Naming Rites

Avoiding sermon prep, an interesting insight in the Feminist Companion to Genesis. Some ideas in this volume seem a bit far-fetched but one that really did jump out at me was the following.

We all know the patricarchal structure of Genesis and the Abramic stories...yet when you look closely there is an incredible amount of matriarchal naming going on in Genesis. When we'd expect that the development of the patriarchal lineage and the blessing to be spoken and passed down clearly from Abraham - it turns out to be Sarah who names Issac. Considering I'm looking at the whole Hagar and Ishmael vs Sarah and Issac situation in the service. it struck me the power of the naming by Sarah of Issac - he is named for her laughter.

Anyway it got me thinking about the power of naming. My house has been blessed by two visits from the other Jeramie this week. His calls of "auntie del, auntie del" have replaced the earlier wordless squeels and have lightened the house. I smiled, it was the name I selected for myself for the first Jem to use when he was that age. But it wasn't to be ... he named me all by himself - and so Larli came to be. As that Jem explained to his preschool teacher: "no, that no my auntie, that my larli"

It seems we spend so much time discovering our identity but we don't generally get to name ourselves at all. We are named by our relationships and if, like me, we're really lucky the name reflects something unique. A moment from time that gets packed into our identity and carried forward with us.

Issac - laughter - you could have done much worse!