Naming The New

January 1, 2023

Hope Lutheran Church

Rev. Mary Erickson

Luke 2:15-21

Naming the New

Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.

How did you get your name? Some families follow a pattern when they select names for their babies. My parents, for instance, chose biblical names for my sister and me. Some other families choose very ethnic names. I went to St. Olaf College with many Sigrids and Solveigs and Erics. No Oles, though. At a former parish, there was a family who had four daughters, and all of their girls’ names began with the letter Z. Sometimes children are named after a relative, too.

For some young parents, selecting their child’s name is a most difficult decision. I remember talking to one couple who just could not settle on a name. What finally pressured them to decide was that the hospital wouldn’t allow their new baby to be dismissed without a name.

Naming their little son was no problem for Mary and Joseph. The angel Gabriel told Mary what his name was to be. They weren’t the ones to name him. God named this little one to be called Jesus. The name comes from the Hebrew “Yeshua.” It’s the name “Joshua” and it means “he saves.” A very appropriate name for Our Savior!

Young Mary and Joseph were devout Jews. Their lives were aligned to the rhythms of Jewish observations. One of these was circumcision of all male children. This occurred on the eighth day. Count from December 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, January 1, eight days.

On this day, Mary and Joseph took their little baby to a rabbi for the ceremony. Circumcision was the mark of God’s covenant with Israel. It was a physical indication present with all Jewish men throughout the entirety of their lives. God had made a covenant with the Jewish people, and this personally, individually included them.

On this eighth day, Jesus received the mark of God’s covenant with Israel.

Why the eighth day? The answer takes us back to the story of creation. God created the universe in all its magnificent variety and detail in six days. On the seventh day, God rested. This seventh day carried with it the blessing of the Sabbath. It was a weekly gift of realignment with God. Once a week we pause from our daily business. We focus our heart and soul on the God who made us and delivered us and constantly sanctifies us.

One week, seven days. And then comes the eighth day. It’s the first day of the new week. On this eighth day we enter into the new creation. God’s gift of regeneration and ever newness comes to us and fills us once again. The eighth day promises us that there is more than just this life. There is a new life to come, when we are made whole with God, when we will see God face to face.

This is why baptismal fonts traditionally have eight sides to them. In baptism we die in Christ as we dive into the waters. And then as we emerge from the waters, we raise to new life. Through baptism we enter into the promise of that new life on the eighth day. Our church’s original baptismal font stands in our narthex area and you can see that it carries this 8-sided design.

On the eighth day, Joseph and Mary followed their custom to have their baby boy circumcised.

Today we mark The Name of Jesus. And for our western calendars, this liturgical day also falls on a most prominent day as we begin a new year. We take down the old calendar and hang up the new one.

Really, it’s just one new day. There’s nothing really different about it from any other day. And yet, we can ask a very Jewish question: why is this day different than any other?

It is different, January First. The beginning of a new year marks a fresh start. We have ended one chapter and we begin a new one. A new year feels new and young.

Our imagery for a new year depicts an old man, Father Time, holding the new year as a little baby. This new year is just that, it’s new, it’s fresh and full of promise. There’s an innocence to a new year.

2022 was once that. It was a calendar full of unspoken days. But now we’ve filled them all in. They’ve all been named. Last year has aged. It feels old and worn out; it’s filled up. What began as a mystery is now known in full.

But here we are, on the first day of a new year, and 2023 is potent with new possibility and life.