The power of the Name

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.