August 12: What's in a name?

“But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit” (Act 13:9 NRS)

So I’m staying with the whole two name thing today, but with a different focus. I can’t move beyond this text without spending some time reflection on this pivotal moment. We talk a lot about Paul’s Damascus road experience of being blinded by Christ and turned from zealot Jewish persecutor of Christians to the greatest Christian missionary in the Bible. But it is here in this text, several chapters later, that we find the consummation of that transition, for when this text says, “Saul, also known as Paul” he forever changes identities. Paul is never again called Saul, just as he has never (in scripture) been called Paul before this text. For accuracy sake I will say that the name Saul is used three more times in Acts, but it always used by Paul when talking about being blinded by the light on the road to Damascus.

Clearly:
Saul is who Paul used to be – before Christ.
Paul is who Saul becomes – through Christ.

So, what is in a name?

In what is probably one of the best known scenes of Shakespeare we come across this same conversation. Juliet wants Romeo to leave behind his identity as a Montague in order that they can be together in their forbidden love for one another. Here is but a part of that great interplay:

JULIET
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I'll no longer be a Capulet.

ROMEO
[Aside] Shall I hear more, or shall I speak at this?

JULIET
'Tis but thy name that is my enemy;
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What's Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
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
Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,
And for that name which is no part of thee
Take all myself.

ROMEO
I take thee at thy word:
Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;
Henceforth I never will be Romeo.

Romeo and Juliet (II, ii)

What is in a name? Surely more than Romeo and Juliet understand. There is a great power in names. And “changing” one’s name is no easy task – it is rewriting the unfolding story of our lives.

This is why figures like Peter and Paul stand out so much in the biblical tradition - like Abram (to Abraham) before them – they have their names changed. Their lives are rewritten – transformed – by God at work in them.

This is discipleship that leads to apostleship: opening ourselves to God’s transformation, naming our reality and our identity in and through God.

When we take up the child to be baptized and ask the parents, “What is this child’s name?” It is as if we say, everything is in our names… and this child’s name is about to change – God’s transformative Spirit is dwelling in your child and naming this child, and that name is of critical importance, because from this point on this child carries the name of God: Christian – follower of Christ.

To play with Romeo and Juliet a bit – and slightly unfair to them and their love… the struggle we have in our lives as disciples and apostles is that there are many things that ask us to deny our name. Peter and Paul – as we see them in the second half of their lives after being transformed by God’s Spirit - stand as great mentors and witnesses of faith because they stayed true to their name.

O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name…

Where do you find yourself tempted to deny your name?
What places and people create a struggle to live always as one who bears Christ’s name?
How is God inviting you to join in rewriting the unfolding story of your life?

Naming God,
You have named and claimed us in baptism for the glory and revelation of your kingdom. Help us bear your name with grace and love in all that we do and in all that we are and in all that we say. Amen.