This image (to the left) is a 13th century icon of the Prophet Isaiah and the Blessed Virgin. An appropriate image for the Advent 4 propers.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel.”
Today’s Old Testament Lesson relates a prophecy of Isaiah to Ahaz, the king of Judah. Ahaz was a young king, and he was being harassed by foreign powers who were marching against Jerusalem to conquer it. The foreigners were really too strong for him, but Isaiah had been sent by the Lord to Ahaz to reassure and to exhort him to trust in the Lord. The Lord wishes to tell Ahaz that despite the seemingly impossible situation, despite the doom that seemed to be impending, the Lord is faithful and will not go back on his promise to David. He will save his people. In the passage just before today’s reading, Isaiah prophesies to Ahaz, saying: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of… the fierce anger of … Syria…” (Is. 7.4).
So our reading today comes on the heals of this reassurance, and is a continuation of it. But in today’s reading we notice something about Ahaz: he does not really TRUST the Lord’s reassurance. In the face of the forces arrayed against him, Ahaz, has a very difficult time listening to the word of the Lord. He looks out and sees that he is vastly outnumbered. Every day he hears the reports of the enemy’s advancement. So when the prophet Isaiah turns up with reassurances purporting to be from the Lord himself, they probably seemed to Ahaz like pie-in-the-sky illusions – in the face of the cold, hard facts with which he was confronted. The opposition of the world had begun to dominate the heart of Ahaz. When Ahaz looked out on the world, he saw things through the lens of impending doom. He looked at the past promises of God through the lens of the opposition with which he was faced. He looked at his own relationship to the Lord in the light of impending doom.
And – annoyingly – when Isaiah’s first reassurance is met with the incredulity of Ahaz, the Lord ups the ante. Isaiah has told Ahaz something fairy outlandish to begin with: “Take heed, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint” – “Do you see all those marauding Syrians out there, headed your way – the ones who are much more powerful than you? Don’t worry about them. I have promised to take care of you, and I am going to take care of you.” And now the Lord ups the ante: “The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel” – which means “God with us.”
Its as though the Lord is saying “You don’t want to trust me? Fine. I will do something indubitably spectacular. My plan of redemption will bring the Syrian hordes to nothing. Your lack of trust is beggarly in my sight. The name of my salvation is Immanuel, because I myself will come among you to save you.”
Ahaz was a mere cog in the wheel of the narrative of salvation the Lord was writing, but he could not see past his own circumstances. His thinking was backward. He thought his circumstances were the most important. In the face of the worldly powers with which he was confronted, he stopped believing in the salvation promised by God. Who knows how things might have been had Ahaz listened to the word of the Lord. We’ll never know. HE didn’t listen. He didn’t trust in God’s power. Rather, he trusted in the power of his enemies to dominate him. And indeed he WAS humiliatingly subjected to the Assyrians. He became their stooge and puppet. But God raised up other instruments of his will, and the inexorable march of God’s redemption went on – without the help of Ahaz.
When we are faced with opposition from the world, in whom do we trust? Do we trust the Lord to deliver us, to make provision for us, to USE us to work out his own purposes, for salvation and glory? Or do we believe in the sovereignty of our problems?
Whether we are faced with sickness, financial problems, loneliness, or whatever… No matter what powers of the world stand in opposition to us, even though they may have been brought about by our negligence or sinfulness – no matter what, the Lord calls us to trust in him in the midst of them, to give ourselves into his care. The Lord promises himself to come to us and to work his salvation within us, and then through us. And through a process of positive TRUST in the Lord, we are delivered from the domination of evil. Its not that our problems will disappear like a puff of smoke the minute we decide to trust the Lord – in John’s Gospel the Lord says “I have said this to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
If we are able to give ourselves to the Lord, to allow his plan of redemption to blossom in our hearts, then we get peace and good cheer in the midst of tribulation. Being a disciple of Jesus does not mean that you get DELIVERED from tribulation – it means that you do NOT get DEFEATED by tribulation: that you may endure it with peace and good cheer, in the assurance of communion with Jesus, who has overcome the world.
We get a picture of this kind of assurance, of this kind of FAITH, in today’s Gospel lesson, with Saint Joseph.
Joseph faced trouble. He was poor. He was a manual laborer. But he was a just man. Suddenly he finds that his fiancée is pregnant, and he knows he’s not the Father. That’s trouble. But an angel appears to him and says “Do not fear…” Do not fear. And Joseph listens. How do we know he listened? Because he OBEYED. “He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took his wife, but knew her not until she had borne a son, and he called his name Jesus.”
Live your life with a heart open to God’s saving work. Do not fear opposition. Do not fear sickness, poverty, loneliness, -- do not even fear death. These things are tribulation that a part of the tribulation that the world brings. If we allow them to govern us, we will wind up like Ahaz, stooges and puppets of foreign powers, and alienated from the Lord’s salvation.
But if we trust the Lord and his promises, we will be like Joseph who was a just man, without fear, and who became the earthly custodian of God himself.
Let us pray. Lord we thank you for calling to us. We thank you for ordaining us to a place in the unfolding of your salvation. Teach us to trust you, and to obey you. And give us peace and good cheer, confident in the victory of your Son.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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