Emmanuel: God Is With Us

We've made it to Christmas and we celebrate the birth of Jesus. God became incarnate; the unlimited became limited in the form of a baby boy. Matthew says this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that "the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel." Let's dig a little so that this does not become a cliché.

In Isaiah, God tells Ahaz to demand a sign. Ahaz, by the way, is NOT a good king. One way to tell that in this Isaiah passage is that Ahaz does NOT do what God says, but instead refuses saying "I will not put the Lord to the test." Over in II Kings, each king gets a summary of their reign. They were some age when they started, they reigned so many years, their mother's name was something. Each royal summary states plainly what they were like. II Kings 16:2 says Ahaz "did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord." Many kings did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord, but Ahaz has this particular evil added to his royal account: "He even made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel." We don't really know what that means. It might be that his son underwent some ritual dedicating him to a deity in the mythology of the Canaanites. It might even be that his son was sacrificed in fire to the deity Molech.

When God gives Ahaz a sign anyway, it is a son. Ahaz was evil in the sight of the Lord and whatever "pass through fire" means, it was not good. It was not the right use of a son. God gives Ahaz a sign and the sign is a son, and God's son will be God with us and he will know how to choose good and refuse evil. We, of course, identify that son as Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah, God incarnate, born as a baby on that first Christmas morning. What we learn from Isaiah's story about Ahaz is that the prophecy was in contrast to the depths of the depravity of the evil king. Ahaz did not love his son, did not love his people, did not do what God said. God loves God's son, and God loves us, and God's son is righteousness incarnate.

This puts me in a mood to read Psalm 148. "Praise the Lord!" opens the psalm. Everything is called to praise the Lord. Sun, moon and stars: Praise the Lord! mountains, seas, heavens: Praise the Lord! Critters living in them: Praise the Lord! Very late in the psalm, humans make an appearance. "Kings of the earth and all peoples, princes and all rulers of the earth! Young men and women alike, old and young together! Let them praise the name of the LORD!" This cosmic progression of all the things under the imperative to Praise the Lord! roughly follows the creation story of Genesis 1. Let all of God's creation praise the Lord, indeed!

Then, at the end of the roll call of all creation to praise the Lord, it says, "Praise for all his faithful, for the people of Israel who are close to him." Wait . . . that's not an imperative. Well, it is a continuation of the imperative for all creation to praise, but also, it's praise FOR the faithful and FOR the people who are close to God. This is a REASON to praise God. Praise God FOR those faithful who are close to God. That's us! This psalm calls for all creation to praise God for US.

Why? Because we're close to God. How? How did we get close to God? Not, we of the Reformed tradition would say, through our own efforts. WE didn't do ANYthing to get close to God. This is what Christmas is all about. God came to be WITH US. It is God's action. God got close to US. Hey, all creation, praise God that God is not like Ahaz. Praise God that God gave us a sign--a son named GOD WITH US. THAT's why we're close to God. Praise God for THAT.

Now there's one more Advent / Christmas passage I'm thinking about from Handel's Messiah. "Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you." Indeed! We've been preparing through Advent, and we've had shorter and shorter days through midwinter. Preparation is past; it's time to rise up! Midwinter is past, it's time for more light; it's time to shine! Your light HAS come, Jesus, the light of the world!

But here we are again in imperative land: Arise, Shine. To some extent they're close to moral imperative. Arise! You're done with preparing and it would be evil to stay lazy and lying down. Shine! This is a good thing--the best thing--and it would be morally wrong to stay darkened. Choose good; refuse evil. . . .

I don't like the moral imperative. There are people who can't get up either through disabled bodies or disabled emotions. There are people who have legitimate reasons that they're depressed. They need help. If that's you, I hope you get help.

Instead of reading a moral dimension to these imperatives, I hope you'll take this suggestion, especially in this season of Christmas and maybe on into the season after Epiphany. Enjoy the awe of the season. Be awed by the glory of the Lord, risen upon you. Be awed by God incarnate--by God with us still. Be awed by God's closeness to us. Be awed by Jesus the light of the world shining. What does that even mean, to shine? Be awed that Jesus the light of the world is our light that has come. Be awed by the baby boy, the sign given to us of how to be the opposite of the evil king Ahaz.

Enjoy the awe of Christmas.

--Chas