“What’s in a Name?”
Original sermon given on the Christmas Day, December 25, 2025 written and delivered by Pastor Jeff Leininger at First Saint Paul’s Lutheran Church.
Watch the sermon live.
“What’s in a Name?”
Isaiah 62.10-12
In the name of the Living God, and Christ, the newborn King. Amen.
What's in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call'd,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes [owns]
Without that title.[1]
I should be quoting the Bible and not Shakespeare on Christmas morning, but as our Christmas readings are full of names and titles, filled with meaning, I thought Juliet’s famous quote from Romeo and Juliet appropriate. What’s in a name?
What Juliet means by “a name by another name would smell as sweet…” is simply that what something is called, its label, is not nearly as important as what something is, its character. You can change the name, and the content remains the same. Would you agree? She wants Romeo to change his name (and his family), so that she can have his love. She believes that whatever he might be called, he’ll still remain the same Romeo.
Our congregation has been blessed with a number of new baby names this past year. One of the questions I love to ask couples as they prepare for baptism, is if there’s any special significance to their child’s name. For example, Kyle and Caroline Weber’s baby Catherine Ann shares a middle name with her mom. Sometimes it has to do with how the name itself sounds. Laurie and Mark Felix’s new baby boy’s name, Theodore Erik, is solid, not trendy, and given to cool nicknames like Theo, Teddy, or Ted. It also means “Gift of God,” which you can’t do better than that this time of year.
The biblical world would disagree with Juliet. Names were more than just a label attached to someone back then. They were supposed to convey who that person was — the depth of the reality of their identity. Think of the film Dances with Wolves. Kevin Costner’s character in that film is called that by the Native Americans because it’s what he did, and it was who he was: “Dances with Wolves.”
To make myself more relevant and not just stuck in the 90s, in the final, fiery scenes of Revenge of the Sith, Anakin Skywalker (cool name for a space traveler) becomes Darth Vader to signify the change in his new identity.
Similarly in the Bible, names were given to express something about that person: something both personal, but also theological. In the OT reading for today from Isaiah 62, the message of the gospel for the people of Israel is conveyed in what God will call them:
11 The Lord has proclaimed
to the end of the earth:
Say to daughter Zion,
“See, your salvation comes;
his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.”
12 They shall be called, “The Holy People,
The Redeemed of the Lord”;
and you shall be called, “Sought Out,
A City Not Forsaken.”
They get new names because of the renewal of the Lord’s promise to them: Holy People, Redeemed of the Lord, Sought Out/After, City Not Forsaken. (How’s that for the name of our next baby baptized at FSP: “City Not Forsaken”?)
These new names for God’s people were good news because the people had had different names before. Because of their sin, their disobedience, their turning away from the living God, their lives of darkness, they were called things like “Not My People” or “Abandoned” or “Forsaken of the Lord”. Who they had become in their sin, their disposition of wickedness towards God and towards one another, meant that they would wear names reflecting who they really were: “Forsaken of the Lord.”
So, let me ask you: if you wore a name this Christmas morning that really reflected who you were, what would it be? If the state of your relationship with God determined what you were called, how should I address you this morning? Wouldn’t that be something: if we called each other names according to where we’re at in our spiritual lives: “Good morning ‘Disgruntled with God’”; “Merry Christmas ‘Forgotten One’”; “Have a great new year ‘Disgruntled Soul’.”
The Christmas story is filled with names which are filled with meaning, and these names convey a new reality of the gospel. In today’s OT lesson, Isaiah proclaims the coming of the savior for all people to the ends of the earth, and it means that those who believe are now called “Redeemed and Sought After.” In one of the most famous prophecies of the Bible, Isaiah writes in chapter 9, “And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Isaiah calls the coming messiah these things because this is who Jesus really is for us and for all people.
In the Christmas Gospel accounts, he is called Jesus, why? Because he will save his people from their sin. Emmanuel means what? God with us. The word messiah means what? “Christ, Anointed one.” In fact, there is no title for Jesus in all of scripture which does not attempt to convey in human terms who he is, what he has done, and what he means for us.
Who is he? -- True God made flesh for us, entering in our fallen world to rescue and redeem.
What has he done? – Brought us into a new relationship, based not upon our faithfulness to him, but his towards us. His identity placed upon us.
What does this mean for us? – Our identity can no longer be in what others say about us; or what Satan, the accuser, says about us; nor even what we say about ourselves, no matter how incessant and irrational our criticism. It must be grounded in his name upon us.
When we were baptized, the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit was placed upon us. The strongest name. This is the truest testimony as to who we truly are. I am baptized. I belong to him. His name is upon me. His forgiveness and righteousness placed over me.
On this day of Christmas we celebrate, more than anything else, the new name given to us because of Jesus. We are his children, his redeemed ones. He broke into this dark world through the light of that first Christmas to change who we are, and what we are called, forever.
Come soon Lord Jesus. Merry Christmas
[1] William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act II, scene ii
