What's in a Name?

Sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

on Matthew 9:35 - 10:4, Jesus teaches and preaches, heals, and sends. The Twelve disciples are named.

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• You may have figured out that I like to know what's behind word meanings. That applies to names, too.
Kerry = "dark haired." 

Melissa = "honeybee."

Alexandra = "Defender of humankind"

We celebrated a wedding yesterday at First Church.
Mike and Kim.

Michael = strong protector, after the archangel.
It means Who is like God?

Kimberly = royal fortress, meadow. 

So Mike's home is Kim's castle. :)

Jesus = “God is Salvation”...

• “What's in a name?” is a fun place to start, a tip of the hat to Shakespeare, but another good question is 

“What do you want on your Tombstone?” (the phrase made famous by Tombstone pizza, playing on the more serious question what do you want your gravemarker to say after you've died...)

Name the epitaph: ***
- That's all, folks
- The best is yet to come
- Author of the Declaration of American Independence,
of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom,
and Father of the University of Virginia
(seriously, how's THAT for a tombstone?)

Many are basic. Name, year of birth dash year of death.

• How might you be remembered after your death?
By your years, by your family, by your deeds?
How much time do you spend living that?
How much time do you spend living other things?

• The Gospel of Matthew was written 50 years after The Twelve disciples have been named, and a good number may already be dead – tradition is that after Judas, ten of the eleven remaining disciples were martyred for their faith, several of them crucified upside-down since they did not feel worthy to die in the same manner as Jesus. The Apostle John is said to have lived until the year 100 or later, and traditionally is the only one not martyered).

“The Twelve” are remembered 2,000 years later...

Because they followed Jesus. Because they said Yes.
Because they gave their lives in service and in witness.

• What do I hope to be remembered for? Being a disciple.

• Hymn 2172 We Are Called

*** (by the way, the famous epitaphs belong to Mel Blanc, Frank Sinatra, and Thomas Jefferson)