“This Present Sign” Isaiah 7.10–17 Advent 4C, Dec. ‘22

 

 

1.                            Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The message from God’s Word on this 4^th Sunday in Advent is taken from Isaiah 7:10-17. It’s entitled, “This Present Sign,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                            “ ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Mt 1:23). God is present with us. That’s an astounding claim, given the common experience among God’s people of his apparent absence. Most of us, at some point or another, have wondered whether God is really with us. We face great difficulties, and we wonder if God cares. We encounter things we can’t explain or understand, and we wonder if God really exists. We cry out to God on our knees but hear nothing in response other than our own sighs. We slog through life, never experiencing much of a spiritual high or low, and we begin to question if God is with us. With a few exceptions, the people of God have often experienced life in a way that makes them think God is absent.

3.                            You’re not alone when you wonder. You’re not the first to question God’s presence. It’s safe to say that very few have never questioned God’s presence. In fact, those who question God’s presence are actually only continuing a millennia-old theme of God’s people doubting his presence. Before the fall into sin, God walked and talked with his human creatures. His presence was obvious. Adam and Eve didn’t doubt that he was there. They doubted his reliability, thanks to the serpent. But that’s a different problem. His presence was obvious.

4.                            But, after the fall, God’s people have often doubted his presence among them. The episode with the golden calf is a case in point. In Exodus 19, God told Moses to meet him on top of Mount Sinai so that he could give him his Law. Moses was gone for a while. The people got antsy. They began to question God’s presence. By the time we get to Exodus 32, they’ve concluded that God doesn’t exist. Or at least, that he is no longer with them. Never mind the 10 plagues that God brought on Egypt to deliver them. Never mind the parting of the Red Sea by which God rescued them. Never mind the manna that God provided in the wilderness so that the people wouldn’t starve. “What have you done for me lately?” the people asked. When God did not respond, they decided he was no longer there.

5.                            That’s what happened in our reading today from Isaiah 7. King Ahaz doubted God was with him. He had a reason to doubt: foreign armies were mounting around him. But God had promised to be with his people forever. God had promised to protect and preserve them. But Ahaz and the people of God looked around at the present circumstances and were not convinced.

6.                            That’s when Isaiah entered the scene. God sent Isaiah to give a message to Ahaz. His message was simple: God is with you, Ahaz. He promised he would be with you. Believe him. If you have doubts, simply ask him for a sign—anything you want—and he will show you that he is with you. Can you imagine that? An invitation from God to ask him for a sign? But Ahaz wouldn’t do it. Why not? Because he had already lost his faith. He had already put his faith in a “golden calf”. This time it was an alliance with a foreign army.

7.                            That’s when Isaiah spoke those words that Matthew would quote seven hundred years later. You don’t trust God enough to ask for a sign? “The Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14). God promises to be graciously present in His creation through Jesus.

8.                            Isaiah’s response to Ahaz’s lack of faith was to promise a peculiar sign of God’s presence. He promised a child who would be born to a maiden. This is hardly the kind of sign that one would expect from the Almighty. But this would be no ordinary child. He was to be called Immanuel—“God with us.” Moreover, God would be with his people to save them from their sins.

9.                            Immanuel appeared as Jesus. The child who was also the eternal Son of God. He is God’s sign. He is God’s proof. He is God’s guarantee that he is with us. That is what makes Christmas such a big deal. That’s why we’ve been getting ready to celebrate Christmas since the day after Thanksgiving. On December 25, we celebrate the fact that God is with us—that he is with us to save us.

10.                        But God’s people of every age question that too. We have our own golden calf episodes. God doesn’t behave in ways that we think he should, and our faith slides. We don’t see God solving our problems or healing our diseases or fixing our families or answering our questions, and we are tempted to conclude that he is not with us. God’s presence in Christ is still often hidden from us. That’s why God gives us another sign. That sign is Baptism. The Lutheran Confessions speak of Baptism (and the Lord’s Supper) as signs of God’s gracious disposition toward us. The Augsburg Confession describes the sacraments as “signs and testimonies of God’s will toward us” that “awaken and confirm faith” in us (AC XIII 1–2). The Apology draws on the Early Church: “It has been well said by Augustine that a Sacrament is a visible Word, because the rite is received by the eyes and is, as it were, a picture of the Word, illustrating the same thing as the Word” (Ap XIII 5).

