Who are you? What is your true identity? Each week during Lent, members of Saint Luke will share reflections about who we are in Christ here on our blog. These writings will serve to stimulate our own personal reflections and prayers throughout the lenten season. They’ll also bring us together and propel us into a weekly time of discussion on Zoom as we journey towards Easter.
We continue our series with an insightful reflection from our Councilor of Worship, Jodi Donohue.
I Am Named
I am named. My name is Jodi. It’s the label that my mother gave me at birth, that appears on legal documents concerning me, and that people, who want to communicate with me, use in addressing me. But it is not me. Names are arbitrary labels, used to identify one person from another, but they do not reflect our intrinsic qualities.
Sometimes we change our names. The change usually comes about as a result of some event in our lives. Some people change their last name in marriage, and back again after a divorce. Some people receive a new name at confirmation, adding a Saints name as a middle name, for example. Some people choose a stage name, or nom de plume as a professional name.
Some people’s names were changed as a result of emigrating to another country. My own great-great grandfathers last name was changed from Schollkopf to Schell when he entered the country. Others change their names to reflect their true gender identity.
Sometimes our names are changed for us, as in when we are given nicknames. When I was a freshman in high school, a new girl moved into the neighborhood. Her name was Ragnhildur. Ragnhildur was from Iceland and hardly spoke a word of English. Ragnhildur walked home from school every day with me and a few other girls and the nervousness of trying to communicate with no words in common was compounded by our adolescent insecurities of social situations in general.
It was especially frustrating for Ragnhildur and us that we couldn’t say her name. We tried and tried again but our American tongues didn’t cooperate. Someone came up with the idea for a nickname and Ragnhildur was willing to try. We started with close names like Rocky and Hilda, but neither name seemed to fit this glorious, golden-haired Nordic girl. We settled on Rikki, a name that was easy to say and adorably cute as well, and, according to my search on Facebook, a name that she uses today.
But I do wonder how Ragnhildur felt at her change of name. If names are just arbitrary labels, why is it a momentous occasion, either good or bad, when our names are changed?
Names can never reflect our true selves. They can sometimes help others further define us, male or female, married or not, etc. But they can never capture our true being. And yet we, or others who know us, may remain attached to our names when we change them.
God’s renaming of Abram and Sarai in Genesis 17 is symbolic in its capture of what Gods purpose was for them. Abram, meaning “exalted father” was changed to Abraham “father of multitudes”. And Sarai, meaning “my princess” was changed to “mother of nations”. It was a naming born of a promise that God was giving to Abraham in Genesis 13:16: “I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.” It was foreshadowing of events to come.
We say that we are “named” as a member of God’s family in baptism. Like Abraham and Sarah, God gives us a new identity in our baptism. In our baptism ceremony our names are proclaimed for the congregation to hear, and the congregation welcomes us by that name. However, it isn’t this identifier that is important in the baptism ceremony.
In Isaiah 43:1 it says: But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.” God’s calling us by our name is not just a recognition of a title, it is his promise that we belong to Him, that He knows us, He sees us and He understands us.
God calls to us in baptism to recognize our soul, our true being, our true self one on one with Him. In baptism we are welcomed into God’s family as ourselves, whoever that self is, wholly and entirely. God names us in baptism as His own child, not with an arbitrary label, but with a deep and unbreakable love that He alone knows us, knows us completely, and loves us more than we can hope to love ourselves.
Dear God, Thank you for knowing us, no matter what we are named. Help us to know that you love our true selves, and that we are worthy of your love each and every day.
PONDER & SHARE
How do you feel knowing you are known by God?