Sermon 9/17/06
What’s In a Name? Mark 8:27-38
(view lectionary notes for this text)
The summer before I came to St. Paul’s, as many of you know, I spent ten weeks in a chaplaincy internship program at Crouse Hospital. I was assigned to the pediatrics unit and the neo-natal intensive care unit – the NICU. I found the program very difficult – constantly going into rooms of patients who were in crisis, rooms of people I didn’t know, people who didn’t know me, and somehow trying to get them to open up to me and let me provide them with spiritual care. When I started the program, every time I would start a conversation with a patient or their family, I would explain that I was Beth, a chaplaincy intern, who was there for ten weeks over the summer. I wanted them to know who I was, and I guess, wanted them to know that I wasn’t one of the “real chaplains,” the full-time folks who served there who actually knew what they were doing. But by the end of the summer, I was just introducing my self as “the chaplain.” It was certainly easier, and it communicated a lot more to families about what I was doing there. But it was also a sign that I knew more about what I was doing there too. I was a chaplain.
I’ve had a similar experience since coming to St. Paul’s. Just the other night at a committee meeting we got to talking about the different titles used for clergy – Priest, Father, Minister, Pastor, Reverend, etc. Someone wondered if I had a different title now that I was ordained. I couldn’t convince anyone that my new title was “Her Eminence,” so I guess I’ll stick with Pastor Beth. But there was a time, too, when Pastor Beth seemed quite strange to me. When I started here, a lot of people wanted to know what to call me. It was hard to answer – I wasn’t used to being a pastor yet, or a reverend, or anything so grand. But, a year or so ago, when someone was trying to get my attention, she kept calling my name: “Beth, Beth” to no avail. I wasn’t hearing her. As soon as she said, “Pastor Beth,” my head immediately turned in her direction. I guess I’ve gotten used to it. I am Pastor Beth, and I feel happy and comfortable claiming that name. In the work that I love, that is who I am. It’s the name by which I’m known. In theological terms, they call that “claiming your pastoral identity.” It is knowing who you are. So much importance, in what we are called, in what we are meant to be called. By what name are you known?
Names are important. I think of Mike and Michelle Collin’s new baby boy Carson – when I first got to hold him, he hadn’t yet been named. Sometimes parents want to look at a new baby and figure out what name they ‘look like’ before officially giving it. A name is important. The scriptures are full of stories where the meaning of a names is given as an important part of the text, or where God outright renames a person when God comes barging into their lives. And our gospel lesson, too, deals with names, though perhaps in a less direct way than some passages of scripture. Our text begins with an important moment in the gospel journey. Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do people say that I am?” They answer truthfully that some speculate that Jesus is John the Baptist back from the dead, or that he is Elijah in his second coming, or at least one of the prophets. Then Jesus asks a more personal question: “But who do you say that I am?” And Peter answers, “You are the Messiah.” This is the first time that Jesus is so identified by the disciples in Mark’s gospel. Peter has identified Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah, for the first time. Jesus wants to know: how do people name me - what do they call me - what do I mean to the people? And the people, the crowds, the religious leaders – they’re confused, questioning. They all misname Jesus, misidentify who he is and what he is about. But Peter, for once, gets the answer right - You are the Messiah, he tells Jesus. Peter's answer show that he knows who Jesus is. But just as soon as Peter makes this identification, we find ourselves in the second section of this scene - where Peter rebukes Jesus for his telling of the suffering, death, and resurrection that is to take place. Even though Peter got Jesus' name of Messiah right, he doesn't yet seem to understand what that name means. The title messiah is not simply a word - it is a title that indicates the path that Jesus must follow.
But Peter does not understand all this, or at least he does not want to understand all this. He rebukes Jesus for speaking about the terrible things Jesus is describing: suffering, rejection, death. Even promise of resurrection is not enough for Peter to accept what Jesus says. Peter doesn't see that the very name messiah implies something about Jesus' ministry and mission. For Jesus, the name and title of messiah comes with responsibility. It comes with a call from God to suffering, death, and resurrection. They are all necessary, all part of the deal, all part of the way God expresses grace to us through becoming one of us in Christ. Jesus is known to us by the name messiah because of what we believe about his death and resurrection, because of what we believe he taught us in living among us.
When Peter cannot see the meaning of Jesus' name, Christ in turn rebukes him, naming him Satan. "Get behind me Satan," Jesus commands. Peter is another figure in the scriptures who has been renamed. In fact, he was renamed by Jesus. Once known as Simon, Jesus calls him Peter - and the name Peter carries with it an understanding of responsibility. Peter means rock, and Jesus encouraged Peter to be a rock, a strong foundation for the church that would grow after Jesus' time on earth was done. Peter has a new name and a new responsibility because of what he knows about Jesus, and who he has become as a disciple of Jesus. But here, in this hour, Jesus must call Peter, name Peter, Satan - not because Peter is possessed, not because Peter is not in control of himself or what he is saying. Jesus calls Peter Satan because Peter, by his words, has not only rejected Christ and Christ's role, but he’s also rejected his own name and the role that he was to play. Peter cannot be the rock without also sharing in that suffering that Christ describes. With the name comes a responsibility. With his discipleship comes responsibility.
“If any want to become my followers,” Jesus says, “let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?”
For us, like for Peter, and also for Jesus himself, with our names come meanings for who we are to be, what we are to be, how we are to live. With our names, we have responsibilities. In our lives, our new names, our new titles, signify changes for who we will be and how we will act. When people get married and make commitments to each other, they sometimes change their names to signify a new life together. When a person achieves an educational goal, such as becoming a doctor (or pastor!), a new title signifies not just what they have learned, but a new role with which they will serve, a new responsibility they have agreed to carry out. When a family names a child, in naming the child they are taking on responsibility for that child, to help that child grow into that name, so to speak. With our names, we have responsibilities.
Jesus has names to give us, if we will bear the responsibilities that come with them. We call ourselves Christians - what responsibilities come with this name? We call ourselves disciples. What does that title mean? Jesus tells us: those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it." Jesus outlines for us the costs of discipleship, the responsibilities that come with the name we choose to bear. By what name are you known? Are you known as Christian? Are you called a disciple?
For Peter, the weight of responsibility of his name sometimes seemed too much to bear. Was he ready to accept all that came with his name? Could he be the rock of the new church? Could he carry out Jesus' work once Jesus was no longer present on earth? Sometimes Peter faltered under these pressures, a feeling I think we can all relate to. But God, thank God, does not leave us hopeless like this. Like with a family who has named a child, the Namer bears as much responsibility as the one being named. God did not call Jesus to the path of death and resurrection and then abandon Jesus - God named Christ the Beloved, and acted with love toward him. Jesus did not call Peter the Rock and then abandon him - Jesus equipped Peter for his ministry. And so God does not name us as disciples, children, precious ones, and then abandon us.
What has God named you? I already know at least part of the answer. God names you as God's own, God’s precious child. With our name comes responsibility, but with our name, too, comes a promise from God to be with us, to be our God, to walk with us. God makes a covenant with us when we receive the name of disciple to support us, even as we take up our cross and follow Christ's path. Our life in Christ gives us the special opportunity to be renamed as Peter was. We are called out by Christ for special work in the world, to share the good news that God is here, living with us, and loving with us. By what name are you known? Grandmother? Father? Friend? Aunt? Brother? Daughter? By what name are you known? Teacher? Student? Healer? By what name are you known? Disciple? Christian? Child of God?
Amen.
All sermons written by Rev. Beth Quick - please give credit for material used.