11.                        When we think of Baptism as a sign of God’s grace toward us, we begin to see the importance Baptism has for every day of our lives. Louis IX, who ruled France in the thirteenth century, was once asked why he signed his name “Louis of Poissy” and not “Louis IX, King of France” (which would have been the traditional way for a king to sign letters and documents). He responded by pointing out that Poissy was the location of his Baptism. Then he is said to have explained, “I think more of the place where I was baptized than of Reims Cathedral where I was crowned. It is a greater thing to be a child of God than to be the ruler of a kingdom. This last I shall lose at death, but the other will be my passport to an everlasting glory.” This saying was etched in stone in front of the baptismal font at the former St. Louis Catholic Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. It reflects the Christian conviction that Baptism is the most important day in the life of a follower of Jesus. It identifies a Christian as a child of God who will live eternally with Christ. This identity manifests itself daily—not only in the signing of one’s name, but also in the sacrificial and selfless life of service to others. No question: the sign King Ahaz refused to ask, the virgin birth, was among the greatest signs given to mankind (Is 7:14). But in our Baptism, God has given us the sign that everything the virgin-born Christ accomplished by his life, death, and resurrection is personally and eternally ours.

12.                        Baptism is not only a sign of God’s gracious will toward us. It is also a sign to the world. Baptism signals to outsiders what we are as Christians (AC XIII 1), but it is our baptismal living that makes them stop to notice. As Paul writes in Romans 6, our Baptism means newness of life. This life manifests itself in sacrificial service to others—both to fellow believers in the Church and to those in need outside the Church. When the everyday lives of God’s people are shaped by their Baptism into Christ, the watching world sees the hidden presence of God. God’s presence in the world today is made known through his people as they love and serve one another.

13.                        It’s exactly one week until Christmas, and we all have an awful lot yet to do to get ready for it. As you hurry through all that remaining business, remember that in Christ, God is present with us. Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. And just as important, he is God with you. You know that because of your Baptism. You were baptized into Christ.

14.                        Running, scurrying, hurrying on this errand and that, to this mall and that store, as you welcome guests and make your social rounds, remember your Baptism—in the way you treat clerks and other shoppers, in the way you treat visiting loved ones who may be hard to love, in the way you think about the gifts you select for others. Remember your Baptism as a sign that the babe in the manger is not only the Savior of the world. He is also your Savior from your sin, and now he is your strength for faithful living in his name. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

 

“The Angel Gabriel Brings a Message of Hope in the Midst of the Seemingly Impossible” (Luke 1.26–38) Advent Mid 3 Dec. ‘22

 

 

1.                Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word for our 3^rd Advent Midweek Service is taken from Luke 1:26-38, it’s entitled, “The Angel Gabriel Brings a Message of Hope in the Midst of the Seemingly Impossible,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                 “Your mission, should you choose to accept it,” began the taped message that always ended with the warning that the tape would self-destruct in five seconds. The mission Phelps or Briggs was given was never easy—as the series title indicated. Mission: Impossible . . . and their team was appropriately labeled “Impossible Missions Force.” The series ran for years, reprised later by Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, and the challenges always seemed to rise to greater and more amazing feats that defied what normal people could ever hope to do.

3.                Of course, in the end, the impossible turned out to be possible, even if it was nearly impossible for most. But some things even Phelps, Briggs, or Hunt would never be able to do, experiences we can only call miracles that come from God alone. Mary, the mother of our Lord, found herself at the center of one of the greatest miracles of the Bible, a true mission impossible. And given the important nature of this miracle, God again sent one of his heavenly messengers, the angel Gabriel, whom we first heard about in his visit to Zechariah. Gabriel comes again as God’s special messenger, this time to Mary, announcing a true message of hope even in the midst of the seemingly impossible. This message would bring the greatest hope to all: God was coming among us in the flesh-and-blood person of his own Son!

