Acts 4.5-12
1 John 3.16-24
John 10.11-18
The high priest asked, ‘By what power or name did
you do this?’ (Acts 4.7)
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The first passports that bear the name of King
Charles III, rather than the late Queen Elizabeth, are now being issued.
And on the inside of the first page is a statement
that says:
His
Britannic Majesty's Secretary of State requests and requires in the name of His
Majesty all those whom it may concern to allow the bearer to pass freely
without let or hindrance…
There’s an interesting phrase: ‘…in the name of His
Majesty…’.
It sounds a bit old fashioned and antiquated: the
King’s name is invoked as the authority by which his subjects should be able to
travel freely.
Many things in our country are done in the name of
the King.
What we have in the Acts of the Apostles, our first
reading this morning, is the apostle Peter who says he has acted, and now
speaks, in the Name of Jesus, who is King of kings and Lord of lords.
What Peter had done – and for which he was now on
trial before the high priest - was to heal a man, disabled from birth, and
speak about the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.
This brought about scandal for the Jewish
authorities and, as they were interrogating the followers of the Crucified and
Risen Lord Jesus, their question was, ‘by what power or by what name did you do
this?’
It sounds like an odd question.
It is we moderns who seek to do everything in our
own name.
In some ways that is good.
If I act in my own name then I am taking
responsibility for my actions.
But when we only act in our own name then we are
suggesting that we have no frame of reference other than ourselves.
Putting ourselves at the centre of things the
logical conclusion is that we put ourselves at the centre of day to day affairs
It is the ultimate in self-autonomy.
That was the aim of the so-called Enlightenment of
the eighteenth century: ‘I think therefore, I am’.
It’s about defining everything on my own terms when
I act in my own name.
That is not the way of the Christian, as shown by
Peter in the reading, and the saints throughout the ages.
The Christian acts in the Lord’s name.
How do we begin each Eucharist? ‘In the name of the
Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.’
Frankly, that’s how we should begin every day,
committing the new day, our tasks and our lives to God, our Maker and Redeemer,
in whose name we are baptised.
Try that tomorrow morning when you wake up, make the
sign of the cross and say ‘In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit.’
Do it when you undertake a new task, when you face a
difficult challenge, when you have to break bad news, when you have to speak
the truth in a hostile situation.
As Christians we are to speak and act in God’s name.
The Name is an important motif in the Bible.
Remember Moses at the Burning Bush:
But
Moses said to God, ‘If I come to the Israelites and say to them, “The God of
your ancestors has sent me to you”, and they ask me, “What is his name?” what
shall I say to them?’ God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’ (Exodus 3.13,14)
From that encounter Moses acted in the name of the LORD to claim freedom for his enslaved people
the Israelites.
This name, ‘I am who I am’, is invoked by Jesus
because he acts in the Name of the Lord,
but is the Lord in his divine nature:
that’s why we get the sayings, ‘I am
the bread of life’ (John 6.35), ‘I am
the way, the truth and the life’ (John 14.6) and, today, ‘I am the Good Shepherd’ (John 10.11).
Jesus, who is God, acts in God’s Name – I am who I
am – there is no other authority by which he acts and by which he saves and
gives life.
It’s only because he is God that he can act
authentically in his own name.
For us mortals we can only act in another name,
otherwise we are uncommitted hirelings.
It’s a blunt question to consider: are you ready to
be more than Christian in Name Only?
For the Christian the Name in which we act is always
and only Christ.
Anything that distracts from this is corrosive to
our nature, who we are made to be.
That is what Peter is proclaiming when he says at
the end of the first reading, ‘There is salvation in no one else, for there is
no other name under heaven given among mortals by which we must be saved’.
(Acts 4.12)
Not only do we act in Christ’s name, we are saved by
his name.
This is what St Paul is articulating as he writes in
his Letter to the Philippians:
at
the name of Jesus
every knee should bend,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and
every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (Philippians
2.10,11)
That’s the origin of the laudable practice of bowing
one’s head when the Name of Jesus is spoken.
It is in his name we are saved, when we are named
before him as his beloved child at our baptism: I have called you by your name,
says the Lord.
It is in his name that we are to act and think and
speak.
And as a hymn puts it, ‘His Name shall stand forever
| That Name to us is Love.’ (Hail to the Lord’s Anointed, New English Hymnal,
51).
Go back to our second reading from the first letter
of John to see what this looks like: living in his Name, living in Love, is how
we fulfil the commandments.
John writes: ‘And
this is [God’s] commandment, that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus
Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us.’ (1 John 3.23).
‘That Name to us is Love’.
When you travel abroad King Charles’s name will get
you through passport control.
When you live your life as a Christian the Name of
Jesus is your power and hope and salvation for your journey, the journey to
abundant life he leads you on as the Good Shepherd.
Almighty God,
you gave Jesus the name that is above every name:
give us grace faithfully to bear his Name,
and to hear his call as our Good Shepherd,
to lead us to the table you spread before us.
In his name we pray.
Amen.
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