God Revealed Among Us

Scripture Reading

Isaiah 9:2–7 (NLT)

2  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light. For those who live in a land of deep darkness, a light will shine. 3 You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice. They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing the plunder. 4 For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders. You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian. 5 The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned. They will be fuel for the fire. 6 For a child is born to us, a son is given to us. The government will rest on his shoulders. And he will be called: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 His government and its peace will never end. He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity. The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!

Focus Statement

The long-awaited Savior comes to us, unexpectedly, as a baby,

to reveal God’s possibilities in the face of human impossibility.

Point of Relation

It is very easy to get stuck in a mindset of scarcity…you know what I mean?

We work hour after hour, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year...

Sometimes enjoying what we do, other times not...

And we are always looking for the day of when we can retire…IF we can retire.

It reminds me of God’s curse of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:17-19, where God judged “the ground is cursed because of you.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

It will grow thorns and thistles for you, though you will eat of its grains.

By the sweat of your brow will you have food to eat until you return to the ground from which you were made.

For you were made from dust, and to dust you will return.”

By our very nature we seem to be cursed to see everything through the lens of scarcity.

I remember one time, when I was considering going to seminary,

I could not, for the life of me, see how I would be able to afford that given that I had two younger children,

a mortgage, two car payments and other bills to worry about.

It was a real concern for us and it would have been very easy for me to say...

Nah, God…I gotta go out and get a job…any job…just to make ends meet...

Not time for College.

It would have been real easy because up until that point, I hadn’t even finished my Associates degree, let alone Bachelors and then Masters.

But, once I said yes, I quickly came to realize JUST HOW MUCH GOD provides.

Prior to that, I could not find a job for the life of me, no matter how much I tried...

However, ONCE IS SAID YES…boy did God provide…ABUNDANTLY…

I had acquired so many credits that it only took a couple of semesters to finish my AA degree...

Which I finished Phi Theta Kappa…my first time EVER being in an honors society at any level.

I went to Montclair and finished my Bachelor’s degree in record time…3 semesters…

Because many of my credits transferred from SCCC.

As for Seminary, due to our Shared Ministries and connectionalism in the UMC...

I got a 100% scholarship, meaning I didn’t have to pay for tuition..

Plus I got scholarship, which help offset that free ride on the College’s end.

Of course, I still had to take out student loans because I didn’t have a full-time job...

But in that department…I was able to be certified by the Board of Education in Vernon to be a Substitute teacher...

Which helped supplement our income.

All these years later, look at me. GOD HAS PROVIDED.

I went from someone on the verge of foreclosure and car repossession...

to having all that I NEEDED to serve my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Things to Consider

This world tries to fill us with fear and dread.

It tries to imprison us in a mindset of scarcity...

and abundance of NOTHING...

as if God does not provide for us what we need.

The world, which does not even acknowledge God,

tells us that in order to conquer the darkness...

We need to be SUPER HEROES...

We need to pick ourselves up by the bootstraps...

Work hard...

Attain the American Dream of prosperity and the good life...

A dream all too unattainable for most of us.

Yet, our Scripture passage in Isaiah today, paints a totally different reality.

What Scripture Says

First, let’s consider the context of our passage in Isaiah.

Here, the prophet is addressing what is going on in his own time and place.

This prophetic hymn was most likely composed in 732 BC, a couple years following the Syro Ephraimitic War.

That war was described in 2 Kings 16:5-9 as follows:

5 Then King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah of Israel came up to attack Jerusalem. They besieged Ahaz but could not conquer him. 6 At that time the king of Edom recovered the town of Elath for Edom. He drove out the people of Judah and sent Edomites to live there, as they do to this day. 7 King Ahaz sent messengers to King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria with this message: “I am your servant and your vassal. Come up and rescue me from the attacking armies of Aram and Israel.” 8 Then Ahaz took the silver and gold from the Temple of the Lord and the palace treasury and sent it as a payment to the Assyrian king. 9 So the king of Assyria attacked the Aramean capital of Damascus and led its population away as captives, resettling them in Kir. He also killed King Rezin.

