In this last week or so in Columbus, the
weather has finally started to feel like winter – the
temperatures have gotten chilly, downright cold overnight! And we’ve had real
snow that’s lasted for a few days at a time. With these bits of “winter
wonderland” have also come that impediments winter can put on our lives – icy
and snowy roads, slow traffic, and frosted windshields.
It amazes me how, even when there has not
been any specific precipitation overnight, I will come out to my car in the
morning and there are the most intricate, quite delicate designs of ice frozen
across all the windows of my car. Beautiful though these icy creations are,
they also dangerously block my view from inside the car – and adds extra time
to my morning “dash out the door!” so that I can scrape them off.
Today’s readings begin in a tumultuous time
for the people of Israel, when their view of God and the world was also a bit
obscured. What had once been a great kingdom, unified under renowned leaders
like king David and Solomon, had split into two combatting nations –
Israel in the north
and Judah in the
south
with Assyria looking to attack them from
the outside.
The prophet Isaiah recounts that Ahaz, king
in the south, was being threatening by a joint attack effort of the northern
kingdom of Israel and the Assyrians. This was a terrifying time! In the verses
just before our Old Testament reading today, it says that
“the
heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook.”
The people cried out for God
And God shows up
God shows up and offers King Ahaz the
opportunity to ask anything, anything of God
as
deep as Sheol
as
high as heaven
I wonder what it was like to be Ahaz –
enemies attacking from all sides; his heart shaking, and suddenly the Lord
shows and offers him absolutely anything. Perhaps it was like looking through a
frosted over windshield. Fuzzy. Limited. Ahaz can only see him own image of his
Lord, God who cannot be tested. Ahaz’s own image has blurred the view of God’s
vibrant presence, God with him. Ahaz is bound by his own definition of what God
might do, not seeing what God is offering to do.
During these four weeks of Advent, churches
all around the world have remembered what God offers to do, has done, is doing,
and will do again through the weekly practice of lighting the Advent candles as
we draw nearer to Christmas. We have been waiting with excitement to remember
again that Jesus came as Immanuel – God here with us – and that God continues
to join us here in this world again and again and again.
Through the ritual of candle lighting, many
churches, just as we did here this morning, have sung the pleading words, O
come o come Immanuel.
The words of this song originate in the 6th
century. For hundreds of years, the verses have been used as a nightly prayer
during the week leading up to Christmas Eve.
As they are sung,
We cry out for God
God’s presence is revealed and promises are
remembered
Evening after evening another title for
Christ is called, broadening the image of the longed-for Immanuel – of God with
us.
O come, O Wisdom from on high,
who ordered all things mightily; to us the
path of knowledge show and teach us in its ways to go.
O come, O come, great Lord of might,
who to your tribes on Sinai's height in
ancient times did give the law in cloud and majesty and awe.
O come, O Branch of Jesse's stem,
unto your own and rescue them! From depths
of hell your people save, and give them victory o'er the grave.
O come, O Key of David, come
and open wide our heavenly home. Make safe
for us the heavenward road and bar the way to death's abode.
O come, O Bright and Morning Star,
and bring us comfort from afar! Dispel the
shadows of the night and turn our darkness into light.
O come, O King of nations, bind
in one the hearts of all mankind. Bid all
our sad divisions cease and be yourself our King of Peace.
O come, O come, Immanuel,
and ransom captive Israel that mourns in
lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.
Woven in these verses are a tapestry of
scriptural titles and pictures that describe the saving work in Christ. Wisdom,
might, comfort, and peace are all named. They cry for God to come and act in
our lives, invoking the history of God’s work through history of the Israel.
God’s story continues over and over again, and we cry out for it over and over
again. We sing this song because we know
the story and because we long for the truth it brings.
We cry out
And God shows up
In unexpected ways
Sharpening our vision
Broadening our expectations
We anticipate and remember Immanuel – God
with us
Each year
To re-live the joy of God meeting us in our
cries
This Advent I had the privilege to see up
close the wildly captivating, expectation breaking ways God shows up. I joined
with people across the state to sign and collect Christmas cards for all of
those in prison in Ohio – 50,000 cards! This group collected cards for two
prisons last year – about 6,000 cards – and this year in faith
People cried out
O
come O come God
O
come O people of God seeking a tenfold increase in cards
As a volunteer with prison ministry for nearly
a decade, I’ve seen how those who are incarcerated are longing to be seen,
remembered, noticed. To feel as though they are not alone. To receive a card, a
holiday wish of love, says “God is with you in this place, behind these bars.”
That they are seen more clearly as a person, not obscured as only a prisoner.
As the weeks rolled by, cards began to
trickle in –
by
the tens
the
fifties
the
hundreds
slowly adding up.
Packages of cards began arriving from other
states – Indiana, Florida.
Over 60,000 cards were counted and
distributed to each of the 28 adult prisons in Ohio this past week
AND to each of the three juvenile prisons
in Ohio
AND several of local jails
We cried out – O come O come!
AND cards are still coming in!
An extravagant abundance of God’s presence
to be shared in places where love can be scarce
When the cards were distributed over the
past several days, stories have been shared of their impact – God’s presence in
paper and ink.
One young man, an avowed nonbeliever in
God, received his card and by all accounts
- his heart shook.
He sought out one of the older men, a
well-known Christian inmate. The young man, emotional, asked the older man –
“Did
you, did you do this on purpose? Was this you?” as he held up the card he had
received.
The older man, confused and surprised,
paused and replied –
“No, I had nothing
to do with the cards.”
The younger man’s mother died about a month
ago. And the card he was given, was signed by someone with her same name.
God calls us to see the presence of such
abundant love in ways we can’t name
we
can’t understand.
God calls us to a faith that sees the wild
possibilities that, like Joseph, we might see things differently.
I imagine this was a tumultuous time for
Joseph, his view of Mary becoming obscured. Engaged, but now she is pregnant.
God offers Joseph’s a wild alterative to see
Mary
hasn’t been unfaithful – Mary has been truly faithful
and
Joseph is called see with this same faith.
Joseph saw the presence of God –
in
his dream
in
the pregnancy of Mary
in
a new born baby he adopted as his own son
Joseph says yes to the amazing
possibilities of God in the midst of turmoil and unknowns
Joseph says yes to see God with us –
Immanuel – and welcomes Jesus into the world for us all.
How can we see the presence of God with us
a bit more clearly, today?
What wild dreams is God providing for us to
step into?
Like Joseph we can cry out for God AND see
new opportunities with God’s presence all around us. Like Joseph we can see and
trust God’s amazing possibilities.
God calls us to this ever-broadening vision
of Joseph’s – to see Immanuel closer and clearer each day.
In these last days before Christmas, how
are we clearly our vision to see the new possibilities Christ brings?
That we may yet cry out
And know that God is with us
Is coming to be with us
And will be with us forever
No comments:
Post a Comment