On the Way to Wonder

One of the prophetic verses that is often quoted when we talk about the prophecies surrounding Christmas and the identity of the babe born in Bethlehem is Isaiah 9:6.

“For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
    and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The assigned Psalm for thiis week on the liturgical calendar is Psalm 72. The babe of Bethlehem was named Jesus, Savior, Wonderful Counsellor, but also Mighty God.  Many men have been known as wise like King Solomon who wrote this psalm.  Verses 9-14 speak to the need for power by a true king.

⁹ May his foes bow down before him,
    and his enemies lick the dust.
¹⁰ May the kings of Tarshish and of the isles
    render him tribute,
may the kings of Sheba and Seba
    bring gifts.
¹¹ May all kings fall down before him,
    all nations give him service.

¹² For he delivers the needy when they call,
    the poor and those who have no helper.
¹³ He has pity on the weak and the needy,
    and saves the lives of the needy.
¹⁴ From oppression and violence he redeems their life;
    and precious is their blood in his sight.

The movie “Lion King” is a brilliant story dealing with what a true king is like, Mufasa/Simba or Scar.  In one scene the hyienas are lamenting their plight as Scar appears.  They talk about the difference between Mufasa, a name that makes them shiver, and Scar who is “one of us,” not a real king. https://www.google.com/search?q=Lion+King+the+name+mufasa&oq=Lion+King++the+name+mufasa&aqs=chrome..69i57j0i22i30j0i390l3.13249j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:b10d4601,vid:IF5pd_o6WoI

            As we go into 2023, we go carrying the name of Jesus who is our savior (perhaps we only think of heaven and the future), who sends his Spirit to guide us, but who also has the power to deal with what ever challenges us daily.  Now that is power!  He does not use that power just to promote himself like Scar but he uses his power to help the weak and needy and to fight the oppression and violence in our lives.  Now that is real power.  Thank you Lord that you have the power to fight for us!

One of the verses that is often quoted when we talk about the prophecies surrounding Christmas and the identity of the babe born in Bethlehem is Isaiah 9:6.

“For a child has been born for us,
    a son given to us;
authority rests upon his shoulders;
    and he is named
Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,
    Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

The assigned Psalm for thiis week on the liturgical calendar is Psalm 72.  The first eight verses flesh out and give depth to the title “Wonderful Counsellor.”  The Psalm was written by Solomon who famously asked God for wisdom to rule God’s people.  Jesus as our savior will take the title to a whole new level.

^1-8 Give the gift of wise rule to the king, O God,
    the gift of just rule to the crown prince.
May he judge your people rightly,
    be honorable to your meek and lowly.
Let the mountains give exuberant witness;
    shape the hills with the contours of right living.
Please stand up for the poor,
    help the children of the needy,
    come down hard on the cruel tyrants.
Outlast the sun, outlive the moon—
    age after age after age.
Be rainfall on cut grass,
    earth-refreshing rain showers.
Let righteousness burst into blossom    and peace abound until the moon fades to nothing.
Rule from sea to sea,
    from the River to the Rim.

Solomon intersperses references to nature through these verses.

• “shape the hills” – pictures of bombed out cities with craters of destruction by our human wisdom compare with God shaping beautiful mountain contures.
• Wisdom the “outlasts the sun” and moon.  No need to escape to new worlds as his wisdom will bless our life now.
• “rainfall” – not like the floods destroying cities now but refreshing, bringing life to that which has been cut down.

As we think of the name of Jesus, we can think of beautiful hills he is forming, eternal light, and watered growing areas in our lives.  Those are hopeful pictures to hold on to for 2023.  Perhaps you have a favorite photo that speaks to you of “Wonderful Counsellor”!  Blessings as you ponder those happy, growing times.

Yesterday the Gospel text shared that on the eighth day, Joseph and Mary took Jesus to the Temple and had him circumcised according to the law and named him Jesus as the angel had instructed.  Last week we looked at Old Testament people who had events surrounding their naming.  God changed the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah as they would be the parents of nations.  They were old but Sarah did miraculously conceive as they acted on that promise.  Isaac was born and he was named after the laughter he bought to the family.  His son Jacob had his name changed to Israel as he wrestled with the angel and could not be overcome.  Jesus was name because he would become the “savior” who would take away the sin of the world.

         One of the most famous and debated name changes in the New Testament comes from Matthew 16 when Jesus asks the disciples who people say he is.  Peter responds.  Catholics use these verses as the foundation for the papacy but Protestants only see the conversation as an affirmation of faith.  

“¹⁵ He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’ ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.’ ¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.  (Matthew 16:15-18)”

         Despite the theological discussion, what do you think of when you think of rocks?  Remember, there is the parable of the man who built his house on the rock of faith and when rains of hardship came his house, his life, stayed firm.  There is the parble of sowing seeds in rocky soil being a poor place for crops because rocks are hard.  We might think of close-minded people.  Or we might think of the rock that was the door for the tomb of burial of Jesus.  That rock was a door.

         If your name were to be changed to represent a characteristic of your life, what might it be?  I had a friend named “Delight” and a cousin named, “Joy.”  Think of a characteristic you would like Jesus and people to see in your life this year?  Jot it down and spend some time talking to the Lord about it.  Blessings.

