This sermon is
heavily influenced by Victoria Larson from the Out of the Blue
Advent Resource from BarnGeese Worship.
Prepare
our hearts, oh God, to receive your word. Silence every voice in us but your
own, so that we may hear your word. Amen.
As we approach the winter solstice in the Northern
Hemisphere, you can feel and see the winter weather coming. We’ve been receiving
plenty of rain and rainfall warnings. The prairies are being hit by snowstorms
and extreme weather warnings. The evenings are getting darker and there is less
of an urge to go outside after dinner. Night has gotten longer and longer for
months, with today, December 21, being the longest day of the year. You can’t
help but ask, “are we finally at the turning point?’
There is also a lot of darkness in the world right
now. War. Poverty. Homelessness. Human rights violations. Government agencies
that seem to be working against the people instead of for them. I can hardly
remember a time where these weren’t the headlines in our newspapers or on T.V.
Such feelings of endlessness and uncertainty in our lives and in our world. Will
we ever be at the turning point? How would we know if we were? How would we
tell?
Luckily God’s perspective is broader than ours; God
knows things that we couldn’t possibly predict in our limited, human capacity. Throughout
Advent, we experience this tension between human uncertainty and divine promise
as we are continually surprised by things coming to us out of the blue, even
though God has been trying to tell us about them for ages. The readings for
this Sunday give us stories that reflect this tension between uncertainty and
promise, giving us two different ways that we can respond to God.
In the reading from the Hebrew Bible, God seeks to relieve
King Ahaz’s uncertainty by sending him Isaiah to talk things through. Ahaz is
navigating political upheaval, and it feels too risky to trust Isaiah’s message
of divine security in the face of two powerful empires seeking to devour his
kingdom. Even when God offers him a sign, Ahaz voices his doubts, not wanting
to “put God to the test.”
Ahaz’s concerns are deeply relatable. It sometimes
seems like signs from God never show up when we need them, so we learn to work
without them. We figure out how to navigate our lives as a series of gentle nudges
of the Spirit, as small steps along a path we can’t see. And maybe, if we’ve
gone some time without a sign, without a prophet, without divine assurance, we
learn about politically expedient choices: the solutions that will work even if
they’re not the ones we want. Surviving isn’t the same as thriving, but it’s
not nothing either.
Ahaz shows us a way of dealing with uncertainty that
feels clear and strong and decisive, but there’s no room in it for a sign from
heaven or a promise from God. Here’s what happens next: Isaiah’s prophecy
holds. God’s promises come true. But Ahaz is no longer a part of them. He’s on
a different path now, and he’s taking all of Judah with him. None of this means
that God abandons Ahaz or Judah, but it does mean that Ahaz has lost his chance
to become part of what God was offering. What if Ahaz had said yes instead?
In Matthew, we have the beginning of Jesus’ birth narrative
and a different response to God’s messenger than we found with Ahaz. When
Joseph learns of Mary’s pregnancy, he plans to dismiss her quietly. It’s the
right thing to do, both socially and politically. Joseph feels like it’s his
only option. It’s the choice that will work, whether or not it’s the thing
Joseph wants. Enter God’s angelic messenger.
The angel tells Joseph of a future he can’t yet
perceive. In the belly of the woman to whom he is engaged, God is knitting
salvation, cell by cell. In the darkness of Mary’s womb, an old promise is
taking on new flesh, and this child will save the people from their sins.
“Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” says the
angel.
What if Joseph had said no? What if he’d done the
smart thing, the proper thing? What if he hadn’t let God come in and wreck the
neatly-arranged-if-not-ideal future he had planned? If Jospeh had said no, he
would have been in the same situation as Ahaz – a lost chance to become part of
what God was offering. Instead, Joseph says yes, and becomes the earthly father
of God the Son. In turn, Jesus claims the title of Son of David, wrapping
himself in Joseph’s genealogy (which immediately precedes today’s gospel text
in Matthew). God the Son took flesh within a family and a faith that shaped the
human who he was in a way that mattered profoundly.
God’s purpose for creation is unavoidable, but that
doesn’t make our choices inconsequential. Many times in our lives we find
ourselves at crossroads, not knowing which path to take. We sit at that intersection,
hoping that we will choose the right direction. We look for signs from God, but
perhaps we don’t recognize them, or they aren’t what we are expecting. In the
end, we make a choice, and that choice comes with consequences. Are we Ahaz,
choosing the ignore the signs and thus missing out on all the good that God
brings? Are we Joseph, accepting God’s message and bearing the difficulties the
next 33 years brings, knowing that God’s path was chosen?
It’s hard to know when we’ve arrived at a turning
point. And it’s hard, too, to accept the invitation to be part of a future that
we can’t yet perceive. It’s hard to take those first few steps into an unknown
future, where we don’t know the end result. It’s hard putting all of our trust
in God’s hands, knowing that God is working in us through the power of the Holy
Spirit. But that is exactly what God is doing through us, through our lives, through
our community. God is inviting us to trust, to have faith, and to accept the
guidance that God is offering.
St Peter’s has had a few turning points over the last handful
of years, and we have more yet to come in 2026. Many of these intersections in
the road came as a surprise. Some of them, maybe not as much. But each time, you
have had to sit at the junctures and discern what was God’s will for this
parish. Choices have been made, and consequences followed. This will be no
different in the months to come. God invites us to join God in an unknown
future with the knowledge that God will walk with us, no matter which path we
choose.
Throughout Advent, we’ve read the stories of God’s
invitation over and over again. God goes to Elizabeth and Zechariah and says,
“You.” God goes to Mary and says, “You.” God goes to Joseph and says, “You.” God
is actively inviting us to share in God’s work in the present. God is coming to
us now and saying, “You.” You personally. You specifically. It is you whom God
has been waiting for, you whom God is inviting into the turning points that,
right now, only God can see.
When your invitation comes, what will you say?
