December 2013
St. Mark’s News Volume 16/Issue 11
From the Assistant Rector The recent birth of a friend’s newest baby reminded me how significant picking a name can be. Our friends wanted their baby to have a name worth announcing! After weighing the options, narrowing them down to a short list, and mulling things over, everyone marveled that the parents did indeed pick the perfect name. Names matter. Parents have a sense that a good name inaugurates a good life; a name can affect a child’s future in uncanny ways. I know this was on our minds when Suzanne and I contemplated the names of both our boys. She and I loved the name Luke, and as we shared our reasons, we began to wonder if our firstborn was meant to have the name Luke. By the time our second was to be named we had similar feelings about the name Noah. We have speculated that rather than naming either one, we actually finalized something already chosen for them. Indeed, we gave careful consideration to our roles as heralds. One’s name is an introduction to the world. Our names have a way of honoring our past. Equally so, names can stake a claim as to our place throughout our lives, and they can speak to where we are going. As our days and lives unfold, our names have something to say about how it will happen. The name Travis means “crossroads.” This In this Issue single word has painted a huge swath of my life thus far; I have been living From the Assistant Rector ......... 1 out this characteristic of my personality for as long as I can remember. Vestry Highlights ........................ 2
Foreshadowing one’s fate through one’s character is certainly a Gospel Advent Schedule ........................ 3 feature. In thinking about the incarnation…anticipating the Savior being Christmas Schedule ................... 4 Outreach .................................... 4 born among us, Matthew’s story of naming Mary and Joseph’s baby is Parish Life .................................. 5 wonderfully telling. Brother Curtis Almquist writes, “in naming, things and Music Notes ............................... 7 people are set apart. Our name is what uniquely distinguishes us from Christian Formation .................... 8 others, our name also unites us to others insofar as others will call us by Caffeine Ministry ........................ 9 name and therefore can know us and have a certain claim on us.” (Twelve Parishioner Highlights .............. 10 Days of Christmas; Unwrapping the Gifts, p. 54). A careful reading of Celebrations ............................. 10 Christmas Eve ROTA ............... 11 Matthew’s lineage (Ch. 1) for baby Jesus, one sees that he was distinguished ROTA ....................................... 12 before he was even born and named. Jesus carries the past with him; indeed he draws forth the past into his every breath, his every action, his every word…but it is not what we might think. Embedded within the long list of names are four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “the wife of Uriah.” These women are not found in Luke’s lineage (the only other lineage we have for Jesus). This list is a heralding in its own right, but even before Jesus’ name is ever called out his past has helped define him for the world. These women do not carry stellar reputations. Tamar tricked her father-in-law into continuing the family line, Rahab was the prostitute in Jericho, Ruth was the widowed foreign daughter-in-law to Naomi, and Bathsheba was the married mistress of King David. While a scribe might normally seek to cover up such familial “indiscretions,” these women are kept in full view. We can only assume this is done on purpose. The significance of God’s name, Jesus, and his future is somehow linked to these names. Of all the names in this
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