“You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Matt.1:21

We discovered a new game over Christmas. It is called ‘Eastenders Bingo’. It works like this. You each choose a phrase which is commonly used in the programme, and every time it is said, you score a point. Examples are: ‘Woss goin’ on?; ‘You’re ‘avin a larf, aintcha?’; ‘Leave it aht’, and so on. I’ll come back to that in a moment.

But first, I wonder how many of us know the meaning of our names? I suppose all those of us who are parents had a little book which we got just before our first baby was born, and searched for a name. If we were really good, we would have cared about what the name meant as well. I remember being delighted to discover that my own Christian name meant ‘manly’, and that my surname meant ‘son of the fair one’, so how blest am I!?

Jewish people believe that a name tells you something about the person’s character and personality. You remember Jacob from the Old Testament, son of Isaac. His name is a word in Hebrew which means wily, or crafty, a supplanter, and he was certainly that.

Even a swift reading of both Old and New Testaments will reveal that when a name is mentioned, very often the reason for the name chosen is given. So it was with Jesus. Our gospel reading told us how he was named after eight days had passed, because it was the time to do so, and the name he was given was the one St Matthew tells us he was given by ‘God’s messenger’, or angel. It was ‘Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins’. It is the same name as Joshua, and it literally means ‘Jehovah is salvation’.

What on earth did Mary make of it, one wonders? If she had been in ‘Eastenders’, she would have said: ‘I can’t believe I’m ‘earin’ this’. I can just imagine the look on her face. But a month or so after the birth, when they went to the temple for the purification ceremony, it was all confirmed by Simeon. He recognised this baby Jesus for what he was – the one the Jewish people had waited for so long to see – the Messiah. And the seal was set by a prophetess named Anna, for she also recognised the baby as the Christ, the anointed one of God.

So that was it. This baby named Jesus was the man born, not only to be king, but also to be Saviour, the saviour of the whole of the human race. (No, Terry, not Lily the Pink!) He was the one of whom Charles Wesley was to say was ‘born to give us second birth’. Or as we say in the Creed week by week: born ‘for us men and for our salvation’

From the beginning of the church’s history, exactly how Jesus saves humanity from sin has been the subject of quite heated discussion, and perhaps one evening we could have a go at it. I wonder if the Education Group would like to take it on? To make a very broad generalisation, in the Eastern Church, the Incarnation is seen as the great saving act, whilst in the Western Church, it has been the Cross. We can all surely see that in the very act of God taking on himself the form of a human, as St Paul says, there is what the theologians call a soteriological act – a saving act, the Divine reaching out to fallen humanity.

So it is fitting that the church, on the eighth day after Christmas, which is today, remembers the event. Names, as I have said, are important.

If, like the Chinese, we were to give our years names, (though they name them in advance) I guess that 2005 could be called ‘The Year of Disasters’. A year ago today we watched in amazement, awe and horror as the countries around the rim of the Indian Ocean were struggled with the aftermath of the giant tsunami – a new word for many of us, and word which was filled with dread.

2005 moved inexorably day by day into one disaster after another – earthquake, wind and fires, to say nothing of global terrorist attacks. ‘Where was God?’ was a question many people asked, implying that He wasn’t there, and therefore doesn’t exist. Perhaps that could be another project for the Education Group.
We cannot tell what the name of 2006 will prove to be. Some things, I suppose, are fairly predictable. For instance, we can be reasonably certain that global warming will continue, with all its attendant consequences, many of which could bring us again into disaster.

But let me take you back to our festival theme – ‘Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’. We, as Christians, say that ‘we bear the name of Jesus’. Now, there’s a thought. We bear the name of the one who is the saviour of humankind. I would say that makes us, in a way, guilty by association. What I mean is this.

If Jesus was truly the one who would save his people, then I put it to you that we have a part to play in that work of salvation today. Of course, everything has been done to work that salvation for all. But go out into the street, into Lover’s Walk, and how many people would know that? How many would know that salvation (whatever that may mean) is for them? What, would you say, does it mean for you?

Our task in 2006, it seems to me, is to first of all accept God’s work of salvation in Christ as being for us. Secondly, it is to proclaim, in word and deed, that salvation to humanity. Tell people that they are accepted by God. That is a life-changing experience, the ‘second birth’ of which St John in his gospel speaks, and which the Wesleys went on about incessantly. Charles wrote:

‘O for a trumpet voice,
on all the world to call!
To bid their hearts rejoice
in Him who died for all;
For all my Lord was crucified,
For all, for all, my Saviour died.’

Which brings us back to the Cross – the other end of the Incarnation story. The birth, life and death, the taking by God of our humanity, was not for some chosen few, but for all – whether they know it or not, whether, for the moment, they accept it or not. Our task as those who bear the name of Jesus is to tell them. The problem with spreading this good news is that a ‘one size fits all’ approach will not do. It is about the right word, to the right person, in the right place, at the right time. Just don’t let that put you off!

Let 2006 be the year of witness to the saving work of Christ.