Advent 4, Year A
The Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew
Poor
Ahaz: he was having a rotten time of things.
In fact, if we had the opportunity to peek at this personal diary for
the day Isaiah showed up to have a chat with him, it would be no big surprise
if he entitled it Ahaz ant the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Ahaz, you see, was the King of Judah, the
southern
Then
along came Isaiah with a message from God:
Do Nothing. Well, not exactly nothing. The foreign policy strategy needed to shift
from trusting in alliances to trusting in God, which might well look and feel
like doing nothing. It was, however, a
move that would require a great deal of faith, so God was willing to provide
Ahaz with a sign, any sign: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be
deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”
Ahaz replies: “I will not ask,
and I will not put the LORD to the test.”
What are we to make of this? On
the one hand, Ahaz could be a really pious king who knew from the Exodus
tradition that God does not like to be tested; or he could be a practical king
who prefers his plan to the ‘trust
in God as foreign policy’ approach to his dilemma. We don’t know. Whatever Ahaz’s motivation, God is not to be
deterred and gives a sign: “Look the young woman is with child and
shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.”
Most likely this sign referred to the imminent birth of a boy in the
time of King Ahaz who would be a sign of God’s ongoing presence with the people
of
Ahaz
is neither the first nor the last to be challenged by trusting in the word of
God. Today’s readings provide us with a
small overview of the Advent theme of prophecy and fulfillment that pervades
the Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.
From this vantage point it seems obvious that what God promises will be
fulfilled. Isaiah prophesies and Ahaz
will see the promise fulfilled, if he will listen. Joseph is told by an angel that the child his
fiancée carries is “from the Holy
Spirit.” Rather than discreetly
backing out of the marriage arrangements as nearly any man would, Joseph is to
trust that Mary’s peculiar circumstance takes us back to the earlier
conversation between Isaiah and Ahaz, to the sign of the one who “shall conceive and bear a son, and they
shall name him Emmanuel,” which means “God
is with us.”
While the motif of promise and fulfillment may be obvious in the Advent readings, the ways in which God manages it are not necessarily so. If nothing else, it is apparent that God does not seem to favor a neatly organized, step by step, linear progression of events. Rather, the power of God to act is creative, dynamic, and ongoing. Overarching themes, such as promise and fulfillment, are the benefits of the big picture. As we peruse the Bible we can watch events unfold over time and see the hand of God at work in the world. There is evidence that God’s promises are trustworthy and true. The challenge is in the up close and personal application of such insights. Ahaz was facing an immediate threat. Joseph had a fiancée who was expecting a child who was not his. Mary had been asked to consent to the impossible. Is there any way to prepare for situations like these? The answer is yes.
If you were a faithful Jew, as Mary, Joseph and Ahaz were called to be, you could prepare yourself by observing the Law. The 613 commandments structure much of a Jewish person’s daily life, including little details about food, clothing, and hygiene. With each choice to observe the Law, Jewish people orient themselves toward God and allow their lives to be shaped by God’s will. If you are a Christian you can prepare yourself through a number of practices—most of them articulated in the Baptismal Covenant. We need to come to Church, to study the Bible, spend time together, share in the Eucharist and pray. We need to resist evil, admit when we make mistakes, and turn back to God with willingness to try again…and again. We need to live out the Good News of God in Jesus in what we say and how we live, in all of those little choices like the 613 commandments. We need to look for God’s presence in other people and treat them as if we can see it, even when we can’t.
Vladimir Horowitz, a famous pianist, once spoke of his need to practice each and every day: “If I miss one day, I can tell; if I miss two days the orchestra can tell; if I miss three days the audience can tell.” One does not become a great pianist, a great athlete, a great intellectual, or a person of great faith and stay there. We are able to be the best we can be through ongoing practice. It is not only something we do, it is something that shapes who we are.
It
is the practice of being faithful, day by day, that creates the potential for
us to be faithful in those times of great challenge. That potential may not be obvious to others,
but it doesn’t have to be. God
knows. One
Doubtless God saw potential in Mary, who could reply to Gabriel’s astounding news: “let it be with me according to your word.” Obviously God had confidence in Joseph, a righteous and compassionate man, who could accept Mary and Jesus. In the understated words of Matthew, “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.”
Today God looks for opportunities among us, for places where the Holy Spirit might be at work in our lives. It is Advent, the time when we eagerly anticipate the coming of Jesus, who could well surprise us by being with us in a new way. The potential is there, even in our everyday lives, “For nothing is impossible with God.”
Amen