We Are Named

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus asks his disciples who others say that he is and then he asks them directly, "Who do you say that I am?" Peter replies, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God." Jesus then gives Simon, the name Peter, for Petros or "Rock."

The Rev. James Ligget has written of this passage saying,

So, in spite of movies to the contrary, Peter really was Rocky I, the first person to have that name. Remember that names and naming were very important in the Hebrew mind—a name was the summary of the existence of the thing named. To change a person’s name—as God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, and Jacob’s name to Israel—was to alter fundamentally that person’s identity, relationships, and mission. To give a person his or her name was, in some way, to shape their destiny.

It still works that way: to confess Jesus as the Christ is to be changed, it is to be given, by him, a new name—it is to be given identity and mission in relationship to Jesus. That was acted out visibly with Peter—it continues to be true among us. The service of Baptism in our Prayer Book is probably the finest such service the church has used for 1,500 years. But there is one part of the old service, the service in the 1928 Prayer Book, that seems even more appropriate. That was where, immediately before the Baptism itself, the sponsors were asked to “name this child.” (Remember that? [BCP, 1928, p. 279]) This made great and wonderful good sense. When it comes to our true identity, the name of every Christian, like Peter’s name, is given in Baptism as a response to the gift of faith. That’s why our first name is also called our “Christian name.”

And part of our name, part of the identity we receive from the Lord, is the same as Peter’s. He is Rocky I, the first rock of the edifice the Lord (not Peter, but the Lord) is building. That structure is the church. Peter is the first stone of a building, the first called for the new Israel, the first named for a great task. Upon him and the other Apostles, upon their faith and upon their person, Christ builds his church. And so the Lord continues to build it. We are, in this respect, like movie sequels. You are Rocky 5 billion, or whatever—same director, same plot, larger cast. We continue to be called to be who Peter was called to be. Through us, and by us, Christ continues to build his church. Through us, Christ continues to be present to his world.

The fulltext of his sermon is online here: We Are Named