A Life of Faithful Obedience: A Sermon for The Holy Name

Today in the Church we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Name, which always falls on January 1. This is one of only ten feasts on the Church calendar that takes precedence over a regular Sunday. So, that is why, instead of being assigned the collect and lessons for the First Sunday after Christmas Day, we are assigned the propers for The Holy Name.

I mention this detail because the feast of The Holy Name lands on a Sunday only once every seven years. And on those other years when it lands on another day of the week, we typically don’t celebrate it. So, this one sentence from the Gospel of Luke – sandwiched between the feasts of Christmas Day and the Epiphany - rarely gets our attention. And that is a shame.

Here is the sentence: “After eight days had passed, it was time to circumcise the child; and he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb.” Prior to the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, today’s feast was called the Feast of the Circumcision, not the feast of the Holy Name. I’ll admit that any phrase that contains “feast” and “circumcision” together is not altogether appetizing. And perhaps that is why the church didn’t make it a habit to observe and celebrate it when it landed on a weekday.

But to the family, culture, and tradition into which Jesus was born, circumcision was a big deal – so much so that the child wasn’t even given his name until the 8th day of his life – the day when he was taken to the priest to be circumcised. Circumcision was so tied up with one’s identity that it was concomitant with receiving one’s very own name. Without circumcision, one’s name meant nothing.

So yes, it is indeed more palatable to follow the lead of the 1979 Prayer Book and focus on the name of Jesus rather than the circumcision of Jesus. But I think it is important for us to not forget the implications of his circumcision.

The practice of circumcision in Judaism was an integral part of the Mosaic law, mentioned explicitly in Leviticus 12:3. This was an identifying mark of covenant obedience and faithfulness to God. It was one of the many “marks” that distinguished Jews as a holy people set apart from others.

A month from now, on February 2, the Church observes what we now refer to as the Feast of the Presentation. Like the Feast of the Holy Name, the Feast of the Presentation is a name that has been updated to assuage our modern sensibilities. Up until the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, the Feast of “The Presentation of Jesus” used to be known as the “Feast of the Purification of the Virgin Mary.”

The ritual practice of the purification of a woman 40 days after childbirth was another part of the Mosaic Law, again, outlined in Leviticus. To the ancient Jews, the process of childbirth made a woman ritually unclean, and the Law prescribed that on the 40th day, the woman present herself to the priest for ritual cleansing so that she could rejoin public life.

I mention these details about Jesus’ circumcision and Mary’s purification because I think they both highlight an important characteristic of Jesus’ earthly parents. Both Mary and Joseph, from the moment they were visited by angels prior to Jesus’ conception and birth, exhibited their deep and abiding obedience to God. Prior to Jesus’ conception and birth, their obedience was manifest in their remarkable faith – in believing the unbelievable.

After Jesus’ birth, their abiding obedience was manifest in their faithful observance of the Mosaic Law – which was the bedrock of their religious lives. In the persons and actions of Mary and Joseph, there is nowhere to found a sense of entitlement due to their special roles in ushering in the incarnate God in their midst. My guess is that Mary didn’t have a “Mother of God” parking spot by the front door of the Temple.

In spite of the fact that they had been chosen by God to play such a special role in the God’s incarnate life, Mary and Joseph still submitted to what were the practices of their religious lives and community. They waited until the 8th day of Jesus’ life to name him, even though the angel of the Lord had already given the name to them months before. And on that 8th day, they not only named him, but they had him circumcised, even though circumcision would ultimately not be the identifying mark of Jesus’ followers. And Mary waited until day 40 to present herself and Jesus to the priest at the Temple. In spite of her being clearly “favored” by the Lord, never once did Mary see herself as being above or beyond the Law that bound her religious community together with one another and with God. And the same goes for Joseph.

So, the Feasts of the Circumcision of Jesus and Purification of Mary are feasts that celebrate Mary and Joseph’s obedience to God through the Mosaic law. As such, they serve as a model for us as we seek to be obedient to our own baptismal covenants. The covenant we as Christians are called to obey are different from that of Mary and Joseph. That being the case, it is not the Law in today’s Gospel lesson that we are called to emulate, but rather it is Mary and Joseph themselves. And ultimately, it is their son Jesus who we are called to emulate and obey.

Our post-modern instincts are such that we are not comfortable talking about and celebrating things like circumcision and purification. We Episcopalians are much more proper and polite than that. So, we switched the focus to the naming and presentation of Jesus, which are much less graphic and offensive, but also run the risk of becoming much more sentimental. And with the switch of emphasis away from circumcision and purification, we no longer get the whole story. And that is a shame.

In our Epistle lesson to the Galatians today, the Apostle Paul asserts that, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.” In one of his Homilies on the Gospels, the Venerable St. Bede asserted that Jesus did not ignore the law; rather, he submitted to it “not because of necessity but for the sake of example.” And the same could be said for Jesus’ parents, Mary and Joseph.

And on the same passage, Cyril of Alexandria remarks that “in order that he might expiate the guilt of Adam’s transgression, [Jesus] showed himself obedient and submissive to God the Father in our stead.”

Just as scandalous to our postmodern ears as discussing the messiness of circumcision and purification in public are the notions of obedience and submission. In our postmodern, post-Christendom context, we hear very little about obedience and submission to anything or anybody. We prefer freedom, welcome, inclusion, affirmation, and the like. And there certainly are biblical precedents for all those things. And when we are assigned a passage that highlights those characteristics of God, I’ll focus on them.

But I believe that today’s gospel lesson is first and foremost about obedience and submission to God. The earthly parents of God, who, next to John the Baptist might be considered the most favored of all human beings, were not above the law. Before and after ushering God’s son into the world, they remained faithful and obedient to God through their faithful observance of God’s law.

And Jesus himself observed and obeyed the law, albeit, with his own divine interpretation of it. He did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. So, even God’s only begotten son chose to live a life of faithful obedience.

And such is the example that has been set for us, his followers. For us Christians, our obedience isn’t to the Mosaic Law. Our obedience is to Christ himself. While such obedience may seem much more favorable to keeping the expansive, detailed, and arguably rigid Mosaic Law, we must remember that Christ’s ultimate embodiment of obedience was his death on the cross. The blood that was shed when he was circumcised - the embodiment of his parents’ obedience – was a foreshadowing of the blood that he would shed on the cross, again, as an act of faithful obedience.

The Good News for us is that Christ’s death on the cross was a once-and-for-all sacrifice. He became sin in our place. He died so that we might have eternal life; he shed his blood so that we would not have to. That is the great Good News of Jesus Christ – whose name means savior, rescuer, and deliverer. He delivered us from the law by fulfilling the law. He delivered us from the grip of sin, death, and evil.

As Christians, our faithful response to this Good News isn’t self-mortification. And it isn’t following a religious law. Our faithful, obedient response is to humbly heed to Jesus’ call to follow him as our Lord and Savior,

“so that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

and every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.”