Isaiah 7:10-16
10 Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. 13 Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.
The Fourth Sunday of Advent
Almost Christmas, the supreme festival of creation, the birth of God in our midst in Jesus of Nazareth, the baby in the Bethlehem manger. Although by this Sunday we're usually already into or seriously planning Nativity treats, food, decorations, music, and evoking memories, to round out Isaiah in Advent, a few comments on the first lection. This Isaiah passage is from the Old Testament, First Testament, or Hebrew Bible; it wasn't originally Christian scripture.
Over the past three Sundays I've described the frightening and precarious overall political, social, religious, and economic situation Isaiah of Jerusalem addressed. Long ago, the church identified...
14"Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel."
...as a Messianic text that anticipated the arrival of Emmanuel, Jesus, God-With-Us. The librettist for Handel's Messiah also chose this, but Isaiah did not have Christmas in mind. In these very political verses, King Ahaz of the southern kingdom Judah is very concerned about military and political threats from Samaria [Ephraim] in the northern kingdom of Israel, from Damascus in Syria. The baby in these verses may be Isaiah's own soon to be born offspring.
Similar to Martin Luther, Matthew's community that produced the featured gospel readings for this year A had a habit of discovering and uncovering Jesus Christ in every passage of the Old Testament. No, I have that backwards: similar to Matthew's community, the Reformer Martin Luther loved to discern and explain the presence of Jesus in almost every phrase of the OT.
When we read scripture, our first question needs to be the historical when, where, who, why, what. But we know scripture is a living perennial word! Every verse won't apply to our here and now, but still we can ask about contextualizing (making alive) God's Word into our current when, where, who, why, and what.
Gifts of Creation
With Christmas being the church's major Trinitarian Festival of Creation (Easter – Redemption, Pentecost – Sanctification), gifts of food are especially appropriate. It's not uniquely my opinion about giving food and homemade delicacies, because why else would home-baked cookies or a commercial close approximation be so popular this time of year? Food as gift also gives the recipient permission to indulge in unneeded calories.
What are your favorite and/or must-have Christmas foods?
Gifts of Music
Advent and Christmas may be the most musical seasons of the year. Many churches and other groups offer Lessons and Carols to the community, typically early in Advent before the busy-ness gets too overwhelming. When Advent begins in the northern hemisphere, days are short, nights long. I believe it originally was for Epiphany, but I love everything about the hymn Rise, Shine, You People (by Ron Klug to Dale Wood's tune, Wojtkiewiecz) and the line, "Come, celebrate, your banners high unfurling, your songs and prayers against the darkness hurling" is exactly one of the reasons music feels so good and is so necessary during winter.
What are your essential Advent-Christmas songs, hymns, chorales and other music? It's also not specifically Christmas, but one of mine is Phillip Phillip's Home...
The trouble it might drag you down
If you get lost, you can always be found
Just know you're not alone
'Cause I'm going to make this place your home
...always moves me. Most likely I associate it with Christmas because the first time I heard it was at a Blue Christmas service in Previous City.
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