When my daughter Nyah was born she was the first. grandchild on my husband s side of the family so we got to

Transcription

1 1 NEW NAME BLC B. HULL SOMERS Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16, Romans 4:13-25, Mark 8:31-38 When my daughter Nyah was born she was the first grandchild on my husband s side of the family so we got to have conversations about what my in-laws wanted to be called. On my side she was number eight and seven other kids already called my parents grandma and grandpa, so they had that territory. My in-laws wanted to be called something a little different. My father-in-law decided he wanted to be Pops, which he still is and my mother-in-law chose, Granny Annie since her name is Annie. Little Nyah, however, could not say Granny Annie when she first started talking. What she ended up calling my motherin-law was, Dangy.

2 2 At first, we laughed about it, but now it is simply her name. The three grandchildren that have come after Nyah all call her Dangy I call her Dangy most of the time and even when she volunteers at her grandkids school, she tells the kids in the classroom to call her Dangy. She is not under the impression that Dangy rolls off the tongue. She knows it sounds odd. But she loves the sound of that name because it was given to her by her first born grandchild. The people she loves most in the world call her by that name. Names are powerful. Names have a story. Names have a history. Names can be used for good or for ill. Names can be a comfort and names can be a weapon. My father picked different pet names for each of his five children. Mine was Sugar Plum. My little brother s was Pal.

3 3 Mine is way better. It was such a sweet way for him to show us particular love and affection to the large brood. To name us as his beloved. But names can also be used to hurt. When I was a freshman in high school I was really, really skinny. Some of the senior boys picked nicknames for the incoming freshman girls. Mine was Skeletor that was the skeletal nemesis of He-Man on the 1980s cartoon He-Man and the Masters of the Universe I guess it is a comfort to know that I will never be called that again. But, names can be used to wound. Names are powerful. Today s Scriptures are about the power of names, identity and destiny. They are about paradigm shifts and impossible new starts. They are about becoming and embracing who we were born to be.

4 4 Abraham and Sarah are the father and mother of the nation of Israel. But they were not always that they were born Abram and Sarai and spent most of their lives with that identity. Abram was a wanderer who had a hard time finding a place to land; he had a penchant for lying to save his own skin. Sarai was a barren woman, old by the time we see her in our Genesis text worthless in a culture who only valued women as much as they were able to produce heirs. Sarai and Abram were not the kind of folk who one might imagine to be the first of a great nation who would establish the family, the vehicle through which God would blessed all flesh. But God, as God always does, saw in them what they could not see themselves. God took that trickster and washed up

5 5 woman and breathed a whole new future into them, sealing the deal with a new name a rebranded identity in God. Sarah and Abraham became the matriarch and patriarch of the story of God and God s people. In our epistle, Paul reminds us of the further rebranding of God s inclusion as God took the Roman Christians and reminded them that they did not have to be direct descendants of the great-great grandparents of the faith, but that ALL FLESH inherited God s amazing grace. This was a very difficult pill to swallow for the folk that had been told they were the chosen ones the only ones. To think that God s grace would extend to Gentiles and more was unthinkable. The story of God and God s people has always been this way. We can know we are in the flow of the Spirit if we keep getting surprised at how far the reach of Jesus grace and love. It just keeps getting bigger and

6 6 bigger. Every time the faithful think that we know the exact boundaries of the Kingdom of God, it grows and stretches, and if we are brave enough, we grow with it. Finally, we see Jesus, reminding Peter that he cannot hinder the path of suffering and salvation that is set before him. Jesus, not so gently, told him that he must fulfill his destiny, he must walk his own path and embrace what comes to him, allowing God s grace to transform his future. A new future with a new name FREEDOM. Not the old way of sacrifice and oppression, but a new way that does not have to win or dominate but uses sacrificial love, authenticity and transformation to navigate the world. Our religion was named for the way of Christ, it is why we call ourselves Christians.