4.                But, Gabriel’s greeting came as a shock to young Mary: “In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!’ ” (Luke 1:26–28). Completely unexpected, especially to someone as seemingly unimportant as she. As she would later exclaim in her great Magnificat hymn, God “has looked on the humble estate of his servant” (Lk 1:48). Who is Mary, that God should choose her? Who is she, that God would use her as part of his very plan of salvation? What made God single her out for such an amazing plan? Soon, the angel will reveal the answer.

5.                “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” Gabriel announced. Favored one? Yes, Mary will take part in this miracle, but purely by grace. As the old Latin translation rendered it, she is “full of grace” (gratia plena). That is the first critical part. But the angel’s next words bring even more assurance: God is with her, an echo of the name of her Son revealed to Joseph also by an angel. He is Immanuel, “God with us” (Mt 1:23). She is not alone. God is not far away. He has come among his people. But how he will do that is even more amazing than Mary can possibly imagine. For God is about to come into her very womb!

6.                Gabriel can see that this is overwhelming to young Mary and immediately calms her, telling her: “Do not be afraid” (Luke 1:30). Encounters with angels, as we have seen so often, frequently brought fear. Sinful man hesitates in the face of God’s holiness or of those holy because of association with God. But the great message this angel bears comes not from a God of judgment, but from a gracious God full of promise and hope. It is a message of a miracle of miracles, a miracle with abounding hope not just for Mary or for Joseph or for God’s chosen people, but for all people. “You will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus” (Luke 1:31).

7.                As if this miracle wasn’t enough—Mary conceiving without a man, while still a virgin—the miracle will be that all the “fullness of God” would “dwell” in this one to be conceived in her womb (Col 1:19). God, the eternal, almighty, unending, creating Word, would take on human flesh within her and ultimately dwell, or tent or tabernacle, “among us” (Jn 1:14). He will live where we live. Work among us. Suffer with us. But he will also be great. He will be called “Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32). The throne of King David will be given to him. His kingdom will know no end. All this would be contained in the still unseen child conceived inside Mary by the sheer power of God’s Word. Mary, God’s humble servant. Mary, a young woman betrothed in marriage, but a marriage not yet consummated. Mary, who will now face the unprecedented situation of being a mother without a human father to conceive her child. The questions raced in her head. How?

8.                And indeed, there was no precedent for such a miracle. Never before had anything like this happened. Mary is overcome in complete amazement. How would God create a baby inside her without a human father? Gabriel, God’s angelic messenger, once more provides an answer: The Holy Spirit, God himself, will come upon her. The power of the Almighty will overshadow her, just as God did in the tabernacle when the cloud of his holy presence filled its space with his glory (Ex 40:34–35). Amazing! God’s presence in her womb! In her! God directly creating life as the heavenly Father! A virgin not only pregnant now with a child, but pregnant with the holy Son of God himself! Next to the resurrection on Easter morning, this stands among the greatest of God’s miraculous acts.

9.                But how? By what means? We have no reference to compare. Then Gabriel notes why such a miracle can take place against anything we know or imagine: “Nothing will be impossible with God,” he tells Mary (Luke 1:37). God is a God of the impossible, the humanly impossible. The true “mission impossible” takes place right inside the womb of a simple, almost unknown Hebrew woman, chosen purely by grace. Jesus would later reiterate this truth when the disciples wondered how anyone could possibly be saved and inherit heaven: “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible,” he told them (Mt 19:26). All things are possible! All things! Or consider when God spoke with Abraham about the birth of a son in his old age and his wife’s advanced age, something that caused Sarah to laugh in disbelief. “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” he asked (Gen 18:14). No, nothing is too hard for God. Nothing.

