For these few moments that we share I would like to preach with this thought in our minds, keeping the main thing the main thing.

The practice of name-dropping has been defined as “the habit of mentioning the names of famous or important people that you know or pretend to know, in order to make yourself seem more important.” The practice of name-dropping, given its moniker shortly after the Second World War in 1947 by a nameless reporter at the San Francisco Examiner, is intended to evoke feelings of awe and respect as one appeals to the authority and influence of another for the sake of their own aggrandizement.

When done well and under the most favorable of circumstances, name-dropping possesses the possibility of granting one access to power, resources, and opportunities that otherwise might not be accessible.

And throughout history we can find countless examples of name-dropping, of leveraging the name of another for the sake of your own benefit. None more interesting than the case of a man by the name of David Hampton who, in 1983, managed to deceive his way into the homes and pockets of New York City elites by falsely claiming to be the son of Academy Award-winning film icon Sidney Poitier.

It was through name-dropping that Hampton was able to convince Inger and Osborn Elliott that he was a student at Harvard University, studying alongside their daughter. It was through name-dropping that he was granted access to their home under the pretense of being mugged and in need of a place to stay. It was through name-dropping that he was able to elicit money from the couple after describing the inside of their neighbor Diane’s high-rise apartment and identifying the homes of John Kennedy Jr and others by name. And it was through name-dropping that he would be able to repeat the process over and over again, deceiving the Manhattan elites, until he was finally caught and imprisoned for two years before living the rest of his short-lived life in a twisted cycle of trouble and instability.

And when recounting the cleverness of the scheme, one Washington Post reporter notes in a 1983 article that, “the scam was successful largely due to the impostor’s familiarity with the upper-crust Manhattan set and (here it is) his ability to drop the right names.” Name-dropping was that alluring mechanism by which David Hampton used the name of that prestigious film icon to gain, for himself, measures of access, power, and adoration. A mechanism that was undoubtedly enticing to those seven Jewish exorcists in our text this morning.

Here it is in our text, these professional prognosticators of religious propriety had heard the whispers of how God was using Paul around the province of Asia. It’s been two years since Paul first returned to the area, and his arrival friends eventually grew to become the talk of the town. And after spending some time with some disciples who were students of Apollos, baptizing them and teaching them the ways of the Lord Jesus, Paul entered the synagogue for three months, the Bible says that he spoke out boldly and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. And ya’ll he was preaching about the kingdom of God and even when dislocated from this original congregation in response to some local opposition, he turned a lecture hall into a sanctuary of faithful contemplation as he continued for two years to preach and to advance the Good News of Jesus Christ so that everyone, the text says, both Jews and Greek, could hear the word of the Lord.

And we can imagine friends that it had to be a spectacular experience given the backdrop of the city. Ephesus, one of the most beautiful and thriving cultural hubs in the ancient world, surrounded by towering pillars, statues in homage to various deities, and such breathtaking structures as the Grand Theater, dominating the city’s landscape with its roughly 25,000 seating capacity, adorned with its elaborate columns, statues, and reliefs which added to the grandeur of the setting – a space that reflected the cultural mood of the city, a space that reflected the cultural mood within its structure, the social, religious, and political ideologies of the time as they played out in real time through exhilarating debate, stimulating lectures, memorable entertainment, and elaborate festivals.

I’m trying to paint the picture for you friends because not far from this site would be one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, the Temple of the Greek goddess Artemis, around whose myth the local and tourists alike fashioned their social and political identities. The grandeur of which served as a reminder of the significance of the religious attitude of the time and space where there was no separation between religious, political, and social life.

And thus, it was no wonder friends, that the influence of the name of Jesus, being preached by Paul, was a matter of interest and curiosity for those seven Jewish exorcists. In an environment known for its emphasis on education and magic, where the city-state legitimated and mediated all religious activity so that honoring the gods and those who served them was thought to bring one prosperity and notoriety, it’s no wonder why these traveling exorcists were enticed by what they were hearing was happening when Paul preached the name of Jesus.

Evidently, they’d heard that when Paul spoke the name of Jesus, people who were sick in their bodies were healed and made whole. They’d heard that when Paul spoke the name of Jesus, people who were afflicted with evil spirits were delivered and set free. They’d heard that when Paul preached the name of Jesus, people with preexisting conditions were healed without a premium. They’d heard that when Paul preached the name of Jesus, people who were illegally detained by agents of evil were delivered and set free.

And while the text says that it was God who worked these miracles through Paul by the authority of Jesus, these exorcists only know that what Paul was doing led to his name being circulated around the streets. And they thought they could do what Paul did, without knowing who Paul knew.

The text says that they “tried to use, they tried to drop, the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’” And the text says that as a result, the evil spirit spoke back to them and said, “‘Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you?’ Then the man with the evil spirit friends leapt on them, mastered them all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded.”

In other words ya’ll, the text shows us that they had the right rhetoric but the wrong relationship. That when Paul preached the name, the name of the Jesus that he was in relationship with, God worked extraordinary miracles through him and other people got free. But they thought they could use the name of Jesus as an object to achieve their personal ambitions.

