Name CHange

Thursday, April 2

Readings: Gn 17:3-9; Jn 8:51-59

Quite a few years ago, I heard the spiritual, “If He Changed My Name” sung by my friend and Detroit jazz/gospel singer Ange Smith.  It’s a powerful song with lyrics that haunted and stirred me.  The song says, “I told Jesus it would be all right if he changed my name…” Check out Nina Simone’s version of the song here.

Names mean something.  They have power.  They have history.  They position us in the world.  Do you know what your name means or from where it originated?  How about your baptismal name (if you have one)?

We hear in the first reading, “No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham.”  This name change carries with it an identity change.  Abram takes on a new identity in God. This will mean something in the world and will absolutely affect his future.

Jesus, for his part, tells the crowds his name: I AM.  This sends them into a frenzy because he is claiming that his name is the same as the name given by God when God revealed God’s name to Moses (Exodus 3:14).

Clearly if we are to be a follower of Jesus, our name will need to change.  Not literally, of course, but our identity will need to shift.  And in the old spiritual, one of the verses says, “Jesus told me the world will be against me if he changed my name.”  Our ancestors in the faith knew that to take on the identity as a follower of Jesus puts us at odds with the empire – just as it put Jesus at odds with the empire of his time.  This is no small undertaking.

In numerous places in our scriptures, Jesus speaks of the costs of this way of life.  He asks his disciples things like, “Can you drink the cup I will drink, or be baptized with the baptism I will undergo (Mark 10:38)?” And we hear that because it was a demanding path, “many of his disciples turned back and no longer accompanied him (John 6:66).”

Following Jesus is not all or nothing, and I suspect that he would encourage us to get back on the path whenever we stray.  He never condemned or shamed anybody for mistakes.  But being in the company of Jesus should be changing us and challenging us as we go along.

For today, reflect upon your call from Jesus and what it means to be a follower in this moment in history.  What needs to be said?  What needs to be done?  What practices are required of us?