What Name is Given to Us?
Homily for the Feast of the Holy Name by the Rev’d Theophus “Thee” Smith
January 1, 2006
In the name of God: our Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier, and Friend. Amen.
“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”
Have you seen the movie yet? That incantation, “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia,” is the magic spell that begins the fantasy world that C.S. Lewis created in his “Chronicles of Narnia.” Lewis’s children’s’ stories are becoming popular again because of the recent film now showing in the theaters this holiday season. The film is based on seven books by C.S. Lewis, the celebrated Christian author and Oxford professor. By the way, our own C.S. Lewis scholar here at the Cathedral, Dabney Hart, recommends the film but also suggests an age limit for young children viewing the film.
Many of us however had the stories read to us as young children, or have since read and re-read them as adults. For our consideration today I’m particularly reminded of the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia, not “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” now showing at the theaters depicted but the first sequel in the series of books, Prince Caspian (which is rumored to be released by Disney in the year 2007). In chapter nine of Prince Caspian, titled, “What Lucy Saw,” Lucy herself, one of the heroines of the stories, is walking at night through a glade of trees in a forest.
In the old days of Narnia many of these trees would have been living beings or tree spirits, the so-called “dryads” and “hamadryads’ of classical Greek and Roman mythology. But now they have somehow fallen asleep and are mysteriously encased in their tree forms; unable to appear in more human form as semi-visible spirit-beings. Lucy, remembering them talking and laughing and dancing from the old days, tries to wake them but her powers of incantation prove insufficient.
[As] Lucy’s eyes began to grow accustomed to the [moon]light . . . [Lewis writes] she saw the trees that were nearest her more distinctly. A great longing for the old days when the trees could talk in Narnia came over her. She knew exactly how each of these trees would talk if only she could wake them, and what sort of human form it would put on.
“Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,” said Lucy . . . “Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake. Don’t you remember it? Don’t you remember me? Dryads and Hamadryads, come out, come to me.”
Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words . . . Lucy felt that at any moment she would begin to understand what the Trees were trying to say. But the moment did not come. The rustling died away . . . Even in the moonlight the wood looked more ordinary again. Yet Lucy had the feeling (as you sometimes have when you are trying to remember a name or a date and almost get it, but it vanishes before you really do) that she had just missed something: as if she had spoken to the trees a split second too soon or a split second too late, or used all the right words except one; or put in one word that was just wrong. (C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian; NY: Collier, 1951; pp.112-113)
Yes; we have all had that feeling, haven’t we? the feeling “you sometimes have when you are trying to remember a name or a date and almost get it, but it vanishes before you really do.” And that’s what it may be like for many of us during these twelve days of Christmas and into the season of Epiphany starting at the end of next week; the feeling that some great momentous, life-changing event has just slipped by us, as if we almost got it but just barely, or not enough, or not any of it at all; as if our own powers of invocation were insufficient to summon the reality of it all—the real thing, the reality of Christmas.
Our own powers of incantation insufficient? Our own powers of invocation not adequate? Thank God, we are not dependent on our own powers of invocation alone! Like Lucy in the following chapters of the story, we get to discover that there is another Being who is able to wake-up sleeping trees, and restore life to the dead, and fulfill for us the hopes and dreams of all the ages.
That’s where Aslan comes into the picture. Aslan is himself a “talking beast;” specifically a lion who is king of all the other talking animals in Narnia. He is also called, “the son of the Emperor over the sea.” Now you don’t need to be involved with Narnia for very long before you realize that the lion, Aslan, is the Christ figure in the Chronicles of Narnia. As a Christ figure, in fact, it is Aslan who created Narnia in the first place. The story of the creation of Narnia—its “Book of Genesis,” we might call it—is found in one of the last books in the series—the book called The Magician’s Nephew. It’s in the Magician’s Nephew that Aslan invokes the words of creation that I quoted at the beginning:
“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”
In the world of Narnia those words function like an incantation or spell; like, “Let there be light,” at the beginning of our own book of creation—the biblical Book of Genesis. Prior to that incantation there were no talking animals or walking trees or living waters in Narnia. Instead Aslan has been singing the entire creation of Narnia into existence, and this is the climactic scene that Lewis depicts for us:
At last [Aslan] stood still and all the creatures whom he had touched came and stood in a wide circle around him . . . For the first time that day there was complete silence, except for the noise of running water . . .
