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“What’s in a Nickname?”
Isaiah 49: 1-6 & John 1: 29-42
January 20, 2008
I have a friend with a daughter
named Sam. It’s not really her name, it’s a nickname.
Though I’ve known her for thirty years I just found out a
couple of years ago that her real name wasn’t Samantha, it
is Kimberley. So, I asked my friend how a girl named Kimberley got
nicknamed Sam, and he said, he just called her that one day and
it stuck.
I had a friend in Newport Beach
named Nibs. His real name was Warren. I asked him how he got to
be Nibs and he said his father called him that one day and it stuck.
Nicknames do that.
Sometimes people give us nicknames
we don’t want to stick and we do our best to shake them. Elvis
didn’t like Elvis the Pelvis and Wilt Chamberlin didn’t
like Wilt the Stilt. I saw an interview with General Swartzkoff
after the first gulf war and he bristled a bit when the interviewer
asked him how he liked being called Stormin’ Norman. He said
he liked it better when his men called him The Bear. Probably lots
of you out there have nicknames you either like or hate. I know
that Ed Schneeberger has friends who call him Sneezy, but I promised
not to tell anybody.
We will keep a few months up here
at the site.
As always if you would like a DVD
of a service please contact the church office.
Thank you for visiting us.
The gospel lesson for this morning
has more nicknames per line than any other place in the Bible. People
are just getting to know each other here at the beginning of the
gospel, and nicknames and titles help in that process. It’s
John’s version of the story of the call of the disciples –
quite different from the telling in the other gospels where Jesus
goes down to the Sea of Galilee and says to the fishermen, “Follow
me,” and they drop their nets and follow. In this story, Jesus
first disciples are given to him by John the Baptist – marvelous
symbolism for the transfer of power, the decline of John’s
ministry and the rise of Jesus.
That was certainly enough to pique
their interests, but when they addressed him they didn’t use
the apocalyptic nickname, they ratcheted it down a bit – they
said “Teacher.” And when he asked what they wanted they
didn’t ask, “Are you the one who will take away the
sin of the world?” They asked, “Where are you staying?”
Now, Jesus knew that they weren’t interested in seeing his
furniture but he said come on and I’ll show you. He must have
shown them more than his living quarters because when they tell
their friends about it they don’t say, “We found a great
teacher with nice furniture,” They say, “We found the
Messiah, we found the Christ.”
Their approach to Jesus was cautious,
even skeptical perhaps, but after they had spent some time with
him they found the answer to the unasked question, “Are you
the Lamb of God?” They came to Jesus with little more than
curiosity and went away with the certainty that they had encountered
God’s salvation. Psalm 34 admonishes us to “taste and
see that the Lord is good!” That’s how it goes. You
go to see what you hope might be a great teacher and you come away
having found the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
William Sloan Coffin, in his autobiography,
tells about his conversion to Christianity. He was a student at
Yale University, an intellectual with no need for religion and all
its superstitions. He was a political activist and got to know the
Chaplain at Yale who was also an activist. He started going to the
chapel services, not because he was interested in religion but just
to hear his friend speak. But the gospel has a way of getting to
you, even if that isn’t what you came for. The word proclaimed
has power.
He described his conversion this way, “I committed as much
of myself as I could risk to as much of God as I could believe in.”
Not a very big commitment but enough for God to work with. Teacher,
where are you staying? Come and see. Taste and see that the Lord
is good. In the years to follow, Coffin would become the Chaplain
at Yale and a national voice for justice in the name of Christ his
Lord.
The invitation to communion at the church we attended in Hawaii
two weeks ago reads as follows, “This is the table, not of
the Church, but of the Lord. It is made ready for those who love
him and who want to love him more. So, come, you who have much faith,
and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who
have not been here for a long time, you who have tried to follow
and you who have failed. Come, not because it is we who invite you:
it is our Lord. It is his will that those who want him should meet
him here.” John called him Lamb of God and they called him
teacher. They risked as much of themselves as they could to as much
of him as they could believe in. Of course they hadn’t had
the epiphany that was given to John; they hadn’t seen the
dove or heard the voice. But something happened while they were
admiring his furniture; they started out calling him teacher and
went away calling him Messiah, the Christ.
