There’s a tradition whenever a baby is
brought for baptism for the minister to ask the parents the question, “What name is given this child?” Now, of course the pastor already knows the
name of this baby, but there’s an important reason why this question is asked.
And if you’ve ever noticed, the parents don’t typically use the last
name of their little one. Instead they
use just the first and middle names. And
the theological reason for this is that through baptism, God is claiming that
child and giving that child the name, “Christian.”
So as a follower of Jesus, my new name is Christian. Whenever I meet with parents in preparation
for a baptism, I mention this little tradition of the last name being
Christian. And I go on to explain that
our prayer is for their child to be raised in the Christian faith and that one
day their child will accept for herself or himself the name that was given at
their baptism.
This is why we offer a confirmation class for seventh graders. It’s an opportunity for our young people to
embrace their name as Christian. And at
some point after their confirmation process, they stand up here and verbally
profess their faith in Christ. For those
who have already been baptized, they are saying “yes” to the name that was
already given to them. They are claiming
their name and their identity as a follower of Jesus Christ.
And for those of us who have already been baptized and have claimed our
new name as Christian, every time we celebrate a baptism, it’s another
opportunity to remember our name and renew our identity of who we are in Jesus
Christ.
Remembering our name is so important because it’s easy to lose our way
in life and forget who we are. Maybe
this is why whenever I would get into trouble, my mom would use my formal name
and say, “Robert Vincent, you get over
here right now!” It was never a good
thing when mom or dad would use my middle name.
It usually meant that I would have to sit on the special time-out
chair. Did you have a time-out chair in
your house? Using my formal name was a
way for my mom and dad to remind me that they were speaking to me even though I
was the only “Robert” in the house.
During my senior year of High School, I was sitting in the 2nd
row of desks in a classroom with my football teammates because our coach had
called for a special meeting. It was a
Monday afternoon and we had just come off one of our few football victories of
the season. And we all thought the coach
was going to say how proud he was of us.
He paced back and forth in front of the classroom carefully thinking
about the words he would soon share with us.
“I have called you here because I
am very disappointed in the behavior of someone in this room following our win
on Saturday. Sometime on Saturday
evening, one of you took your car and did doughnuts on our practice field and
tore it all up. It’s now a muddy mess
out there. You have let our team down
and you have forgotten that we as a team represent our school. If we need to, we’re going to sit here all
afternoon until that person speaks up.”
Nobody said a word. We all just
sat there – frozen and speechless.
And then, the coach said something that I will never forget. He looked intently in my direction as if I
was the only person in that room, and he said, “Bob – do you have something that you want to share with the rest of us?”
My face turned beat red and instant perspiration came to my
forehead. The coach just kept staring at
me. And finally, with my voice shaking I
said, “Coach, I don’t know what you’re
talking about.”
Coach Hershey said, “I’m not looking at you McDowell.
I’m looking at this Bob, Bob Burgee who’s sitting in front of you!”
I’ll never forget how extremely relieved I was in that moment, that my
name was Robert McDowell and not Bob Burgee!
And now you know why I go by the name of Robert instead of Bob!
Do you know what your name is?
Remembering who we are and to whom we belong is something that the church
helps us to not forget.
Our scripture reading from the letter of I John calls us “children of
God.” The writer of this letter says, “See what love the Father has given us, that
we should be called children of God; and that is what we are.”
I like that name. Children.
Children implies that we aren’t done growing. We haven’t arrived yet. There’s still more to discover and to
experience in the Christian life. I
remember when I was just starting out in the ministry and I thought to myself, “By the time I’m fifty, I should really have
my act together.” Boy, was I overly
optimistic!
I’m amazed at how I can read a familiar passage of scripture and still
find something new or different that I had never seen before. But that’s a good thing. I hope that we never get to a point in our
faith journey where we feel that we have experienced it all. Following Jesus is a life-long process of
growth and maturity.
The writer of I John also points to a future hope that we have as
“children of God.” Not only do we get to
share in God’s love and grow in our faith in the present, but we also can look
forward to that time in the future when we will see Jesus. It will be then that we will be like him.
Children often think about what they want to be when they grow up. Maybe a doctor or an astronaut or a baseball
player. Well, those who are children of
God want to be like Jesus when they grow up.
I John says,“What we do know is
this; when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.”
Who do you want to be when you grow up? By remembering that we are children of God,
we can spend each day becoming more and more like Jesus. We can become more loving, more
compassionate, more giving, more serving, more forgiving, and more hope-filled.
Today is All Saints’ Sunday when we light a candle for each person in
our church who has died since this time last year and are now with all the
saints in heaven. One of those names is
Brayden Tackett, a seven year old who had terminal cancer and died this past
May.
I had the privilege of getting to know Brayden and baptizing him in his
home last winter. During one of my visits with Brayden, he thanked me for
coming to his house and for how our church had been reaching out to him. And I was really impressed that even though
he wasn’t feeling well, he was still able to say these nice things.
And I remember saying to him, “Brayden,
why are you so nice?” And without even
pausing, Brayden responded as if I should have known the answer, “Because God made me this way.”
But it’s what he said next that I will
never forget and what I want to share with you today. He then said to me, “And God made you that way too.”
Wow! How about that spiritual
maturity for a seven year old! Brayden
knew that he was a child of God. And he
reminded me of who I was as well.
All Saints’ Sunday reminds us that there’s another name that the people
of God have. A follower of Christ is
given the name, “Christian,” “child of God,” and yes, even the name “saint.” We tend to shy away from the name, “saint,”
since we often use it sparingly to speak of a small percentage of people who
have lived exemplary lives, like Mother Teresa.
But this is another important name.
Many of the New Testament letters begin with a greeting to the saints,
meaning not just the leaders of that church but everyone who is in the
church. I know of a preacher who begins
every worship service by greeting the congregation with the words, “Good morning saints!”
I don’t always feel like a saint,
do you? I feel so unworthy of that name;
“saint.” But that’s who we are in Jesus
Christ. To help us claim this name, it
might be helpful to know that it’s because of the life, death, and resurrection
of Jesus Christ, that God gives us this name.
It’s because of what Christ has done for us by dying on the cross and
rising to new life that God has claimed us and has given us a new name.
Several years ago, I was pulling out from a parking space in the city of
Dayton when I noticed an interesting vanity license plate on the back of a car which
had just pulled into a space in front of me.
The license plate had the message, “In 3 Days.” It seemed obvious to me that it was referring
to the three days of Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday. As I started to drive away, I noticed a man
getting out of this car. I pulled up
beside him, put my window down, and said, “I
read your license plate. Are you a
Christian?” With a great big smile
on his face, he nodded his head, and yelled back to me, “You won’t believe how my life changed because of those 3 days.”
Because of Jesus, that man has claimed
his name. That man knows who he is.
That man is a saint.
.
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