Holy Name 2017

Holy Name 2017

1. The name is the symbol of the person. Today we are celebrating the Holy Name, or the
names used to describe God and Jesus.
In the book of Exodus, during the episode of the burning bush, God ordered Moses to go to Egypt
and lead his people to freedom. Moses asked God, If they ask me who is sending me, what
should I tell them? What is your name?
God answered that his name was Yahweh, which means I am who I am, and also, I will be who I
will be. The emphasis here is being. God is. God is existence. Our existence is only temporary: for
trillions of years we did not exist. We will be here a limited number of years, and then we will die. God
has always existed and will always exist. God is the ground of our being: the universe got its
existence from the will of God. That is what we mean by creation. We are Gods creatures.
So the Hebrew name for God was Yahweh. However, there is a commandment in the Bible forbidding
the use of Gods name in vain. Over time, the Jews stopped using the name Yahweh altogether,
because they believed that it was too sacred to be used by humans. Only the High Priest could
address God by his name once a year, on the day of Atonement. By the 2 nd century BC the Jews had
substituted the name Yahweh with Adonai (Lord) or Kyrios in Greek.
In Hebrew, the name of Jesus is Joshua, which means God is our salvation. The original Joshua had
lead the Israelites our of the desert and into the promised land. Jesus, the new Joshua, would lead
humanity to the kingdom of God, the new promised land.

2. In the Letter to the Philippians, St. Paul explains who Jesus is and at the end of the
passage calls Jesus Kyrios (Lord) applying to Jesus the name that had been set aside
exclusively for God. Let us look at this passage step by step:
1. Jesus Christ was in the form of God is a way of saying that, before being born as a human being,
Jesus already existed as a person of the Holy Trinity: he was God, equal to the Father and the Holy
Spirit
2. However, Jesus emptied himself of his divine prerogatives by becoming a human being. In the story
of the temptations of Jesus we learn that Jesus could have used his miraculous powers for his own
selfish interests, but he did not exploit them. He resisted temptations.

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3. Jesus took the form of a slave. Form in this passage is the same as nature. He emptied himself of the
form of God and took on the form of a human being, and was born and lived as a low class person, a
commoner. The Gospel describes the scene at the birth of Jesus, when the shepherds visited Mary and
Joseph and the baby Jesus at his birth
4. Jesus humbled himself. The Jews envisioned God and a king. Jesus was not born in a royal palace, but
in a stable, like a slave. He did not come as a human being to be treated like a God or like a king
5. He became obedient. Remember in the story of the Garden of Eden that the sin of the first humans
was a sin of disobedience. That sin alienated humanity from God. Jesus came to un-do that sin, and
he did it by living a life of total obedience to God and to the mission that God had given him
6. He was obedient to the point of death, and was executed on the cross as a common criminal. He
remained obedient even though his obedience to God and to his mission put his life at risk.
7. But God raised him from the dead and exalted by giving him the name Lord. Lord was the name
reserved only for God. This is another way of stating that Jesus after his death was returned to his
divine status, and we are called to kneel down in front of Jesus and call him Lord.
. So today we are called to celebrate Jesus as Lord (God), and praise God for having save us from
alienation and made us his adopted children.

3. In the first reading, from Numbers Ch. 6, God instructs Moses to tell his brother Aaron, the
high priest, how to bless the people of Israel:
. The priests are to use these words to bless the people, 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.
. What is a blessing? A blessing is a favor or gift from God. To be blessed is to be favored by God. To
bless is to wish on someone that they experience Gods favor
. This blessing is in the form of a poem. Hebrew poetry did not use rime. Their poems repeated the same
idea in 3 sentences, one after the other, using different words or images
a. The first sentence asks for Gods favor (the Lord bless you) and protection (and keep you) on the
people as they are facing dangers and adversities while crossing the desert.

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b. The second sentence, the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you repeats
the same concept as the first and asks God look upon his people with a bright smiling face and
give them his love (grace).
c. The 3rd sentence The Lord lift his countenance upon you repeats the content of the 2nd
sentence: in Hebrew face and countenance are the same word. The blessing here asks God to
pay benevolent attention to his people and to their needs and give them peace.
. So Aarons priestly blessing asks God to keep his people safe, to love them (be gracious to them)
and to give them peace.
. The most ancient Hebrew writing ever found by archaeologists in Israel is a tiny silver scroll rolled
up like a cigarette. When they un-scrolled it, they found carved in it this priestly blessing.
. I used this blessing too. When people come up at Communion with their arms crossed and ask
for a blessing, I usually bless them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but if I know
that they are Jewish, or not Christian, I use Aarons blessing.
. Remember that the blessing does not come from the priest, but from God. The priest does not
have personal magic power to bless. We simply give voice to Gods will to bless his people.

4. What can we take home from todays readings?

. The name of God, Yahweh, is a reminder that God exists eternally and that we are his creatures,
we derive our existence from God, and after our life on earth is over, we will return to God and
continue to exist in God. The name of Jesus, Joshua, reminds us that our salvation comes from
God
. The priestly blessing from the Hebrew Bible, reminds us that God is paying personal attention to
each of us, that God wants us to know that He is good and gracious, that He protects us, loves us
and wants us to live in peace
. Finally, at the conclusion of the Eucharist, as a priest, I bless you in the name of God, but, as you
leave the church and return home, it is your duty to share Gods blessing, protection, favor and
peace with all the people around you.