Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A, 12/19/04

Here's the draft of my homily that I'm working on for this Sunday.

Sunday Liturgical Readings:

Fourth Sunday of Advent, A

Individual Scripture References:

Isaiah 7:10-14
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-24

What's in a name? Think for a moment about your name. What does it mean? Why did your parents give it to you? Do you like it? Do you think your name identifies the real you? Do you have more than one name? Does each one have a story, or refer to an important relationship in your family? Do you have a nickname? What does it say about you? Do you have a special name that is known only to a few people, or maybe just one very special person? If you could choose a better name, one that is more "you," what would it be? Why? What would that name say about you?

Our readings today play with names. The quote from Isaiah that "the virgin shall conceive and bear a son" is often seen to foretell the virginal conception and birth of Jesus, but it really doesn't do that. The Hebrew word can also mean any young woman, and there's no indication in the text itself that the meaning was anything other than natural human generation. But the real point of the quote is in the name that is given to the son, "Emmanuel," which means "God with us."

Among people of the ancient world, every king was regarded as a special manifestation of God. In some way, the king was seen as "God-with-us." Yet all the kings of Israel, including the great King David himself, were deeply flawed men. In far too many of them, wickedness, deceit, greed, and deep insecurity and cowardice far exceeded any virtues they had that might make them signs of God's presence. For centuries, this prophecy of Isaiah remained unfulfilled, not because none of the kings had been born of a virgin, but because clearly none of them could be seen as "Emmanuel," an embodiment of God's presence for his people.

And so, when Matthew speaks of the coming of Jesus in his Gospel, he looks back at this prophecy of Isaiah, who was expressing the hope of a people, living in a time of violence and corruption under one of the worst kings of all, Ahaz. At last, Matthew says, we have in Jesus the true Emmanuel, the one who would be most perfectly "God-with-us."Although people today are named Emmanuel or Manuel or Manny, this never really was a name. Back then, nobody names their kids "Emmanuel." It was a title; it described a function; it said what his job was -- to be the presence of God for his people.

So, in Matthew, we hear the angel telling Joseph to name Mary's baby Jesus, and so he does. This was really his name, and Jesus was a fairly common name in those times. Well, not quite. If you and I were miraculously transported back to first century Galilee, and we saw Jesus walking down the main street of Nazareth, and we called out, "Hey, Jesus," do you think he'd turn around? Well, maybe he would, to stare at these funny looking creatures dressed in strange costumes spouting unintelligible gibberish. But he wouldn't recognize that word as his name. Our present spelling and pronunciation are the result of nearly two-thousand years of evolution though a variety of languages to get to present-day English. So, what was his name, the name the angel told Joseph to give him?

Well, if we pronounced it "Yeshua," he might have recognized it, although he'd surely laugh at our funny accent. Another, more common form of that same name in English is "Joshua." It means "Yahweh (or God) is help" or "Yahweh is salvation." Now, Yahweh was name God gave for himself to Moses at the scene of the burning bush. It was a name so holy that no Jew would ever pronounce it, substituting an abbreviation "Yah" or saying "Lord" instead.Of course the name Yeshua immediately recalled Joshua, the great successor of Moses in the Old Testament, the one who led the people of Israel from their exile in the desert across the Jordan River into the Promised Land and cleared the way for them to settle there. It's pretty obvious that Jesus was intentionally named after this great hero of Israel's past, and that he too would save his people after the fashion that Joshua had. So the original name of Jesus, Yeshua, fit him very well for the role he was play as savior of all humankind.

Finally, I have to explore one more word which is so familiar that most people don't pay a lot of attention to it. It's used in the first line of the Gospel, "This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about." Some people think Christ is Jesus' last name, just like Welbers is my last name. In fact, some years back, someone asked me in all seriousness: "Father, I've always wondered, since Christ was Jesus' last name, why don't we say Joseph Christ and Mary Christ?" Most of us, however, are aware that Christ is not a name, but a title. It comes through Greek and Latin from the Hebrew word, Messiah, meaning "the Anointed One." It's usually more proper in English to say, "Jesus the Christ," just like a proud mother would introduce "my son, the doctor." Mel Gibson got it right when he titled his picture "The Passion of the Christ" instead of "The Passion of Christ."

I suspect that most of us could properly identify Christ as meaning "Anointed" on a multiple choice exam question, but I wonder how many of us really appreciate what the word really meant to the Jewish people of Jesus' day. Kings, prophets, and priests were anointed as signs of their role in relation to God and his people. But anointing wasn't just dabbing a little smudge of oil on the forehead. Imagine next January 20 on a platform on the west front lawn of the U.S. Capitol, the Chief Justice ceremoniously pouring a gallon jug of perfumed oil on the president's head, letting it drip down his body and soak into his hair and clothes, even seep into his shoes. The "anointed one" would certainly radiate a distinctive presence perceptible to all the senses, including touch and smell. There would be no mistaking that there was something new and distinctive about him.

In the Old Testament times, priests were anointed to butcher and burn animals in sacrifice, prophets were anointed to try to convey divine meaning in limited human word-pictures, and kings were anointed to shepherd, not fleece and exploit, the flock of God's people. All fulfilled their roles imperfectly, even sinfully. The hints of the prophets had awakened a longing for an Anointed One, a Messiah, a Christ -- one who would get the job right!

And he came -- Jesus, God-with-us, Savior.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions you might have about this homily draft. To make a comment, click on "comments" below, and then on "Post a Comment." Unless you want to register and login, just click on the "anonymous" button. Please be sure to sign your name to your comment. During the rest of the week I will post revisions to the above homily as insights occur to me from your suggestions.

Thanks, Tom