What’s In A Name?
Pastor Mathew Magera – 4/3/16 – Sermon 157
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
The disciples
told Thomas, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to
them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hand
and put my
finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not
believe.”
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Ah, Thomas. A name that
smells of doubt each time we hear it. His name carries a meaning with it and
it’s not very encouraging. Knowing I was
going to be preaching on this story this morning I thought about names this
week. I was reminded of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” the famous play of a
man and a woman from rival families brought together by love. The fact that
Romeo is a Montague and Juliet is a Capulet, by their names alone, their love
is forbidden. From their names alone, they are doomed from the start. In this
play, knowing a person’s name is everything. If you’re a Montague and you know
someone is a Capulet, you immediately have a negative feeling toward them,
without even having met them perhaps. If you are a Christian and you hear the
name Thomas, you immediately identify him as a doubter. We've come to say it
that way as if we think Doubting Thomas was his real name. As if Jesus, calling
the disciples, called out, "Hey, Doubting Thomas. Follow me." But
Thomas' name is not Doubting Thomas, it's just what we've come to call him over
the many years that this story has been shared. Ask anyone what Thomas is known
for, chances are you'll hear that he was a doubter. There is something about
names that emits a positive or negative vibe. Like the family names of Romeo
and Juliet emit a violent and depressing vibe, Thomas, while one of the twelve
closest followers of Jesus, continues to leak a vibe of doubt and the message
we seem to take from this story each and every year is to believe and not
doubt, as if what Thomas did was wrong and that we should learn from him so
that we don’t fall into his situation. While believing and not doubting is
good, I want to look past that, though, for a different message.
I read an article this week
about how names, even in our society today, can affect your standing at work,
your success in finding a spouse and many other things. Have you ever heard of
Usain Bolt, the fast running Jamaican? With a name like Bolt, you probably
expect him to be fast, right? He has a shelf full of world championship and
Olympic medals. Not all connotations are positive though. Before President
Obama got elected in the office, you might remember some of the media choosing
to use his full name in publications in hopes that by referencing his middle
name of Hussein that the public might view him as un-American and not vote for
him. There is a certain prejudice when it comes to names. People with oriental
names are thought to be good at math. Have you ever known a lawyer with the
name Laura? It's quite common, actually. Have you ever known a dentist name
Dennis? That's also common. Then there is alphabetical discrimination, the
theory that the higher your initials are in the alphabet, the more successful
you are viewed and the more successful you feel.[1]
Names mean something to people. And we haven't even gotten into name calling
and teasing, positions of rank, but you can imagine how a word, a label, sticks
to someone and transforms that person in the eye of the beholder. Names carry
meanings and stereotypes and that is how we view the disciple Thomas. Doubting
Thomas. He doesn’t seem like the kind of guy you would want to hang around or
even trust just because of that name. Rumors and gossip create images in our
minds of people that we haven’t even met and they cause us to view that person
differently, good or bad, based solely on a name, a label.
People treat me a certain
way when they learn I’m a pastor. Pastor is a name, a label, for me. People
will actually apologize for foul language in front of me because of that name.
I might be viewed in extremely high regard but I’m still a sinner just like
everybody else. You are treated a certain way because of a name too. You treat
others in certain ways because of names.
Furthermore, what makes
Thomas so significant for us especially is that Thomas is the name that is on
our building. It's on our bulletins. It might be in our hymnals. This
congregation is named for the same Doubting Thomas. If Thomas, as our label,
gives off a negative feeling, let’s consider what it might mean to change our
name. Let’s change it to something more popular. According to an article, while
written six years ago, that surveyed the most popular church names in our
nation, if we chose to be known by the most popular church name we would be
called First Baptist. How does that sound? First Baptist Lutheran Church. So,
no the most popular church name probably isn't the best direction for us
perhaps because of the feeling that label gives off. We’re stuck with Thomas.
St. Thomas. Doubting Thomas. In a society where just a name can have so much
meaning, here we are, the church of the doubting disciple.
It seems hopeless. So many
names, so many labels. But there’s still something in here to learn. If we go
back into the Shakespeare play, Romeo and Juliet, we remember that names mean
everything. Yet, at one point in the play, Juliet offers some insight that
would help her in her quest for the love of Romeo. In an effort to pursue this
love she wants to tell him that a name is an "artificial and meaningless
convention, and that she loves the person who is called 'Montague', not the
Montague name" itself.[2]
In the play she expresses it this way by saying, "What's in a name? That
which we call a rose/By any other name would smell as sweet." What she is
saying is that if what we know as a rose was given any other name it would
still smell the same. If a rose were in fact called a doodle-dipper, it would
still smell like a rose, right? So, by ignoring the fact that Romeo is a
Montague and looking deeper she sees something that is beyond his family name.
Juliet sees who Romeo really is, not what his name makes him. She wouldn't let
the name Montague define Romeo no matter what she did.
Jesus does the same thing.
