[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #588, Advent 4, 12/23/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Advent 4, December 23, 2007

Isaiah 7:10 16
Psalm 80:1 7, 17-19
Romans 1:1 7
Matthew 1:18 25

God’s Hope and Ours

Since Ahaz won't ask for a sign of God's saving power, Isaiah gives him the sign of an Immanuel birth.  Since the Psalmist senses God's anger at the children of Israel, he asks for God to ordain and equip someone to lead them back into God's good graces.  Paul reminds us how we know Jesus to be the answer to that prayer.  Matthew tells us how God brought together Isaiah's sign and the Psalmist's prayer.

I deeply sympathize with Ahaz, who couldn't bring himself to take divine assurance seriously.  He might have enjoyed the Christmas Eve Service, but he would never have rested his heart there.  He couldn't rest until he had figured out his own salvation.  One moment he would be touched by the children's choir, the next, he would be thinking about buying a few thousand more shares of Assyria Ltd.  Seated next to Ahaz at that candlelight service was a woman who had heard too many times, "God won't give you more than you can bear."  Her prayer was that God would stop designing burdens and start lifting them.  God brings together Matthew's story and Paul's faith to say, "Jesus was born like you were born, and you will be raised like he was raised."

Knit together in this Mary's womb is the aspiration of Israel and the hope the Gentiles.  Knit together are God's initiative and the obedience of Mary and Joseph.  Knit together are the weakness of a child and the power of God.  Knit together are human need and God's love.  Knit together are our mortality and God's eternity.  Knit together are the Holy Spirit and human history.  Having failed to bond with his human creation as a father, God is going to become a child.  Having failed to win our allegiance as creator, God will become our brother.  Is there a heart so hell-bent that holding this infant to your breast, you don't feel the warmth of hope?  Is there a life so etiolated that God's calling you sister, calling you brother, you don't blush with self-esteem? 

This birth is an act of God too glorious to be trapped in a religion and limited to a few.  This birth is like the sunrise.  It is for everyone to claim and for no one to stake out a claim.  "...Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name."  (Romans 1:5)  "All," Paul, "Did I hear you say ALL?"  We've made so much of your saying "elect", we've missed your saying "all".  Did God bother to become our brother and fail to become the bother of all?  Far be it from Paul to paint God so small and the elect so large.  Elect we are like the rooster, to announce the sunrise.

So the sign is a son.  God's answer is a child.  Our hope is in God, and God's hope is in us.


May these thoughts strengthen you. 
 
An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors 
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor 
(an e-mail service) 
 
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