The text is below the video…
“What’s Your Name?” Sermon. Sunday May 3 2020. Alan Neale.
Trinity Church, Newport, RI
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
In January 1991 I began my ministry at Trinity Church, to serve as Associate Rector. My tasks were general but, specifically, I was asked to start a “Singles’ Ministry” which later became known as Archipelago (think about it, it’s a brilliant name for such a ministry).
In church I began the task of learning the names of parishioners; it’s always been a mystery to me why some names “stick” and others seem to lack memory adhesiveness (I have some thoughts about this but perhaps this is not the best forum in which to share them). I still consider myself adept at learning names but then, thirty years ago, obviously my memory was sharper.
About three months into my somewhat abbreviated tenure at Trinity, I approached a woman entering the church. I bid her welcome, introduced myself and asked her name. “My name! You asked me that two months ago…” and with that she left to say her prayers before church.
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
Being “called by name” endows us with a sense of value, identity; we sense we have a place, a role. Maybe the woman of whom I just spoke had had a week in which she had been ignored, neglected, dismissed and then to come to church and be… forgotten was just too, too painful. Who knows?
For nearly thirty years of my parish ministry I was intentionally a “home-going parson” (inducing, do you remember, a “church-going people”). I wanted to visit parishioners (old, new and inquiring) in their homes to let them know their mattered but this was also a remarkable way for me to establish in my mind their names… as I saw them at home (physically and emotionally).
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
One commentator writes, “According to the Hebrew notion, a name is inseparable from the one who possesses it; it is something of her/his essence.”
Our names are precious and we have an appropriate guarded approach to sharing our names especially in these years of constant, aggressive and intrusive telemarketing. I answer the call, and I’m greeted by “Is this Alan?”. My response, “Do I know you?”. And then, if I’m in the mood, I begin to expatiate on the courteous way to use names… usually I find the telemarketer ends the call and probably notes, “Do not call this number again.”
At baptism and confirmation our names are used; at weddings it is so embarrassing when the officiant continues to use wrong names; and at funerals… those who grieve earnestly desire to hear the name of their loved one used and mentioned over and over… and over again.
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
In Luke 19, verse 5 Jesus calls out, “Zaccheus, come down” and the despised, alienated one becomes empowered to leave his airy sanctuary and find a home with Jesus and his disciples.
In John 11, verse 33 Jesus calls out, “Lazarus, come forth” and the lifeless, inert one is returns to life and ultimate freedom (“untie him and let him go”.)
And in John 20, verse 16 Jesus says, “Mary…”. We can only imagine the gentle tone, the warm cadence of that one word and with that one word, her name, Mary is set free from blindness due to tears and grief and enabled to see, recognize, acknowledge her Lord now risen from the dead. By the way, the word for says carries with it a sense of “moving to a conclusion, bringing something to closure. The Good Shepherd, the Master Carpenter knew that Mary would be quickened as she heard her names from his lips and in his tone.
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”
The multi-faceted image, concept of shepherd had been used by Jewish writers for centuries – in the classic Psalm 23 and the encouraging/challenging words of Ezekiel 34.
The importance of name is almost a creation ordinance as the Creator names Adam and Eve and then shares with them, graciously and fully, the ministry of naming of that they see in creation.
To call by name is to create a relationship, to attract attention and enables some… “control” over the person named (in my brief role as a schoolmaster I knew very quickly that it was urgent for me to name those lovable rascals in the classroom!).
Friend, in these VUCA days (volatile, uncertain, chaotic and ambiguous) take a little time to sit still and quiet and ask the Lord to speak your name… this will come in different ways, but it will come.
And, at all times, remember to use the precious name of Jesus in times of fear, uncertainty, anger, resentment… it is a precious name before which the knees of all our fears must bow, it is a precious name that calls from us surrender, love and allegiance, it is a precious name that rescues us and sets us from the bondage that assails us.
John 10:3 “The good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.”