December 28, 2014WHEN GOD DRAWS NEAR - 5. “A Witness to Wonder”

Isaiah 9:2-7

Preface to the Word

For the four weeks leading up to Christmas, we’ve usedJames Harnish’s book, When God Comes Down as a guidebook for getting ready for Christmas. Following his lead, we considered some biblical characters in the Birth Narratives of Matthew and Luke and what each has to teach us about God drawing near to us and to our world in Jesus of Nazareth. The old priest Zechariah and his barren old wife, Elizabeth, the carpenter Joseph and his pregnant fiancé Mary, and even the fictional character, the innkeeper, have all had a lesson for us to pay attention to. And now here we are on the other side of Christmas day, right in the middle of celebrating the birth of the messiah and pondering what the good news really means to us, to our lives and to our world, that God has drawn near and is drawing near and will draw near in the One we know as Jesus.

I’m sticking with Harnish’s book for one more Sunday. He has one last chapter,“A Witness to Wonder,”in which he offers up some final thoughts for you and me to mull over as we move through the holidays and toward a brand new year.

Just a word about today’s scripture reading…the scripture today is from the Old Testament, from the prophet Isaiah, to be precise. Isaiah 9:2-7 is often read this time of year because of its theme oflight shining in the darkness (v. 2) and its reference in verses 6 & 7 to a child “born for us” who will usher in justice and righteousness “from this time forward and for evermore.”The significance of this passage in traditional Christian theology has been immortalized in the words of “For Unto Us a Child is Born” in Handel'sMessiah.

But one searches in vainfor a New Testament reference to these seven verses in Isaiah 9,except for Matthew, whousesthe first two verses of Isaiah 9 to explain why godless Galilee would become the launching pad for Jesus' ministry. The glorious announcement of a child “born for us, a son given to us…” in verses 6-7, the very heart of Handel'sMessiah, alas, enjoys no direct echo in the New Testament.

The background to our text starts back in Isaiah 7 and runs through chapter 9. From 734-732 BCE, facing an attack from Israel and Syria, the king of Judah,Ahaz, considered enlisting the aid of the empire of Assyria. While this would neutralize the threats of his northern neighbors, it would also require Judah entering into an alliance with the “Evil Empire” of the day. What should king Ahaz do? Isaiah urged Ahaz to stand firm in faith, trust in God, and refuse coalitions with other countries whether it be Syria, Israel or Assyria (Isaiah 7:3-9), thus reassuring the king that God would provide all the protection required - and that the birth of a child would serve as a sign of this (Isaiah 7:10-17).

Our text today from Isaiah 9 announces that significant birth.

Isaiah 7:1 – 9:7 relates God's coming in the birth of a child who will become a sign of God's presence among us (“Immanuel: God with us”). Historically, thatchild was likely Hezekiah, son of Ahaz, who became the 13th“anointed” king of Judah. Hezekiahwas one of the most prominent kings of Judah mentioned in theHebrew Bible,and is one of the kings listedby Matthew in thegenealogy of Jesus.

When Matthew, in verse 23 of his first chapter quotes from Isaiah 7 and points to Jesus as the son conceived by a virgin, or when Handel declares the same with regard to Isaiah 9:6, they are both expressing their belief that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of God’s longstanding promise of a Messiah. Isaiah was not looking forward specifically to Jesus. How could the birth of Jesus be a sign to Ahaz, 700 years later? But Matthew, who built his presentation of the good news upon Old Testament prophecy, means to say that God’sMessiah anticipated in the Hebrew Scriptures became present with us in Jesus of Nazareth.

Scripture Reading: Isaiah 9:2-7

SermonI.

  1. John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, was the preacher everyone wanted to hear in the fourth century. He was known for his preaching and public speaking; his denunciation of abuse of authority by both ecclesiastical and political leaders. In fact, “Chrysostom” is the anglicized rendition of the Greek, “Chrysostomos,” which means “golden-mouthed.”With a name like that, you know he had to be a good preacher!
  2. In a Christmas sermon that became a classic, John Chrysostompreached that the story of the birth of Christ should not “be probed too curiously with wordy speech.”In other words…keep it short, preacher!

He goes on to say,

“What shall I say! And how shall I describe the Birth to you? For this wonder fills me with astonishment. The Ancient of days has become an infant.He Who sits upon the sublime and heavenly Throne, now lies in a manger. And He Who cannot be touched… now lies subject to the hands of men… God is now on earth, and man in heaven.”

  1. What shall I say? That’s the question most preachers ask themselves when it comes to preaching yet another Christmas sermon on this same old story that is told year, after year, after year. It’s not because there’s nothing to say, but it’s because what needs to be said is often beyond the ability of our limited language to convey.

II.

  1. And yet, on the other hand, the Christmas story is so simple that children can tell it.In fact, the story of Jesus’ birth is best told by children, especially pre-school children as angels with tinsel halos and shepherds with fake beards dressed in bathrobesand wise men wearing Burger King crowns.
  2. A few years back when I was working for the annual conference and wasn’t pastoring a church, Jan and I attended the Christmas Eve service at the church my daughter served as pastor. It was the first year that our granddaughter Abby was going to be in the Christmas pageant. It wasn’t a highly rehearsed production. Any kid that showed up was invited to put on a costume and be a part of the story. Abby and another little girl were dressed as angels and when they made their entrance, their attention was immediately drawn to the big star on top of the Christmas tree off to the side. There they were, holding hands and pointing to the star, talking in loud voices about how pretty it was, while the rest of the cast were singing a song to the congregation. There were a lot of smiles and chuckles going around the church and later Jan and I decided that the scene was perfect… angels pointing to the star with awe and delight, announcing that something beautiful and special was happening!
  3. You’ve probably seen your share of children’s Christmas pageants over the years. In 1972, Barbara Anderson wrote a wonderful little book called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. In 1983,they made a movie from the book, starring Loretta Swit of M.A.S.H. fame.

