Preacher Lady

That's what a friend called me a week ago. It made me smile. 

"Nice work, Preacher Lady."

He said that after I preached my first sermon. 

As I lean into this pastoral calling, preaching is probably one of the most intimidating pieces for me. Not because I'm uncomfortable speaking in front of people, but because I fear my words are not worthy of the format. However, this is a skill and a call I need (and desire) to cultivate, so on January 19th, we went for it.

Thank you to all of you for your thoughts, prayers and kind words. I felt very encouraged and affirmed, and look forward to further opportunities to preach, now that all the anxiety of "The First Sermon" has passed. Many of you have asked for my notes, so I thought I would just post my sermon here. So here you go. 

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Let’s talk about names. I remember growing up with a little wooden plaque on my wall proclaiming that Emily means “industrious, diligent, hard working”. I remember thinking, “this is what it means to be Emily", and then living into that name. This is because to some extent I understood that names are a window into our identity. Do any of you know what your names mean? Have they impacted how you live?

[At this point there was some hilarious discussion regarding different names in our group. Imagine the "princess" being married to "God's gift"; a sister mentioning that her sister's name means "goat", then their mom muttering "and she's stubborn like one", etc.]

Besides our given names, we have other names or titles assigned to us, by ourselves or by others. These may be based on our work, interests, skills, personalities, even our physical appearance. Teacher, sister, father, musician, mathematician, fat, mean, selfish, conservative, liberal. These names, as well as our given names, can be positive and life giving, or they can be hurtful and shame inducing.

This is because names carry value and meaning; they influence who we are and how we live. When we name someone, we are essentially assigning them an identity. Let’s keep this in mind as we follow along in the lectionary with John 1:29-42, from The Voice:

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29 The morning after this conversation, John sees Jesus coming toward him. In eager astonishment, he shouts out:

John the Baptist: Look! This man is more than He seems! He is the Lamb sent from God, the sacrifice to erase the sins of the world! 30 He is the One I have been saying will come after me, who existed long before me and is much greater than I am.31 No one recognized Him—myself included. But I came baptizing with water so that He might be revealed to Israel.32 As I watched, the Spirit came down like a dove from heaven and rested on Him. 33 I didn’t recognize Him at first, but the One who sent me to baptize told me, “The One who will baptize with the Holy Spirit will be the person you see the Spirit come down and rest upon.” 34 I have seen this with my own eyes and can attest that this One is the Son of God!

35-36 The day after, John saw Him again as he was visiting with two of his disciples. As Jesus walked by, he announced again:

John the Baptist: Do you see Him? This man is the Lamb of God,God’s sacrifice to cleanse our sins.

37 At that moment, the two disciples began to follow Jesus, 38-39 who turned back to them, saying:

Jesus: What is it that you want?

Two Disciples: We’d like to know where You are staying. Teacher,may we remain at Your side today?

Jesus: Come and see. Follow Me, and we will camp together.

It was about four o’clock in the afternoon when they met Jesus. They came and saw where He was staying, but they got more than they imagined. They remained with Him the rest of the day and followed Him for the rest of their lives. 40-41 One of these new disciples, Andrew, rushed to find his brother Simon and tell him they had found the One who is promised, God’s Anointed who will heal the world. 42 As Andrew approached with Simon, Jesus looked into him.

Jesus: Your name is Simon, and your father is called John. But from this day forward you will be known as Peter, the rock.

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Let’s look at the setup. Last week we read about Jesus being baptized by John the Baptist. During the baptism God identifies Jesus to John: “This is my Son, whom I love.” Now, we see John, sometime after that baptism, hanging out with his disciples. In those days, different religious teachers, ‘rabbis’, would go around teaching and preaching, and people would commit to following them and their teachings. In this scene we have John hanging out with his disciples, teaching, and suddenly Jesus approaches. John says, “Look, this is the one I’ve been talking about! He’s the Lamb of God, sent to take away the worlds’ sin.”

Now that John knows Jesus’ identity, it becomes his sole mission to tell everyone that he can. John knows his call is to reveal Jesus’ identity to Israel, so that’s what he does. He names Jesus to everyone around him. “Look, it’s him!”

We’re not given the rest of the scene, all we know is that the next day, the same thing happens. Again, John names Jesus to anyone who will listen:  “Look, there he is - the Messiah, the one who will cleanse the world of sin.” After having heard this today, and probably yesterday, two of his disciples start to get it. They leave John to follow after Jesus.