10.             One significant enemy of hope is the conclusion that all possibilities are exhausted. That no options still exist. That there is no solution, no way out. How often do we surrender to the seemingly inevitable, void of God’s possible intervention? How often do we throw up our hands with “This is impossible!”—never even considering how God might be involved, what plan he might yet have, how he might intervene? How often do we end up with Zechariah’s faithless doubt and Sarah’s laughter but disregard the simple, believing trust of Mary, who in the face of the amazing simply wondered, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” (Luke 1:34)—curious of how God might do what had never been done before?

11.             And how often do we miss that God has announced this miracle of miracles by no less than the angel Gabriel, the powerful messenger of heaven who stands “in the presence of God” (Lk 1:19)? For many, Christmas easily becomes little more than a cute story suitable for a greeting card. A feel-good moment to lift the doldrums of winter’s cold darkness. Maybe a fleeting wonderment of yet another birth, as all births are inspiring acts of new life. But, the heart of the message from the angel Gabriel is that God is enfleshed within Mary’s womb, a foundational truth we confess in our creeds, a truth that underlies all truths, that lies at the heart of our faith. And at the heart of hope itself, a trust in the possibilities of what will yet be: “For nothing will be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37).

12.             If God can do this, then what can he fail to do? What in our lives lies beyond the power of the one who does the impossible? If he has come to live my life and take my place and on the cross pay the price of my sin and suffer my death and conquer the legions of hell—and not just for me but for the entire world, past, present, and future—honestly, what is he unable to accomplish?

13.             Mary can only sit in amazement, willing to follow on a journey that leads to incredible possibilities. “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word,” she humbly says (Luke 1:38). Such humility and simple faith and openness to follow. An obedient servant truly inspired by hope. But not a hope of mere wishes or dreams or even confident optimism. This hope comes from heaven, announced by God’s chosen messenger, inspired by this God of the impossible, and underscored by an eternal promise. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

“Overtaken by Joy” Isaiah 35.1-10 Advent 3A, Dec. ‘22

  

1.                Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. The message from God’s Word this 3^rd Sunday in Advent is taken from Isaiah 35:1-10, it’s entitled, “Overtaken by Joy,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                A TV commercial seen during the month of December shows a family on Christmas morning with packages unwrapped and children enjoying their new gifts. Mom and Dad are happily observing the happy scene when Dad pulls from the pocket of his robe a small box and gives it to his wife. Inside she finds a magnificent diamond necklace. The voice-over says, “This year, be the Santa of her dreams.” The commercial fades to black as we watch a tear fall from the wife’s eye. She is overtaken by joy. Wives, can’t you just wait?

3.                The Prophet Isaiah describes for us today our hope of joy here in Isaiah 35. Gladness and joy are in hot pursuit. Isaiah describes this promise of God for us, who by faith in Jesus, travel on his holy highway toward heaven. It’s not the Grim Reaper who will overtake you in the end. It’s gladness and joy as you depart from this life into the glories of God’s mansion.

4.                Sorrow and sighing will be sent packing. In this present age we face many causes of sorrow: disappointments, personal failures, illness. Everyone knows how to sigh. Let me hear your best sigh right now. The Apostle Paul once came upon a man sitting on a bench sighing with his head in his hands. “What’s wrong, brother?” Paul asked. The man spoke of terrible guilt over his sin. Paul gladly told him of the perfect redemption won by Jesus for all people, relieving the man’s guilt and putting his sighing to flight. A little later Paul came upon a woman who also held her head in her hands as she sighed. “Sister, what’s the matter?” Paul inquired. She told how she had lost her job and couldn’t afford food for her family. Paul quickly arranged a collection to be taken at church for her relief, putting her sorrow and sighing to flight. A bit later, Paul came upon another man sighing with his head in his hands. “Brother,” Paul asked, “what could be troubling you so?” “I’ve got two teenagers at home,” the man replied. At which point Paul too sighed and put his head in his hands!

