FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT Year A December 18, 2022
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Isaiah
7:10-16 • Psalm
80:1-7, 17-19 • Romans
1:1-7 • Matthew
1:18-25
We are celebrating
our fourth week in Advent… a time of waiting.
We wait for Christmas. We remember
the time the world was waiting for salvation. We reflect on how we wait now for the second
coming of Christ. More importantly, in
so many ways, there are people today waiting and crying out for Christ to come
and save them from physical and emotional struggles – maybe that person is you. No doubt, those in Ukraine are waiting also…
for the world to change.
Ahaz,
mentioned in our first reading, was the King of Judah and he was not a king who
was inclined to believe the prophet Isaiah.
But at that time, the kingdom of Judah was waiting to be saved from two
armies. When Isaiah tells Ahaz that God
wants him to ask for a sign, he replies with a rather pious sounding statement
that he won’t put God to the test.
How is this
like us? What might we say if someone, claiming to be God’s prophet came to us
and asked the same thing? And why might
we answer the same way? What would be
our thoughts behind our saying, “no I don’t need a sign – I won’t put God to
the test”?
We are in
the 4th week in Advent and we are the people of God. King Ahaz was leader of Judah, the chosen
nation of God. We believe in God. That is why we are here. But what do we believe about God?
You see,
things were not going well for the people of Judah and there were armies coming
against them. What do we believe, and
what is our faith, when we are under pressure?
King Ahaz was under pressure. He
saw the physical reality and couldn’t believe that God would save them. Isaiah had come to tell him that God was
there to save him and, as proof, was prepared to give him a sign…. Whatever it
would take to encourage Ahaz to have faith.
God still does
this. He wants us to have a relationship
with him, such that we have faith in him.
God goes above and beyond to try and get our attention and, in the case
of Ahaz, God was prepared to let Ahaz name the sign. But in the absence of Ahaz’s cooperation, God
himself choses the sign, “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a
son, and shall name him Immanuel.”
Judah was
saved, as God was true to his word, but what of the prophecy, “For before the
child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose
two kings you are in dread will be deserted.”
?
It is
obvious that this was a prophecy for the near future, but also, we know because
of Matthew’s Gospel, that it was prophecy about the coming Messiah.
This is yet
another example of the wonderful way that prophecy works, and a little glimpse
into the ways of God. Prophecy generally
has a number of fulfillments. One for
the time of the prophets, one in the time of the Messiah and one for the time
of Jesus second coming.
According to
my research it is believed that the first fulfillment happened when a young
woman in the royal household conceived a son, and unknowingly named him
“Immanuel.” Immanuel meaning, “God with
us”.
In the book
of Revelation, which largely deals with Jesus’ second coming, with language
that is full of allegory, it speaks of a woman giving birth. We suspect that this is indicating the nation
Israel who gives birth to the Christian church.
But a multitude of that book, being shrouded in imagery, it is pretty
obviously not meant to be clear. It is a
book for the church to be encouraged, and to know that God has a plan which
will be revealed when the time is right.
My thoughts are that the biggest mistake we can make with the book of
Revelation, is to put a definitive interpretation on it and close our minds to
what God might wish to reveal to us through waiting on him for the answers.
The most
incredible fulfillment of this Isaiah prophecy, is that which we celebrate each
Christmas, which happened at the birth of Jesus. Matthew appears to change one word in the
prophecy, “young woman” becomes “virgin”.
The difference is actually only that one is in Hebrew and the other in
Greek. But Matthew is very clear about
what the prophecy says and means, and make no mistake, this is a miraculous
conception and a sign that can only mean one thing; God is with us.
Saint Luke’s
account of this same story, just prior to Christmas, focuses on what is happening
in the life of Mary. Saint Luke was a
learned man, a physician writing to a Gentile audience, but Matthew is writing
for, and concerned with the Jewish perspective.
Saint Matthew follows the genealogy of Joseph and traces him clearly back to King David and then to
Abraham. This is important as it also
establishes Jesus as the fulfilment of the prophecies that the Messiah would be
the “Lion of Judah”.
From
Joseph’s perspective, he was engaged to a woman who was found to be “with
child”…. He knew he was not the father.
I’m guessing that Mary told him the nature of this pregnancy, but well….
What would you think if you were in his shoes?
The
challenge of this week, is the challenge to believe God.
King Ahaz
didn’t want a sign, not because he was pious, but because it might mean he
would have to acknowledge God. Ahaz
wasn’t interested in a sign, or anything that God had to say. Ahaz didn’t believe and didn’t want to
believe. On the other hand, of Joseph we
read, “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to
public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”
What a
stressful time this must have been for Mary.
She knew the truth, but the fact is that in their culture she could have
been stoned to death for being thought to be an adulteress. I suspect most modern men would not have been
anywhere near as gracious as Joseph. For
most of us, when we believe we have been wronged, we want to expose the guilty
person and cause them as much grief as possible. Consider Joseph….. He felt he’d been wronged,
but rather than expose Mary to this shame, he decided he would divorce her
quietly.
Joseph was a
man who could forgo justice for himself for the sake of another. He was a man who considered all the
consequences before he acted and could put aside his needs or wants for the benefit
of another – even if that other had hurt him.
His heart was compassionate and courageous, and this was a man that God
chose to be the father and protector of His son, Jesus.
I suspect
Joseph longed for the confirmation that what Mary was telling him was true…. and
he needed a sign. Perhaps he even prayed
for one. Certainly, he received that
confirmation, as an Angel appeared to him in a dream and told him the truth….
And the rest is history.
Where are we
in this Advent story as we journey to celebration of the Nativity? Are we Ahaz, who belonged to the chosen
people, but didn’t really believe in God’s power to save him from the physical
circumstances?
Are we
Joseph? Genuine people of God, with
hearts open to hearing God’s word? We
might find things hard to believe at times, but we want to believe. And
sometimes we need to pray for a divine intervention to stop us making the wrong
choices.
It is
important that we deliberately choose to believe God and be open to hearing God’s
truth. Mary was vulnerable to be stoned
to death without the intervention of Joseph.
Today, there are many in the world who are vulnerable in many ways. Maybe their hearts have been stoned to near death
by others. We don’t know what act of spiritual
protection God might call us to make for another, but unless we have the
compassionate, courageous heart of Joseph and a desire and willingness to hear
from God and act, there are precious ones who may be lost.
The sign that we are called, chosen and loved by God is this; “The virgin will be with child…” God is with us… the name Emmanuel means “God is with us”. It is no fairy tale, but a reality. God himself came to be among us, to live as one of us and to die for us and to rise from the dead, promising a life beyond. By His Holy Spirit He is with us still. Let us decide this day to believe and to pray for his word to direct our actions so that we can bring his love to this world. And Christ can be born/ manifest into our community. For this, the world is waiting……
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