Fourth Sunday of Advent Cycle A December 18, 2022
Today’s readings on this Fourth
Sunday of Advent present us with a contrast between two men, each of whom is
asked to do something risky and difficult, with very different results.
First we have
our first reading, from the Prophet Isaiah.
It involves a King of Judah known as Ahaz. The events depicted in this reading took
place around 735 BC. It was not a good
year. The situation was one of
international politics and conflict. The
superpower in the Middle East back then was the Kingdom of Assyria. The Assyrians were a mighty military force,
and utterly ruthless. Historians call
them the Nazi’s of the ancient Middle East.
And they were conquering all the countries around them.
One of the
countries in their path of conquest is the little Kingdom of Judah, where Ahaz
is King. His idea is to play ball with
the Assyrians and make an alliance with them.
Now the
Prophet Isaiah goes to the King to urge the King NOT to make an alliance with
Assyria. Because when they allied with
Assyria they would have to accept and worship Assyria’s gods. Isaiah’s message to King Ahaz was rather
than ally with Assyria, to trust in God for help. Follow God, trust in God, and God will
deliver you from this powerful and aggressive kingdom of Assyria.
But Ahaz
doesn’t want to do that. He is a
realist. Ahaz can see how strong the
Assyrians are, their thousands of warriors, their war horses and chariots,
their latest technology in siege engines and so on. He is impressed by their
might. So the Prophet Isaiah, to bolster Ahaz, says
ask for a sign. Let God show you His
power. Our reading states: “Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let
it be deep as the netherworld, or high as the sky!”
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The Prophet wants Ahaz to ask for a sign so he can trust in
God alone and not get entangled with the Assyrians.
But Ahaz plays
phony piety and false humility and states “I
will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!” Ahaz does not want to take the risk of
trusting in God’s protection and care, and so he doesn’t want the sign. He wants to follow his own plan of trusting in political and military power.
Needless to say, it ends badly. Ahaz brings in worship of false gods,
institutes slavery, tramples justice, oppresses the poor to pay the Assyrians,
and leaves the Kingdom vulnerable to attack.
Under his successor, Hezekiah, the Assyrians besiege Jerusalem, but that
is another story.
In any case Ahaz
will not put his trust in God, and things go badly wrong.
Now let’s jump
ahead 735 years, in the same part of the world, to a carpenter named Joseph who
is betrothed. Joseph is so happy. He is to marry Mary, his sweetheart. But a terrible thing happens. Before they actually get married, Mary gets
pregnant. What a shock! What a disappointment! Poor Joseph can hardly believe it! Mary is the last person he would have
suspected of fooling around. But the
evidence is there, and so Joseph decides to call off the wedding. However, Joseph still has feelings for Mary,
and he is a good man who doesn’t want to make trouble for anyone, even if they
have disappointed him like Mary has. So
he decides to divorce her quietly, with no fanfare, very simply, to not expose
Mary to shame. An awful day.
Then he goes
to sleep. In his sleep he has a dream; a
crazy dream. An angel tells him it is
alright. That Mary has conceived by the
Holy Spirit,
THREE THREE THREE DEC. 18, 2022
and that she will bear a son who will save his people from
their sins. And finally, that Joseph
should not be afraid to take Mary as his wife.
The next
morning Joseph awoke. What did he
think? What did he feel? What’s he going to do? He could have gotten up and said to himself,
“oh man, what a weird dream! I have to
go easy on the jalapeno matzohs. They
give me such crazy dreams.”
Joseph, like Ahaz, could have ignored
the call from God. Like Ahaz, Joseph was
being called to take a big risk, to do something that would look foolish from
the outside. Joseph was being called to
make a great act of trust in God’s care and concern for him. Joseph knew God would not leave him hanging,
and so the Gospel succinctly says: “When
Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took his
wife into his home.” Joseph did what
the angel of the Lord had commanded him in a dream. Joseph, unlike Ahaz, was open to the crazy,
if demanding, ways of God. And it is
good for us that he was.
So two men
asked by God to trust and do something that in the judgement of the world was crazy,
something wild, something foolish. Two
different responses with two very different outcomes.
What about
us? Do we act more like the hard-bitten
political realist Ahaz, or more like Joseph the crazy dreamer? Are we so responsible that we don’t respond
to God’s call?
How willing
are we to take a risk in trusting God’s call to us? Perhaps a call to volunteer for some ministry
at church? But, it might mess up my
weekend schedule. I am too afraid to
read in public, what if I drop the chalice, I’m not holy enough to do
that.
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Today’s readings urge us: Take the risk!
Or maybe the
Holy Spirit wants you to take the risk to be the first side to reach out to
heal a rift with a neighbor or family member.
To risk forgiving someone who hurt you.
But what if I get shot down, what if I am rejected, what if I get taken
advantage of, what if I get hurt again?
Take the risk!
Or perhaps for
our college and high-school students here maybe God calls you to investigate
being a religious sister, a brother or a priest. Maybe God calls you to serve His people in
the Church. But that is not my plan for
me life? Take the risk! It’s not so bad, believe me.
Or maybe God calls
you to be a teacher, or to marry that particular person, or to volunteer for a
mission trip, or do something wildly generous, or to speak the truth when no
one wants to listen, or in some other way to trust in God and take a risk. Jesus
took a great risk for us, offering His life on the Cross. That was the ultimate risk. And Jesus received the ultimate affirmation in
the Resurrection.
We read these
stories in the Scriptures from thousands of years ago because God is still the
same, and still acting in the same way today, after all those years. Still alluring and inviting and calling us to
follow in God’s way even when it looks crazy and ridiculous. God is still calling you and me. Take the risk.
AMEN.
