@ nAm of Gsus
Palm Sunday
Philippians 2:5-11
Today we begin Holy Week. For many Christians this is the most sacred week of the year. The events that are remembered over the course of this week from the triumphal entry to the Last Supper to the passion in the garden to the cross to the resurrection are theologically huge for Christian faith. Yet, you may have noticed that most of the world doesn’t seem to notice. Most people are thinking about spring or the end of winter or planning their cold weather get-away, getting ready for a St. Patrick’s Day party or worrying about graduation. This week won’t seem any different outside of walls like these for the vast majority of the world. How do we communicate the impact of these pivotal moments in the Christian story? We seem to have problems communicating among ourselves, much less to the larger world. Churchdown Parish magazine reported a note found in a church newsletter. It read, “Would the congregation please note that the bowl at the back of the church labeled “For the Sick” is for monetary donations only.”
It does seem like we all have difficulty at times speaking the same language. And of course the world is getting more and more complex.
I read a story recently about a Chinese couple who decided to name their new baby boy “@”. It seems that the Chinese pronunciation of the letters “a” and “t” sound like a phrase that means “love him” so the name is meant to honor the boy’s father. This so reminds me of the phase the artist formerly known as Prince went through using the Ankh symbol as his name. I believe he is back to being Prince again.
Since we are fast becoming a world possessed by flying thumbs over our cell phone and IPod keyboards, I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see more of this. Someone could name the child produced by an unexpected pregnancy as “!”, and if there are triplets, how about “!!!”?
Some of us who have not learned this new lingo of the thumb are about as comfortable with this new language as we are with young men wearing their pants around their thighs so that their boxers show. But like it or not, it is a part of our world. And it is rather fascinating. Consider this text message I saw on a blog this week.
LO, SUP. :-o 2day UR :-c. 2marO R U F2T? OMG Xlent! RNTUAQT LOL! :-x but IMNSHO Plz WWYC. Its 2 L8. Thx G2G. CUL8R KOTC
[Translation: Hello, What’s up? I’m surprised today that you are unhappy. Tomorrow are you free to talk? Oh my God, that’s excellent! Aren’t you a cutie (laugh out loud)? I’m not talking but in my not so humble opinion please write when you can. It’s getting too late. Thanks. Gotta go. See you later (Kiss on the cheek)]
If this kind of new communication style holds, there might come a day in the not too distant future where more and more of these symbols may enter our alphabet and the names of children.
I can just see some of these variations showing up: K8T, HelN, Pter, HyD, @>->-- (Rose). Names are important to us.
At the name of Jesus…
There have been long theological debates for centuries about what our passage from Philippians means. It has been used to “prove” the pre-existence of Christ, the existence of the Trinity, the doctrine of incarnation and the theory of the Fall of Humanity.
Perhaps the passage is simply laying out the groundwork of the remarkable decision Jesus made to live by grace rather than take advantage of privilege. This is truly intriguing to me if we follow this line of thought to its conclusion. Jesus, as part of the divine presence of God, empties himself of this stature – this privilege – and takes on the form of a slave (in other words, like you and me – human folk) so that his life becomes an example of self-giving sacrifice on behalf of others. The power of such a choice for our world is that “at the name of Jesus” lives continue to be changed by such grace-filled decisions. People discover their wholeness when they experience such grace. In fact, the very name “Jesus” which is the same name as the Hebrew “Joshua” means “God makes whole.” The word “salvation” means to be made whole.
What’s in a name? In just a few moments we will baptize Nathan. His family, his church, his godparents will gather around him in prayer and pronounce the name by which he will be known for the rest of his life and acknowledge that his name is known to God. For the rest of his life among us our actions, our attitudes, our words and our decisions will either communicate to him that the name of Jesus has shaped us as a community or not. The baptism of a child is a visually powerful demonstration of the responsibility we have as a community of faith to live our values in such a way that the world is a better place for one like Nathan to flourish.
I began today with a question, “How do we communicate the importance of the gospel to a world that doesn’t seem to be noticing?” The best way is simply by how we live as people who know the name of Jesus.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com “@ the Name of Jesus”, March 2008.
http://www.snopes.com/humor/nonsense/typos01.asp
http://www.rtcol.com/~kreft/biblestories/images/Palm_Sunday.gif
www.lingo2word.com Text messaging lingo
http://www.mta-telco.com/pdf/tmvocab.pdfmb Text messaging lingo
