Give me a sign

Give me a sign

This is the last Sunday before Christmas. 

Readings particularly include: Isaiah 7:10-16, Ps 80, Romans 1:1-7, Matt: 1:18-25

We begin with the prophet Isiaaih telling the wicked King Ahaz to ask God for a sign.

But Ahaz says he has no need of a sign.

The reason for this is that for if for a moment Ahaz takes notice of God, 

then his own evil will be exposed

Isaiah nevertheless tells him:

There is a sign anyway.

It is that a woman will conceive and bear a child.

As signs go it is not so remarkable,

it is, after all, an every day occurrence.

(Though if you have had a recent birth in your family or community,

as we have been blessed with in our parish

then you know it is the greatest thing that happens)

If for a a moment we acknowledge that God 

might have something to say

then we have a decision.

And Ahaz, perhaps like most of the world,

has decided:

I am not going to do what God wants

I will do what I want!

So he says:

“I don’t want a sign”

and he, evil man that he is, 

is even pious and pretentious about it.

“Far be it from me to demand a sign”

Because of course

if God gives a sign

then either Ahaz has to  stop his wickedness

or reject God.

So Isiaiah says: 

The sign is this, whether we like it or not, 

God is with us....Immanuel

and we see it in the birth of of a baby

Joseph

There is a contrast with Joseph

He is deeply confronted 

his fiancee is pregnant

and he is not the father!

The strict interpretation of the Law required that Mary should be stoned

but Joseph is not going to be in that.

No doubt a social convention had arisen

that she be sent away 

(not dissimilar to what has often happened in our own society)

[we have already forgotten in our dissolute age what havoc this caused in the lives of ordinary folk]

So Joseph decides to follow social convention

which avoids the stupidity and harshness of legalism.

BUT, and this is a big but!!!

he is chastened by the Spirit of God 

who tells him both ignore the law and social convention.

This is an Immanuel story

-God is with us-

Not in selfish ambition, not even in social conformity ( so beloved of we conservatives)

but in hearing what God might be saying to us through trouble and strife

The sort of ordinary stuff

that surrounds the birth of a child.

We read that Joseph pays attention to God’s voice;

the way of speaking is to talk about ‘an angel speaking’

not our usual way of expressing it.

The Advent-Christmas story is that God is with us.

Immanuel.

And that we live life properly by heeding what God is saying

this will almost certainly confront our own corruption and deceitful plans

it will even require us to stand against 

inadequate social convention.

I wonder where this connects with my life

and yours this Christmas.

It is not necessarily about ‘great decisions’

it is about the ordinary stuff of life...the birth of a child.....

Extraordinary in its own way.

How is God asking me to be faithful

to my own life?

and the promise God makes to me?

And will I make that journey?