Second Sunday of Lent - February 28
Feb 28 2021 Sermon “What's Your Name?”, by Carolyn Smith
Not sure if you’ve noticed but I like to remind everyone that you are BELOVED. I am Beloved too. I’ve got other labels too and of course nicknames. Some people even have tattoos to express a label or name for themselves, but labels and names do have a way of getting embedded in our skin, in our story, in how we think of ourselves. In some circumstances, our brains pick up on negative things more than the positive ones and stitch them into our beings. I’ve worked with many teens and adults, who are carrying labels around that are painful and painfully impact their lives and their story. Take this pristine sheet of paper for instance - like a brand new baby, it’s clean and open to possibility - and then things happen - the paper is marked with good things from experience and interaction - love and a beautiful world and loving people. But not-so-good things happen too…. And they leave painful dark marks. When I did this with a bunch of beloved teenagers, we crumpled up our sheets of paper, and then as we unfolded the sheets, we realized just how permanent and deeply we are marked by labels and names and experiences.
I promise you - our Covenant with God Promises you - YOU ARE BELOVED. Our Lenten theme is about our covenants with God - with all of Creation, as with last week’s NOAH story, and a covenant with a community or people, that’s next week. But today, this is ALL About YOU and your personal, individual invitation from God to be in relationship.
It’s about you, though the lens of our story of old Abraham and Sarah, two people called into a new land, a journey among strangers, showing obedience to God. As much as Abraham and Sarah are revered founders of our faith - the most ancient of names, they were never perfect. Nor did their life look like we hope it would for being blessed. They struggled through everything- but they stayed alive, fought for righteousness most of the time, and they grew respected far and wide. Their names resound through the ages, through our scriptures, through each of the Abrahamaic faiths- Judaism, Isalm and Christian…. As 2 people beloved of God, they have blazed a trail that most of the world has taught to follow.
Special to this Covenant story today is name-calling - in a blessing-kind of way In fact, this 99 year old man had been called Abram all his life- it means ‘exalted, or respected father.’ And 90 year old Sarai means “noble woman,” or “Princess” -both wonderful names. Yet God gifts them with new names. Think about the effort that goes into naming a child - we consider ancestors and meaning and the culture or faith traditions we come from. Name choices reflect hope for a child, and we even try to pick socially acceptable names to give them a cool-factor and smooth the way. So God gifts Abram with his new name: he becomes Abra-ham - “Father of the Multitudes” and for Sarai, she becomes Sarah- a more expansive Princess to all the people. There is a hint of something greater here…. Abraham has already been promised to be ancestor of people numbered more than the stars in the sky when he has but one child by his wife’s servant. God promises something greater - how great? In this passage, snuck in by the ancient story-tellers, even God adopts a name-change. For the first time, Yahweh shows up and says “I am El Shaddai” - it means God of the Mountains, Yahweh of the great multitudes” - there is a big-ness about this title, that encompasses more than has been conceived before.
Except the promised multitudes are nowhere in sight. Despite the gift of a new name, the label is not definitive - the mulititudes don’t show up just because his name changes, Sarah isn’t divinely pregnant all of a sudden. What has changed? Nothing really, unless Abraham and Sarah live into the promise. Even at a legendary 90 and 99, they are told they have more life left to ‘walk blamelessly with God” and to bear a child, beginning the legacy of multitudes. And there is the covenant for each of us: To accept the invitation, and live into our blessing.
We all have a past, and a sense of oursebles- described by the many labels we carry. They mean something, but they aren’t essentially US, they don’t set our fate. They don’t describe us unless we choose to live into those labels, - or explore and adopt new names with purpose. What these new names are, for Abe and Sarah- the names are a blessing to be a part of something big - bigger than our past, bigger than a family, or expectations, part of this expansive El Shaddai - bigger than the all timeless mountains, part of a God THIS all-encompassing, and everlasting. What a blessing!! How awesome!!! Are you excited?? The catch was that even Abraham’s faithful long years were not yet enough- there was still the promise of a future and a baby. Abraham was so excited he bowed down again and laughed, smirking that God might really think he & Sarah could manage a baby at their age. They were accustomed to their Labels: golden age, respected ones, and “past childbearing due date” - how can they fathom something new and different for their lives? How can we?
This crumpled paper is a quick expression of ME - and if I look back at some of the labels on here, memories flood back, but some of them are past their due date. I have memories of being called awful things or limiting things and believing them. But I have learned to see wisdom in the loving labels and the good traditions I grew in, and I have been called/or named into being more than I thought I could be by people around me. And I’ve learned that bullies are mostly talking about their own embedded painful labels, not about me. You know what it’s like when old shadows flood in and take over, or when we tell old stories about ourselves that need to be retired and rewritten. Oh - If only it was easy! Ya can’t teach old dogs new tricks, they say. Tell that to Abraham and Sarah- smirking before God at a wild promise and then bearing a son, Isaac whose name means Laughter. The truth is, the promise is - the Covenant is that we can learn new tricks, new truths and we can live into surprising and divine blessing, bigger that we thought possible.
We know from neuroscience that it can take just 3 weeks of practice to rewrite old habits. Imagine what you can do in the 40 days of Lent? 40 days to hear God calling you by the name Beloved. 40 days is like a gift! We’ve counted down a bit already, but God promises you once you get started, it doesn’t have to stop. As if God would ever let you go!
It can be painful at times to look closely, see clearly, and let things go. It can feel strange or prideful to choose something new. But we are all more than we knew, we’re invited, we're blessed parts of God’s dream and this church, and our community- together expanded beyond individual small visions and stumbling paths. Even if we are just doing the best we can in the ebb and flow of life, don’t forget Abraham and Sarah- ancestors of the multitudes, laughing as they follow a surprising God onward. Amen.