Isaiah 7:10-15
10 Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, 11 Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. 12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. 13 Then Isaiah said: ‘Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. 15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.
Matthew 1:18-23
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son and he named him Jesus.
Many people of faith, as well as people whose faith is either stilted or maybe undeveloped, have likely at one point or another asked for a sign from God--or from the universe--to do something, to take an action, to change a direction in a relationship or a career. Or, if you've never done that, ask for something that maybe you know somebody else has asked for. We all like signs, especially when they're so crystal clear.
A couple of months ago I buried a very dear friend who died early from cancer and some dementia. And as I was at the graveside with the family, I said sometimes the Holy Spirit sends us signs to let us know that our loved one is okay and it could be something like a dragonfly. And then a dragonfly started buzzing around the family. That's a really clear sign.
But they also don't happen like that. Sometimes we keep asking for a sign and we see nothing. We hear nothing and then we get frustrated. Signs can be helpful, but especially the literal ones like something that gives us direction or confirms a destination. Like how would we know where to eat if we just said, “I'll meet you at Paul's.” But if it says ‘Diner’, you know when you go to Paul's Diner, you can get breakfast, you can get Chinese, you can get filet of sole, you can get pizza, you can get a bagel, right? Everything is there, because in New Jersey diners are a thing. How do we know where to get hamburgers without the Golden Arches?
Some signs are helpful or necessary to keep us safe like Dangerous Curve Ahead or a seat belt sign and chime that dings incessantly until you put the seat belt on. Some signs give us instruction like where we want to order our Jersey Mike's Number 10 and we would want to pay for it and pick it up. Or one of my favorite signs of all time was a sign at the Hordnes’ house. It's up against a huge cliff and the sign says, “Parking in Rear.” Still there, right? Classic.
Then there are signs that identify and label who we are, how many times have we gone to a business event or some sort of event. And that name tag, Hi, My Name Is… Signs and labels give us an identity like: I'm an usher; or I'm the waitress or the manager; or I'm the keynote speaker; or I'm the police officer or the bank manager or the zookeeper. Our names give us identity, especially if there's a story behind your first name or your last name. The reason why I'm called Jennifer is because my parents’ dear friends wanted to name me “Dirk”. My last name is Van Zandt. My mom said, “No, no, no, because they'll call her ‘Dirk the Jerk.’” They ended up with Jennifer, because the family wanted Virginia and my mom said, “I don't like that name. Let's go with Jennifer.”
We all have stories as to why we like our names, or don't like our names. Sometimes our last name gives us a history like the German name Schumacher, which means the maker of shoe, right? So all of these things give us identity in our lives and the stronger we have a connection to our names and identity can help us find our way in the world.
But sometimes we need a little more than that, or we're struggling with our own identity which is (PAUSE) Is the baptismal font still over there? Yes, I thought we lost it. The baptismal font is an important place for us to go when we've completely lost our identity, when we've lost our sense of faith or we don't think we've been good enough to receive God's grace. That font reminds us that we are all Tekna Theou--Children of God and no matter what we do, God is with us. But life is long and complicated. And it's challenging and sometimes it's confusing and sometimes it's just downright difficult. That's when I start looking and praying for signs.
This one, as you know, is in my office and it says, “Normal is just a setting on the washing machine.” And it's a good reminder, because we all want to think of ourselves as normal and okay and acceptable and accepted, right? So this is a helpful sign and it's true. It really is true.
Personally, I don't think there's anything wrong for asking for signs when we're struggling to make a decision, when we're struggling in our faith more conflicted about a relationship or our finances or a job or how to parent, how to be a grandparent, how to be nice to that neighbor, who just ends up being so difficult or still has our rake from 20 years ago, we're dealing with a health crisis. That's when we want signs that everything's going to be okay.
Ahaz was given a sign and he didn't want to take it. He thought he was being tempted by someone, by Isaiah. And he thought, “I don't want to tempt the Lord.” And that's why some people rail against this idea of asking for a sign. But here in this scripture he needed a sign to know that he was going to be okay in the face of a huge threat by the Assyrians. And so the name ‘Emmanuel’ came as a sign of Hope to know about God's help and God's salvation. And then we have this story again in Matthew, so that we do have hope, that we do know that we have salvation; so that we do know that we are descendants of David; and that we will be loved and blessed regardless of how we treat our spouses and our children and our friends and our family between now and Christmas.
My friends, we do need a sign, but we only need one sign to know that we are loved and that all will be well. And the sign is this: EMANUEL. This is the only sign we need when we're struggling with our health, when we're struggling in our marriage, and we're struggling in our life. When we don't know if we can pay the bills or we can't get the gift that we want to give our children this Christmas, because it's sold out or Amazon can't find it. Or when we don't know what to do. We don't have the courage to pray or we're not hearing God's voice. God knew that we needed a physical sign to trust God fully. And so instead of angels and stars, we got a child who came into this world to tell us, “No matter what you're going through, it won't last and all will be okay, because I came to save you and save the world.”
Let's hold on to this sign, friends, forevermore. Thanks be to God. Amen.