel and the Old Testament is the story of his children.  One of our favorite Crossroads songs is "Let us give thanks that our names are written in the book of life," based on Isaiah 49: 16 -- "Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands; you are continually before me."  Finally, in Revelation 2: 17:

Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches.  To everyone who conquers I will give some of the manna, and I will give a white stone, and on the white stone is written a new name that no one knows except the one who receives it.

Each of us has a unique name, known only to God and to each person.

            Being named and renamed by God is all wrapped up with the idea of authentic self -- who and what we were born to be.  God's name for you and me, for us together, is our identity as God's child, God's children, and God's people.  Our family name comes from the name we heard so much during the Advent and Christmas season - Emmanuel".  We are the ones whom "God with us" is with.  

            We are God's people.  Who we are and what we do as Christians with our lives individually; who we are and what we do as communities of faith, as families, as nations, as a human race, is a process of discovering our true given names.  The way to do this is by working out our calling, by embracing our giftedness, and by living our mission.

            We as Crossroads Church, almost five years into being a congregation, are struggling in some ways with many of these questions of identity, direction, giftedness, calling, and mission.  How can we make good and faithful decisions about where we give our energy?  How can we make appropriate choices about how we utilize our financial gifts and where we locate our church house without first knowing who we are, our identity? 

            At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus had an experience of identity following his baptism, an experience of being named.  Jesus experiences the gentle presence of the Holy Spirit like a dove.  He  hears his true name, "You are the Son of God, the beloved one, who is pleasing to God."  This identity is unique to Jesus yet he also represents all people.  We, like Jesus, are God's children.  Jesus was named and empowered for his ministry.  God names us uniquely and individually to empower us for our ministry.  God names us and our task is to discover who we are.  In T. S. Eliot's poem The Naming of Cats, the poet asserts that only the cat knows its own "effanineffable deep and inscrutable singular name'.  Cat owners know this is true.

            Our true name known only to God because, for God, our life is one long naming, a process of calling into being.  Thomas Merton calls authentic self a "deep transcendent self that awakens only in contemplation."  We find our identity, our unique name, through disciplined discipleship on the inward and outward journey.  Merton then says that most of us will not discover "that mysterious and unknown 'self' until death." 

            On our journey now, we know that our identity is God's people, God's creation, and God's children.  Let us start there.  We are named God's church-created and beloved.  As the boy said to his beloved sailboat, as God says to all people, "You are mine (twice mine).   have made you.  I have bought you back.  I love you."  May we discover, may we learn to recognize our unique and true name in our lifetime on the lips of our sisters and brothers.