Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25
What do I want for Christmas? What is this day all about? Well, they weren’t exactly asking those questions at the time of the prophet Isaiah, but they were asking questions that were similar.
Their nation, Judah, was in trouble. The leader — Ahaz — turned on the television one morning to discover that some of his drinking buddies had formed an alliance whose goal was to topple Ahaz’ government. According to the Bible, “the heart of [the people] shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.”
What did Ahaz want? What did the people want? A hopeful future.
In a development with all the intrigue of Republicans and Democrats huddling together behind closed doors, Isaiah met Ahaz on a highway near a fuller’s field. Isaiah came with a message of comfort and assurance. God would turn away this attempt on Judah, provided that Ahaz would agree not to make a counter-alliance with other nations. Ahaz’ role: to trust in God and God’s ways of covenant to protect the community.
Isaiah offers something for which most would die. Ahab can choose a sign of God’s trustworthiness. But revealing that misleading statements are nothing new, Ahaz says, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.”
Ahaz is not telling the truth. Ahaz uses this statement as a ruse to refuse to stand on the divine promises. Well, when the missiles are in the air, when the vote is in, which would you be more inclined to trust — an ally whose hand you can shake, or a God whom you cannot see?
Ahaz may not want a sign, but God knows that Ahaz needs one, and so do Isaiah’s listeners: a pregnant young woman will bear a child, and will call that child Immanuel, which means, “God is with us.” The birth and name is a sign of the divine presence with them — yes, but it is a sign of judgment as well as hope.
Ahaz’ unwillingness to trust results in judgment, in the downfall of Judah. Our actions bear within them the seed of their own consequences.
At the same time, the birth is a sign of God’s faithfulness. A birth after all, is a means whereby the generations continue. A birth means a future.
Matthew evokes this story by quoting Isaiah. “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him, Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.'” Jesus Christ is a sign that God is still with us, in judgment and in hope.
We are not Judah-hites, but we live in a time when “the heart of [the people] shakes as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.” Political turmoil. Electronically guided bombs that that can navigate to the 5th floor of an office building in Baghdad? Leon Riley — tall, strong, Leon, who rode 1,800 miles on a bicycle last summer — in the hospital to get his heart tuned up? Even though Leon is working on all cylinders now, his situation brings many of us eyeball to eyeball with our own mortality. And I wager that almost every person here has a fear or two that you’re afraid to name, even to yourself.
We are not Judah-hites, but through Jesus Christ, God puts to us the same issue that God put before Ahaz on on the road beside the fuller’s field. Where do we turn when seeking to build a world? Do we turn to our limited, sin-distorted human ways, or do we trust in the unending promises of God, and in the way God reveals Himself through Christ?
We can choose the way of Ahaz. Almost before we turn the page in the book of Isaiah, Ahaz is making an alliance with the Assyrian ruler with the memorable name of Tiglath-pileser. Soon Ahaz is worshiping Canaanite idols. This leader becomes so desperate to control his own life that he sacrifices his own son by fire to the local deity Molech by fire (2 Kings 16:1-4). Is this gift the one you would like to receive this Christmas?
Or we can choose the way of God, revealed to us through Jesus Christ. The way of grace. The way of self-giving love. The way of compassion, humility, mercy, peace. The way of leaving your gift at the altar, and being reconciled. What a difference that way would make when dealing with our national challenges. Of going the second mile, praying for your enemies, and loving those who persecute you. The way that hears Jesus say to us — at the deepest levels of self and community — “Fear not.”
What do I want for Christmas? I want to have the faith to put my life altogether in the hands and ways of the living God.
And when I hold the bread and the cup, I realize that God is with me, even now, to give me this thing that I want more than anything else.
What do I want for Christmas? I want to be a part of a movement toward a world in which we relate to one another with such integrity and respect that words like partisanship and conflict dry up on the vine, and are replaced in our everyday dictionaries with words like mutuality, dialogue, community, love.
What would I like for Christmas? I want to be part of a world in which we are so aware of our inter-relatedness that weapons become unnecessary.
What would I like for Christmas? I would like to face about my own mortality in the confidence that beyond it, I will have unmediated access to the living God.
What would I like for Christmas? I would like to have the faith to put my life altogether in the hands of the living God. And, when I hold the bread and the cup, I realize that God is with me, even now, to give me this thing that I want more than anything else.
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Ron Allen is Professor of Preaching and New Testament at Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, Indiana.