“Name-dropping”

By Rev. Michael Stonhouse

Meditation – Monday, July 29, 2024

Romans 16: 1-16 (Forward, p. 92) CEV p. 1187

Here the apostle Paul does something that some Christian leaders consider to be a wee bit dangerous. He sends greetings to the church at Rome, but actually greets certain people by name. Some have thought this to be a bit ‘dangerous’: what if he leaves out someone and that person ends up feeling hurt or miffed? Paul has no such compunctions.

He mentions twenty-seven people by name, and others by relationship. It is interesting: some he lists as relatives, some as friends and some as fellow workers. And with some of them, he goes into further detail:

-Phoebe, a leader in the church at Cenchreae, who was, in fact one of his own benefactors.

-Priscilla & Aquila, who worked together with him and indeed, even risked their lives for him.

-Epaenetus: the first convert in Asia.

-Andronicus and Junias, who were in jail with him.

-the mother of Rufus, who was like a mother to him, Paul.

And all through this list, he says that certain people worked hard for the Lord or was a faithful servant of the Lord or has faith in the Lord.

For me, this begs a question: if we, you and I, were to come up with a list of those who have been especially helpful to us at some point in our lives, people that we would want to say thank you to, who would we list? I think that this would be a useful exercise, and a wonderful way of remembering and celebrating their contributions. And then, as an outgrowth of this, to think about who we have been a blessing to, and how, and then, to try to be more intentional in this.

Forward notes: “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you” (verse 16).

“I’ve always liked to visit new churches, but sometimes I would get nervous about what to expect at the peace. In college, I worshipped at a parish near my apartment whose services were in Hungarian (a language I do not speak), and I would mumble my way through, telling others what I hoped was ‘peace be with you’ in that language. In Pittsburgh, I once saw people on Super Bowl Sunday wearing football jerseys, hopeful for a big win, and gleefully greeting each other, ‘Peace be with you … and here we go, Steelers!’ When I visit my family in Tennessee, we attend a parish where the entire congregation steps out into the aisle at the peace, and it typically does not end until everyone there has hugged everyone else. I often joke that parishes are either the kind where everyone hugs everyone or where people just shake the hands of the person on each side of them. However we embrace one another, that moment both reflects and pushes us out of our cultural comfort zone, and it is holy!”

Moving Forward: “What does it look like for you to meet all the members of the church in the world with a holy kiss?”