The Power of Names
Text: Galatians 1:1-5
Title: The Power of Names
Thesis: We remember who we are as we find the meaning of our names.
Time: Pent, 2 Sun, C
A couple of years ago I received an envelope in the mail. What first grabbed my attention about the envelope was the return address, “Wichita Fall, Texas.” I didn’t know anybody in Wichita Falls. Even more strangely, the name of the person who sent the envelope was named John Fimple. Now I know I didn’t mail myself a letter from Texas, so I opened the letter with great curiosity.
It begins, “Dear Rev. Fimple, You will please note that we have identical names, and that is the reason I’m contacting you. It would seem to me the chances are pretty good that we are related, although I haven’t the slightest idea how. I know very little about my ancestors.” The John Fimple in Texas had come across my name in a seminary newsletter, from Phillips Theological Seminary, and knowing he hadn’t attended seminary made several enquiry’s until he got my address. We exchanged a few e-mails about our ancestors, especially as he wanted to know more about where the Fimple’s originated and why they moved to America. Since then, I’ve discovered that there are several other people named John Fimple living throughout the United States. Who knows, someday we may all get together for a John Fimple reunion.
Names are important in helping to shape our sense of belonging and identity. As a Fimple, I grew up learning the Fimple values. Anytime we had a Fimple reunion or get-together the Fimple values were in action –have 30 to 35 Fimples get around each other and you’ll hear stories from aunts and uncles about how hard they work at their jobs. Hard work is a Fimple family value. Fimple grandparents tell stories about making it through lean times and about the importance of family loyalty. Adults make the Fimple children feel included and important. Children are given high value in the Fimple family. Going to Fimple reunions or get-togethers is a great experience in the love and care of family. Our names connected us with others to provide us with places of acceptance and belonging. Our families and churches and other social venues help to shape our personal values.
The apostle Paul knows the importance of names. For example, around Acts 22 in the book of Acts Paul is arrested in the temple in Jerusalem. What’s the first thing he does? He tells the Jewish authorities his Jewish name, “My name is Saul,” he tells them. Paul goes on to tell them where he’s born, in Tarsus, a prominent Roman city, one that by gives him legal rights as a Roman citizen as he has been arrested.
Paul likes to use titles in connection with his name. Just as we add “Mr.” Or “Mrs.” or “Reverend” or “Doctor,” to our names, Paul usually adds some title to his name whenever he sends letters. Here in Galatians 1:1 Paul uses the title apostle. It’s a hefty title, giving Paul the authority to reprove and correct the actions of the Galatians as a church leader. Sometimes Paul uses the title “a servant of Jesus Christ.” In one letter Paul begins with the title, “Paul, a prisoner.” Paul is all the time describing himself through the use of his name, the city of his birth and with various titles. We do the same thing. Think about the various ways names and titles are used to describe you. On a weekly basis I hear myself described as John Fimple, dad, pastor, friend, son, uncle and husband.
There is nothing special or unique in Paul’s use of his name and self-designated titles. But here is where Paul shines, what Paul is going to do early on in this letter to the Galatians is to show that despite all their many differences, these Christians are all part of the same big family. One hint, in Galatians 1:1 Paul says this letter comes from him, but it’s a letter not only from Paul, in Galatians 1:2, “and from all the members of God’s family who are with me.” Paul will continue throughout the letter of Galatians to show that names, and titles, and places of birth are not given to separate us. Rather, each of us is unique and distinct, having something to add to the family of God.
There was a little boy who was having trouble in math. First he was bringing home C minuses, then D’s. Finally, he started bringing home F’s. His mother told him, if you don’t get your grades up, something is going to have to change. The F’s kept coming in so she enrolled him in the Catholic School. First day, he brings home his schoolwork, and on his math paper there it is at the top of the paper an A . His mom said, “Son, what happened that you went from making F’s to making A’s?” He said, “Mom, when I walked into that school and saw that big plus sign with the man hanging on it, I knew they were serious about math.”