Jesus turns to them and asks them why they’re following him. They say they want to know him, to be with him, maybe to follow him. And Jesus says, “Okay, come and see.”  They go and spend the day with him.

After spending time with Jesus, Andrew, one of the two disciples who left John, runs home to tell his brother: “Simon, we found him. We found the Messiah, God’s Son, the one who will heal the world. Come and see”. Andrew, who has presumably decided to start following Jesus as his new teacher-rabbi, returns to Jesus, Simon in tow.

Andrew and Simon approach Jesus. Jesus takes one look at Simon and says, “I know you, you’re John’s son, Simon. Well, now you’re going to be Peter”.

What? Jesus just changes his name?

One commentary I read said that at this time it was not odd for a rabbi to assign a “characterizing nickname” to one of his followers[1].Still, reading this and seeing the short amount of time that Jesus had known him, it seems a bit strange. Jesus is acknowledging that he knows who Peter is and who he will become if he follows Jesus. 

In the Africa Bible Commentary, Samuel Ngewa puts it this way:

“Jesus saw in Simon what he would become: someone who would be as firm as a rock in continuing the work of the kingdom once Jesus had departed. Simon is therefore awarded a new name. He will be prepared for the ministry that corresponds to his new name by a master teacher, one who knows the future perfectly, prepares each kingdom worker suitably, and fits each person into positions as he wills.”[2]

Jesus meets Simon, names him anew and claims him for his work and saving mission. This is Jesus establishing his mission, his church on Peter. On Peter! The most inconsistent of the disciples – the one who later rebukes Jesus for talking about his death, who blabbers amidst the transfiguration, the one who swears his allegiance to Jesus even unto death but then publicly denies him multiple times. It’s upon Peter, this sketchy, untrustworthy guy, that Jesus establishes his mission. He sees who Peter really is, and he uses this name change to call out Peter’s true identity.

This isn’t the norm for Jesus, just walking around, changing everyone’s names. For most of the people he called to follow him, he called them as they were, spoke their given names, into his life and mission. To follow Christ into our true identity in him, a name change like this is not necessary. What we see in Peter’s case is a very clear instance of Jesus using a changed name to acknowledge what will be a changed life, as Peter leans into his true identity in Jesus.  

            

Let’s review the naming going on in this passage – God to John (this is my Son), John to everyone around him (Look, it’s him!), Andrew to Simon (we found the Messiah), and Jesus actually changing Simon’s name to Peter.

There is another name in play here. As Jesus establishes and moves into his mission, he faces the baggage and the expectations of one name in particular: Messiah. The Jewish people knew that the Messiah would be a political savior, one who would throw off the Roman Empire, freeing his people, restoring peace and political sovereignty. Yet, Jesus goes and does the complete opposite: he speaks out for the poor and marginalized, talks about the first becoming the last, says we must become like servants and the least of these, and eventually gives up his power entirely, allowing himself to be executed as a criminal.

When he did this, when he allowed himself to be killed, taking on death and judgment in our place, he provided a new way, a new name, for all of us – You are MINE. Follow me, and I’ll supersede all the baggage and history of your names, and I’ll claim you for who you were created to be. As Adam Neder puts it, Jesus says, “Let me liberate you to be who you really are, in me.”[3]

As we think about identity, as we think about the names that we assign to ourselves and to each other, the reality here is that there is an accuser, one who tries to lie to us about our names, about who we are. Jesus taught us to pray, “lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one.” For me, when I’ve done something hurtful or said something I wish I could take back, the temptation is really strong in me to accept those names, to give in to what they say about my identity. Selfish, hurtful, mean person, bad friend. 

But the good news is that we don’t have to listen to those other voices, to accept those other names! The call of Jesus is continuous and unrelenting – come to me and I’ll tell you who you really are – loved, forgiven, accepted, MINE. We probably won’t need or experience a first-name change like Peter, but if we do as Peter does, and simply come to Jesus, he can tell us who we really are.

I encourage us all to think through this: What names have we accepted, have we allowed to define who we are? If Jesus was here with us right now, what would he say about who we are? A helpful tool might be to ask those closest to us what they think the answer might be.

This week, let's take some time to ask him who you are in him, what our true identity is.

Come to the one who can tell you who you really are.

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[1] Keener, Craig S.  The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament.  Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

[2] Ngewa, Samuel. Africa Bible Commentary. Nairobi: WordAlive Publishers, 2006; 1255-1256.

[3] Neder, Adam. Participation in Christ: An Entry into Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009; 77.