As you can see that war was won for Ahaz, who was king of Judah, through an alliance with Assyria, who were enemies of both the kingdoms of Israel and Aram.

Remember that Israel and Judah were no longer united together at this point...

Following the death of King Solomon, his sons fueded over who should be king of the United Kingdom of Israel...

And that feud led to the permanent separation of the United Kingdom into the Kingdom of Israel in the North...

And the Kingdom of Judah in the south...

bitter rivalries…constantly at war with each other.

This particular hymn, though, is not referring to the war, obviously. The war was won and over.

This hymn, written 2 or so years later, was celebrating the birth of a new crown prince sometime after 732.

THE SIGN OF GOD’S DELIVERANCE: The birth of a new descendant of David.

The people of Judah had been delivered from the jaws of defeat and death because of King Ahaz’s swift actions in allying Judah with Assyria.

And now, a child is born who will continue on David’s line, which shall not end.

The titles…well, they were titles fit for the future King.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

These are names that we, of course, associate with Jesus and rightfully so...

However, kings were also given these titles.

After all, the king was considered to be the “adopted” son of God...

and God’s authority rested upon him.

Yet, what Isaiah didn’t know, which is typical of any prophet, was the COSMIC and ETERNAL meaning of his hymn.

Isaiah had NO WAY of knowing that God would be showing up…LITERALLY…

in the form of a baby (of the line of David)

born in David’s hometown of Bethlehem nearly 732 years later.

And this, of course is Biblical…that prophets are writing about their own times, but God speaks through them for ALL TIME...

Listen to Peter explain this in 2 Peter 1:20-21

20 Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, 21 or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.

In other words, the prophets were inspired to write due to their own circumstances…

but they were INSPIRED and GUIDED by the Holy Spirit and,

thus, despite their own understanding, their words speak for God to all people.

So, while Isaiah was writing a celebratory hymn of God’s promise being fulfilled in the birth of a crown prince...

God, through Isaiah’s words, was preparing the world for the birth of HIMSELF in Jesus Christ, through a virgin woman named Mary, in Bethlehem in a stable.

I MEAN WOW! Is that NOT powerful...

And Jesus Christ, our Lord and God, is truly the WONDERFUL COUNSELOR...

MIGHTY GOD…LITERALLY...

EVERLASTING FATHER, and PRINCE OF PEACE.

And as such…the people who have walked in darkness...

You…me…and THE WHOLE WORLD throughout HISTORY…past, present and future...

We have seen a great light

To those of us who have lived in a land of deep darkness

a LIGHT IS SHINING…and it cannot be extinguished!

CHRISTIAN FRIENDS REJOICE!

OUR GOD HAS BEEN REVEALED AMONG US!!!

What This Means for You

You who believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior,

You who study his Word and follow him...

You know you have been given an INVALUABLE gift...

the Gift of God’s abiding love and presence among you and within you…through Jesus Christ and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

How does this knowledge transform you on this Christmas Sunday?

Pause

How will you draw even closer to Christ this year?

Pause

How will you guard yourself against the darkness of this world...

with the light of Christ?

Perhaps you will study Scripture more, not just alone but in a small group context...

Perhaps you will grow your prayer life to be even more integral and dynamic than it has been...

Perhaps you will step up and lead something God has been calling you to step out in faith on.

What This Means for Us

As a congregation, we are being called to see the revelation of God’s possibilities...

in the face of our own human impossibilities.

God is calling us to put our trust in HIM, in Jesus Christ...

and to say YES to the mission and ministry ahead of us.

Will we focus on all of the things we don’t have...

Will we be consumed by the darkness of a worldly economy of scarcity?

Pause

Or will we embrace the Christmas message…not just today, but everyday…

put our TRUST in JESUS, in God Revealed Among Us...

knowing that with God, we belong to an economy of abundance...

And that, in the light, the darkness cannot survive.

If your answer is YES to God, then let’s get going in the New Year!

Amen? Amen!