This week's sermon

          The feast of the Holy Name of Jesus is always eight days after Christmas Eve. This year, because Christmas was on a Sunday we get to celebrate Holy Name on a Sunday.

          The original title for this Feast was the Feast of the Circumcision.

          Jewish boys are formally named on the day of circumcision.

          So, people in our time are more squeamish than in the earlier church and renamed the holy day!

          I want to talk about ‘names’.

          While Jesus named by an angel before he was conceived in Mary’s womb, we choose our children’s names in different ways.

          My parents didn’t tell me the origin of my name. But I remember wandering around the Waiteville, West Virginia cemetery when I was eight or so. I came across two gravestones for James Gordon Bradley and James Gordon Bradley, Jr.

          They were my great-grandfather and great-great grandfather. Can you imagine how creepy it made that young boy to find his names on Tombstones?

          I guess I was lucky they went back three generation because my father’s name was Virgil Hoyt and my grandfather’s name was Filbert Augustus!

          Our children’s names are Jeremy Johanna and Joshua Dylan. Mimi, as she came to be renamed by our son because she was a terrible baby and when she would cry uncontrollably Josh would sing to her: “Jere-Mi-Mi-Mi-Mi!’ It stuck. But Jeremy and Johanna are her two God-mothers. Sister Jeremy was a Sister of Mercy I worked with at a Mental Hospital one summer in seminary. And Johanna was the middle name of a good friend.

          Joshua Dylan was named after the Old Testament character and Bob Dylan. ‘Nuf said about that.

          Names have power over us. If I was in a full house at Yankee Stadium and someone yelled “Jim!” I would involuntarily turn to see if it were me they were trying to attract.

          Names follow us through life. Type any name into your search engine and a bunch of possibilities will show up.

          Jesus’ name plays a prominent role in our worship and in our prayer life.

          Evangelical faith healers use it to drive out demons.

          High Church Episcopalians cross themselves when his name is mentioned.

          All Christians consider his name has power and purpose.

          So, today we celebrate his Holy Name.

          Contemplate his name while I remind you of the beautiful and faith giving words of today’s lesson from Numbers.

          “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.”

          May you have peace, my friends. May you have the peace of the Holy Name of Jesus.

Amen