First Presbyterian Church
Holding out Hope for Joy
Sermon for December 19, 2004
by Pastor Susan Barnes

Children's time: Today I'm going to talk to you about God's names. First I need to ask if any of you know a name for God? The kids responded “Lord, Jesus, Emmanuel.” Yahweh is another name for God. Sometimes it gets shortened to just Yah. Like in alleluia. ‘Allelu' means praise; ‘yah' means God. So Alleluia means praise God.

Another way to say Yahweh is Jehovah. For a long time, Hebrews thought that the name of God was too holy to be written or spoken. So they would just say “the Lord” instead of Yahweh. Our Bibles write in English LORD . Sometimes when the Hebrew says Lord Yahweh, our Bibles say Lord GOD . The Bible uses other names for God. Adonai, which means Lord, or El, which means God. That's an easy Hebrew word to remember. El means God.

One of the names for Jesus is Immanuel. So if I tell you that ‘Im' means ‘with' and ‘nu' means ‘us,' what do you suppose Immanuel means?

Right. It means With-us-is-God, or God with us. We're getting ready to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We're getting ready to celebrate that God is with us. Immanuel. Let's pray.

Our text from Isaiah occurs about 735 bce, a time of shifting political alliances and uncertain power in the ancient near east. It's about 250 years after King David united Israel and Judah, and the two regions are separate kingdoms. The Assyrian empire is gathering strength. The northern kingdom of Israel, also called Ephraim, forms a coalition with Syria, also called Aram. If Ephraim and Aram join together, they might be able to stop Assyria. The southern kingdom of Judah refuses to join them, and so Ephraim and Aram march on Judah 's capital city, Jerusalem. Ahaz, of the house of David, is the king of Judah. Ephraim and Aram want to depose King Ahaz, and install a king who will be an ally. (1)

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 7:1-24.

In the days of Ahaz son of Jotham son of Uzziah, king of Judah, King Rezin of Aram and King Pekah son of Remaliah of Israel went up to attack Jerusalem, but could not mount an attack against it. When the house of David heard that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind.

Then Yahweh said to Isaiah, “Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool on the highway to the Fuller's Field, and say to him, ‘Take heed , be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint because of these two smoldering stumps of firebrands, because of the fierce anger of Rezin and Aram and the son of Remaliah. Because Aram-- with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah-- has plotted evil against you, saying, “Let us go up against Judah and cut off Jerusalem and conquer it for ourselves and make the son of Tabeel king in it;”'” therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “It shall not stand, and it shall not come to pass. For the head of Aram is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. (Within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered, no longer a people.) The head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all.”

This ends our reading from Isaiah 7:1-9. God told Isaiah to warn Ahaz that if he acts out of fear of Ephraim and Aram , rather than faith in God, his reign will end. Isaiah was to take his son Shear-jashub, whose name means “a remnant will return.” The presence of a child with that name might mean that after Aram and Ephraim attack Jerusalem, only a remnant of his enemy is left, and Ahaz does not need to fear. Or it might mean that if Ahaz acts on his fear, his people will end up just a remnant.

We assume that Isaiah did as he was commanded, and told King Ahaz these things. Await the failure of the invasion. A pre-emptive strike is not necessary.

Later on, God spoke again to Ahaz through Isaiah. Listen for the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 7:10-16.

Again Yahweh spoke to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of Yahweh your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.”

But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put Yahweh to the test”

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 .”

This ends our reading from Isaiah 7:10-16.

2 Kings 16 records that Ahaz appeals to the king of Assyria , saying “I am your servant and your son. Come up and rescue me.” He takes silver and gold from the temple in Jerusalem to bribe King Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria to protect him from Aram and Ephraim.

Ahaz has not listened to the prophet nor to God. He is unwilling to be reassured. And so the prophet declares that Ahaz won't fall to the northern coalition of Israel and Aram the two he was most afraid of. Instead, the empire Ahaz hoped would help him turns out to be his enemy.

Listen for the word of God as it is found in Isaiah 7:17-25.

“Yahweh will bring on you and on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah--the king of Assyria. On that day Yahweh will whistle for the fly that is at the sources of the streams of Egypt , and for the bee that is in the land of Assyria. And they will all come and settle in the steep ravines, and in the clefts of the rocks, and on all the thornbushes, and on all the pastures. On that day the Lord will shave with a razor hired beyond the River-- with the king of Assyria-- the head and the hair of the feet, and it will take off the beard as well.

On that day one will keep alive a young cow and two sheep, and will eat curds because of the abundance of milk that they give; for everyone that is left in the land shall eat curds and honey. On that day every place where there used to be a thousand vines, worth a thousand shekels of silver, will become briers and thorns. With bow and arrows one will go there, for all the land will be briers and thorns; and as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not go there for fear of briers and thorns; but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.”

This ends our reading from God's word.

Have any of you ever been in a situation where you had to make some hard choices? There's the right decision, and then there's what you want to do. You want to act out of revenge and retribution and fear and anxiety. And someone comes along and encourages you to make the right decision even though it's harder. If you did what you wanted, you regret it. If you did what was right, you didn't.

