LENT DAY 29: Names Matter

 Day 29 Monday - Mar 27, 2023; Mar 18, 2024; Apr 7, 2025

Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? -1 Corinthians 1:13

I remember the first time I ever had a class with another Nile. It was really weird, because my whole life, whenever a teacher said my name that teacher meant me. Not Jimmy; not Susan; but me. You always knew when you were in trouble when mom said your first and middle name, as if to be extra clear who she was talking to. There would be no mistaking it. 

At your baptism, your name is spoken: first, middle, and last. No mistaking it. God’s speaking now to you. 

And when God speaks to you, the words spoken are now God’s name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This way there is no mistaking who is doing the speaking.

In baptism you are claimed for God. And there is no mistaking it. “Were you baptized in the name of Paul?” No. There were to be no factions in the church. We don’t belong to any specific group: not to this person, that denomination, or my race. No other identity was to rise above this, no name to matter more than the awesome name spoken over you. There's no mistaking where our allegiance belongs. As our baptismal liturgy puts it: you belong to Christ, in whom you have been baptized. 

One of baptism’s gifts is that it names you and so there is no mistaking it: in baptism God’s a-talkin to you. And the gift of God’s name is so there is no mistaking whose intentions for baptism will matter. Hint: it’s not Paul…

Jesus, I was baptized in your name. Let me never forget that. Give me faith to believe that I belong to you - body and soul - that I would never replace you in any petty way for my own purposes. You were crucified for me that I may be your own. Write your name on my heart today. Amen.

This post is a part of my daily Lenten devotional on Baptism. You can read more about it here.