Naming Ceremony Sermon

Called by Name: A Sermon for the Blessing of a Life

There is something deeply human about the act of naming. Before a child ever speaks a word, before she takes a first step, before he understands anything about the world into which he has arrived, a name is given. That name will be spoken over this person thousands of times. It will be written on school papers and medical records and birthday cards. It will be called across a yard, whispered in prayer, and one day carved into stone. A name is not a small thing.

Today we gather for a naming ceremony, a moment when a family brings a child before God and before this community to say: this life belongs here, this person has a name, and we are asking for God's blessing on what we cannot yet see. That is a beautiful and serious thing to do. And the Scriptures have something profound to say about it.

We are going to spend our time in two passages this morning. The first is Isaiah 43, verses 1 through 7. The second is Luke 1, verses 57 through 66. Together they give us a picture of what it means to be known and called by God, to receive a name within a community, and to be blessed without anyone pretending to predict the future.

Let us begin in Isaiah 43.

Part One: God Calls Us By Name

The prophet Isaiah writes to a people in crisis. The nation of Israel has experienced devastating loss. Exile, displacement, the collapse of everything familiar. Into that darkness, God speaks words that have carried God's people for centuries. Listen to what the Lord says beginning in verse 1.

"Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine."

That phrase, I have called you by your name, is not poetic decoration. It is a theological claim. In the ancient world, to know someone's name was to know them personally, to have a relationship with them, to have authority and intimacy in their life. When God says I have called you by your name, God is saying: I know you specifically, not as a category, not as a number, not as a face in a crowd. I know you.

The passage continues. Verse 2 says: "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you, and the rivers will not overwhelm you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, and the flame will not burn you."

Notice what God does not promise here. God does not promise that there will be no waters. God does not promise that fire will never come near. What God promises is presence. I will be with you. That is the covenant promise at the center of Scripture, from the garden to the manger to the empty tomb to the final pages of Revelation. God with us. God for us. God present in every passage of life.

Verse 3 tells us why this is possible: "For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, and your Savior." The foundation of God's care is not our worthiness. It is God's own character as Redeemer and Savior. And verse 7 brings the passage to a close with this: "everyone who is called by my name and whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

Created for glory. Formed and made. These are not accidental words. They describe a God who is personally involved in the making of every human life. The child we celebrate today did not arrive here by chance. This life was formed and made, and the same God who spoke to exiled Israel speaks over every life that enters this world: I have called you by your name. You are mine.

Part Two: A Name Given In Community

Now we move to Luke 1, and we find ourselves in a very specific scene. Elizabeth has given birth to a son. This is the child who will grow up to be John the Baptist, the one who will prepare the way for Jesus. But at this moment, he is simply a newborn, and the community has gathered to celebrate and to name him.

Verse 59 tells us: "On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah, after his father." The assumption of the community was that this child would carry his father's name. That was the tradition. That was the expectation. But Elizabeth speaks up in verse 60: "No. He will be called John."

The community pushes back. Verse 61: "None of your relatives has that name." They turn to Zechariah, who has been unable to speak since the angel Gabriel appeared to him months earlier. He asks for a writing tablet and writes: "His name is John." And immediately, verse 64 tells us, his mouth was opened and his tongue set free, and he began praising God.

What happens next is striking. Verse 65 says: "Fear came on all those who lived around them, and all these things were being talked about throughout the hill country of Judea. All who heard about him took it to heart, saying, 'What then will this child become?'"

That question hangs in the air: What then will this child become? The community did not know. They could not know. They witnessed something extraordinary in the naming of this child, and they were left with wonder rather than certainty. They received the moment with reverence, not with a roadmap.

This is one of the most honest things the Bible shows us about welcoming a new life. We do not know what this child will become. We do not know the roads ahead, the struggles, the gifts, the calling. We hold this life with open hands and we say, as Zechariah said in his great song that follows in verses 67 through 79, that God is faithful, that redemption is real, that mercy is given to those who fear the Lord. We speak blessing over what we cannot fully see.

The Central Claim

Here is what these two passages together teach us on a day like today.

Every human life is known by God before it is known by anyone else. A name given in community is a recognition of that prior knowing. When we gather to name a child, we are not informing God of something new. We are joining in what God has already done. We are saying publicly what God has already said privately: this person exists, this person matters, this person is called.

And we do this in community because that is how God designed it. The child in Luke 1 was not named in private. The family, the neighbors, the community were present. They witnessed. They wondered. They would carry the story of this naming with them. That is what a community of faith does for a child. We become part of the story. We become witnesses to the life. We become people who will speak the name with love and pray it with hope.

Application: What We Are Doing Today

So what are we actually doing in a service like this one?

We are not guaranteeing outcomes. We are not predicting greatness or promising prosperity. We are not making a transaction with God in which we bring a child forward and receive a certificate of protection in return. The Bible does not teach that, and we should not pretend otherwise.

What we are doing is far more honest and far more beautiful. We are saying that this child has been received as a gift. We are placing this life before the God who made it and saying: we recognize that you knew this person before we did. We are giving this child a name, a name that will be spoken in love, a name that will be prayed over in the night, a name that connects this person to a family and to a community of faith.

We are also making a commitment. The community gathered here is not just an audience. We are witnesses. We are saying, by our presence, that we will be part of this child's life. We will be people who speak truth and show grace. We will be a congregation that this child can grow up in, question in, wrestle in, and perhaps one day come to faith in. That is not a small thing to offer. That is the gift of belonging.

For parents and family members: the naming of a child is an act of faith. You are acknowledging that this life is not ultimately yours to control. You are holding a person who will one day make his own choices, form her own beliefs, walk his own road. What you can give, and what no one can take away, is a foundation. A name spoken in love. A community gathered in prayer. A story that begins with God.

And for anyone here today who does not yet know the God who calls by name, hear this. The promise of Isaiah 43 is not only for Israel. It is fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who came to seek and to save the lost, who calls each of us by name, who laid down his life so that we might be called children of God. If you have never responded to that call, today is a good day to begin. Not because of the occasion, but because the invitation is always open. Come to the God who already knows your name.

A Closing Charge

We began with the observation that a name is not a small thing. We end there as well.

The name given to this child today will echo through a lifetime. It will be spoken in joy and in sorrow, in ordinary moments and in extraordinary ones. And underneath every speaking of that name, there is a deeper name, a prior knowing. The God of Isaiah 43 says: I have called you by your name. You are mine. I formed you and made you. I will be with you through the waters and the fire.

That is the word we carry out of this service. Not a prediction. Not a guarantee of ease. But a promise rooted in the character of God, sealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and spoken today over a life that has just begun.

Go in faith. Speak the name with love. And trust the God who knew it first.

Sources Consulted

Motyer, J. Alec. The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction and Commentary. InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Oswalt, John N. The Book of Isaiah: Chapters 40 to 66. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, 1998.

Bock, Darrell L. Luke: Volume 1, 1:1 to 9:50. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. Baker Academic, 1994.

Green, Joel B. The Gospel of Luke. New International Commentary on the New Testament. Eerdmans, 1997.

Brueggemann, Walter. Isaiah 40 to 66. Westminster Bible Companion. Westminster John Knox Press, 1998.

The Christian Standard Bible. Holman Bible Publishers, 2017.