Love - Advent 4

 Isaiah 7

Matthew 1

December 18, 2022

Advent 4 – Love

 

I admit I didn’t remember much about this king

Ahaz that’s mentioned in the Isaiah text.

It’s used often enough during Advent,

because a passage from it is quoted in

Matthew’s Christmas gospel,

you think I would know more about it.

But guess I’ve been passing it over every year.

 

I think I just kind of assumed that king Ahaz was a good and

faithful king who was asking God for a sign.

I mean he says he wasn’t going to “put God to the test”,

which sounds like a good and faithful thing to say.

I mean Jesus says that in Luke when he’s tempted by the devil,

right, so King Ahaz has got to be good, right?

 

Wrong. King Ahaz was not a good king.

He was actually an awful king.

Ahaz started ruling when he was just 20

and he was not good at it.

 

At the time of this chapter in Isaiah,

Ahaz was worried about the Northern Kingdom of Israel

joining forces with Damascus and defeating him.

So he allied himself with the Assyrians.

The Assyrians were basically the terribly neighboring

empire that was constantly wreaking havoc over the Israelites.

He was hoping that together they would defeat the Northern kingdom.

God was not pleased.

 

In 2 Kings it says that on a diplomatic visit to Assyria,

Ahaz saw an altar in a pagan temple that he liked

and he had the same altar built in the temple in Jerusalem

and he sacrificed on it and made the priests sacrifice on it

and then he took things out of the temple

and he gifted them to the king of Assyria.

God was not pleased.

And in this passage in Isaiah,

God is talking to King Ahaz through Isaiah, the royal prophet.

Ahaz is going up to the pool of Siloam to

check on the water supply.

Isaiah begs Ahaz to trust God.

Isaiah tells Ahaz to just ask for a sign and God will give it to him.

But Ahaz has no interest in listening to God.

He gives that lame, “I won’t put God to the test” line

as an excuse not to listen.

He would rather put his faith in the Assyrians.

God was not pleased.

 

And Isaiah can’t take it anymore, he says:

“It’s bad enough that you have tired the people

with your hypocrisies, now you’re tiring God.

Well, God’s going to give you a sign anyway

even though you’re not asking for it, here it is:

A young woman will give birth to a son,

and she will name him Emmanuel, God is with us.

And before he’s old enough to know between good and bad.

the two kingdoms that you’re afraid of, will collapse.

 

This is not said in a calm, comforting,

Christmas-like way as I always assumed.

The stage direction would say, “Angry. raised voice.”

maybe a little aggressive pointing on Isaiah’s part.

There, that will be the sign, you dope.

 

Then Isaiah goes on to say that although the

Northern kingdom and Damascus would fall,

The Assyrian kingdom, the kingdom that Ahaz

put his faith and trust in to save him,

would eventually come and destroy Judah.

He would just have the privilege of being the last to see it all go down.

Deliverance and justice.

 

You know, sometimes I regret doing the research.

  

So, my question is, why would Matthew choose this verse?

Why did he choose this verse in Isaiah to talk about the  birth of Jesus?

Matthew and all the Jews he was talking to undoubtedly

knew the whole story of Ahaz. They knew what he had done

and how he had lead the Israelites to their destruction.

Maybe it was solely because of the young woman,

which could be interpreted as a virgin, giving birth to a child.

but I think there was more to it.

 

Matthew and Joseph and Mary are also living in a time when

Israel is under Roman occupation.

Their leader, King Herod, is another king

who is an arrogant bully

who sells out his own people and their faith

to the Roman Occupiers to maintain his power.

He is also sleeping with the enemy.

He has no interest in hearing about God’s signs.

He has no interest in learning about God’s ways.

He has put his faith and trust into earthly things.

And this all leads to the destruction of their country.

 

A corrupt and selfish leader,

A kingdom who’s lost its way.

A once faithful people who don’t want

any sign or help from God.

 

But God’s giving a sign anyway.

 

There will be a child and he will be born

to a young woman and he will be called

Emmanuel, God with us.

 

And does this sign from 3000 years ago

have anything to say to us today?

I think so.

  

Emmanuel. God is with us.

God longs to be with us.

God longs to know us and to be a part of us.

In spite of our stupid, greedy leaders,

in spite of our stubbornness,

in spite of our disinterest in God’s ways and plans.

in spite of the deals we make with the devil.

in spite of selling our real treasures for a moment’s comfort.