Tonight is New Year’s Eve.  Sunday we will focus on the Gospel text coming from Luke 2 where Jesus is officially named in the Temple.  The Old Testament reading for the day comes from Numbers 6 and is known as “The Aaronic Benediction” or “The Priestly Blessing.”  New Year’s eve is kind of a way of releasing last year into God’s hand for blessing and facing into the new year, seeking his blessing.  We might spend some time thinking back over the year.  Our family would pull out a calendar and group-think the events of each month. There will be high points and low points. There will be those moments when we all laugh as we remember some event.  Perhaps there was a death, move, or graduation event when we reflect on the characteristics of the person.

         God tells Moses to have his brother, Aaron, the first priest, say these words to bless the people of God.  I thinkk it is a good way to end one phase and start another.  We release our memories into God’s hands for keeping and pray for his blessing in what is to unfold.

The Aaronic benediction

^“ ”²⁴The Lord bless you and keep you;
 ²⁵the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
 ²⁶the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”
Numbers 6:24-26

^“10 Esther did not reveal her people or kindred, for Mordecai had charged her not to tell. (Esther 2: 16)”

Names can be used to conceal identity.  Hadassah was a famous Jewish orphan raised by her uncle Mordecai.  During the Babylonian exile she was taken to the king’s harem as one of the beautiful young virgins of the country rounded up to find the king a new wife.  Hadassah disguised her Jewish identity by using the name Esther.  She was chosen to be the next queen and was able to save the Jewish people from annihilation.  The book of Esther tells the story and every year the Jews still celebrate Purim to honor Esther.

         That may sound weird to us but in Kenya, people were never addressed by their name.  I was known as “Mother of children” for I had five, or “Wife of the Professor,” or “Mother of …. Insert child’s name.”  Names have power.  When you hear your full name called in class, you may well be headed to the principal’s office.  Official documents require official, legal names.  Some nationalities track their lineage through their names.  A Somali woman might have her name followed by her father’s name, ending with her grandfather’s name.  Names can clarify our identity and can hide our identity.

         Sunday we will learn about the official naming of the baby born in Bethlehem that we celebrated on Christmas Day.  He was known by many names in Scripture: “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)” Joseph and Mary took their baby to the Temple and he was officially named Jesus, that means Savior, “for he will save his people from their sins.”  It is the name the angel said he should be given.  “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)”

         Let’s take a moment and think of names we are called and how they touch our identity.  Perhaps we need to think about whether the names we call others build up their character or not.  God calls us “child of God.”  Can you list five adjectives that explain your identity in God’s eyes as his child?  Blessings.

“²² The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. ²⁴ Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ ²⁷ So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ ²⁸ Then the man^[b] said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,^[ for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ 

’ (Genesis 32:22-28)”

The name Israel that we associate with a country can be traced back to the grandson of Abraham.  Abraham bore Isaac and Isaac had twins, Jacob and Esau.  They were fraternal twins with different looks and likes.  Esau was an outdoors guy whom his father favored and Jacob was more an indoors guys whom his mother, Rebecca, favored.  The twins fought and Rebecca sent Jacob back to her family to find a wife.  There are many beloved stories but eventually Jacob has 11 sons and a daughter by his two wives and their two maids.  Definitely family dynamics plagued this family that God had promised to bless.  Years later, Jacob decided to return home and face his twin brother and started a journey.  The day before facing his brother, Jacob divided his wives and children into groups with groups of animals and sent them ahead as he stayed by a river and wrestled with a man, possibly an angel, all night.  The angel changed Jacob’s name to Israel that meant he had wrestled with God and people and had not been overcome.

            This scene is very touching.  I think many of us feel like we have wrestled with God about some situation in our life.  We know the hours of prayer for a wayward child or grandchild.  Some of us have watched loved ones decline ever so slowly from disease and we know God has the power and the love to intervene but he does not.  Others have struggled in prayer about a relationship that seemed so right but then the other makes destructive decisions.  Wrestling with God is ok and something the “angel” initiated!  Wrestling changes us and scars us.  Wrestling left Jacob with a displaced hip and limping.  It also changed his name, changed his identity and how he understood himself and his relationship with God.

            As the year ends, we reflect on our blessings but we also ponder the issues we are still wrestling with and which we know will challenge our faith in the New Year.  Being able to name those arenas where we wrestle with God and committing them in prayer, can be helpful.  Getting the issue out of the back of our mind into a journal sometimes helps as it is a way of “parking” the wrestle.  In any case, we wrestle with God, it changes our name and it is OK.  Blessings.   

^“12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, ‘After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have pleasure?’

 ¹³ The Lord said to Abraham, ‘Why did Sarah laugh, and say, “Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?”

  ¹⁴ Is anything too wonderful for the Lord? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah shall have a son.’