Joseph Campbell once said that
if you regularly present yourself to a place set aside for devotion,
sooner or later something will happen to you. People come to church
for all sorts of reasons, the fellowship, the music, the cookies
afterward. Some come who don’t really believe a word of it;
maybe they wish it was true but they know in their hearts it isn’t.
They come not because they believe but because they wish they could.
Those are the ones we want to come – and keep coming. Risk
as much of yourself as you can to as much of God as you can believe
in. You may want and expect just to see his residence but you’ll
end up with him taking up residence in your heart – the Lamb
of God who takes away the sin of the world – the Christ.
There are other nicknames in this story. Simon got nicknamed Peter
“the Rock” That stuck. Peter probably liked it, it sounds
like a professional wrestler. Peter’s brother didn’t
do so well. By the time the gospels were written down everyone knew
that Peter would become the super star, so Andrew is always identified
in relationship to him. Andrew is always referred to as Simon Peter’s
brother. He must have got tired of that. I have an older brother.
Growing up in a small town, I had the same teachers he had two years
later. Their faces would light up with recognition, “Oh, you’re
Don Morley’s little brother.” I hated that, “No,
you can call me The Rock.” But, they didn’t, they called
me “String bean” or “Bird legs” and mostly,
Don Morley’s little brother. It’s not easy to be identified
by your relationship to someone else. Henry Fonda once said in an
interview that he knew his career was over when a young fan came
running up to him and said, “Aren’t you Jane Fonda’s
father.” I heard the governor of Colorado speak a few years
ago. He said that he and his wife were very concerned that their
child would start to think and behave as privileged because he was
the child of the governor. So, his wife would recite it to their
son frequently, “You’re just Billy, you’re not
the governor’s son, just Billy.” Then one day a news
reporter came up to Billy and said, “Aren’t you the
governor’s son” and he said, “That’s not
what my mother says.”
Andrew was Simon Peter’s brother but more importantly he was
identified by his relationship to Christ the Lamb of God. Maybe
the most important thing he ever did as a disciple was to go get
his brother and introduce him the Jesus. Maybe the most important
thing any of us will ever do or ever can do is to go get our brothers
and sisters and friends and acquaintances and tell then that we
have found the Christ. Just make the introduction; the Spirit will
do the rest – turning cautious skeptics into super star disciples,
that’s his specialty.
That’s what Andrew did, one of the two disciples who was loaned
to Jesus by John the Baptist. But what about the other one –
old what’s-his-name? We don’t know his name, the story
never says. One of the first two people in the world to recognize
Jesus as the Christ and he is un-named, eternally anonymous. Not
only no nickname but no name at all. That’s how it is in the
church; some of us get our names known and get the acknowledgement
of the crowds. There are some superstar preachers whose names are
nationally known. There was a time when Billy Graham was one of
the three most recognized people in the world. I get my share; my
name is printed in the order of worship, says Senior Pastor. But
most of the work in the church local or universal is done by anonymous
disciples. They offer the word of witness and the cup of cold water
in the name of Christ. They put a portion of their hard earned income
in the plate. They make the introductions that lead to epiphanies
and they disappear before the crowd gathers. That’s how the
church grows and how the kingdom comes, then and now. They were
originally nicknamed “People of the Way.” Later they
were called “Jesus People.” O, there are the nicknames
we try to ignore: “Jesus Freaks,” “Bible Thumpers.”
The Charismatics are “Happy Clappies” and the Presbyterians
are the “Frozen Chosen.” We prefer our corporate nickname.
We are “Christ Followers,” “The Christed Ones,”
“Christians.” That’s who we are; that’s
our nickname. We are the ones from this generation who commit as
much of ourselves as we can to as much of God as we We will keep
a few months up here at the site.
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