In spite of all we have said and thought and done

and all we have failed to say, and think, and do.

Even though God may not be pleased.

God is going to give us a sign anyway.

 

God will come to be with us,

to share in our joys and pains,

to show us a new way of comfort and justice,

to become one with us.

To live with us

and to die for us.

And that is love.

Joy

 Isaiah 35 December 11, 2022 Advent 3 – Joy

Christ Lutheran Preschool's
Christmas Play

 

When I was a child, one of my favorite things

was a box. It was big. I think it held some of those

big speakers that we used to need with our

giant stereo systems we had in the 1970s.

I don’t know for sure where it came from, but it

was big enough to sit in,

to put a blanket over,  I could pretend it was my house,

a car, a cave, I put my private things in it, my stuffed animals.

I could write on the walls, which I often got in trouble

for doing in the real house. I found joy in that box.

For weeks I woke up with joy because of that box,

until I moved onto something else that was my favorite thing.

 

Truth be told, I envy my younger self, I wish I could go back

and find such prolonged joy from such a simple object.

But too much has gotten in the way.

Too much life, and jobs, and family, money, and loss.

 

I see your children here and I am tickled by

the joy they find in the most mundane things like waving and saying hello

to me when we pass each other unexpectedly.

Of course I know they’re not joyful all the time,

but when children are joyful, it’s genuine and pure.

I wish I could recreate that pure joy in myself.

That’s why it’s so good to be around them.

Just to share in their moments of joy.

 

But finding joy in ourselves is not that easy.

As adults, we know we will never capture that same

innocent naïve joy that children have again. Although we try.

 
Are you happy? Do you feel joy? How can I get my joy back?

We ask these questions of ourselves and others a lot.

We take our emotional temperature often.

 

I think contemplating joy and pursuing joy are modern constructs.

Maybe just of the 21^st century.

I don’t know that this would have been

a question in the prophet Isaiah’s time.

It probably would have seemed foreign to everyone.

I mean people were joyful,  they felt and expressed joy,

it shows up in the scriptures all the time.

 

But  my guess is that they were more pragmatic about it.

The questions would have been:

Are you dead? are you hungry? are you in pain?
If not, then great, you have joy.

Kind of sounds like my grandmother when I think about it.

 

But now, joy seems to be a bit of an obsession,

at least with middle class people.

Once we have a place to live and

our basic needs met, then we want to know

Do I feel joy? and if not, how can I get it?

 

We try to buy joy, for ourselves and our children.

We try to obtain joy by having more things.

About 8 years ago, Sears had a Christmas

ad campaign that was “Real Joy Guaranteed”.

There is so much wrong with this, I’m not sure where to start.

 

Then we try to get joy by getting rid of our things.

Marie Kondo, the de-cluttering expert that seemed

all the rage a few years ago, wanted  us to look

at every item we own and say, “Does this bring me joy?”

and if not, her theory was we should get rid of it.

I don’t know if a box of band-aids gives me

joy, but I still think I should hold on to that.

 

Today we want to achieve joy,

to find it and keep it for ourselves,

we want to buy one thing, or get rid of one thing,

we want to have the right formula for joy and keep it in our life.

We want joy in our home life, family life, in our church

in our worship experience, we want to own joy, to be in control of it.

To turn it on when we want it.

 But I’m not sure that’s how joy works.

 

Now this week in Advent, our focus is joy.

They also call this Gaudete Sunday which means rejoice in Latin.

This joy Sunday has been the third Sunday in Advent

since the fifth or ninth century.

A long time in other words.

 

Isaiah’s vision of joy is this:

He tells the people that :

“The hopelessly dry land will be wet,

the desert will be in bloom with crocus.

Those who have weak hands and knees

will be strong again.

The blind will be able to see,

the deaf will be able to hear,

and those who can’t walk will be

running and leaping.”

These are definitely joyful images.

But this is not joy that can be bought,

or achieved, or even given to someone else.

The irony is that the joy that Isaiah describes

is the joy that has come out of pain and loss.

 

The water is amazing because it’s falling on dry ground.

The crocuses are so enormously beautiful

because they’re blooming in the dead land of the desert.

 

Imagine having the pain

and stiffness and other effects of aging

just taken away from you, your hands and feet strong again.