Jesus looks beyond our labels that name us in this world. The point here is a
man-made name cannot define who we really are on the inside no matter how much
or little they might mean to us. We are labeled by so many things nowadays. Prisoner,
politician, CEO, captain, foreman, officer, doctor, mother, son, sick, ugly,
dumb, the list goes on. When we think of the disciple Thomas, we let the name
Doubting Thomas define who he is, rather than letting who he really was define
his name. Thomas was more than a doubter, but that all gets pushed aside. If we
consider who Thomas really is, it might help us to see that he really is more.
First, he was called by
Jesus. When Jesus named is 12 disciples, Thomas was one of them. He was one
with Peter. He was one with John. He was one with Judas and we know what Judas is
known for. The fact that Jesus could look out into the world and call his
twelve, Thomas being one of them, tells us that Jesus sees something in Thomas
that is more than doubt. Jesus sees Thomas as he really is, doubt and all, and
calls him anyway.
Second, Thomas is a smart
guy. When Jesus tells his disciples that he is going to a place they cannot
come yet they know the way to get there, Thomas is the one to speak up for
everyone else. He tells Jesus, "We don't even know where you're going. How
could we possibly know the way?" Without Thomas asking that question, we
would never have heard Jesus say "I am the way, the truth and the
life." Thomas admitted he didn't know the answer but rather than sitting
on it, he asked the question that needed to be asked and as a result got one of
Jesus’ most important quotations in the Bible.
Third, Thomas was a loyal
follower. A few days after Jesus was told Lazarus was sick, he tells his
disciples they were going to go back to Judea to where Lazarus was. His
disciples spoke up against it saying that Jesus was almost stoned to death
there. They can't imagine why he would want to go back. But, who spoke up for
them? Who said, "Let us also go, that we may die with him"? That was
Thomas. He was a loyal follower.
While we may not know a lot
about Thomas we do have these qualities to go along with his most famous
interaction with Jesus in the locked upper room. We cannot let one thing define
who Thomas is. As such, we cannot let one thing define who we are. We cannot
let one thing allow us to define others. We may be labeled in many different
ways but our identity does not lie in those labels. Rather, our identity is
given to us by Christ as children of God in our Baptism.
If we embrace these names
and labels, all they will do is tell us that we aren't good enough, even the
best of those names. If we let ourselves be defined by the world and not by
God, there will always be something lacking within us and we do this all the
time perhaps even without even knowing it. We are always seeking the best names
for ourselves, we throw around the good names that define us and we want more
of those names. We may not realize it but we are allowing ourselves to be
defined just like Thomas is defined as a doubter. While having some names is
not bad in some respect, it will still leave us wanting more, something will
still be missing. But when we let ourselves be defined by the very creator of
this world, all that emptiness, all that hopelessness will have been replaced
by the saving power of Jesus Christ. When we let God define who we are we see
that underneath everything in this world we have been claimed by Him first and
that no matter what we do we are still, at our core, his beloved child.
Thomas is who Thomas is and
if we believe God created him this way tells us that he was likely to doubt
Jesus' resurrection regardless of when it took place. But just that one
instance doesn't make him a doubter. It makes him human. None of us are capable
of perfection. But even if this one event did make him a doubter, that name
"doubter" is not stronger than God's ability to reveal to him the
true resurrected Christ when he needs to see it. The name "doubter"
is not stronger than God's identity within Thomas that calls him one of his
precious children.
This news encourages us as
children of God in this world. That though we may be identified by various
names, positive and negative, God will still find a way to reveal himself to us
and raise us up in our own unique situation. Likewise, we can lift others up in
Christ’s name too. Thomas doubted the resurrection of Christ. In that locked room
is where he needed Jesus the most and Jesus came to him. Jesus still found him,
though he doubted. Jesus still finds us in our weakness. Whether we doubt the resurrection
or whether we are struggling to believe in his mercy Jesus still finds us in
our weakness and gives us strength. Don’t think that if you feel like you are
behind locked doors that you are unreachable. In our weakness Christ
strengthens us. In our sickness, he heals us. In our tiredness, he gives us
energy.
That being said, the fact
that Thomas doubted the resurrection of Jesus should not be a bad way to think
of him. In fact, it should be as reassuring as other positive stories in the
Bible. Thomas doubts but Jesus still comes to him. This means our congregation
represents those who Christ came to even in times of doubt and unbelief. Now
that is something to be known for. Our congregation represents and is founded
on those who were weak but were still valued by God and made strong by the
physical presence of Jesus Christ. That is unbelievably hopeful. That is
remarkably insightful and eternally encouraging to us and to the community in
which we serve.
We may have our names and
you know what they are. You know what people call you. We may be called
different things but we can be assured that no matter if we are called sick or
slow, bright or beautiful, hopeless or depressed those labels can't stop God
from loving us. Those labels can’t stop Jesus from coming into our lives with
the saving power of the resurrection to make us new. He still comes to us, as
he did to Thomas, and through it all Jesus loved Thomas and Jesus loves us too.
So, what’s in a name? To the world a name, a label, means everything. In
Christ, those names, those labels mean nothing. All that is left, when we are
stripped of those names is a pure, loved, and righteous child of God freed by
those wounds that Thomas was able to touch with his own hands. At his core, he
was a beloved child of God and at our core, we are too. To God be the glory,
now and always. Amen.