Numbers 11: 26-29; Mark 9:38

In our name

A Presbyterian author writes; “ Buechner is my name. It is pronounced Beekner. If someone pronounces it in some foolish way, I have feeling that’s what foolish is me.  If someone forgets it, I feel that is I who is forgotten. There’s something about it that embarrasses me in just the way that there’s something about me that embarrasses me. I can’t imagine myself with any other name with any other name-Held, say,or Merrill or Hlavaceck. If my name were different, I would be different. When I tell you my name, I have given you a hold over me that you didn’t have before.  If you call it out, I stop, look, and listen whether I want to or not. In the book of Exodus, God tells his name is Yahweh (I AM WHO I AM) and God hasn’t had a peaceful moment since.(Beyond Words, Harper San Francisco, 2004. p. 52/53).

Friends, in the book of Numbers, Moses is supposed to uphold the name of God and keep people on the right path.  Joshua, his successor, is not happy with the liberty Eldad and Medad take on proclaiming the message of God.  Is it jealousy thing? Moses seems to think so. “Are you jealous for me,” he asks.  The same is true in the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus’ followers don’t want others to start healing in His name? Is it jealousy? Maybe.  We know of course that we should take on the grateful, non-worried view of Moses and Jesus, but in this case we are with Joshua and the followers of Jesus. “Yes, who these people think they are?” Better than us and just as good as our Leader and/or Lord?” We bristle at the arrogance and the presumptiveness of these people. “Who do they think they are anyway?”

Native Americans are up in arms about the canonization of Junipero Serra, founder of the California missions.  They say he was responsible for the oppression and death of thousands of local Native Americans.  How could this good Pope bless that Spanish priest this way? Isn’t he the Pope who apologized to the native people of South America?  If Serra did bad things in the name of the Church, should he be rewarded for that? There is a kind of embarrassment there, if for non-Catholic Christians, that perhaps is not so different from the embarrassment Frederick Buechner felt.

The actress Joanne Froggatt who plays one of the servants in Downton Abbey made a movie where she is a British soldier returning from Iraq. The movie is called “In Our Name.”(Artificial Eye, 2010)  She winds up coming home and facing PTSD and the memories of the violence she was part of and she winds up criticized by Muslims in Britain. She grows more and more afraid (I got all this from the trailer, so forgive me if I am slightly off).  Friends, so much is done in our name, by our local government, our state government, our Federal government.  Money is spent, buildings are built, drones are sent out, bombs are dropped.  We kind of don’t want to be responsible for all that, so we separate ourselves from our government, as if it had nothing to do with us. But in a democracy you can’t quite do that.  Much is done in the name of religion.  Pope Francis emphasized that in his speech to Congress this last week.  The Islamic State murders people in the name of Islam.  This horrifies most Muslims I am sure.  Can you imagine a Christian State performing atrocities?  There used to be states like that and we could claim there still are.  Devout Christians have been responsible for a lot of violence in the name of other more peace loving Christians or Christians who were clueless about what was happening.

Friends, the point I want to make is that it all comes down to the names we call ourselves. Buechner says he is called Beekner, God is called YAHWEH and as Buechner says doesn’t have a peaceful moment ever since.  Moses and Jesus lived in a time when they could use all the help they could get. The Church still needs lots of help, but it has to be the right help.   Sometimes it feels you and I are on the sidelines and people who call themselves Christians and who consider themselves holier than others are making statements about being Christian we can’t relate to or are horrified. But we are still embarrassed about it.  Catholic comedian Jim Gaffigan stars in a tv show about a Catholic who does not really want to admit that he is one. In the show a pizza brand wants to use his name to sell their products, because they want to sell to a traditional market segment. He realizes that although he is a Catholic he is no way traditional.  Sometimes when I work in the community I wonder if it is better I don’t mention I’m a minister. You can see red flags going up in people’s eyes.

To sum things up, friends, if we dare to carry the name Christian, along with our other names which people constantly mispronounce, we should pay attention when people use that name Christian to preach hatred and exclusion and we should be saying :”not in our name.” May God give us courage when God calls us to task.