5.                The Gospel brings the good news that we have a most certain hope of a heavenly existence where gladness and joy will overtake us for all eternity. All sorrow and sighing will flee. The “great reversal” of sorrow to joy is described in beautiful terms in our text, where the dead places are made to bloom with life by the power of God. This promised reversal of fortunes awaits us in heaven, strengthening us in our times of weakness in this fallen world.

6.                Speaking of a reversal of fortune. Here’s an example. One of today’s most successful corporations began in 1916 as a carpenter shop in Denmark. When the housing market collapsed during the Great Depression, the shop was converted to the manufacture of toys. When the wooden toy department burned down in 1960, the company staked its future on the little interlocking plastic bricks it had been making. Today we know the company as Lego, one of the largest toymakers in the world with annual sales of about $8 billion, which they made in 2021 alone.

7.                Often success is preceded by difficulties and delays we can’t control—an unfair employer, illness, injury, an unfaithful friend. But we can choose our response as Joseph did when he was sold into slavery, falsely accused of sexual assault, imprisoned, and forgotten by a friend. Joseph believed, as he told his brothers, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” (Gen 50:20).

8.                Our Present Joy. But, our faith isn’t just a matter of “keeping a stiff upper lip” until we finally receive joy in heaven. The Gospel isn’t a “pie in the sky by and by” message. As Jesus informs John the Baptist in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew 11, the great messianic age of joy promised in Isaiah has already made its beginning. By healing the blind and deaf and lame and mute, Jesus showed that the time of joy is with us in the here and now.

 

9.                Joy is present because of these reasons: Jesus has redeemed us from all our sin and guilt, offering himself as the ransom price that delivers us from the punishment of death. Although we don’t deserve this gift, God gives it freely, and we receive it gratefully in faith. The joy of salvation sends all our guilty sighs fleeing. God has granted us the holiness of Christ, welcoming us upon his holy highway to heaven, paying with Jesus’ life the toll that we could never muster. Safe are we on God’s highway.

10.             Jesus has redeemed us from death by rising on Easter. Baptized into his resurrection, we are conquerors of death, too. Those precious waters bring new life to our parched souls. Since gladness and joy are stalking us, we can now enjoy each day as God’s gift of life, using our time for his labor.

11.             Unbelieving eyes see no change in this world since Jesus was born, but to the eyes of faith in the Savior, everything has changed. Sorrow and sighing must flee, for Jesus lives in us with his everlasting love for our everlasting life.

12.             Our Joyful Task. As we wait for joy to fully overtake us, James reminds us in our Epistle for today of our task, to be patient until the Lord’s coming. Trust God’s promise that gladness and joy will never lose your scent. As you patiently await the consummation of joy, be an agent of joy yourself: Alleviate as much human suffering here on earth as you can. Track down the unbelievers you know and pursue them with the Gospel message. Though they may have resisted you in the past, be as persistent in your Gospel-stalking as God has been in persistently pursuing you with forgiveness and joy.

13.             As someone has quipped, “If the joy of Jesus is in your heart, don’t forget to tell your face.” Let your face be the billboard that lets the world know: sin, death, and sorrow have been overtaken in you by the joy of knowing Jesus. I know recently someone once asked my 95 year old Grandma Eleanor Taggatz why she was always happy all the time. In a split second my Grandma responded, “Because I know that Jesus loves me!” What a great response to show others the hope and joy we have in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. I pray that the Holy Spirit will enable you to give such a response to the joy that you have as well.

14.             They are after you, gladness and joy. Not only are they after you, they are upon you through the present blessing of salvation that comes through faith in Jesus. Although causes for sorrow and sighing abound, Jesus is an even greater cause of joy. Soon we will sing, “Joy to the world, the Lord is come!” “Rejoice, you pilgrim throng,” and be patient until that day when the tracking and trailing will be complete, and you will be overtaken by joy. Amen. Now the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.