 

And seeing and hearing aren’t particularly joyful

things for most of us, but if you haven’t been able

to see or hear, those things would be amazing gifts.

 

And if one moment you couldn’t walk,

and then you could, even if you weren’t the leaping

kind, you would probably leap with joy.

Pure and genuine joy. That is joy that comes from God.

 

The joy that comes from God is not joy that

can be pursued or bought or found.

And it’s not joy that can be forced on us,

or that we can force on ourselves.

It’s joy that comes out of our pain.

 

This is the real joy of the good news of Jesus.

This is the story of the cross of Jesus.

The life and death and resurrection of our savior.

This time of year, we celebrate the birth of a child.

A child who was born into the world to save the world.

Who felt our pain and sorrow, who felt the pain of those

those around him, and who suffered on the cross.

But out of that cross came resurrection.

New life. The salvation of the world.

Real joy for all of us.

 

So if you are not feeling the joy of the season

right now, if this time of year makes you sad,

if things aren’t going as well as you want it to,

if you have depression, if you’ve suffered loss,

if you’re missing someone, if your health is bad,

if you can’t do the things you used to do,

or you are sad for others who are suffering.

That is okay. Know that Christ is with you.

Christ is with us.

 

And God’s favorite job is making new life out of old.

Bringing joy out of sorrow. We are waiting for joy.

God’s joy will find us again.

 

And if you are feeling joy now this season, cherish it.

Give thanks to God for it every moment that you do.

 

And let us all cherish the joy of the children here now

and all the children around us.

For a moment, let’s see the world through their eyes.

And experience the innocent and pure joy

of just simply being alive.

 

Through the infant Jesus and through the

the wonder of young people:

A  little child will lead us to find real joy.

Peace

 Isaiah 11:1-10 Advent 2 – Peace December 4, 2022

 

When we say peace, we can mean a couple of things.

Peace can be an inner feeling, a calm

a sense of well-being and comfort.

You can feel  peace in the middle of chaos,

when things are going terribly.

People have often told me that during times of great

upheaval and illness and uncertainty, that’s when

they have felt a sense of peace and known it was God’s presence.

 

But peace is also the absence of conflict.

Either on a personal level or on a community or national level.

A lack of war.

 

The bible uses peace in both of these ways.

And it’s sometimes difficult to know which one

the passage is talking about.

Many times it seems like inner peace

proceeds peace in the home or in the world.

And many times it seems like peace in the

home and in the world proceeds from inner peace.

Which comes first, peace or peace?

 

Many of us have experienced inner peace.

It may come and go for us, but a lot of us know the feeling.

But in our lifetime, this world and our country

has never been at peace for very long.

 

Since 1776, in the 246 years since this

country was founded, the US has had,

technically, only  had 21 years of actual peace.

The other 222 years we have been

engaged in some sort of military conflict.

The longest stretch of peace for the United States,

was after World War I and during the depression.

When we think back on that time it does not seem peaceful.

There might have been a lack of direct military activity on our part,

but everything else seemed to be in upheaval.

There were awful things happening in Europe,

And World War II was a constant threat for the US.

 

So for almost all of its existence, this country has been

involved in one war or another.

And it’s the same for much of the rest of the world.

Whether we know it or not, we are in

a heightened state of alert and worry about potential or current conflict.

Even more so if you have a loved one who is

in the area of conflict or in the military.

 

And I think it’s safe to say that the militarism

and heightened state of alert and anxiety

has contributed to the tension and anxiety at home

in the rampant gun violence, mass shootings,

and even the polarization in our politics.

 

We are on a heightened state of alert, and ready to go off at any time.

Fear and aggression go hand in hand.

Our lack of inner peace has lead to a lack of outer peace.

And our lack of outer peace has lead to a lack of inner peace.

Peace and peace go hand in hand.

 

During Isaiah’s time and for the whole of its history,

Israel was in a very similar situation of constant war.

Israel itself was not itself a very powerful nation,

not a super-power like the United States by any means.

Actually, it was rather insignificant globally.

But, geographically, Israel was between super powers.

It was on the path to get to one place from another.

So it was always stuck between nations

that seemed to be in constant struggles for power:

Assyria, Canaan, Hittite, Babylonia, Egypt, Persia

So someone was always beating up on Israel to get to someone else.