. . . Then there came a swift flash like fire (but it burnt nobody) either from the sky or from the Lion itself, and every drop of blood tingled in the children’s bodies, and the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying:
“Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Out of the trees wild people stepped forth, gods and goddesses of the wood; with them came Fauns and Satyrs and Dwarfs. Out of the river rose the river god with his Naiad daughters. And all these and all the beasts and birds in their different voices, low or high or thick or clear, replied:
“Hail, Aslan. We hear and obey. We are awake. We love. We think. We speak. We know.” (C.S. Lewis, The Magician’s Nephew; NY: Collier, 1955; pp.115-117)
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And now we come to the scriptures appointed for today. On this eighth day of Christmas we celebrate the giving of the Holy Name of Jesus to the Christ child. And this year our Old Testament scripture includes that remarkable threefold benediction that we heard earlier in the service. Notice right away that this benediction is equivalent in the world of scripture to Aslan’s blessing of the animals with his threefold invocation of their collective name: “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia.”
But in our own world of invocations we hear this priestly blessing—traditional for both Jews and Christians especially at the close of an assembly. It’s venerable among both peoples of God because God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai to give to his brother, Aaron, the first priest in Israel :
The LORD bless you and keep you;
the LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them. (Num. 6.23-27)
And what is that name that we are blessed with here today; those of us assembled here who invoke the name of Jesus week after week and day after day? Today offers a special moment to consider that name since this is the day we commemorate the naming of Jesus on his eighth day of life in this world.
On the eighth day, according to the covenant established centuries before Moses, in that first covenant of God with the patriarch Abraham, every male in Israel is to be circumcised as a sign of that covenant (Gen. 17.12). And so on this eighth day of Christmas we are observing the Jewish tradition that also includes naming a newborn son on his eighth day.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." (Isa. 9.6)
Remember that prophecy from Isaiah, quoted whenever we hear Handel’s Messiah? We also heard it read last week on Christmas eve, when we gathered together to honor the birth of Jesus on his first day in this world.
But a week later today, we are perhaps already forgetting what the celebration was all about. And while these twelve days of Christmas are becoming twelve days of retail shopping and New Year’s parties, we have this eighth day opportunity to reclaim and rediscover what it means to us. So the scriptures interrogate us today, before the spell of the world casts a different incantation over us: What is the name by which we have been summoned into being, individually and collectively, by that God whom we invoke as "Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace?"
Is it the name of “Jesus?” Are we “Jesus people” in that literal sense? Or is it the name of “Christ,” since we who follow him are known by the name, “Christians?” Certainly those are obvious candidates for the name that the Old Testament benediction says God will put on God’s people.
But let me remind us that we Christians have another threefold benediction, in addition to the priestly benediction that Moses and Aaron inaugurated in ancient Israel . It is in fact an apostolic benediction; the benediction that the apostle Paul gave us at the end of his Second Letter to the Corinthians, and it too has become venerable and traditional among us at the close of our assemblies:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and the love of God,
and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. (2 Cor. 13.14)
So this threefold, Trinitarian blessing looks beyond the incarnation of our Lord in his nativity at Christmas and sees ahead his gracious giving himself in the Cross, followed secondly by the love of God and of one another that he sheds abroad in our hearts, and thirdly by the power and charisms of the Holy Spirit that he gives us.
For the incarnation of our Lord at his nativity is only the beginning of the marvels that he brings into the world. We have so much more of him to learn from and incorporate—so much more that we are summoned to become in his name—that his name bestowed on us can no longer be only “Jesus” or only “Christ” but must also be triune or Trinitarian!
In the name of the Father —whose love shed abroad in our hearts makes his countenance, and ours, shine on the good and the bad alike, on our enemies and our friends alike;
and in the name of the Son—whose life lived in giving himself for others points the way of righteousness for us; points us all the way to the Cross if need be, in order to release people from the bonds of sin and death;
and thirdly but not least in the name of the Holy Spirit—whose charisms and gifts of power and presence enable us to do the things that Jesus himself did in this earthly life (and even greater things that those we will do, according to the gospel of John, in his name, and strength and power [Jn. 14.12]).
So one name or two is not adequate to encompass the threefold blessing that we are blessed with as the people of God.
Christian friends, let’s not miss the benefits and gifts of God awaiting us in these trinitarian blessings and graces! Like the Narnians in their closing circle surrounding Aslan, let us in a few moments surround this altar and prepare yet again to receive the bounty that comes to us from God our Creator, from God our Redeemer, and from God our Sanctifier; and all as the legacy to us of the Christ child who was named on this eighth day of his life among us.
‘And may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.’
‘For to us a child has been born, and to us a son has been given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.’ Amen!
Comments? Contact The Rev. Thee Smith: tsmith@stphilipscathedral.org