Second Sunday of Christmas

Today is New Year’s Day. But it is rather a confusing day in the church’s calendar. According to what you choose or which church you belong to, today could be either the First or Second Sunday of Christmas; The Feast of the Holy Family or the Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God, or the Feast of the Circumcision or naming of Jesus.

With such a choice you may find it odd that I choose to address a very few words on the circumcision of Jesus or the Naming of Jesus. This is the eighth day of Christmas;  the day of circumcision after the birth of a boy. Through that act he was given a name and a status as a member of the covenant community of Judaism.

What is in a name? Well quite a lot – especially in the Bible. Names said something about the person named. What purpose God has for them or the context into which they were born. Thus Abraham is given a name which means’ Father of the nation.’ Isaac means laughter because his aged mother laughed at the thought of becoming a mother at the age of ninety – no laughing matter at any age.

In the Gospel Jesus is given his name neither by his parent’s choice nor by the convention of naming him after his father but rather by the direct command of God.

‘You shall name him Jesus because he shall save his people.’

Yes the name Jesus or rather more properly Jeshua means ‘God Saves.’ So when they name him Jesus, Mary and Joseph are accepting that their child has a meaning and a purpose beyond what they can comprehend. His name declares that through him, ‘God saves’. The divine purpose is at work in this child.

Mary and Joseph do not know yet how this divine purpose will unfold. They are bewildered: ‘What will the future bring?’ ‘Will it mean heartache or will it mean joy?’ Mary ponders all this and she will have ever more painful and indeed wonderful things still to ponder in her heart as the future unfolds. But for now she trusts in God – the God at work in her child, the God who saves.

As we begin a new year we may be thinking about new beginnings but also about the purpose of our lives. What will the future bring? In the midst of all our uncertainties our hopes and our fears over what this New Year may bring for us our families and our world. As we embark upon a future as yet hidden it is comforting to know that all of it and all of us are part of God’s great purpose and that he is the God who saves. God’s purposes are seen supremely in Jesus. In this child God has come amongst us to share in our human life and existence.

All our human life and hopes and our fears, our joys and sorrows our pain and our happiness our life and our death. All of it is known to God by the sending of his son. Through him God will save us from all that we may do to ourselves or from all that the world may do to us. In this man there is the hope of a new creation a new life and a new way of living for ourselves and for our world. God has acted to save us from all that may utterly harm us and our world. It is in the name of Jesus we may put all our hope and our trust as we step out into a new year.

May you have a Jesus-filled and therefore a happy and peaceful new year.