 

So, Israel was in a state of war more than it was at peace too,

the scriptures certainly reflect that.

And no doubt that affected their personal relationships

and the state of their homes and communities too.

Their state of alert was very high, and

they experienced this violence first-hand

it wasn’t seen on TV or heard of in some far off place.

It was in their own backyards.

 

And they knew as well how difficult outer peace would

be to achieve too.

Each side has to want it at the same time,

and peace takes a great deal of vulnerability,

someone needs to make the first move and risk humility and

sometimes life and limb to even start the process.

And a lot can go wrong when there is distrust,

and language differences, and a tradition of hatred.

This is true of global wars and wars in neighborhoods and families too.

 

And if we think of our own country and times,

Even if we don’t have a reason for war,

there is so much of our lives and our economy

that is built around war and militarism.

There are millions of jobs, so much income in weapons,

industries and companies that are built around war.

So many people have built careers around war,

many people find personal fulfillment and a sense of

belonging in their job in the military.

 

Military spending in the US is $734 billion dollars.

An unbelievable amount of money.

If we had an extended time of peace,

that would mean dismantling much of this

and it would cause a great upheaval in many lives.

There is a lot working against outer peace.

It’s actually easier to stay at war.

 

It seems like a great knot that can’t be untied

and true peace, inner and outer, seems like an impossibility.

I’m sure that peace for Israel seemed impossible

in Isaiah’s time too.

But still, with all of these things in place,

Isaiah and the other prophets and religious leaders

promised that God would, one day, bring peace.

 

Chances that Isaiah was writing his prophecies

during one of Israel’s times of  war and siege

in the 700’s, the powerful Assyrian army

stormed through Israel five times,

reaping terror and destruction where it went.

 

And in the midst of this constant horror, Isaiah has a vision

which he shares with us today.

And that vision says this:

that God’s desire for our peace is stronger

than humanity’s addiction to war.

 

And there is an image that shows this.

It is another one of Isaiah’s greatest hits.

So frequently repeated that we probably pass over it:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat,

and the calf and the lion together,

and a little child shall lead them.

It’s a beautiful image.

 

Woody Allen once said,

“The Wolf may lay down with the lamb,

but the lamb won’t get much sleep.”

 

That is really true in our present reality.

If this happened in our world the more vulnerable would be eaten.

The wolf, the leopard, the lion, are natural predators they would not be able

to help themselves around the naturally

delicious and defenseless lambs, goats, and calves.

 

But in Isaiah’s vision, this is all changed.

This is more than just an uncomfortable peace,

this is more than just a strained photo op that

reveals an imbalance of power ready to blow up.

This is a change of hearts and minds and actions.

A change of the natural order of things.

The powerful will no longer attack the less powerful.

The weak will no longer fear the powerful.

 

Of course these animals are metaphors for

human relations and interactions.

Isaiah saw a world changed completely

Violence will not be the way of the world.

 

And this is brought about by the leadership of a little child.

A stump of Jesse. In other words, in the line of King David.

The king who was stellar at warfare would bring a

leader who brought the whole world and all its creatures to peace.

 

And this change starts with righteousness and equity.

With justice for the poor and all people.

As Martin Luther King Jr. said:

“Peace is not merely the absence of tension, it is the presence of Justice.”

Real peace, God’s peace, will not be had just by an absence of fighting,

it will be had through an end of oppression,

poverty, and when the rights of all people are respected.

 

So when Isaiah talks about this new leader

and this new reality, he’s not just talking about a leader with

great military strategy or diplomatic skills.

And peace won’t be had just through

the self-control or self-discipline of the people,

or because the powerful have suppressed the weak.

 

Isaiah is talking about the re-ordering of creation

the changing of our very hearts and minds.

This is more than what humanity is capable of.

 

This is the work of the Messiah, the anointed one.

The Messiah who we believe came to us as Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

He has taught us the ways of peace.

They are justice, understanding, openness, forgiveness, repentance.

All the things that give us inner-peace are also the way

to outer peace.

It is taking us a long time to learn these ways.

But Jesus has shown us the way to get there.

One day, God and Jesus will bring peace to our world.

And the choices that we are making today will be

the foundation of that peace that will last forever.

The little child will lead us there.

Peace will come to this war-torn world.

And that should give us inner-peace today.