Some children should be allowed to change their names as soon as they understand what their parents have done to them, like these:
Audio Science
Denim
Derfla (a girl’s name; but read it backwards)
Greedy
Hellzel (a mashup of Hazel and Hell’s Angel)
Jesusangel (no relation to Hellzel)
Little Sweetmeat
Moo
Munpi (pronounced “moon pie”)
Nimrod
Pilot Inspektor
Raspberry
Regret
Sadman (yes, man, it sure is)
Sssst (4 S’s and a T – pronounced “Forest” – sounds okay, but…)
Subaru
Trigger
Unnamed (he wasn’t left unnamed; he was named Unnamed)
Parents, just think this through – what are you saying about your child when you call them that?
When Matthew reported on the birth of Jesus, he included this explanation: “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ – which means, ‘God with us.'” (Matthew 1:22-23)
When the prophet (Isaiah) called the baby born to Mary “Immanuel” what he was saying about the child was that he was God with us. “God is in the manger” (Dietrich Bonhoeffer). God in the world. God among humans.
When the Holy Spirit caused Mary to be pregnant with the Son (Luke 2:35), he became the God/Man. He was the Creator incarnated, in-the-flesh, like one of the creatures. Maybe you’ll sing about this during the Christmas season with the second verse of Charles Wesley’s carol “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing”: “Late in time behold Him come, Off-spring of the Virgin’s womb: Veiled in flesh the Godhead see; Hail the incarnate Deity, Pleased as man with men to dwell, Jesus, our Immanuel.”
This is the essential message of Christianity, the unique announcement of Christianity. We might want to say the primary teaching of Christianity is something like
God loves you,
or love your neighbor
(even love your enemy),
or live with high moral and ethical standards,
or make the world a better place…
All of these are components of Christianity, but they are not the peculiar truth that Christianity proclaims. The indispensable message is this: the one God, the Creator of all, has come into our world in Jesus of Nazareth. This is the tune we dance to. This is the foundation we build on. This is the programming of our operating system. How could it not be? If it is true, it takes priority over everything else that we believe and teach and practice and value. There is no Christian faith apart from the reality of God becoming a human and living in our world.
I hope we can remember that this Christmas. I hope we can think it through. I hope we can teach and preach it. I hope we can pray it. I hope we can celebrate it. I hope we can give it.
Amen!