(Genesis 18:12-14)”

God sent an angel to tell Mary she would have a son and his name would be Jesus, Savior.  God sent an angel to tell Joseph to not fear to wed Mary who was carrying baby to be named Jesus.  God spoke to Abram and made a covenant to bless all nations through him and changed his name to Abraham, father of nations.  God changed Sarai, his wife’s name, to Sarah as she would mother nations.  These encounters were very personal and prophetic.  They represented the roles and the dreams of the people.

         Later, though, three angels visited Abraham at his tent and told him again that Sarah, past the age of child bearing, would indeed have a child the following year.  Sarah laughed.  I suspect it was a laugh filled with doubt and disbelief.  It was not the “ho, ho, ho” of Santa Claus.  Sometimes faith is riddled with doubts.  Sometimes we name our children after the experience we have surrounding their birth.  Many of us have friends named Joy, Faith, or Chris for Christmas.  Sarah named her son Laughter, Isaac, as her doubts became reality and then she truly laughed as did her friends.

^“6 Now Sarah said, ‘God has brought laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh with me.’ (Genesis 21:6)”

As you think of laughter today, can you think of a time when your faith was tinged with doubt but then the prayer came true.  Perhaps your future spouse asked you on a date.  Perhaps the medical tests showed an illness was cured.  Perhaps you passed a test that seemed hard.  The laughter that results from those surprise gifts from God that we thought so impossible, deserves a moment of praise and a thank you prayer.  Name one of those experiences and thank God.  Who knows what laughter awaits us in the new year?  “A joyful heart doeth good like a medicine!”  Blessings!

            “17 When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me, and be blameless. ² And I will  make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.’ ³ Then Abram fell on his face; and God said to him, ⁴ ‘As for me, this is my covenant with you: You shall be the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁵ No longer shall your name be Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the ancestor of a multitude of nations. ⁶ I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you. ⁷ I will establish my covenant between me and you, and your offspring after you throughout their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. ⁸ And I will give to you, and to your offspring after you, the land where you are now an alien, all the land of Canaan, for a perpetual holding; and I will be their God.’ (Genesis 17:1-8)”

Christianity and Islam both trace their ancestry back to “father Abraham.”  But Abraham was not always called Abraham.  He was originally named Abram and his wife Sarah’s name was Sarai when we first learn about her.  Our passage shares of Abram’s meeting with God after he sires a child with Hagar, Sarai’s Egyptian maid, and at age 99 when all hope of any child bearing by his wife Sarai seemed impossible for she was seventy-five.  The actual ages and dates are not as important as God coming to Abram and God initiating a covenant when perhaps Abram felt his future was bleak.  God spoke reality into the impossible in the renaming of Abram.  Abram would become the father of nations because God was promising to bless him and so his name was changed to Abraham.  God made a covenant, an agreement, that God would honor.

            In our age of gender equality, I must admit God beat us to it.  God’s naming was not just Abram to Abraham but also Sarai to Sarah for she too was important to God’s plan.

            ^“15 God said to Abraham, ‘As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. ¹⁶ I will bless her, and moreover I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall give rise to nations; kings of peoples shall come from her.’ (Genesis 17:15-16)” 

Perhaps you feel old, forgotten, or too scarred by life to be of much use to anyone.  Perhaps the Evil One loves to remind you of your failures.  Then again you may be looking back on this year appreciative for all your blessings.  In either case God can step into our lives and renew our identities as we step into 2023 trusting him.  As you approach New Year’s Eve this weekend, perhaps spend a few minutes pondering what name or title you would like God to give you in the coming year.  We can also think of the names we call others and decide to address them not as “hey, you” but affirming the potential within them.  We have the power to bless others in names we give others even as God blesses us and calls us his children.  Amen!

^“21After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child;

and he was called Jesus,

the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.

(Luke 2:21)”

Today we start a new liturgical season, Christmas.  In Advent we prepare ourselves for the birth of Jesus.  Yesterday we celebrated that birth.  The Christmas season includes one or two Sundays and ends after January 6 when we celebrate the coming of the Wise Men or Magi.  During the Christmas season we look at the childhood of Jesus.  We do not know that much but Scripture does tell us that on his eight day Jesus was taken to the Temple in Jerusalem, circumcised and named.  Names are important.  They often carry family lineage if named after an important relative or names can carry the dreams of the parents.  We named our first child “gift of God” for the child was such a dream come true for us and his middle name was a grandfather’s name.

         Jesus received his name from his father, God.  An angel visited Joseph after Joseph discovered Mary was pregnant. It appeared she had been unfaithful and Joseph had decided to dismiss her quietly.  The angel told Joseph in a dream not to fear, the child was of God. “She will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. (Matthew 1:21)” We have many titles we give Jesus.  He is known as the Messiah, the Christ, Savior, Lord, Son of God, and Son of Man. 

         This week we will look at names God gives to people in the Old Testament, names that were so key to their identity.  Let us take a moment as we unwind from all the excitement of yesterday and just allow our hearts and minds to appreciate all that little baby born “to save us from our sins,” means to us.  We write thank you notes for our presents, so certainly we can spend time saying thank you to a God willing to incarnate to save us.

Enjoy this old Maranatha song praising the name of Jesus!  Blessings.

William Dix, a lay Scottish hymn writer, in 1865 wrote a poem,”The Manger Throne.”