Dear friends,

An opponent of Abraham Lincoln once tried to pin a label on him. “Sir,” he said.  “You are two-faced.” To which Lincoln replied: ”If I had two faces, do you think I would wear this one?”   It was one of Lincoln smart and funny comebacks.  Robert E. Lee, general of the Confederate Army during the Civil War and known for his sense of honor was asked by an infamous Louisiana Lottery to lend his name to their marketing campaign.  He responded supposedly by saying: “I have lost my house, I have lost my fortune, but I will not give away my name.”  A name is an important thing.   Look at history.  There was Charles the Simple, Son of Louis the Stammerer.  So called for his policy of making concessions to the Norse invaders rather than fighting. Louis the Sluggard, noted for his self-indulgenceruled from 986 to 987 over the Franks. Ethelred the unready (968-1016) was called that because of his inability to repel the Danish invasion of England.  At first he paid tribute to the Danes, but their raids continued and he was forced to abandon England for Normandy in 1013. Those who are more generous call him Ethelred the ill-advised. Louis the Fat was unable to mount his horse.  There was William the silent, Ivan the terrible,  Margaret Thatcher the Iron Lady,  Tricky Dick.  Remember how will Clinton dubbed himself  the “Come-Back Kid” and his opponents called him “Slick Willy.” Do you remember how George W. Bush saw himself as the “decider” and his opponents described him as a “warmonger.”  Kennedy and Reagan were largely defined by their speeches in front of the Berlin wall.

Friends, in today’s lectionary reading from Genesis Abram and Sarai go through a name change.  God appears to Abram and tells him he will be the ancestor of a great nation, even this late in their life.  So Abram becomes Abraham.  So he goes from being called “exalted father” to “father of multitudes” and Sarai becomes Sara(h) which has been translated as “princess” or “earthmother.”  Their obedience and God’s plan for them gives them another name.

In the Gospel of Mark Jesus is talking about God’s plan for Him.  He puts His audience on notice that He will have to suffer and have to be rejected by the chief priests and the elders and be killed in order to rise again after three days.  Peter will not have any of it.  That is not the scenario He has in mind for his leader, his Messiah.  Jesus becomes irate.  “Get behind me, Satan,” He blurts out.  Jesus tells Peter in no uncertain terms that he is trying to interfere with God’s plans.   Jesus sees through him immediately.  The whole series of events that we focus on from Ash Wednesday to Good Friday are not about human plans.  They are about God’s interest.  What is at stake here is the label Peter will carry with him throughout history: will he the “Satan?”  Or could it be he will be the loyal apostle, the betrayer or the doubter?  In the end the name that will stick is Peter the “Rock” on which Jesus will build the church.  But there is something even more important at stake: The name that Jesus will have. That’s why it is such an emotional issue. The people want, above all, a worldly leader, but Jesus tells them God has other plans.  The issue becomes: what does the name Messiah mean in relation to Jesus?

Friends, you and I may not have nicknames but a lot of the Nisei did : Soapie, Soupie, Beaver, Apple.   Names tend to stick.  In icebreaker games people often ask:” if you were an animal, who would you be”” “If you were a fruit, who would you be?” etc.  It makes sense.  If you were to think of a label that people have for you or the name they would give to you, what would it be?  What we think our label is less important here.  Most of us have an unrealistic picture of ourselves anyway: either too negative or too positive.  We spend much of our lives wanting to convince others that the name we have for ourselves is the name others have of us, that the image we have of ourselves is the image others have of us.  In other words we spend much of our lives trying to ‘make a name for ourselves.’  Famous people are obsessed with that name and image, for it is so fragile. For it’s good to think about this during Lent, to do some introspection and reflection.   If we do this right, we are going to wind up with God and with the name God has for us.  If we do it right and we think about all the names or nicknames people could have for us and whether they would stick, we would come to a point where we ask not what the name is that other have for us and what the name is God has for us.  We can then conclude, with a sigh of relief that God has a few names for us that will stick through eternity and those names are “forgiven” and “loved.”  Thanks be to God! Amen.