And Shall Name Him Immanuel - 12/18/22
Sermon 2022.12.18."And Shall Name Him Immanuel" (Isa 7:10-16), M. Newheart, FBCEG
Today is the fourth and final Sunday of Advent. We started with hope three weeks ago, and we looked at that famous vision of Isaiah in which swords are beaten into plowshares. Two weeks ago, on the second Sunday of Advent, we considered peace, particularly the “peaceable kingdom,” in which the wild animals live peacefully with one another. Last week we focused on joy, and we rejoiced with the Hebrews as they returned to their homeland after exile.
Today we look at the sign of Immanuel as we finish up Advent with love. There is a lot of complicated history behind our passage today, and I will try to unpack it as briefly and simply as possible.
In the eighth century BC the “big gun” in the Near East was Assyria. And they were on the move, on the way to Egypt, which was another great power of the day. At this time, Jewish territory was divided into two kingdoms, the northern kingdom, also called Israel, and the southern kingdom, called Judah. Jerusalem was in Judah, and thus the temple was in Judah. Isaiah was a prophet in Judah, and Ahaz was the king of Judah. The northern kingdom, Israel, had gotten together with their neighbor Aram to oppose Assyria. They wanted to capture Jerusalem, knock Ahaz off the Judean throne, and put one of their own guys on there. Assyria was under the leadership of Tiglath-pileser III, or “Tig 3,” as I like to call him. Tig 3 was on the move pushing the borders of Assyria to the west and south.
Assyria was on the move, and Israel and Aram were attacking Judah. When King Ahaz of Judah heard about the attack, everybody had a case of “achy-shakey heart.” Isaiah says, “The heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” (Isa 7:2). That's some big time shaking. If 1950s rock-and-roller Jerry Lee Lewis had been there, he would have sung his song, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Going On,” because there was a whole lot of heart-shaking going on in Jerusalem. Isaiah goes to meet Ahaz along with his son Shear-jashub, which means “A-remnant-shall-return.”
That’s another interesting name. His parents probably said, “A-remnant-shall-return, supper is ready.” “A-remnant-shall-return, go clean your room.” And here Isaiah says, “A-remnant-shall-return, let’s go see King Ahaz. So they go.
Isaiah says to Ahaz, “These folks who want regime change ain't gonna succeed. They're gonna fail big time! And God wants you to ask a sign of God.” Isaiah uses picturesque language, “Let that sign be as deep as Sheol”—that is, the underworld—"or let it be as high as heaven. " People in the Bible were always asking for signs. Gideon is probably the most famous; he put out the fleece because he wanted a sign from God (Judges 6:33-40). And people came to Jesus asking for a sign (Mark 8:11-12 par). Woody Allen once said, “If only God would give me a sign, like making a large deposit in a Swiss bank”
(https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/10356.Woody_Allen?page=2).
So, Isaiah says to Ahaz to ask God for a sign that Judah and Aram are going to fail. Ahaz gives some pious platitudes, and says, "I won't put the Lord to the test." Well, he does have a point, Jesus in his temptation or his testing refuses the devil's ploy by saying that you must not test the Lord God. Isaiah sees right through Ahaz, though, and says, "You wear out people, you gonna wear out God now?" Isaiah says, God's going to give you this sign that you'll remain on the throne: A young woman is going to give birth to a boy, and she's going to name him "Immanuel."
Now what about this young woman? Is she a virgin? Isaiah doesn't use the term specifically for virgin. He uses the term for young woman, which could be a virgin but in this context is probably not. Isaiah, like the rest of the Old Testament, was originally written in Hebrew. In the third century BC the Old Testament was translated into Greek because that was the language of the Mediterranean world at that time. Translators produced a translation called the Septuagint because of the legend that it was produced by 70 scholars in 70 days. In the Septuagint, the word here is "virgin" The young woman is probably Isaiah's wife or Ahaz's wife. Isaiah is not prophesying about a future Messiah. The only significance of this boy is that by the time he starts eating these delicacy foods, he is going to have moral judgment, be able to tell the good from the bad. And by that time, these hostile kingdoms to the north will be completely defeated. This land of milk and honey will be restored. It will prosper again. You just wait for it. Happy days will be here again! You can keep your seat warm on that throne!
Matthew, writing 700 years after Isaiah, quotes Isaiah 7:14 in Greek, referring to a virgin, and uses it as a sign for the birth of Jesus. And Matthew spells out what Emmanuel means. It means God with us. In the Christ-event, God is with us. Isaiah was convinced that God was with him and with Ahaz and with A-remnant-shall-return. Likewise, Matthew was convinced that God was with him and the early Jesus-believers in the person and teachings and community of Jesus.
What sign do you need that God is with us? Look around, friends, look around. Look at this sanctuary. Look at the pews, look at the pulpit, look at the Advent wreath, look at the communion table. Most of all, though, look at the people. Look! God is here. God is with us. Immanuel. Immanuel. Say it over and over in your mouth. Exaggerate it. Im-ma-nu-el.
I remember going to the Washington National Cathedral back in the 1990s. My wife Joy was working at a home for the developmentally disabled. We would go to one of the small chapels to participate in a service in which we sang without accompaniment. I remember one song we sang during Advent: "Emmanuel." We were instructed to sing it however we felt like, so the sounds of "Emmanuel" were randomly bouncing off those thick pillars of the chapel. Emmanuel. Emmanuel. God is with us. In the stories, the teachings, and the community of Jesus, God is with us.
