The problem is the last one may be all too true for so many of us. We daydream about a perfect Christmas but often we encounter the same hassles and frustrations. Each time we think, “Next year will be different!” As we prepare ourselves for the onslaught of the holiday season, we can easily become overwhelmed with all that the season entails. We may be anxious over the length and expense of our holiday lists; we may be distressed by family interactions. Too often Christmas is not peace on earth, it is stress on earth. Memories from past Christmas seasons may frustrate us, leaving us with a hollow feeling, wanting that Normal Rockwell Christmas, a “right Christmas." We know what the song should be, but every time the tune is played, the words get jumbled into a mess. What we need to do, is to stop and get the words right. How can we have a “right Christmas” this year? As with songs, so also with the Christmas season. As we begin this time of Advent, those four Sundays leading up to December 25th, we have an opportunity in the midst of our busy lives to stop for a moment and reconsider what Christmas is all about. As you dash from store to store and "Silent Night" plays but your mind sings "Round John Virgin" or you finish the first line of "We three kings of Orient Are" with “tried to smoke a rubber cigar,” let’s consider what the Christmas message is all about. Let’s get the words right. The season’s hectic pace may bother us immensely, but it is nothing new. The announcement of the Messiah’s birth was likewise delivered in a time of tremendous pressure. Such was the case not only when Joseph was told by the angel that Mary’s child was the promised Messiah, but also 750 years earlier when the promised virgin would give birth to a child. It is during those times of turmoil we often forget the vital truth of Immanuel: God With Us. King Ahaz refused to learn that lesson.
GOD’S PRESENCE IN ANXIETY ASSURES US (Verses 1-3) King Ahaz had reason to be anxious. The armies of Syria and the Israelites in the north were aligning against Judah. They had already successfully defeated 120,000 soldiers, taken prisoner over 200,000 of the southern kingdom’s people. They were now poised to attack the capital city of Jerusalem, kill Ahaz and put on the throne a puppet king. It is no wonder that the people were shaking like leaves. God sends Isaiah to calm the king. But notice what God says, in verse 3, "Take your son -" Not an image of prophet going to see king before a war - perhaps a babysitter was unavailable. His son's name is important: Shear-Jashub, "the remnant shall return." The name reminded Ahaz of God’s promise to David that out of his line, on his throne, the Messiah would come. As anxious as the times are, God will not renege on His word. Then comes the message: “Be careful." Isaiah emphasizes the need to keep a cool head. Why? These two kings and kingdoms won’t last. They may have at one time been burning flames, destroying everything in their path, but now the fire has gone out; they are just smoldering stubs of firewood. They are, as it is said in Texas: “all hat and no cattle.” When we understand that God is a consuming fire the less reason we shall have to fear others. We see them for what they arez: smoldering embers, bothersome, but no threat. GOD’S PRESENCE IN FEAR CALLS US TO TRUST (verses 4-12) An understanding of God’s presence when we are likely to be afraid reminds us of the need to know what is certain and uncertain. The trouble is we often get them confused. Ahaz did. He was sure Rezin and Pekah were going to last, and that his life and the promise of God was in jeopardy. In that moment, God, through Isaiah, reminds Ahaz of the necessity to know what remains and what is temporary. For all the plans that the enemy makes, they will not last. God reminds Ahaz that those who stand against him are but mere mortals. They won’t last forever. But what is enduring? Verse 9b: This is a play on words in the Hebrew. Faith (amn), from the root: to be firm, certain, to be established. In order to be established in life you must be established in your faith. We could capture this verse in English: “If there is no belief, you will find no relief." Faith is not what we do when all else fails. It is not, as that old classic Christmas movie, “Miracle on 34th Street," tells us: “Faith is believing when common sense tells us not to.” Rather, faith serves as the foundation of our entire lives. It is the most basic response to what God calls us to be and do. In order to endure the tough times, faith is necessary - but not as the last ditch emergency chute as we leap out into the unknown. Instead, when faced with fear, we endure because we trust that God’s loving-kindness will see us through. Do you see what God does here for Ahaz as well for you and me? God meets us where we are weak. Not only does Isaiah offer comfort to Ahaz all the while he is afraid, He extends the offer to ask for a sign. What we can never demand of from God, God offers. Ask anything. God tells him to stand firm in faith, but then offers a sign, a tangible reminder. God calls us to believe but helps our unbelief. Ahaz piously refuses. He sounds rather holy, spiritual. But it is not because of any religious sensibilities or fear of God. The fact that he does not want to ask for a sign is because he refuses to believe. Like Archie Bunker: “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up.” The reason for Ahaz’s rejection of God’s offer is that he already had entered into an alliance with Tiglath-pileser, King of Assyria. In so doing he compromised his faith by swearing allegiance to Assyria’s idols and modifying the altar in the temple at Jerusalem to accommodate pagan worship. Political alliance with secular world includes a spiritual allegiance to its gods. This is what God does for us. All of Scripture points to the fact that God comes to meet us where we are. It is not about our ascension toward God, but His condescension to us. But so often, when God comes to us, we conveniently push Him aside, willfully neglect His offer of salvation. Like Ahaz we’ve already made plans. We piously reject faith, thinking we’ve advanced beyond that level. We have our own Assyrias that’ll take good care of us. That is why we so often confuse the lyrics of Christmas. The songs evoke images, but not those of God sending His one and only Son, to take our sins away and graciously make us His child. God graciously offers us each time we encounter Him in His Word to hear His voice, to acknowledge our sinfulness and complete need to trust Christ alone for our salvation. But instead, out of fear, we run, clinging to whatever idols we think will give us satisfaction. We are offered the chance to stand firm, to be established in our faith. God offers us sensible signs today when we come to hear the Word, when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper and Baptism. GOD’S PRESENCE IN JESUS CALLS US TO BELIEVE (Verses 13-16) Where is God’s presence most clearly seen? For Ahaz, who refused to trust in God’s presence, a sign was still given. It is a sign, though, not of God’s grace, but judgment. It is a sign he would never be able to see, but that would confirm his own rejection of God’s offer of salvation. Ahaz wanted to trust in the Assyrian army, not God. So, to God’s people, the sign of God’s presence would come in verse 14: Immanuel will bring salvation. But to those who would rather trust in themselves and their own plans, God’s immediate sign was that of the coming destruction by Assyria. Anytime we make a creature our hope, it commonly proves our hurt. So God’s sign of his presence is given in verse 14. This familiar verse has, for the last 2000 years, caused much controversy. It has not just been in the recent century that scholars and theologians have debated the meaning of this verse, but since the time of Christ it has caused a stir. The simple reason is that it makes a miraculous claim. A virgin giving birth is nonsense, unless of course, such a birth is at the heart of what God’s presence is all about. While some have translated “virgin” here to “young woman” to avoid the power of the sign and make it able to be fulfilled in the 7th Century BC, the Hebrew does not allow for that. Martin Luther once made an offer of 500 guilders to anyone who from Hebrew could show that this passage does not refer to a virgin. No one has collected. The uniqueness of this is seen by:
This is the message of Christmas. These are the lyrics we so often confuse. It is not about our plans, our shopping lists, our parties, our festivities. It is not even about our trying to remember the meaning of the holiday. This season, as with all of the Christian life, is about God coming to us, invading space and time, taking on flesh, being fully God and fully man so that as we trust that which the sign signifies we may have eternal life. Athanasius, a great pastor of the early church, once said of the Christ’s incarnation: “He became what we are that He might make us what He is.” That is what Christmas is all about. It is God’s presence coming to us when we fear the most, when we are the most anxious, the most troubled, the most upset - and telling us not to trust in ourselves, but in the God who made us.
That is what happened when this sign was fulfilled. Imagine how shaken Joseph felt when the news came that Mary was pregnant, as well as the waging tongues in the market place, the stares by those he thought were on his side. All his plans were scattered to the wind. Imagine the fear, the apprehension. Where is God in all this? It is then, as we read in Matthew 1:20, that an angel came to him with a message, not of fear, but certainty of God’s presence. What is the answer? It's God's presence in the One who would save His people from their sins. What calms Joseph’s mind? This passage from Isaiah is brought to his mind while he slept. What Ahaz refused to accept, Joseph believes. What the king rejects the carpenter accepts. This is what we are called to believe.
I
know that the lyrics will be confused in the coming weeks. The cacophony of Christmas
commotion may drown out the simple words of Immanuel. But despite your frenetic
festivities, God is calling you to look to that peculiar sign: a virgin with child, a sign
of God’s special presence, of the God-Man coming to earth to fulfill what we can not
do, to give us the right words, with the right music so that our lives are filled with the
joy and exuberance of the real meaning of Christmas, of Immanuel, God with us! The comfort
we need to face our busy lives, the direction we need to endure the stress-filled days,
the hope we need to satisfy our despairing hearts is found in that simple, but profound
truth: God is with us in Christ. |