They thought they could use the name of Jesus to make a name for themselves. They thought they could use the name of Jesus as a cloak for their own twisted and perverse ideologies. They thought they could use the name of Jesus as a smokescreen for their desire to perpetuate the social order of their day. They thought they could use the name of Jesus to turn pulpits into platforms in order to make their name great. They thought they could use the name of Jesus to mask their self-satiating desire to “get their name out there” instead of letting their gifts make room for them. They thought they could use the name of Jesus to cover up their desire for a self-satiating religion that justifies their own prosperity while impeding on the ability of others to flourish.

I’m trying to tell you friends they did not realize that the miracles they were hearing about were the fruit of Paul’s relationship with the Jesus that they did not know. They did not realize that the power of Paul’s preaching, the power of Paul’s work in the world, the power that Paul had access to, was for the betterment of those around him and not for himself. And because they thought they could objectify the name of the Lord Jesus as something to be used for their prosperity and not for the restoration of others, they found out that it only invited harm to themselves.

And it teaches us friends those of us who would dare to profess the name of Jesus that “Relationship with Jesus Christ, alone, enables people of faith to mediate God’s transformative power and testify to the supremacy of God’s liberative intentions.” I said that too fast. I’ll say it again. The text friends teaches us today that relationship with Jesus Christ, alone, enables people of faith to mediate God’s transformative power and to testify to the supremacy of God’s liberative intentions.

In other words, you can have all the religious rhetoric you want, you can have all the charisma and the flair that you want, you can possess all the rhetorical prowess that moves people to smile and feel good on the inside, but the true power that comes through relationship with Jesus is only evidenced in how you help somebody else.

And that’s why I like the words of my elders and my ancestors who would say something like this, “If I can help somebody as I travel along, if I can help someone with a word or a song, if I can help somebody from doing wrong, then my living shall not be in vain.”

It almost seems oxymoronic to declare that believers need an authentic relationship with Jesus. It almost seems paradoxical to suggest that people of faith need an authentic encounter with this Jesus Christ.

But friends, we are living in a time in which the name of Jesus has been objectified as if it were some magic incantation that a person can use to bring glory to themselves and to make their own name great. We are living in a time in which name-dropping the name of Jesus is the hinge upon which the door to power, platforms, and self-aggrandizement swings. But in this society where there are those who weaponize the name of Jesus against the most vulnerable within our communities, those of us who dare to claim a relationship with Jesus do not have a right to capitulate to the very same practices of the empire that have the appearance of power but the impact of predation.

In a world where folks claim to be a Christian in one breath while in the other, they affirm bills that further inhibit the possibility of healing. We need more people of faith who truly know Jesus. In a time in which people who claim to be Bible-believing, church-going Christians can, with the same claim in their social media profiles and placed as a bumper sticker on their car, gut and undermine the rights of people of color to vote for and elect their own representatives – a fight that was fought with the blood and tears of our ancestors. Friends we need more people of faith who truly know Jesus. In a world in which folks can lift their voice and sing to the God they cannot see, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty” and with that same voice speak ill over their neighbor whom they see every day. Friends I’m trying to tell you that we need more people of faith who truly know Jesus.

And I know that it is popular to talk about relationship over religion in this current iteration of social media quotable faith but hear me friends I’m not using this idiom with careless legalistic intention. But I want to suggest to us today that true faith is not about pietistic performance that carries the outward appearance of relationship but at its core is a selfish, self-aggrandizing, individually serving set of beliefs. I’m not talking about a religious system that on the surface looks like it is grounded in relationship but secretly aims to position us as moral exemplars who have “earned” the right to tell everybody else what’s wrong with them.

But I’m talking about a prophetic embodiment that lives in the very relationship we claim to have even when it does not benefit us. I’m talking about a prophetic embodiment that is submitted to God’s intentions because it understands that the consequence of professing the name of Jesus is not that it makes your name any greater, but that it makes you a vessel of God’s restorative intentions.

Because here it is friends it recognizes that any deed that elevates your name but doesn’t lead to the restoration of others falls short of God’s intentions. Anytime the work of your calling becomes about making your name great instead of feeding the hungry and clothing the naked, then friends we have fallen short of God’s intentions. Because the intentions of God my friend, the intention of God’s power through the name of Jesus is not the elevation of self-interest but the intention of God’s power at work through Jesus is the restoration of those who are in need.

I’m talking about a prophetic embodiment that recognizes the gaps within our profession because we understand that acts of domination that are done in the name of Jesus always expose the gaps between our proximity to Jesus and our practices with others.

Because the source of Paul’s power was not in what he said nor was it in what he did; but the source of Paul’s power was found in who he was connected to and when we have the right practice but the wrong proximity, we become nothing more than the sons of Sceva who know the name of Jesus but don’t know the intentions of our God. We’ve got to examine our practices and identify the gaps between the Jesus we profess and the truth that we embody. Why? Because the way we treat people will tell on us every time. The way that we don’t love our neighbor as ourselves it will tell on us every time. The way that we abuse our authority for personal gain it will tell on us every time. The way that we inscribe the very practices that we preach against it will tell on us every time.

And the call for the person of faith who desires to reveal God’s hopes for the afflicted in a time in which it is popular to name the name of Jesus but not to know Jesus is to move from a religion that coopts Jesus to a relationship that embodies Jesus. Because it is a relationship with Jesus Christ, alone, that is able to enable the people of faith to mediate God’s transformative power and to testify to the supremacy of God’s liberative intentions.

Amen.