"WHAT'S IN THE NAME?"

A pregnant woman got into a car accident and fell into a deep coma. Asleep for nearly six months, when she woke up she saw that she was no longer pregnant and began to frantically ask the doctor what happened.

The doctor replied, "Don't worry! We delivered the babies; you had twins -- a boy and a girl! They're doing fine, and your brother came in and named them."

"Oh, no," the woman thought! "My brother's an idiot!" So she asked the doctor, "Well, what's the girl's name?"

"Denise."

"Wow, that's not a bad name; I like it! So what's the boy's name?"

"Denephew." Names matter! Names have meaning, and they invoke images. Few people understand the marketing value of a name better than those in the entertainment industry. We don't listen to music by Gordon Matthew Sumner but some of us listen to "Sting." No one ever went to a comedy club or a movie to see Caryn Johnson until she became "Whoopi Goldberg." And it's doubtful that Marion Morrison would have been the American icon of rugged masculinity that he was as "John Wayne."

The power of a name is also nothing new to those who are students of Scripture. In the 32nd chapter of Genesis, there is the story of how Jacob wrestled all night with a divine being. Jacob hangs on and refuses to let go - until the man "blesses" him. The man complies, changing Jacob's name to Israel, a name that means "The one who strives with God."

Later, in the book of Exodus, Moses encounters the Lord God at the burning bush and asks for God's name. God answers, "I AM WHO I AM," meaning that God's selfhood is tied to God's mighty acts, and God will be exactly what God will be throughout the course of history. "I AM," says the Lord. Not even "John Wayne" is a stronger name than that!

Given the tradition and symbolism of names, it should come as no surprise, then, that the mob who welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem just a few days before his execution were mired deeply in a culture of names. Even the advance team sent ahead to Jerusalem used a mere name as authority for their preparations. When Jesus sent them to procure the colt of a donkey for him to use, he said, "If anyone asks you, 'Why are you untying it?' just say this, 'The Lord needs it.'"

Later, when Jesus is riding on the donkey toward the city, a tumultuous crowd engulfs him as he nears and enters the city. It's not a quiet scene. What the people are shouting is both fascinating and revealing: "Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord!" They praise God for all Jesus' deeds of power, and cry out blessings on the one who comes in God's name.

See the link? Power and the name. It's inescapable.

Of course, the hysterical fans thought they were applauding King Jesus, the triumphant, miracle-working hotshot from Galilee who'd come to bring military and political victory. What they got was Lamb Jesus who takes away the sins of the world...come to bring only victory over death.

The people had expectations; Jesus didn't attempt to meet them. He was less interested in insurrection than he was in resurrection. He had no intention of being what we might understand as a media-created darling, signing autographs and playing to his adoring fans.

It wasn't long before Jesus managed to alienate the public. A couple of days later he, as we might say, "goes postal" in the temple, chasing out money-changers and snake-oil salesmen who had turned a house of prayer into a den of thieves. His relations with the media became stormy. He boasted that he would destroy the temple that had taken 40 years to build and then rebuild it again in three days. His language became dark and dangerous. He spoke more frequently about his impending death. For a "king" who had come "in the name of the Lord," this was decidedly unkingly behavior. The people who, today, were shouting praises to the one named "Jesus," would very soon turn angry and disillusioned, calling for the crucifixion of the same One bearing that name.

There is still plenty of confusion surrounding the figure and the name of Jesus even now. As a part of today's Palm Sunday crowd, I have to wonder: What is the name of Jesus to us? What does it signify?

For some, Jesus is not much more than a self-help guru. For others, the name is synonymous with a "health-and-wealth" theology of prosperity. For still others, Jesus is a liberation leader or a cosmic king or a compassionate friend.

The name "Jesus" itself means "the Lord saves." If the Jesus we praise today is anything less than a Savior, then we have lost sight of who He was and what His mission was all about.

Jesus came to save us...which begs the question: From what does Jesus save neomodern, prosperous members of the New Economy? The answer is, from the same things He came to save those people waving palms, shouting "Hosanna" one day and "Crucify him!" the next: from the power of sin and death.

In another of the assigned Lectionary readings for today, Palm Sunday, are the words of the apostle Paul as recorded in the 2nd chapter of Philippians. Hear these words which the great evangelist used to describe Jesus, one who "...though being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied self, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of human beings. And being found in human form, Christ humbled self and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted Jesus and bestowed on Jesus the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Sovereign, to the glory of God."

There is power in the name of Jesus. We sometimes sing it in an old hymn. "Jesus...there's just something about that name. Kings and kingdoms will all pass away, but there's something about that name."

In biblical times the name was considered an extension or expression of the actual person...that person's "essence." The name of Jesus is powerful because the essence or spirit of Jesus is alive and present among us - providing us with strength we do not possess on our own and giving us power beyond our own capabilities.

Yesterday, I officiated a memorial service for one of our members, Jim Hoefer. During the service, I shared a portion of a letter Jim had written to me telling me about the cancer and brain lesions he was coping with. In that letter, Jim described a sense of peace and even joy that he had and he said he could only attribute it to a powerful sense of the presence of Jesus.

Many of us have experienced the power of that same presence in our lives. Yet, too, many of us have struggled with trying to understand what Jesus is really all about. Perhaps, in our struggles, we need only look around us to get a better sense of Who and What Jesus really is.

In her book, Amazing Grace, Kathleen Norris writes, "When I first began to attend church services as an adult, I found it ironic that it was the language about Jesus Christ, meant to be most inviting, that made me feel most left out.

I often felt a void at the heart of things. My Christianity seemed to be missing its center. When I confessed this to a monk, he reassured me by saying, 'Oh, most of us feel that way at one time or another. Jesus is the hardest part of the religion to grasp, to keep alive.' I told him that I probably felt Jesus' hand in things most during worship, whether I was in church or at home, or [visiting] at the monastery. Just a look around at the motley crew assembled in His name, myself among them, lets me know how unlikely it all is. The whole lot of us, warts and all, just seems so improbable, so absurd, I figure that ONLY Jesus Christ would be so foolish, or so powerful, as to have brought us together."

It was Shakespeare, in "Romeo and Juliet," who penned the famous question, "What's in a name?" But this morning, as we enter into Jerusalem with Jesus, into the remembrance of his final days and death, known to us as Holy Week, and as we look forward to the celebration of the day when "death" is renamed "victorious life" for us on Easter, I ask each of us to consider carefully: What's in THE name? What do we seek...and what do we find...in the name of Jesus? Amen.

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