4th of Advent 11
December 2011
There were some ethnic groups or tribes or peoples who would not name a child until it was about five years old. This was done as a sort of protection from the pain of loss. Infant mortality was so common ( maybe sixty percent) that the child was not named until there was some hope that it would survive as a member of the family or tribe.
As long as the child was not named it was not perceived as being a person or a member of the family and tribe.
It was the naming that made a child a person, a personality. The name given was hugely significant as it expressed the lineage and the future hope for the child.
It was so, for the Israelites, in the time of Jesus of Nazareth.
The two names we find in the gospel infancy accounts (Luke and Matthew) are ‘Jesus’ and ‘Immanuel.’
Jesus means ‘God Saves.’ Immanuel means ’God with us.’
So this child whose birth we are preparing to celebrate brings me God’s salvation and is the great sign that my God is with me.
That is why in St. Paul’s letter to the Philippians we read:
‘God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.’
For the coming week I will let these two names ( Jesus and Immanuel) roll around in my mind and heart. I will try to understand what they mean for me. I will try to imagine what my life would be like without them.