7 7 This Lent, in what ways do we need to embrace the rebranding that God s grace and love imposes on our identities? God does not make us different people, God calls us to our original purpose. Abram and Sarai were not born to be the trickster and the barren woman, they were born to be Abraham and Sarah, ancestors of the faith; what God did was simply call forth into existence. They were born to be inspirations of what God can do with two folk who were willing to step out on faith. Saul was not born to be a persecutor and murderer of Christians, he was born to be Paul prophet and minister of the Good News of Jesus Christ. There is no limit to what God cannot rebrand and rename and call to original purpose in God s great love. Jesus in our Gospel text this morning speaks to picking up one s cross.

8 8 People often mistakenly define one s cross as some kind of ailment or malady in life. People will speak of their sickness, trial or relationship as the cross they have to bear. This is a misnomer. It is not what Jesus meant. Jesus was renaming something. The cross, in the first century was a symbol of oppression. It was a means of control used by those in power. The crosses set high on the hill were a reminder to the populace if you step out of line, this will be you. So stay in line, do not question authority, do not even think of rising up in defending yourselves or your neighbor. The cross was meant to strike terror into the people and it did. The public and bloody executions that were done where the entire community could see, were an effective means of control and oppression.

9 9 When Jesus said, Pick up your cross and follow me, what he was saying was take what oppresses you and do not let it keep you down. He took the symbol of oppression and violence and rebranded it for Kingdom purposes. He liberated the people, showing them that they did not have to stay down and afraid because of the greed and violence of a few. To pick up one s cross does not mean that we have been beaten down and conquered by whatever ails us; it actually means the opposite. It means that we do not have to be defined by our lowest moments, that we get to continually come to the well of God s love, and forgiveness and keep moving, being continually rebranded in courage and grace. It means that when we are oppressed, we can look to the cross of Jesus and be inspired, knowing that God is always on the side of the oppressed, downtrodden and broken.

10 10 We do not have to stay trapped in the façade that we use to hide, nor the imposed box that others would have us crammed into, nor the hoped for fantasy that we hope to become. We do not have to allow institutional evils to become status quo we can rise up like the one who first bore this cross on his back and intentionally hung on it and then rose from the grave to show us the way. What if whatever has held you down your expectations, your weakness, your NAME, your brokenness, your history was simply repurposed and rebranded with God s amazing grace? Sometimes the hardest part of seeing this new possibility in God is letting go of our own misconceptions about ourselves. We are often our worst critics and harshest adversaries. Perhaps part of your Lenten discipline this year can be unpacking some of the identities that you have taken on

11 11 that are not part of who God made you to be. Perhaps it is time to move forward, rebranded in Jesus. What could you do for the Kingdom if you were able to embrace your true self, what God made you to be? Pick up what was meant to oppress and control you and turn it into a symbol of hope? What if we could do that as a church? As a community? What kinds of hope could we inspire in the world? How much Good News could we saturate our lives with? It is, after all, what we see when we look at the cross today. The cross that adorns this building and sanctuary in countless places. The cross that stands atop our steeple the highest thing in the town of Burlington. The cross that we wear around our necks and tattoo on our bodies. The cross that was meant to be used by bullies to keep the weak in line, is now a

12 12 symbol for the very revolution of life and love. Jesus rebranded it. I don t know what your dad s pet name for you was or if you had one or what name people called you when you were a freshman in high school to dehumanize you. I m not sure what your grandma used to call you or what your lover calls you or your grandchildren call out when you walk into the room. But I do know what the Creator of the world calls you I know what the One who came and upended death and alienation calls you: set free, full of hope, beloved, Good News bearer, child of God. Amen. This sermon is the intellectual property of Pastor Bethany Hull Somers. Please feel free to read and use for Christian education purposes but do not use or distribute without proper attribution. If you have any further questions about the use of this sermon, please the church office: burlingtonlutheran@gmail.com