What’s in a name?

In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus is given two different names. On the one hand, he is called Jesus, which is Joshua in another language. He is also given the name of Emmanuel. The two names have different meanings behind them, and each meaning is powerful when standing alone. But, it is also interesting to wonder about what it means for us to take the two meanings of the names given to Jesus in Matthew’s narrative and place them alongside one another for a renewed understanding of who Jesus is and how we are part of what Jesus is doing for the whole of the cosmos.

The name Joshua is an important name in Hebrew. It’s meaning is “God saves.” The first Joshua in the Bible is the person who leads the Israelites into the promised land after 40 years of living in the wilderness following their escape from Israel. Joshua is the trusted guide through whom God is saving the Israelites from their captivity. Jesus is born and in Matthew’s narrative is described as the one who will “save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21b NRSV). Like the first Joshua, Jesus is ushering people into a promised land in which God’s grace is known by all and in which “justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24 NRSV)

The second name given to Jesus, the name Emmanuel, carries the meaning “God with us.” We receive this name from the prophet Isaiah when the prophet speaks of a sign for the people. The sign none other than a child who is to be born by a young woman. Jesus comes to us through a human mother, and he is born as a sign to the people to “fulfill what had been spoken.” (Matthew 1:22 NRSV). Jesus is coming into the world as a sign to his people by being with us.

When we put these two meanings together, we might come up with something like “God saves with us.” God is attempting to work through us so that we accomplish those things that we can accomplish for ourselves in cooperation with God’s grace in our lives. Through Jesus, God is not saving by overriding our abilities. Instead, God is saving by taking on the fullness of humanity and by assuming the wholeness of what it means to be human. God is showing us a way to live according to the ways of God’s household and is hoping that we will claim that marker as our primary identity marker in the world: one with whom God is saving.

Tonight, we celebrate our feast day and are invited to ponder the meaning of the name of our parish and how that also shapes our identity as a people who follow in the way of Jesus, as a people through whom God is saving. Epiphany is a funny word, and the most known understanding of our name is “an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure.” It can also mean to show up or to show out if we dig into the roots of the word from its Greek origins.

Taking those original meanings into account, we might could understand our part in God’s action as being those who continue to show up, to show God’s grace out to the world, and to be invitations to others to receive the grace that saves with us. The ways that we show up are going to be different from one person to the next. Some of us have gifts of influence and charisma, some of us have gifts of analytical and strategic thinking, still others have gifts that help us get things accomplished, and even still some of us lead with gifts that build relationships and keep people connected. The Church needs all of these gifts within it in order for God’s grace to be made known to the world. We need all of those gifts so we are able to continue to showing up in the community, to continue showing out God’s grace, and to continue illuminating the ways that God is saving with us.

In Christ,

Hunter+