In the churches of Galatia, it’s as if there’s a big minus sign hanging over their heads. All kinds of subtraction is taking place. There are some Christians upholding Jewish rituals that want to subtract from the church family those who don’t find Jewish rituals necessary. There are some Christians who are Jews by birth who want to subtract from the church family the Gentiles by birth. There are some Christians emphasizing faith as important in the Christian religion who want to subtract those emphasizing the importance of the law. There are some Christians circumcised who want to subtract from the church family those who aren’t circumcised. In many ways, subtraction is taking place in the Galatian churches as they fight over who belongs to the church family and who is too different to fit in.
Paul’s letter reaches them. And what they go on to read is that the church is not to be a place of subtraction, instead the church is to be a place of addition. Christ, the man who dies on the cross, makes addition possible for all people. In Galatians 1:3, after Paul describes these people as the churches of Galatia he adds, “Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of the father.” People are welcomed into God’s family because of the one named Jesus Christ, who came so that no more separation from God, so that no more exclusion need take place.
Throughout this letter to the Galatians Paul points out all kinds of ways the Galatian Christians were erroneously practicing subtraction instead of addition. And in each instance, Paul will conclude by showing the greater power of addition. For example, near the end of the letter in Galatians 6 Paul says, “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”
As the church, the family of God, we have a great mission, a mission of addition, to make disciples for Jesus Christ. This mission involves finding a place for everyone, however unique and different their name, everyone has some place where they belong in the family of God.
Growing up, every Mother’s Day all the Fimple’s got together at my grandma’s house. It never did occur to any of us to take grandma out to eat for mother’s day. Instead, she’d cook up a big lunch. All the mothers wore corsages or other memorabilia denoting that this is their special day, all except Aunt Charlotte. Aunt Charlotte was married, but never had children. She had bad heart problems and the doctors advised her to never get pregnant. I must have been 12 or 13 at the time, all of us cousins got together and bought a dozen red roses for Aunt Charlotte for Mother’s Day. For us, it was our way of letting Aunt Charlotte know that she was special and important, even though she was called “aunt” instead of “mom.” On mother’s day, a special day of remembering the women in our family, we found a way of remembering Aunt Charlotte. I remember she cried tears of joy.
As the church, we are called to make everyone feel welcome, and included and special. Everyone is to be valued in the church. Sometimes churches say they place high value on children. Some churches value the older, established members. Some churches value ministries to the homeless or the hungry. Some churches value young adults in the community. The challenge for the church is to value all people, no matter their names, their origins, their ages. Through Christ and the miraculous act of addition God makes possible through Christ, everyone is invited into relationship with God, everyone is invited to become part of God’s family, everyone. Young, old, single, married, parent, non-parent, homeless, rich, established, newcomer, and any other names or titles we may give to distinguish ourselves, everyone is to be invited to be added into God’s family.
The Fimple’s had a good reputation in Alma and Kibler, Arkansas. We still do. When we live out our values, they make an impact on others. What about the reputations of our churches? What do people think about us as they drive past and read the names on our church signs? St. Luke United Methodist, Geyer Springs United Methodist, Oak Forest United Methodist, Mabelvale United Methodist, St. Andrew United Methodist, Western Hills United Methodist. Do they say, “There’s a place where I would fit in?” If the people who drive past our churches on a daily basis stopped their cars and walked into our sanctuaries, would they be made to fit in?
I can brag on St. Luke and tell all kinds of ways St. Luke has made others feel welcome and included. But there are still others in our community we haven’t yet reached. Some are still out there whose names we don’t know, in the world, separate from God and the love of the family of God.
For all our churches, there are still people in our communities whose names we don’t yet know. The challenge is for us to first learn their names, and in learning their names, finding ways of including them and helping them find their places in the family of God. In this letter to the Galatians Paul knew the names of his readers. He calls the Jews the children of the promise. His Gentile readers he calls friends. But to everyone be they Jewish or Gentile, to everyone he calls them brothers and sisters. In our mission of addition, of making disciples for Jesus Christ, we learn the names of those outside the family of God and welcome them in as brothers and sisters.
Turn to your neighbor to your right and say, “you are my brother,” or “you are my sister.” Now turn the left and say the same. As we leave here tonight, let us go out into our communities, let us learn the names of the strangers we meet. And let us invite them to church, where they can become our brothers and sisters in Christ. There is still plenty of room for more in God’s family.