 

 

“An Angel of the Lord Brings a Message of Hope in the Midst of Fear of the Unknown” Matt. 1.18–25 Advent Mid 2, Dec. ‘22

 

 

1.                Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock, and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word in our 2^nd Advent Midweek Service is taken from Matthew 1:18-25, it’s entitled, “An Angel of the Lord Brings a Message of Hope in the Midst of Fear of the Unknown,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

2.                Fear of the unknown. In the spring of 2020, our world was upended by an unseen enemy. Our lives were changed by a virus we little understood and couldn’t see. We had no cure, and many faced it with a sense of terror and dread. Sickness increased. Hospitals overflowed. Medical personnel strained to hold up under staggering loads of care. Shortages abounded. Deaths mounted. The world seemed under siege. Months passed. A year passed. What would come next? Does it ever end, or do we just wait for the next variant? Fear of the unknown.

3.                But this was not the first time in recent history such a devastating event turned our world upside down. Most of us still recall 9/11. Many of us stood that day transfixed before our TV sets watching the unthinkable. Terrorists took a most useful and friendly machine, the airplane, and turned it into a deadly missile of mass destruction. Nearly 3,000 people perished as 2 towering skyscrapers collapsed in burning heaps of rubble and death. Security immediately tightened everywhere. And a war on terror commenced around the world. But these enemies couldn’t always be seen or easily found or identified. When would the next event occur? Would a terrorist attack come to my neighborhood? Fear of the unknown.

4.                Joseph lived with his own fear of the unknown. In our current culture, it may seem minor, but for him the dilemma was serious. He was betrothed to a lovely young woman named Mary, legally married in a union yet to be consummated. It would be about a year before the final celebration, but their marriage was real and binding. Joseph surely dreamed of a wonderful life with his new wife and possibly even a large family supported by a thriving carpentry business.

5.                But all these dreams seemed in serious question when Mary was suddenly “found to be with child” (Matt. 1:18). She was pregnant, and Joseph knew he wasn’t the father. Obviously, someone else was. But what should he do? A future with Mary was now fraught with complications socially. He could continue with the marriage, but it was not so simple anymore. The Old Testament law called for an adulterous woman to be stoned if her guilt was confirmed (Deut. 22:23–24). This was unthinkable for the woman he loved. So, he couldn’t go there. An option within the law allowed another solution: “Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put [Mary] to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly” (Matt. 1:19). A quiet divorce. The shame could be avoided, as well as the punishment for unfaithfulness. He loved her and didn’t wish any of this hardship upon her.

6.                As Joseph deliberated all this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. A special divine messenger from heaven. And a needed one too. For as the first words from the angel reveal, Joseph’s struggle involved more than just hesitation and concern: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife” (Matt. 1:20). Joseph was struggling with fear. The word in the original language can carry the idea of panicked flight, even terror. And it was a terror, fear, of the unknown. Fear of going through with the marriage despite the unknown of Mary’s pregnancy. And the unknown of the consequences of breaking the holy law of God. If word got out that Mary was pregnant before the actual ceremony and celebration, the whole community would know. She would be branded with an A for adulteress. Joseph’s friends and neighbors would probably expect him to divorce Mary and possibly even carry through on the rest of the law’s punishments. And what about his reputation as a responsible businessman of Nazareth? He couldn’t know how this would all play out. He even had more painful personal questions he wished could be answered. Why had she done it? Who was the guy? How would she make out alone with a child to raise? Would he ever be able to trust someone again?

7.                One can imagine such things keeping Joseph up at night. A heavy burden of worry when he should have been excited about the future, eagerly planning and preparing the home he and Mary could have had together. Fear is a true enemy of hope. It robs us of the assurance that God is in control, that God has a plan, that even the darkness of the present might yet become the light of a better day. But, God’s solution to Joseph’s fear wasn’t just the assurance that all things might work out in the end. He must have been surprised by the amazing promise he heard from the angel: “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins” (Matt. 1:20–21).

