Called to stand in faith and bring God's Love Advent 4 A

 Advent 4 A  21 Dec 2025

Isaiah 7:10-16   Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19   Romans 1:1-7     Matthew 1:18-25

Today we reflect on the need to grow in God's love and to spread the LOVE of God.  Especially after the recent news of Bondi.  

In our readings we meet some characters; Isaiah the prophet, Ahaz the king, Mary and Joseph.  They are all connected as the chosen people of God.  They are all Israelites –So, just to explain the history; that means that they are descendants of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of Abraham – etc.. Jacob had 12 sons and God changed his name to Israel – meaning, “he strives with God”.  One of the sons of Jacob/ Israel was Judah.  Judah had a son, who had a son… etc.. and one of those descendants was David who became the King of Israel.  Our character, Ahaz was the son of the son, of the son… etc… of David. And guess what!  So was the prophet, Isaiah.  It is believed that the prophet Isaiah was descended from the royal line of Judah.  But wait.  There is more; in our Gospel reading, Joseph was the descendant of Judah and David too….  And so was Mary!  There are two genealogies in the Gospel of Matthew and Luke.  One is believed to be Joseph’s line and the other is Mary’s.  Both are descendants of Judah and King David.

 

These people were called by God for a special purpose.  We learn from the letter of St. Paul, that the Gospel of Jesus was prophesied by the prophets since ancient times and these characters, and indeed the nation of Israel, were to be the chosen people to reveal God’s plan and God’s love and goodness to the whole of the world.

 

We are also people who are called by God for a special purpose.  God has given us free will, and we all respond to the call independently.  Today we look at how our characters responded to God’s call.  Three of those four did a great job.  King Ahaz was not inclined to trust God.  To be fair, Ahaz was in a tough position.  He was the King of Judah, while the people were, oppressed and harassed.  The people were particularly being hassled by the by a couple of kings who were making an alliance against the tribe of Judah.  at this time and Ahaz had decided that he would pay another nation to help.  God uses these events to give an important message through Isaiah to pass on to Ahaz.  God assures him of his ability to look after him, but Ahaz didn’t even want to know about it.  This is why he says he won’t put God to the test.  He tries to sound like he is being noble in not testing God, but he essentially doesn’t want God to interfere in what his plans were…. Actually, he thought that his own plan was better.

 

To make our own plan to save ourselves instead of praying and asking God; we would never do this, would we?  It is pretty likely that we are a lot like Ahaz.  Most of the time, we strive to have control of our own destiny, only thinking of God when things go wrong.  And even then, many will strangely blame God instead of turning to him.  There is a part of the Message from Isaiah to Ahaz just prior to our reading that is a great sentence to remember.  It is; “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’”

 

Mary and Joseph were born about 700 years after Ahaz and Isaiah.  Both Mary and Joseph were people who DID stand firm in their faith.  BUT it was not at all easy.  In that culture, Mary could well have been stoned to death for being an un-wed mother.  Joseph didn’t want Mary to be stoned.  Even though the passage says that Joseph was Mary’s husband, they were actually only at the stage of the marriage, similar to being engaged.  There was a legally binding contract between them, which is why the text talks about him divorcing her quietly.

 

At the beginning it is possible that Joseph was not trusting in God either.  I mean… what would you think if the woman you were engaged to, told you that she was going to have a baby and it was the Son of God?  But just as God sent Isaiah to Ahaz with His message, God sent an Angel to appear to Joseph in a dream.  And this is where Joseph is different from Ahaz.  Joseph responds to God’s message with faith.  Angel or not – Joseph was still free to choose his own actions.  He chose to trust in God. 

 

The message the Angel gave to Joseph addressed him as the descendant of King David and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife.  And here is where it gets very specific; “The baby in her is from the Holy Spirit”.   This was no ordinary baby.  In our creed each week we declare our faith in this, and the nature of who Christ is, when we say, “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father; through him (Jesus) all things were made. For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the virgin Mary and became truly human.”

 

Of course, the Angel also told Joseph that Mary would give birth to a son, and he should call him Jesus.  The name “Jesus” is important because it means “God Saves”.  The Angel told Joseph that Jesus would save his people from their sins.  We say, “Jesus”, yet in the Hebrew or Aramaic original, it probably sounded more like Yeshua…. In Greek it was Iēsous.  We pronounce it Jesus. 

 

What’s in a name?  Well, God does tend to be specific and mean something by it when he declares it.  In the original culture, to name someone was to give them a destiny.  When Jesus changed Simon’s name to Peter, he gave him a new place, a new purpose, a new destiny.  The name of Jesus declares the destiny of Jesus.

 

Jesus’ name is associated with healing also.  You might recall the times that Jesus healed someone and He would say, “Your faith has healed you” or “your faith has saved you”.  In the Greek, the word for save means the same as heal.  So the name Jesus – God Saves, also means, God heals.  It is a word that can mean to save, heal, deliver, preserve, rescue, and make whole.  It was in the name of Jesus that the disciples prayed for healing of people and they were healed.  It was in the name of Jesus that the disciples cast out demons and they were cast out.  However, it is not a magic name – it is powerful because of who Jesus is, and we have permission to use his name in this way because we belong to God.   Our world today needs people who can bring the light and love of Christ into the darkness.  

 

The story of Christmas re-echoes in our own time.  Especially this year, because the darkness in our world shows that it is so very much in need of God.  It was a tough time for King Ahaz, and a tough time for Joseph.  It was a tough time for Mary.  Today may  well be a tough time for us too, but we are all called by God who loves us.  By the Holy Spirit, God is with us always.  We always have free will and we can choose to accept God or not.  You and I are called, just like Joseph and Mary.  We are called to carry Christ within us, and then to bring Christ into the world.  Like Joseph, we might be a little anxious about what people will think.  We might plan to just quietly divorce ourselves from any “bad press” or controversy that arises from it.  God’s message is clear – DON’T BE AFRAID – our job is to be involved, not divorced.

 

Learn from King AHAZ who was told, “If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all.’”  God has a plan and it will be achieved.  We can be part of it and stand in faith.  The Holy Spirit is stirring.  It is time to rise up and walk in faith – It is an exciting adventure when we bring God into our world.  Don’t be afraid to answer the call.  God is with us.  Immanuel.