And I am convinced that God is with us here at First Baptist Church of East Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA. Why? Because the Bible tells me so? Well, that, plus the witness I see on people's faces, in their words, in their actions. A small incident: It snowed a couple of inches last week, just enough to be pretty and not snarl up the roads. The sidewalks at the church got cleaned. How did they get clean? We asked the usual suspects. Did you do it? No, I didn't do it. Did you? No, I didn't. Nobody admitted doing it. I know that I didn't do it. But somehow it got done. It must have been an angel, perhaps the Archangel Michael or Gabriel or Raphael or George! It got done! Let's just say that God did it. God motivated some kind soul to clean our sidewalks. It was a Christmas miracle!
What sign do you look for to know that God is with us? A hefty bank account? Gas in your tank? Food in your larder? Many of us are looking forward to being with family this coming weekend. I am aware that some people—not here but elsewhere--are dreading seeing their so-called loved ones. I am aware that some people—again, not here but elsewhere--are estranged from their family members, and it will simply be another holiday without those weirdos who claim to be related to them. I am also aware that at times there are people at church that people don’t get along with.
If that is the case with you, I am not going to tell you to go reconcile with people you have a grudge against, whether they are in your church or in your family. No, that is God's job. God will inspire you and equip you to reconcile with your brother or sister, your mother or father, when God is good and ready for you to do it. And guess what? God is ready now. But you may not be. And that's OK. God is present in right relations--with God, with people, and with all creation. But God is also present in broken relations. Do you think that God is only present in the good? “If I'm happy, God is with me, but if I'm not, then God is not with me.” God is with you no matter what. God is with us whether we're in a room full of people slobbering on each other and giving one another covid, and God is with us if we're sitting by ourselves watching, "It's a Wonderful Life" with Jimmy Stewart for the 135th time. God is with us; God is for us!
But who is that God that is with us? Is it the God of love, which we worship on this Fourth Sunday of Advent? I remember a chorus I used to sing in youth group: "Love, love, love / the Gospel in a word is love." This week I was listening to a meditation on Insight Meditation App, which is available free, and I highly recommend it. The meditation teacher davidji was talking about love as energy flowing out of oneself. He even said that each one of us is a "love machine," because energy was flowing out of each of us. So, at least in davidji's mind, each one of you is a love machine. And in the mind of the writer of the first epistle of John, God is the biggest love machine, for God is love (1 John 4:8). This is the God that is with us, the God of love, the God with the divine energy flowing out of Godself. This God is with us, building us up so that we can build others up, challenging us so that we can be better love machines. And our machines are powered by God's love.
Sometimes we are rather rigid when we think about expressing love. But we are expressing love all the time, whether we realize it or not. I think that it says in the Bible somewhere that when two or three are gathered to celebrate Christmas, one or two will complain about the meal. This turkey is too dry. This stuffing is too salty. And you know what? That person is expressing love. Yes, that's right. Uncle Jack, who seems to have drunk straight vinegar before coming over to dinner, is expressing love. Aunt Suzie, who doesn't seem to have a good word for anybody: Tuck your shirttail in. Shut the door; you're not heating the whole outdoors. Aunt Suzie is expressing love. Uncle Jack is expressing love. They care about the food, about people's appearances, about not wasting our money. Uncle Jack and Aunt Suzie and everybody else are expressing love.
Now, maybe God has not given them the gift of tactfulness that God has given us, but maybe tactfulness is overrated. I'll tell you one thing that's not overrated: gratitude. Gratitude. It's not overrated; it's underused. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I think that gratitude is the surest sign of the presence of God. Gratitude sees God at work everywhere, in the hurt word that was said, in the misstep that was made, in the unkind action that was done without thought or maybe even with malice and forethought.
God is present, God is present. God is present here in this sanctuary. God is present in the streets outside, whether they are swept or not. God is present in our homes and in the neighborhoods. God is present. God is with us. Immanuel. Life has meaning, purpose, challenge, direction.
How can you know God's presence? One way is through the breath, as we breathe in God's love, hold for a split second, and breathe God's love out into the world. Do you wonder what to take to these Christmas celebrations you're going to? Take your breath, your conscious breath, your loving breath, your Immanuel breath, your God-with-us breath. It goes in and out--in toward yourself, out toward others. In toward yourself, out toward others. God is known in your breath. Take a moment now and focus on your breath, God's breath of love that God is breathing into you. You breathe in God's breath of love; you breathe out God's breath of love into the world. You need God's love; the world needs God's love. Breathe it in, breathe it out.
I will conclude with Lucille Clifton's poem "birth-day":
today we are possible.
the morning, green and laundry-sweet,
opens itself and we enter
blind and mewling.
everything waits for us:
the snow kingdom
sparkling and silent
in its glacial cap,
the cane fields
shining and sweet
in the sun-drenched south.
as the day arrives
with all its clumsy blessings
what we will become
waits in us like an ache.
(https://www.brinkerhoffpoetry.org/poems/birth-day#:~:text=Poems%20birth-
day%20By%20Lucille%20Clifton%20today%20we%20are,green%20and%20laundry-
sweet%2C%20opens%20itself%20and%20we%20enter)
--
I will add: the loving God waits with us and in us like an ache.
And all God's people said, "Amen."