8.                Mary wasn’t just pregnant. The child in her womb was conceived by the Holy Spirit. God was his Father! And the name he was instructed to give this new child may have seemed ordinary—it was a common male name for Hebrews—but, on the other hand, this name was something incredible and world-changing. Joseph was to name this child Jesus, which means “Yahweh saves,” for as the angel declared, “He will save his people from their sins.” Here Joseph was concerned about his reputation, Mary’s welfare, his own questions . . . and God was planning something much grander. He was planning to deliver mankind from sin itself, and thus from death, even hell. What fear could be worse than a fear of death itself? If hope could survive death, it could survive anything.

9.                And even this wasn’t the end of the message from heaven. There was another name. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel’ (which means, God with us)” (Matt. 1:22–23). Just as the prophet Isaiah had declared. In the darkness of fear, we often feel alone and isolated, even forgotten. But this baby in Mary’s womb would be God’s very tangible and visible presence among his people. Joseph wasn’t alone in his concerns. He wasn’t left to work this out by himself. God was with him. God would strengthen, guide, and protect him each step of the way.

10.             As the story unfolds in the Gospels, we know that many more challenges faced Joseph. Traveling with Mary so close to her due date must have given some concern. Then struggling to find a place to stay in Bethlehem. The night of the birth without a midwife or any others to assist. In all this, God was with him. And the story’s twists and turns wouldn’t end. He would have to flee with the mother and child to Egypt, for an enraged Herod sought to kill the child to remove a possible contender for his own fragile rule. Again, an angel from heaven, a divine messenger, brought a timely warning, as well as needed guidance and direction (Mt 2:13).

11.             So much change in Joseph’s life. So many unknowns in the future. How could he possibly entertain any real hope for tomorrow when he hardly knew what tomorrow would bring? But God was with him. Immanuel. And the one over which he watched as a new foster father would be the true promise for all mankind: the one who by his future death on a cross would be the deliverer from sin, from death, from the very power of evil that animated murderous and dangerous men like Herod. Joseph had everything even when at times it felt as if he had so little.

12.             Late into the pandemic, our world tried to reemerge and find its footing. It’s still trying. The economy has wobbled in inflation, and violence and terror have continued to leak into our cities. Our communities have become polarized in hateful rage. It’s hard not to worry about what tomorrow might bring, whether we’re up to the challenges just around the corner. The world around us changes faster than we can comprehend and adjust. The world beneath our feet shifts and shakes. We worry for our children and their future in this torn up and broken world. We worry for our own futures as we age. Fear grips with the clamp of an icy cold hand of terror and pins our hopes to the ground.

13.             And then we hear it again. God’s own messenger. Straight from the very throne room of heaven itself. The angel now turns to us: The one born of Mary is “Yahweh saves.” This one delivered you from your sins and your certain death. You don’t have to fear. This one born of Mary is “Immanuel,” God with us. He is with you too. You don’t have to fear. And so, you can hope again. Hope not just for this fleeting moment, for today, but for tomorrow, for next year, for all eternity. Your hope is grounded in God’s promised presence sent to save us and be there for us.

14.             As Paul declares to the Romans (Rom 8:31–39), no one can stand against us if God is for us. No one can frustrate God’s plans. Not Herod. Not the worst tyrants of our time. Not the terrorists. Not any enemy. No one can bring a charge against us. Not even Satan, the accuser of the brethren. God has declared us right with God through Christ. No one can condemn us, for this Jesus intercedes for us at the right hand of God. And no one can separate us from the love of Christ. Not tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword. For in all these things we are more than conquerors through the one who loves us. No one can tear us from God’s presence. Not life, not death, not angels or demons or rulers. Not things terrorizing us in the moment, or fears of what is to come. Nothing in all of the created order. Nothing. For the one born of Mary is the deliverer from sin, Immanuel, God with us.

15.             And with that, we have hope. The angel’s message of hope to Joseph in the midst of his fear gives us hope as we fear our unknowns. A hope that cannot be disappointed. A hope grounded in God’s assuring promise. A hope that survives time itself. An eternal hope. Amen. Now the peace of God that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.