Excerpt from Acts 13:1-12

"But Saul, also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked intently at him."

Reflection by Martin B. Copenhaver

Names are important.  A name is so much more than, say, a label attached to a jar.  We identify with our names.  In fact, I feel so closely identified with my name that if I had a different name I feel like I would be a different person.  And when we change our names, it usually marks a big change in one's life.  When our daughter Alanna was very young she could not pronounce her name, so she called herself "Lala," and so we did, too.  Then one day, when I called her Lala, she announced, "I am not Lala.  I am Alanna."  In that statement she was not only pronouncing her name, she was also announcing that she was now a big girl.  No one ever called her Lala again.

Saul had been a persecutor of Christians.  But then he had his own encounter with the Risen Christ, and his life was changed forever.  He too became a follower of the Way—just like those he had formerly persecuted.  The change was so dramatic and so complete that his old name simply no longer fit.  This new person needed a new name.  So he became known as Paul.

And when you or I are baptized we are given a new name, the name of Jesus Christ (in fact, some people speak of baptism as "christening"—literally, taking on the name of Christ).  In baptism his name is now part of your name.  How might that realization change the way you approach the day?

Prayer

O God, you call each of us by name, but you also give us a new name, the name of Jesus Christ.  Help me to live into—and up to—the implications of that name change.  Amen.

About the Author Martin B. Copenhaver is Senior Pastor, Wellesley Congregational Church, United Church of Christ, Wellesley, Massachusetts. He is the author, with Lillian Daniel, of This Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers.

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