A Name and a Promise
by the Rev. Richard Preis
Luke 2:21 “At the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.”
As we enter this new year of 2012, our Gospel lesson today present us a truth which can give comfort, assurance and hope for what is ahead for each of us.
A promise was made to each of us by Almighty God on the day of our Baptism. In that Blessed Sacrament, God said to you and to me: “I am with you always. There is nothing you can ever do that will make me stop loving you. You may turn away from me. You may try to avoid me and separate yourself from me, but I shall never leave you. I shall always be with you and available to you with my love, my strength and my forgiveness.”
This one verse that is our Gospel lesson has direct connection to that promise give to us from God. There are those who have problems with the practice of infant baptism. They want proof from Scripture that infants were baptized in Bible times. They want to conduct their Christian life in line with Holy Scripture. Well then, in this verse in the second chapter of Luke is where we can find the validity of the Sacrament of Baptism.
We read that Jesus was taken to the temple on the eighth day of his life to receive the rite of circumcision. Through that rite, a person became a part of the Hebrew community. Centuries before, God called to Abraham and told him that he would be the father of a great nation, which no one could ever even begin to number. His descendants would be more than the sands of the seashore and more than the stars in the sky.
God gave to Abraham the rite of circumcision as a sign that a person would become a part of the people of God. In this rite, the infant was received into the family of God and a covenant was made with that child. That covenant was the sacred promise from God that this infant was his child forever. His love and forgiveness and protection would be upon that child always.
This practice continued through all generations of the children of Abraham. It was a most sacred rite. Thus Mary and Joseph then brought their child to receive this covenant from God. Their child was to be a member of the community of the people of God. They knew that, within the community, the blessings of strength and hope in the presence of God were given through this rite.
This child was Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. He came to earth to bring new meaning and new insight to the relationship God intended to have with his people. Jesus Christ came to show that God’s love was for all people, not just the people of one particular nation.
Over and over, Jesus told the people of his day that he did not come to destroy the ancient traditions. He did not come to destroy the law, but to fulfill it and give it new meaning and new direction. He was willing to submit to the laws of the Hebrew people. He received the rite of circumcision. Jesus participated in the Passover. He observed the true meaning of Sabbath worship, but he gave new interpretation and new dimension to them.
On the day of the Ascension when Jesus departed physically from his disciples, he gave them the Great Commission. Jesus said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all people, teach them to observe all that I have told you and baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And lo, I am with you always.”
This then was a new meaning, a new interpretation to the rite of entrance and admission into the fellowship of the people of God. No longer was there to be a cutting away of the flesh. Instead, there would be the visible symbol. In this sacrament of Holy Baptism, there would be through the water the assurance of forgiveness, the guarantee that God would love you always; that you were part of his people. This was the new sign of the covenant.
And this new sign of the covenant then was not limited to one particular national group or to males only. It was a fellowship that would extend to all people in all parts of the world regardless of national affiliation.
In this new sacrament, the name would also be give — the name “Child of God.” This would be sealed not with the cut of a knife, but with the sign of the cross. For it is by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we are assured the love and forgiveness of God. It is through the cross of Christ that the covenant is now passed from generation to generation.
At the sacrament we say: “Child of God, you have been sealed by the Holy Spirit in baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever.” Thus at our baptism, we are given the covenant, the Sacred promise that God is beside us always. Eternal life, the everlasting relationship with God, does not begin at death. It begins at our baptism and continues all the days of our life here on earth. Then at our physical death, we enter into an even more glorious relationship with God in the eternal kingdom.
On the day of our baptism, we are given a name. In fact, we are given two names. For baptism is the day of our christening. We become a Christian when the water and words of baptism are given. We all receive the name Christian. The old baptismal hymn sings, “I was made a Christian when my name was given.” Then we are also given our individual name; the name that identifies us. We are also then given the eternal promise of God’s love. “Richard Ira Preis, child of God, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as Christ’s own forever.”
Thus we are received into the family of God. At our baptism, God makes his promise to us as an individual. As we grow in years and grown in his grace and his love, we have offered to us a continuing sign of the renewal of that promise with the sacrament of Holy Communion.
As we receive the bread and the wine, we receive the eternal presence of Christ into our lives. “The Body of Christ given for you. The Blood of Christ shed for you.” You, you, you, as an individual, as the child of God. Here we are given additional assurance that we are God’s child and that we receive his forgiveness, his love and his strength to face the days and years of our lives.
Today we enter a new year. What is ahead is unknown. We can make all kinds of plans. We can set up many projects. Dream many dreams. But no one of us knows for certain what is ahead. We shall face joy and sorrow, gain and loss, pain and happiness, life and death — when? Where? How all this will happen, we do not know.
Nevertheless, this we can know for certain: whatever is ahead, we do not face this new year alone. We have the promise from Almighty God, given to us at our baptism through Jesus Christ the Savior, that he is with us every day, every step of the journey of the year that is ahead. Even if we face death, physical death, there will still be life for us: eternal life with Christ our Savior in the heavenly kingdom.
Because of the knowledge of this eternal promise, we can say with absolute assurance. Happy New Year!
