Luke 6:12-16 and Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
A list of names. If I asked you to name off the 12 disciples, how many could you name off? Most of us can name some of them. Not many of us can name all of them. Even if you memorized them in Sunday School or confirmation, not many of us can name all of them. Some of those we hear a lot about, some we hear virtually nothing about. We remember Peter and James and John, and a few others.
How many of you remember anything about Judas, the son of James?
What is in a name? Why list all these names? None of the people listed were people of influence or high standing in their communities of that day. Maybe Luke, the Gospel writer here, wants to simply remember these dozen men. Maybe he wants to get the names out in case the readers of his Gospel know some of them, or some of the families. Maybe it is simply to show us that anyone can be a follower of this Jesus.
The word disciple means a learner. So, if we are learning anything in our lives, we are disciples. The word apostle means one who is sent. There were a bunch of people we followed Jesus. Only 12 of them were set apart to continue the ministry of Jesus.
What is in a name? As the 12 apostles are listed in Luke, qualifiers are listed for some of them. Simon, whom Jesus named Peter, his brother Andrew, James and James the son of Alphaeus. We need to remember that there are 2 named James as well as a second Simon who was called the Zealot. And maybe the most important may be that there is Judas, the son of James and Judas Iscariot. And to be sure we notice the difference; Judas Iscariot is labeled as the one who became a traitor. And Matthias, who replaces Judas Iscariot, has no description of who he is at all, other than he had been following Jesus all along.
What is in a name? We use names for a lot of purposes. Of course we use names to identify people. We also use names to describe people, as we identify them. Like when I say, "this is Nell, my wife." Instead of just saying, "this is Nell." In New Ulm, Minnesota, I often have no name, but am recognized as "Karen's brother". In Cavalier I am often known as Logan and Lincoln's grandpa, or Kari's dad. The name is important, but sometimes we want to add something as a description or title to be sure people really understand who the person is.
What is in a name? All my life, my sisters and I have known that we were Danish. Both of our grandfathers were born in Denmark. The parents of both of our grandmothers were born in Denmark. My sister, Shirley, did a bunch of genealogy searching. She followed, as best she could, the family trees of our grandparents back a few hundred years.
To do that, she needed to follow the names. That was not always easy. Sometimes it was difficult because someone had changed their name, or had a different last name than the parent whose name Shirley was trying to follow. Sometimes the names were just too common.
We found that in many of the old records in Denmark, the people were not just listed by name, but also by occupation. My grandpa Justesen is specifically listed as a farmer. My grandpa Lindorff is specifically listed as a blacksmith. I was in Denmark recently. It was nice to drive through the farmland and picture my grandpa growing up there, farming there, and then coming to Minnesota. And to look at the ocean, a long and narrow and shallow bay, and to think of my grandpa working on ships there, before coming to Minnesota.
Following a name can get us to a person, their family, where they live or lived, what they did. It can tell us a lot about what was important to that person, even what was important to that family. It
can guide us toward a person or place or family. It could make us want to run from or hide from a person or place or family.
Over the years we forget a lot of the details of events that are going on around us. It is good when we have some of those important things recorded, so that we can remember. In that case, a name can be a very important thing in helping us to remember. It is so important to our remembering that we often get frustrated when we can't remember a name.
What's in a name? We have listings of the 12 apostles. We try to honor and remember those names.
Lately we have heard a lot of stories on the news of problems with airplanes. I remember a story of a new passenger plane being introduced. There was a big media event. Lots of media people and local dignitaries were invited to take the first flight on this new plane.
Soon after takeoff the voice of the pilot came over the intercom. "For those of you on the left side of the plane, you might see flames coming out of that engine. But don't worry, we can extinguish the fire. We can easily continue our flight safely". A few minutes later "For those of you sitting by the center aisle you may notice a crack developing that is running down the aisle. No need to worry. We can safely fly with no problem." A few minutes later, "for those of you on the right, you can see flames coming out of the right engine. We can easily extinguish the fire and make it back to the airport." A few minutes later, "For those of you sitting by the aisle, you can see that the crack has become much bigger. You can look through the crack and see the ocean. If you look closely, you can see a small boat. In that boat is someone waving to you. That is me, your pilot. Now is the time to worry."
What is in a name? When the angel appeared to Joseph and told him of the coming birth of Jesus, the angel said that Jesus would be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.
What's in a name? That pilot would never be called "with us".
And Jesus would never be leaving us when a problem is arising. Rather, Jesus is with us.
What's in a name? How will we be remembered? No matter how we are remembered, may we always remember that God is with us.
Amen.