What makes it hard on me is when I want to do the right thing, and someone I trust and admire tries to talk me into the wrong thing. I know it's wrong, but I let myself be convinced . And then my trusted and admired friend has a change of heart, and wants me to do the right thing after all. Do I say “thank you, I'm relieved ,” or do I say, “wait a minute, you convinced me. How dare you change your mind! I'm not going to change mine.” Sometimes it's the second one. I let their original fear and anxiety affect me.

So how do I know what to do? How do I trust myself? The answer for me is never to act out of anger or anxiety. Wait until the anger and anxiety dissipates. Things are not as urgent as they seem. Find something to do besides worry and stew. Pray. And read the Bible. The words speak to us of the word of God. The word brings comfort and challenge. I learned that the hard way, these last two weeks.

I found the reading today especially interesting and just a little too close to home. Ahaz acted out of fear and anxiety. He couldn't agree with what the prophet said. He was too afraid.

This reading spoke to about twelve times in the last two weeks. Every situation, it would have been better for me to listen to the words spoken to me by clear-headed people.

The king is offered a divine word and a sign, assurance that the threat will soon end. And yet, the king cannot escape his fear. He finds it too difficult to hope there is another way than what he had planned. He cannot change. Trouble escalates.

I think of that in modern terms.

“One of Yasir Arafat's last visitors before he became ill was Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mohandas Gandhi. He had a simple message for Arafat: put down the gun and take up Gandhi's method of nonviolent resistance. [A local reporter in Israel said]…. so far the intifada has gotten the Palestinians nowhere; a new method is needed. A nation like Israel would be a good candidate for use of Gandhi's strategy of satyagraha, for it considers itself morally accountable. Nonviolence in some ways is a more difficult strategy than violence, [he]… admits, and many Palestinians might die in the process. But “pictures of unarmed Palestinians lying down before bulldozers about to raze their homes or marching up to the gates of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza . . . would be powerful images that could do more to advance the Palestinian cause than 100 suicide bombings.” (2)

In South Africa, non-violence was used to good effect. Protesters died , but eventually the white Afrikaaners were worn down by their own bad publicity, their own violence against non-violent people. Apartheid was demolished, finally.

When we listen to prophets, when we hear people who ground themselves in God, we can make better decisions and take godly action. Brian Stewart, a “Canadian journalist, admits that when he started his career he had nearly abandoned Christianity and thought the church a rather tiresome irrelevance. But after years of covering news all over the world, he now says: ‘I've never reached a war zone, or famine group or crisis anywhere where some church organization was not there long before me .. . . sturdy, remarkable souls usually too kind to ask, “What took you so long?”' When he and a friend from the BBC broke the news of the great famine in Ethiopia in 1984, for instance, TV coverage was given the cred it for saving millions of lives. But, says Stewart, he went to Ethiopia only because church and aid groups on the ground there foresaw the famine and begged the media and the world to take notice. ‘My own experience has convinced me that Christianity is best shared with others,' he says. Besides, ‘Christian work on the front lines infects those around them, even those who are not Christian, with a sense of Christ's deep mystery and power.' (3)

One of Christ's names is Emmanuel. The name is first used in Isaiah. In chapter 7, there are two children with prophetic names. There's Isaiah's son, named Shear-jashub, ‘A-remnant-will-return.' It turned out the remnant was King Ahaz' people. His imagined enemies Aram and Ephraim lost their power in a short time; in less time than it takes for a newborn to become a toddler and learn no from yes, evil from good, to be able to eat curds and honey, Judah fell to Assyria. The prophet Isaiah warned that the fertile cultivated fields would turn wild, and be suitable just for grazing. The remnant, the few inhabitants, will eat milk and honey, the food of children and of wild land, rather than the wine and bread of cultivated fields.

And there's the second child, the baby who was to become a toddler, to learn evil from good, to eat curds and honey, is named Immanuel, God with us. God was with Ahaz. He did not need to turn to Assyria the superpower. God was with him. But he ignored the sign of Immanuel. He refused to be reassured .

But in another story of Emmanuel, a man did not refuse. Joseph listened. Matthew tells us “But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us.' When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife.”

Joseph listened to the words of the prophet spoken by the angel, messenger of God. May we listen to God's word also.

Emmanuel, God is with us. Stand firm in faith, or you will not stand at all. Failing to trust in God leads to failure. Jesus was born to show us not to put our faith in power and might of the world, but to put our faith in God, God's laws and God's ways. That hope allows us not to settle for politics as usual, because God's promise is good news of great joy for all the people. Immanuel. God with us. Amen.

(1) Yoder, Christine Roy, “Hope that Walks” Journal for Preachers Advent 2001, p. 22.

(2) Century notes, Christian Century, December 14, 2004 , quoting Christian Science Monitor, November 15, 2004 .

(3) Century notes, Christian Century, December 14, 2004 , quoting from Stewart's speech at the 160th convocation of Knox College , Toronto .