The rotten and incorrigible kids at the heart of the story, the Herdmans, are as endearing as they are obnoxious. You’ve got to love kids that are described in the first paragraph of the book as “absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world.” They lie, steal, smoke cigars, swear and hit little kids. The town lives in fear of these six bad kids and when they show up at church, curious about the desserts they heard were served at Sunday school, everyone is outraged or frighterned.

When the Herdmans decide they want to participate in the Christmas pageant and bully their way into lead roles of Mary, Joseph and the Angel of the Lord, no one quite knows what to do with them. To their credit, the kids are actually interested in and fascinated by the story of the birth of Jesus. The regular church-going kids have heard the story a million times, but it is all new to the Herdmans and they have questions and comments and really get into the spirit of the pageant.

[Watch a video clip from the movie…]

The unusual, slightly irreverent and somewhat disastrous interpretation of the Christmas story in the pageant has everyone nervous and on edge. But the Herdmans, with their fresh look at the timeless tale, cause the church members to remember the story’s true meaning.

  1. That's just how real the story of Jesus’ birth is. The good news of great joy is proclaimed in a world where children sometimes lose their fathers, where parents sometimes lose their jobs, and where families sometimes lose their homes. The angels sing of “peace on earth and goodwill to all” in a world where Herods still rule and where nations still believe that peace can be purchased through aggression and war. God comes in flesh into a world where love still gets nailed to a cross. The Savior is born in a world where every last one of us is like those lost, confused, disoriented shepherds who are in desperate need of a Savior.

III.

  1. Our Advent journey to Christmas began with the Old Testament prophet Isaiah shouting at God, “If only you would tear open the heavens and come down!” (Isa 64:1). Remember? And who among us, if we would tell the truth about what we feel, hasn't felt that way? Who among us hasn’t had those moments when we wanted to shout out, “Why don't you get real, God? Why don't you get down here and do something about the mess we've made of things?”
  2. In the manger in Bethlehem we see the astonishing way God answered Isaiah's plea. The good news of the gospel is not that God drew near to us in Jesus to show us how to climb our way back to God, but that God came to us, to dwell among the real stuff of our lives – God with us in Jesus Christ.
  3. God did not come to us in Jesus to make life just a little bit better, but to deliver us from an existence that is less than life into real life itself. God drew near in Jesus not to prepare us for the next world, but to set us free to live in this world the way Jesus lived, which was the costly way of reconciling love, relentless hope, reverberating joy. God drew near and lived with us so that you and I and all of humanity could live like Jesus.

God drew near…

  • to save us from violence by showing us the way of peace;
  • to save us from greed by showing us the way of compassion;
  • to save us from our addiction to narrow self-interest, by showing us the way of self-giving love;
  • to save us from sin by showing us the way of forgiveness;
  • to save us from death by showing us the way to life;
  • to save us from sorrow by showing us the way of joy.
  1. Harnish writes in his book about a friend who had been going through some difficult times. The story is a lot like the stories of some friends I’ve known in my life. His business was a victim of the economic recession. His mother drifted into total dementia. His father had a hard time coping with that and drifted into a major depression. His friend faced health challenges in his own family. There were plenty of times he felt like shouting the words of Isaiah, shaking his fist at God and screaming, “God! Why don't you get down here and do something?”

Just a few days before Christmas, Harnish received an email from his friend. These are some of the words he wrote:

“God and I are getting along a lot better now. I'm still not very happy about the way He allows things to happen, but in all of this He and I have become much closer. Jesus is with me, living within me, standing beside me. He never lets me go. My faith is stronger than ever, leading me, giving me strength. More than ever the Christmas message of Christ coming to us where we are, being born among us, being born within us, is at the center of who I am. Merry Christmas!”

  1. The old priest Zechariah and his barren wife Elizabeth, the righteous young carpenter named Joseph and his betrothed, Mary, the legendary innkeeper in Bethlehem – one thing all of these witnesses to the incarnation had in common is the wonder and the mystery of a God whose love is utterly incomprehensible to our minds, but totally accessible to our experience.
  2. There is a time for reasoned theories and involvedexplanations, but Christmas isn't one of them. We come to worship and to experience the mystery, to kneel in humble awe before the wonder of a God who loves this world enough to dwell among us in order to save us.

IV.

  1. The very first person we met at the beginning of Adventback in Novemberwasn’t from the Bible, but a Methodist pastor in Australia whose passion was looking into the night sky to catch a glimpse of supernovas. He has beenable to spot a number of them in the night sky while the rest of us miss them.

The Rev. Robert Owen Evans will probably be out there tonight, staring into the Australian sky, waiting to be a witness to the wonder of light breaking through the darkness. Given the wonder of the way God has come to us in Jesus, “it just seems right that an event of that magnitude should be witnessed,” to borrow a quote from him.

Like the witnesses with whom we have spent the last four weeks of Advent, may each of us become a witness to the wonder of the way God has drawn near to us in the One that we know as Jesus.