Signs: 4th Sunday of Advent

“God only knows, God makes his plan / The information’s unavailable to the mortal man / We work at our jobs, collect our pay / Believe we’re gliding down the highway when in fact we’re slip sliding away.” The simple truth is that none of us knows what is going to happen to us one second from this moment: one minute from this moment, one hour, one day, one year. We don’t even know if we’ll be here one year from now. And yet, here we are, because we believe that, in truth, God has a plan, for each of us and for our church. What we want, more than anything, is a sign that we are following God’s plan. Our life is a search for signs.

Sometimes, we want a sign that will tell us what decision to make. More often, what we really want is a sign to confirm the decision we’ve already made. What Holy Scripture tells us today is that sometimes the surest sign that a sign is from God is that it contradicts our decisions. But we’ll all settle for any sign that we are not alone. God's signs will not always promise us success on our terms. But a true sign of God assures that indeed we are not alone; and that whatever befalls us, God's salvation is a part of our plan, in ways we can't imagine but are no less assured through Him who was born, who died and is risen.

King Ahaz was the descendent of King David, whose kingdom God had promised him would last forever. Ahaz was afraid that the kingdoms surrounding Judah would depose him and put someone more to their liking. But Ahaz didn’t trust the God who had made that promise. He said he didn’t want a sign from God. But that was because he knew the sign would contradict his decision to make alliances with other kingdoms who worshiped many gods whose wrath had to be appeased by human sacrifices. Ahaz would sacrifice his own son by fire to appease the foreign gods of those kingdoms. So through Isaiah’s words, God delivers a crystal clear sign: another son – Immanuel, “God-is-with-us” – to replace the one Ahaz sacrifices. That is a sign of contradiction.

Ahaz’s descendant, Joseph the heir to King David, receives a sign. It too seems to be a sign of contradiction: a child not of his blood, nor of David’s blood. But with the dream comes a deeper understanding of God’s plan for him. God did not promise your ancestor David that his kingdom would last forever just for the benefit of his descendents. When you name him before the priest, he will be your legal son. He will be a son of David in the eyes of the law of Moses. And when you name him “Jesus” – “God saves” – you will be fulfilling my plan to save all people from the sin that separates them from God and from each other.

When you and he and his mother Mary suffer the ostracism that comes from the “suspicious” circumstances of his birth, he will know what it is to be outcast, to be isolated. And this child will know in his heart that his Father’s plan for him is reconciliation. This is the sign that God gives Joseph: a scandalous pregnancy that will stretch Joseph’s understanding of who the chosen people of God really are.

I wonder what kind of sign from God we are looking for. A sign of confirmation: a sign of assurance? What if the sign that God is giving some of us is a sign of contradiction, trying to tell us as lovingly as possible, “You’re going the wrong way”? What if the sign is one of promise, but not in the way that we expect? What kind of sign do we want God to give us? More importantly, why do we want that sign? Do we need a sign to make us feel secure, or comfortable? If the Bible tells us anything today, it is that God’s signs are more likely to make us feel insecure and uncomfortable.

But if we let them, God’s signs will also assure us. They will assure us, of God’s loving presence with us in our darkest times, and that whatever befalls us today, we are not slip sliding away, but are being saved from whatever would isolate us in fear and hopelessness. For the virgin is with child. And that helpless child, whose life is dependent on Almighty God, is Almighty God with us. And through His dependence, and through His trust, He will save us.