Sunday Worship 7 December | For to us a child is born

This morning was the second Sunday of Advent. Having thought about the patriarchs (and matriarchs!) as part of cafe church last week, this week, we turned our focus to the prophets.

Isaiah 9:1-7

Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress. In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honour Galilee of the nations, by the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan—

The people walking in darkness

have seen a great light;

on those living in the land of deep darkness

a light has dawned.

You have enlarged the nation

and increased their joy;

they rejoice before you

as people rejoice at the harvest,

as warriors rejoice

when dividing the plunder.

For as in the day of Midian’s defeat,

you have shattered

the yoke that burdens them,

the bar across their shoulders,

the rod of their oppressor.

Every warrior’s boot used in battle

and every garment rolled in blood

will be destined for burning,

will be fuel for the fire.

For to us a child is born,

to us a son is given,

and the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the greatness of his government and peace

there will be no end.

He will reign on David’s throne

and over his kingdom,

establishing and upholding it

with justice and righteousness

from that time on and forever.

The zeal of the Lord Almighty

will accomplish this.

We have lit a candle for the prophets, and so it seems right that we have heard from one of them this morning. This passage from Isaiah is a mainstay of Advent services, in part because the opening verses are cited in the Gospel of Matthew, so we know there is a long tradition of applying them to Jesus. Within the Jewish tradition, this prophecy has often been understood to refer to Hezekiah - who ruled Israel for thirty years, instigating religious reforms and leading a revolt against the Assyrians - but the early church returned to passages like these and saw in them promises which they believed were fulfilled in a deeper sense in Jesus. This reinterpreting of prophecies can be a source of tension between Jews and Christians, and we do need to be respectful of the history of these texts, but after two thousand years we now have our own relationship with them, and that means we will have our own readings of them. 

I have heard it said that a core principle of midrash, the rabbinic tradition of interpreting scripture, is that any reading which does not do violence to the text is a valid one, and I do not think it takes any violence to interpret these words as speaking about Jesus. We know that he was from Galilee, that the language of light was used by himself and others to describe him, that his birth was announced as a gift to all people, that he broke the chain of violence by not returning the violence that was done to him, that he was a teacher who promised peace, that he spoke in ways that led his followers to believe he was God, that he was from the line of David, and that he told his disciples he had all authority and would be with them forever. And while he may not have reigned from an earthly throne or established a government in any political sense, he did speak often of his kingdom as an emerging reality. 

I don't know if Isaiah had any idea who it was he was talking about, but I do know that I see Jesus in his words, and I think that tells us that God had been preparing for the incarnation for a long time, and speaking through the prophets to get the people ready too. That does lead me to wonder why it took so long, but this is one of those moments where I think I just have to throw my hands up and say God's ways are higher than mine, and I cannot understand everything. Perhaps there was some reason that the particular moment in history when Jesus was born was the right one, and perhaps I could make some guesses based on socio-political context, but I don't really need to know, because what really matters is that he was born. As the wonderful hymn has it, “I cannot tell...but this I know”, and faith lies in the space in between.

Let's look a little more closely at these verses now. We are told that “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned". This could just be poetic repetition, or it could be speaking of both the oppressor, those who actively walk in darkness, and the oppressed, those who passively live in darkness. The light is for all, and it has to be for all, because if the oppressor is untouched by it, they will continue to oppress or they will become the oppressed, and so the darkness remains. As we have said before, the gospel is only truly good news if it is good news for everyone. 

Staying with these verses a moment longer, the word translated here as deep darkness is the same Hebrew word translated as “shadow of death” in Psalm 23. There we are told that God is with us in the darkest valleys, and here we are told that light will shine into the darkest valleys. Both are true, and we will experience both at different times in our lives, but it seems to me that while Psalm 23 is a pastoral promise, Isaiah 9 is an eternal promise. God is with us in our darkness, but one day we will come to a place that is only light.

The traditional Advent reading skips the next few verses. Perhaps the image of bloody robes doesn't feel very festive, more Easter than Christmas. I think these verses are important though. The first verse of the chapter references the conquest of northern Israelite territories by Assyria in the late 730s BC, and the threat of invasion was a continuous reality, so it is hardly surprising that the coming light was understood in terms of peace. And this is not simply a ceasefire, but a lasting peace. The soldier’s uniforms are not put away in their lockers for the next round of fighting, but burned as fuel for the fire because they will not be needed again. This is similar to the imagery we find elsewhere of swords being beaten into ploughshares. We may not feel the constant threat of invasion, but for many people around the world, war does continue to be a constant fear or reality. And even in the relative safety of our own country, there are many who fear violence in their own homes. The need for peace is no less pressing than it was when Isaiah was speaking.

That is why we need the government of the one who is called “Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace”, who upholds his kingdom with justice and righteousness forever. I am not arguing here for any kind of Christian nationalism, because to impose a Christian government would be to install Christ as a dictator, and that is not who Jesus was. I think he spoke of kingdom in a time of empire because he was advocating for a different way of doing things. The kingdom is not an attempt to enforce God’s will but an invitation to seek God's will, and to live according to justice and righteousness and peace.

Before we close, I want to give us a brief tour of some of the other passages in Isaiah that seem to speak of Jesus, often known as messianic prophecies:

Isaiah 7:14 | “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Isaiah 11:1-2 | “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.”

Isaiah 42:1-4 | “Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry out or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice.”

Isaiah 53:3-5 | “He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed.”

Isaiah 61:1-2 | “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn.”

We're not going to explore these in detail, but I want us to hear these promises of God with us, of new things growing, of justice, of forgiveness and healing, of freedom and comfort. These have always been the promises of God, and we find them fulfilled in Christ, in the life that he lived and in the life that he showed us how to live. Because the prophets did not just speak so that the people knew what was coming, they spoke so that the people could respond. We began this morning with a call to approach Christ the Lord, and that invitation remains open at all times to all people.