Holy Name, January 1, 12 step Eucharist at 5:30
St. Mark’s, Episcopal Church, Little Rock, Arkansas, Wednesday January 3, Luke 2:15-21
Two days ago, on January 1st, we celebrated the Circumcision of Christ. Since we are more squeamish than our ancestors, modern calendars often list it as the feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, but the other emphasis is the older. Every Jewish boy was circumcised and formally named on the eighth day of his life, and so, one week after Christmas, we celebrate the occasion when Jesus was given the name which was given to Mary before he was conceived. Our great gift that we celebrate on Holy Name is that we now have been given a name for God, Jesus.
Today as Christians we are given our names at baptism. This Sunday at the 10:30 service six people will be baptized and receive their names. / They will be named and made a member of this community, a member of body of Christ, a child of God, and a member of God’s kingdom forever.. Do not ever, ever forget this about your own baptism./
If you attend a 12-step meeting and speak, the first thing you say is your name. My name is “Joanna”, and then you identify yourself further with the addiction that brought you there. “My name is Joanna and I am an alcoholic.” I can well remember the first time I said that over 27 years ago. I did not want to say that. I knew I had this addiction, but I did not want everyone else to know it, as if many did not already know. However, naming ourselves and our addiction is the first step to recovery, letting others know who we really are, not pretending to be something that we are not, beginning to take off that mask that we are the perfect person. It is our first step to freedom.
Today, remember your name and who you are and remember Jesus who was named on this day, and remember that his whole life was lived to teach us how to be free people, free of addiction, free of all the masks we wear, free to be the person that God created us to be.
Do you remember something else that was said at your baptism? “You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” No matter what our name is, at our baptism, God calls us by that name, and we are “marked as Christ’s own forever.”/
On this special feast day we celebrate the naming of a vulnerable eight-day-old infant who came to this earth so that we might know God’s name, so that we might know God more clearly, more dearly.
Do not ever, ever forget that we as well have been named and marked as Christ’s own, God’s own forever. May you especially remember that you have been marked as God’s own forever, every time someone calls you by your name.
Joanna joannaseibert.com