Bethlehem Lutheran Church               

By Pastor Keith Larson

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel which means, ‘God is with us’” (Matthew 1:23).  Thus, spoke the angel to Joseph.  And one of the names for Jesus is Emmanuel.  The birth of Jesus does mean that God is with us.  God entered our humanity, became one with us, blessing our  humanness.  In the birth of Jesus, God tells us that even though we are human an imperfect, God loves us anyway.  God is with using our  humanity, our failures, in our pain, in our suffering.  God is there.  How wonderful it is to know we are not alone.

Names were especially important in former days.  What a person was named, what a person declared, became what a person was.  And it is really no different today.  If you call a child “Bad” or “Stupid” long enough (not as a name but in referring to them), that is what they become.

Calling people by their names is important.  But it is a little harder these days it seems.  Children in one family have different surnames.  When couples get married sometimes the woman assumes her husband’s surname, sometimes a hyphenated name, sometimes keeps her own name, or sometimes both the husband and wife assume a hyphenated name.  There is even the option at marriage for both husband and wife to assume a new different surname.  No one way is right or wrong, even though it may be different from what we are accustomed to.  Those who have traveled or who have relatives or friends in other countries know that in other parts of the world there are different customs as far as names.

In our smaller congregations, we have most every possibility there is.  In the office, we try hard to refer to people, as they prefer to be called, even though we do not always get it right.  In the same way we try very hard to spell names correctly.  That is harder because there are so many variations on every name in one community and from community to community.  (Joah, Joann, Jo Ann; Elenor, Eleanor; Lary, Larry; Dwane, Duane, Dwayne, etc., etc.)

In an effort to call people by their correct names, the old rules we learned in etiquette books and grammar classes need to be revisited.  I remember worksheets of names and titles in language classes, we had to capitalize and punctuate them correctly.  

This is actually a good time to get our names and addresses up to date.  As we deal with all those Christmas cards, we can check out who people prefer to be called when we see how they sign their Christmas cards or refer to themselves in their return addresses.  Another good way to note people’s correct names is to see how they refer to themselves on their checks.

Names are indeed very important.  They are who we are.  I know there are some who will say “Call me whatever you want, except don’t call me late for dinner.” But most of us like to be called who we are and be known for who we are.