Release Date: November 11th, 2026What to Call Things
- by Thomas Reimer
At church these days, we often seem pulled between the creature comforts of tradition and things needing a refresh. ‘What to call things’ is a regular theme at committee: do we stick with the language everyone’s familiar with and doesn’t have to think too hard about, or do we try to find new terms that fit where we’re at a little bit better?
Our second hour for example: it’s always been ‘Adult Ed’ for the grownups and ‘Sunday School’ for the kids (maybe not ‘always’, but at least in recent memory). But that language is so classroomy, and who’s to say only adults can join in the programming? Our second hour coordinator, Ann, recently proposed just calling it all ‘second hour’, which feels like it gives us some needed maneuverability. But how to distinguish the youth class then? And what are ‘youth’ anyways?
What came to my mind that morning especially was the gift God gives humans of giving things names...
At one of our recent second hour sessions (for grownups but not exclusively), one of our members presented quite passionately on the topic of eating vegan, animal rights and what it means to include animals in our practices of nonviolence. Certainly a good prompt as we think about how we ‘work for peace’ this Remembrance Day. It was a session planned with a great deal of care, including conversations with some of the farmers in our congregation beforehand. Along with a lot of disturbing statistics, we were invited into some more philosophical question too, like whether animals deserve the same rights as humans, or are we distinct in some significant, essential ways? We didn’t have time to really get into it, but I’m sure many of us had thoughts of Genesis at that point, where it says that humans are ‘made in the image of God’, that we’ve been given ‘dominion’ over the things of this earth, etc. What came to my mind that morning especially was the gift God gives humans of giving things names (Gen 2:19). It’s a gift specific to humans, and I would say also a burden and maybe sometimes even a curse!
Maybe we’re created not in the image of some Latin taxonomist in the sky, but of the gardener who calls out to Mary by name in John 20...
The presenter mentioned that one of the true catalysts for his switch to veganism was getting to know his girlfriend’s bunny, and then adopting some further pets together. It has been an experience for him in just how individual animals are, how they each have their own quirks and idiosyncrasies, things our love really latches on to as we get to know them. And now I’m thinking about Genesis 2 like that. When God in the garden brings Adam each bird ‘to see what he would call them’, I could imagine him saying something like: ‘And henceforth thou shalt be called ‘chicken’, of the Order galliformes’ or something. But what if it’s proper names, more like ‘Hey Pam, come here — there’s something caught in your wattle!’ Maybe we’re created not in the image of some Latin taxonomist in the sky, but of the gardener who calls out to Mary by name in John 20, making her feel seen and known and loved, and calling her into further and deeper relationship.
And this Remembrance Day, may our gift for naming be part of our practice of working toward peace...
Is there a blessing I can ask for in all of this? Maybe, whether it’s pets, or our children, or what we call the span of time after a worship service, may the challenge of naming things be more gift than curse. And this Remembrance Day, may our gift for naming be part of our practice of working toward peace: may the names we give, and the names we call out, be pathways for a love that engages the many quirks of our own personalities and those of all our relations. May the names we see carved in stone monuments, or the names we call out today of our own family members lost in war, somehow rehumanize them to us. And beyond the giving and calling of names, let us also remember to ask the names of those we don’t yet know, who are destined to be our friends.
- Thomas Reimer is pastor at Rockway Mennonite Church