Emmanuel

Advent 4; Yr. A, December 22, 2013

Isaiah 7:10-16; 
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; 
Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church

In the reading from Isaiah, the prophet tells his people that they will receive a sign, a woman with child from the House of David.  Matthew picks up on that in the gospel reading we had today.  An angel appears to Joseph and tells him that his betrothed is pregnant and will have a son.  It’s a sign, and the early Christians saw this as the fulfillment of the Isaiah prophecy.   Paul confirms this belief in his letter to the Romans.  Jesus Christ is the one who was promised by the prophets.  He is the one from the line of David, the one who will bring about obedience  of faith. 

New birth is a relevant theme at this time of year.  It comes at a time when the earth appears devoid of life, the days are dark and the cold creeps into both our bodies and homes.  We need hope during these days.  This week alone, we had three homicides in our city within two days.  In Greece, a 10-year-old boy lost his life when he fell into a snow tunnel he was building with a friend outside his home.  In Henrietta, a woman died in a car accident this week when another car hit her from behind and knocked her into the path of an oncoming car.  One of our own lost a family member in a car accident.  We could use the kind of promise that Isaiah made to our ancestors.  We need it as badly today as the exiles in Babylon did those many years ago.  A lot of people think we’ve got beans for brains if we believe that the birth of Jesus changed anything.  People are still killing one another.  Many around the world still die from hunger.  Accidents continue to happen, and some have fatal results.  What’s the difference?  So what if Jesus was the Son of David?  What’s he done for us lately?  What’s he done for you?

Jesus was born into an unpredictable world too.  His conception was shrouded with mystery and suspicion, but was accepted with awe and courage by Joseph.  His birth aroused the interest of three astronomers from the east, who were guided by a star to the place of his birth.  Their coming filled the local King with fear and foreboding, so he enlisted their help in locating the “newborn king” so he could quickly dispose of him.  Led by starlight, the three men discover the babe in the home of his parents and they offer him gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh.  Once again, a dream arrives to save the child.  The three holy men leave by a different route and defy the local King’s request.  In his outrage, the king orders the death of all baby boys under the age of two.  Once again, a dream guides the family to safety.   Joseph is warned to take his family and flee for their lives.  Together they make their way to Egypt until Herod is dead. 

We might be tempted to say that these are just stories, and dreams are just in our heads.  I might agree with you … to a point.  Perhaps they are stories, but they are stories with truth embedded in them.  Jesus was a person born into a violent world where power was not shared.  Threats to that power were taken seriously, and often put down brutally.  Something about that baby was different.  The gifts of gold (for a king), frankincense (for holy man) and myrrh (for burial) give us glimpses into what his life meant to those who knew him.   He was welcomed into Jerusalem like a king.  On his cross Pilate placed a sign labeling him “King of the Jews”.  He was a well known healer, exorciser of demons and religious teacher, a holy man.  He died as a Roman traitor and was laid in a tomb before he rose from the dead.  Death did not hold him. Death was a new birth into full life with God.  All of these things are brought to light in those stories and dreams.  They highlight a life that mattered to many. 

            On Friday night, Nancy and I watched It’s a Wonderful Life, a movie about a man who hadn’t gotten what he expected out of life.  He had big dreams of travelling to far away places experiencing different cultures, and seeing exciting new things, but life kept getting in the way.  Always giving for others – staying home when his father had a stroke instead of going to college, taking over the family business, giving his honeymoon money away to neighbors to bail out the building and loan his family owned.  Those and other self-giving choices interfered with his dreams of travel.  He married a hometown girl and ended up living his life in the very same town where he was born.  Then one night, misplaced money makes it likely that he will go to jail and lose everything he has.  In despair, he wishes that he’d never been born, and his wish is granted. 

            His guardian angel walks back into town with him as he encounters one person after another who is living a completely different life because George had never been born.  His brother dies as a young boy when he falls through the ice, because George wasn’t there to save him.  The local druggist loses his license and his life’s work because George wasn’t there to prevent him from accidently poisoning a customer.  The family business goes bankrupt and the wealthy town banker buys up everything in sight, putting all the town’s people in debt to him.  His wife never marries and his children are never born.  George comes to understand what a difference one life can make. 

            Jesus was one person too. He lived a life given for others, like George’s, but it was even more than that.  Jesus lived a life filled with the Spirit.  God’s power worked through him not only in his self-giving, but in the power he had to heal and bring redemption to broken lives.  Through Jesus, God was able to work miracles.  His life changed the world.  We are who we are today, because Jesus lived.  In Jesus we see the unconditional love that we believe is God’s.  In Jesus we see the ability to cross boundaries of sex, culture, status, and ethnicity that we hope for in today’s world.  In Jesus we see the capacity to heal that our world desperately needs.  In Jesus we see possibility and affirmation of hope, of Christian hope, of all that has already been done for us.

            At Christmas, we’re reminded that Jesus was born into a mortal life.  He came into the world as a tiny, crying baby boy, hungry and scared and cold, having left the warmth and security of his mother’s womb.  He came into the world kicking and screaming like any other child in our day.  He was fully human, but never outside the fullness of God.  We are all children of this world, made in the image of God and with the capacity to become like Jesus through faith, but it doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not an easy path.  On this last Sunday of Advent as we can see Christmas waiting on the doorstep, hang onto love, believe in the love that Jesus lived.  That love can change the world.

Birth is a time of joy, but it is only the beginning of the work each life is called to.  Maybe that’s why we say it begins with labor.  After birth, life is a labor of love.  Living in love for others, for those we know and for those we have yet to meet takes all of our energy and then some.  That “then some” is the grace of God that Jesus was able to access at almost any moment in his life.  Grace is God’s gift to us all.

Never doubt that your life matters as much as George’s or Jesus’.  We are all conduits for grace.  Each of us touches those we know in our workplaces, in our families, in the community, in the places we go for recreation, in the markets where we shop, in the organizations that receive our time and talent, in the situations when we have reached out a hand to help, in the causes we have supported.  We have been like Jesus … we have been sacraments, outward and visible signs of God’s love in the world.  A love that was fully revealed in a tiny baby, who became a carpenter, and later left his home to become an itinerant teacher, who was Emmanuel … God with us.  Who is still with us … in all the messiness of this life until the end of time.  May we find God in one another this year, as we accept Christ into our lives once again.

Amen