A friend suggested I set up a TikTok account. She assured me that there were inspirational people I could follow and no shortage of videos that would make me laugh. So I downloaded the app, started clicking through the boxes to set up an account…until I got stuck on a basic question: What should my name be?
It should be simple, right? It is my NAME after all. But let’s face it: in different settings we go by different names. Names do more than help others pick us out from a crowd of strangers. They say a lot about us: our relationships, identities, achievements, connections. They situate us in the world.
Simple things like matching names to faces has gotten trickier over the last few years. We’ve mostly seen only eyes and foreheads of those with whom we’ve shared indoor space at ELPC. As a congregation, it is even likely that we have seen more names printed at the bottom of a box on a Zoom screen since March 2020 than we have learned with a smile and a handshake. People we could once recognize by the smell of their perfume, sound of their shoes on the marble floor of the hallway, or the wave of their hair don’t seem quite as familiar anymore.
This month will be the first time since 2019 that we will start off our Church School year with classes for persons of all ages, an open Nursery, and breakfast to share. We will see smiles and maybe even shake hands (or at least fist bump!); we’ll notice how tall kids have grown and hear voices that were once familiar sing alongside us in worship again.
For many of us, this season of re-introduction to church and to one another will bring joy. For some (even for the joyful!), it might bring worry, apprehension, or a feeling of tenuous hope. COVID is not gone. We as a church remain in transition. And the circumstances of the world often cause us to fear.
Yet as I work with Sara and Megan to ensure that there are enough sticky nametags, attendance sheets, and registration forms for Rally Day, I am reminded of the words of the prophet Isaiah, spoken to God’s people in a season of disorientation and dis-ease saying:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you;
I have called you by name, you are mine.”—Isaiah 43:1b
God reminds God’s people that God knows them, has called them, and claimed them. Regardless of the societal and personal forces at play, God situates God’s people with a spoken name that identifies them as God’s own.
God’s assurance is ours, too. As we gather together once more this September, reclaiming “old” traditions and starting some new practices, we are reminded that regardless of the events and challenges of the past year(s), we remain God’s own. God has called US by name. God is with US. We are God’s.
May we meditate on these promises as we check our name on a Church School attendance sheet, sign up for a mission work group during the Church Life Extravaganza, or print our name on a nametag for worship. As you share your name or learn the name of another, may we hear God’s assurance echo to us, too: “Don’t worry. I’ve got you. I have called YOU by name. YOU (individually and communally) are MINE.”
—Pastor Heather