Sermon for December 23

The reading

Matthew 1:18-25

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus

The message

Well, Merry Christmas, a little early I guess,  After our very long Advent, we are here, After experiencing God’s promises in their original contexts, after witnessing God actions in the world told to us by inspired voices from 1000s of years ago, we are here. We started with creation, a flood and a new creation.  We heard the story of a nation, of people called, set apart, led, lost, found, pulled up, pushed down, healed and hurt. During the worst of times, we heard news from the prophets that God’s promises were not only still good, they would get bigger, they would be expanded to include all people and nations. 

Tomorrow night, we will welcome a lot of visitors, who have not taken this journey with us, people who attend other churches and follow different readings, people who do not come to church too much, people who just do not realize how long the world waited for Jesus or how difficult many of those years were. It is our responsibility to tell the story.   

We come to the end of our very long Advent with the birth of Jesus.  When born, even before, he is named with power and glory, expected for centuries, set apart as good news, as promises fulfilled, named God with us and God saves. On a recent hospital visit, I heard a pastor praying with a church member in one of the rooms (not because I was necessarily listening but it was just really loud).  He was yelling In the name of Jesus, be healed, in the name of Jesus be comforted, in the name of Jesus be made well, in the name of Jesus be forgiven, in the name of Jesus be comforted.  There was a lot expected of that name and this pastor took Jesus command recorded in John’s gospel “ask anything in my name” very seriously.

Today, we hear just how serious and powerful the names of Jesus are. The names and titles of Jesus help us understand the story.  The Christmas story from Matthew tells us 2 names for our savior, Jesus and Emmanuel.  Names matter. I think of the people I have met from Africa, One of the first things I will ask (or they will tell me) is their name and what it means.  In some cases, it identifies their family, home, village, tribe or religion,  it could be descriptive of the conditions around their birth or an expression of joy or hope for the future,  The same was true of the Jewish people that Jesus was born a part of. Names had meaning.  Jesus means God saves and Emmanuel means God is with us,

Of course, in addition to the names, there are a lot of titles given to Jesus, some from Old Testament prophesies, words that brought God’s promises to people in suffering.  Other names come from the New Testament, after people saw and experienced the power of God made flesh and dwelling amongst us.   A few years ago, Lightcast Church (the mainly Filipino congregation that worships here on Sunday Afternoon) held a Christmas program in the gym about a spelling bee. (if it remember It was called the Bethlehem Spelling Bee)   Each of the words that the contestants were asked to spell were related to Jesus birth, prophesy or one of the names that Jesus is given.  For those of you who are not familiar with Spelling Bees (which I assume is most of you), after the contestant hears the word, they are allowed to ask a few questions, please tell me the origins of the word, what is the definition or Can I hear the word in a sentence. For each name or title of Jesus, the contestants would ask for more information.     

This morning, I want to do my own version of the Bethlehem Spelling Bee (don’t worry no spelling is actually required), I want to look at a few of the names and titles for Jesus (there are 198 names or titles for Jesus in the Bible).  First, for the ones from Today’s reading:  Emmanuel means God with us, It comes from the prophet Isaiah chapter 7 vs 14. It’s origins comes from the time when the temple built by Solomon under God’s design and instructions was destroyed by the Babylonians.  The community Matthew is shared with saw the second temple destroyed by the Romans (around 70 ad), their people killed and chased off.  People in great darkness have seen a great light.  The importance of God with us becomes clear once we know it spoken to people who really, really doubted it.          

The name Jesus means God saves, its origins is from the Greek.  It is the Greek version of Joshua (Moses successor as the leader of Israel), a Hebrew name that means God saves.  God is here to save us from sin and death (not sadness and suffering)

On Friday and Saturday, I had my first funeral service around Christmas time (I’ve had 8 around Easter).  I shared today’s reading and we sang a few carols during the memorial service.  In this story, in the names of Jesus, we are reminded of God’s great promises, God saves and God is with us

Then we have all the titles for Jesus, The most common: Christ: (that’s actually not Jesus last name). It is the English version of the Greek word kristos, then latin word christus, which mean anointed one.  This title was connected with the Messiah or expected savior of Israel.  Before his death and resurrection Jesus was usually referred to as "Jesus of Nazareth" or "Jesus, son of Joseph".  After his resurrection, the title Christ becomes synonymous with Jesus.

We have the titles from Isaiah 9:  For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Each one points to Jesus uniqueness. The word wonderful was much more powerful back then, today we might say “I had a wonderful time”, back then, it meant beyond expression or understanding, In Judges 13:18 Manoah, Samson’s father has a vision or encounter with God. During this moment he asks the Lord what His name was. The response was, “Why do you ask my name, seeing it is wonderful?” In other words, “Why do you ask my name, since it is beyond your understanding?”

Then we have the title we sing every week at church: Lamb of God, This comes from the Gospel of John chapter 1 vs 29, where John the Baptist sees Jesus and exclaims, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”. This title reminds us that Jesus our savior was born for to die, for poor ordinary sinners like you and like I  

 
Of course, not all titles mean the same thing to everyone.  I know of people who grew up with very abuse father’s and would rather say Our Parent in the Lords prayer,  the titles are gifts to point us to who Jesus who, to who was born on Christmas morning. Finally, We didn’t talk much about putting these words into sentences, that is our life. That is what we do with the gifts of God, how they fit into our lives.