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Do
you remember this advertising jingle?
“My bologna
has a first name, its O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name; it’s M-A-Y-E-R.
Oh, I love to eat it every day. And if you ask me why I’ll say…
’cause Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!”
What
was the point of this commercial? At first it appears to be about
selling bologna but give it a second thought and it is about selling
Oscar Mayer. Oscar Mayer stands for quality luncheon meats. It’s a
name you can trust for good cold cuts.
Marketing
people will tell you that they are selling the company who makes the
product as much as the product. When there are so many brands of one
product being sold, why is it that you always buy the same brand?
If
you associate the company’s name with quality, reliability, and
value than you will most like always by that brand. Like a company’s
name, your name means everything.
There
are several reasons we have the name we have been given.
My name is Richard because when I was born and I wasn’t the girl my
parents were expecting they realized they couldn’t name me Elizabeth
as they had planned. I couldn’t tell you why my name is Richard, but
I do know why my middle name is Hayes, because Hayes was my Dad’s
middle name and it was his Dad’s first name and he was named after
the president of the US Rutherford B. Hayes.
Some
people choose a name because they like the sound of it. Diane and I
decided that our first born son would be Adam long before he was
conceived and before it was conceivable that I would be a minister.
Yet many people thought that is why we named him Adam.
Sometimes
you have to wonder what some parents were thinking when they choose
names for their child. For example there is Gwyneth Paltrow’s reason
for naming her daughter Apple because it is Biblical. Then there is
Tom & Katie Cruise’s choice of Suri and Angelina & Brad’s choice of
Shiloh. Kim Basinger & Alec Baldwin’s went global when they named
their child Ireland. But the name I will never understand and you
have to wonder what Texas governor and his wife James and Sara Hogg
were thinking when they named their daughter Ima.
Unlike
Hogg’s some people do spend hours trying to decide what they are
going to name their child. They buy one of the many books that list
all the conceivable names there are and what each name means. Many
Biblical names carry meanings, for example Aaron – teacher; Isaac –
laughter; John – grace of God; Jesus common name meaning salvation.
Today’s
text shows this in the public appearance and the baptism of Jesus,
and it captures an element of his naming — the meaning, identity and
destiny for the Messiah.
As
we read, John was the forbearer, unfurling God’s ultimate plan for
redemption. He toured about the countryside proclaiming God’s
redemption plan.
John
went about
“proclaiming a
baptism of repentance
for the forgiveness of sins”
(Luke 3:3)
The
Messiah wanted their public proclamation of their brokenness and
need. He would be a righter of wrongs who would level the playing
field between spiritual haves and have-nots (v. 5). All people could
access this salvation from God (v. 6), and so even tax collectors
came to be baptized by John and have their identity realigned (v.
12).
And
so naturally,
“the people were
filled with expectation,
and all were questioning in their hearts concerning John, whether he
might be the Messiah”
(v. 15).
Then
one day Jesus left his home in Galilee and entered his life of
public ministry. He came to the Jordan to be baptized by John as
well — a symbol of his inauguration of the kingdom — his identity as
its King. And the Father would not have an ordinary coming-out party
for his Son. He made it spectacular. As his Son emerges from the
waters of baptism, God attended through a supernatural manifestation
of his Spirit and through words each of us would be giddy to hear:
“You are my Son,
the Beloved;
with you I am well pleased”
(v. 22).
While
Jesus was being baptized, his Father named him Beloved and showered
him with pleasure. Think of the implications then for us. Through
Him we are called children of God. Jesus Christ models for us the
only true place to find our approval.
Sometimes
we can be such insecure, approval-seeking people. Our clothes have
labels, our honor-roll children have bumper stickers, and our titles
put letters behind our names. There is even a corner of cyberspace
that we can carve out as our own — our pictures, our music, our
quotes, our blogs and journals — and to cap it off, a counter
numbering all those who have added us as their friends and a place
where they can leave us messages.
How
much would our MySpace culture flip out to hear the words of
approval Jesus heard? How would we feel if we were given the name
that he was given that day — Beloved?
There
is a call to each of us to remember that God grants us this new
identity — we are his beloved children. The MySpace void in each of
us is filled not through impressing people and gaining their
approval, but through the mere fact that the Father calls us family.
If we are good enough for him, we are good enough.
There
is only one name that can mark our meaning, identity and destiny! As
we begin a new year lest us resolve to follow Jesus, The Beloved,
The Messiah. In following him, we are given his name — his meaning,
his identity, his destiny.
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