December 19, 2010
Grace Church
Rev. Robert E. Hensley

Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25

Let us pray.  “O God, who sends the light to shine upon this earth; God who makes the sun to shin upon those who are good and those who do wrong; God who created the light that lights the whole world, shine your light into our minds and hearts.  Guard us from all that is harmful to ourselves and others.  Amen.  (From the Egyptian Coptic Church).

As I was working on my homily for this morning I came across two brief reflections on Christmas by humorist Dave Barry.  The first: 

“In the old days, it was not called the Holiday Season; the Christians called it ‘Christmas’ and went to church; the Jews called it ‘Hanukkah’ and went to synagogue; the atheists went to parties and drank.  People passing each other on the street would say, ‘Merry Christmas!’ or ‘Happy Hanukkah!’ or (to the atheists) ‘Look out for the wall!’

And the other reflection:

“Once again we find ourselves enmeshed in the Holiday Season, that very special time of year when we join with our loved ones in sharing centuries-old traditions such as trying to find a parking space at the mall.  We traditionally do this in my family by driving around the parking lot until we see a shopper emerge from the mall, then we follow her, in very much the same spirit as the Three Wise Men, who 2,000 years ago followed a star, week after week, until it led them to a parking space.”

As we barrel down these last few days toward Christmas, and with the year and the first decade of the 21st century winding down (or the second decade winding up, depending on your perspective), it’s time to think about some significant anniversaries and past accomplishments.  Amid all the retrospectives, however, there’s one anniversary most people will miss…and you heard about it here first.

This month marks the 100th anniversary of the invention of the neon light by French engineer Georges Claude.  Claude didn’t discover neon; that was the work of a couple of British scientists in 1898, when they liquefied air to isolate its various parts.  They called their invention “neon” after the Greek word for “new.”  It was Claude, however, in 1910 that was the first to fashion a lamp from an electrified tube filled with neon.  In 1923, Claude and his French company, Claude Neon, introduced neon gas signs to the United States, selling two to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles.  Earle C. Anthony purchased the two signs reading “Packard” for $24,000.

Within less than two decades, neon signs were illuminating storefronts and road signs all over the place.  By the 1950s, neon signage was lighting New York’s Times Square, giving that landmark area its “incandescent and insomniac identity” (New York Magazine).  Neon signs practically put Las Vegas on the map, making it the tantalizingly tacky desert oasis for which it is famed. Some of you may well remember the nostalgia of driving through roadside towns on famous highways such as Route 66 with a sea of brightly colored neon lights beckoning you to stop in for gas or a motel or a milkshake.  Those of us who remember college in the 1970s or even the 1980s will remember that having a neon sign in your room or in the common room at the frat house was the ultimate in coolness.

These days, while you may see the occasional neon “Open” sign in a storefront, the only place you’re likely to see neon colors on a regular basis is in the hair of that teenager at one of the schools.  People whizzing by on the interstate easily bypass all those old neon-lit towns without a thought, and a GPS is a more efficient way of finding gas or something to eat as you are driving than looking for a sign on the road.  Digital billboards, handheld computers and smart phones have relegated neon signs to the realm of nostalgia, and those old signs, while cool in a retro-chic kind of way, just don’t grab our attention anymore.

With less than a week to go before Christmas, we might do well to think whether or not our remembered classic biblical signs of the Incarnation haven’t suffered a similar loss of popularity and power.   Has in fact the Light of the World become overshadowed by the LED lights in the shopping mall or has the prophetic Word been silenced by yet another “For Sale” or “Foreclosure” sign?  This final Sunday before Christmas is a great time for us to remind ourselves that the old signs can still shine the brightest if only we are willing to look.

The prophets were, in a sense, God’s original sign-makers – directing the people and their rulers toward the covenant life to which God had continually called them.  But, just like distracted drivers flying down the road toward their own destination, the rulers of Israel and Judah far too often ignored the neon-bright warning signs and were thus primed for a crash.  Isaiah’s words to Ahaz, king of Judah, were all about paying attention to the signs, especially the brightest One that was yet to come.

According to 2 Kings 16 and 2 Chronicles 28, Ahaz was one of the worst kings in Judah’s history, having worshiped the pagan god Baal and, even worse, making his son “pass through fire,” which is another way of saying he offered his own child as a human sacrifice.  When chapter 7 of Isaiah opens, we see that Ahaz and his people are under threat of attack from the allied forces of Aram and the northern kingdom of Israel – a threat that made “the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people [shake] as the trees of the forest shake before the wind” (v. 2).  Yet despite Ahaz’s apostasy, Isaiah tells the king that God will preserve Judah if the king chooses to be faithful, warning him, “If you do not stand firm in faith, you shall not stand at all” (v. 9).

How was it that Ahaz would know that God’s Word was coming to pass? Isaiah tells him to ask God for a sign: one as “deep as Sheol or high as heaven” (v. 11).  In other words, Ahaz was to inquire of God for the kind of sign that’s unmistakably bright and might point him in the right direction for good.  In his self-serving faithlessness, however, Ahaz refuses to ask God for a sign, murmuring some falsely pious words about not putting God to the test (v. 12). Second Kings 16 tells us that Ahaz had likely already decided to deal with the threat of invasion by not only the Arameans and Israelites but also Edom by trusting in his own alliance with the Assyrian King Tiglath-Pileser to save him. Ahaz plied Tiglath-Pileser with silver and gold from the temple and became Assyria’s vassal, even to the blasphemous point of erecting an Assyrian altar in the temple (2 Kings 16:7-11).

But alliances and military might were the wrong signs.  Isaiah revealed to Ahaz that God had a very different kind of sign in mind, one that would shine brighter and much longer than the constant flaring and burning out of empires.  God will indeed offer a sign, even if Ahaz refuses to see and acknowledge it – the sign of a child to be born whose name will be “Immanuel,” meaning “God with us” (v. 14).  Instead of the might of armies, a helpless child will be the sign of hope for Judah.

But before we jump ahead of ourselves and put this sign in Christmas lights, we have to first understand its original context.  The “young woman” that Isaiah refers to is likely someone in his own time.  Scholars debate whether the term refers to Ahaz’s wife, Isaiah’s wife or simply another young woman whom the prophet observed as he was addressing the king.  At any rate, the Hebrew term for “young woman” is neutral regarding her marital status or sexual experience.  The idea of the woman being a “virgin” actually comes from the Greek translation of the Hebrew text, which sets the stage for the gospel writers’ understanding of virgin birth.  For Isaiah, however, the woman is already pregnant, so the sign isn’t a miraculous pregnancy, but rather the birth of the child himself.

The child’s development provides a time line for the work God will do to preserve Judah.  By the time he eats solid food and/or by the time he comes to an understanding of moral accountability, the threat from Israel and Aram will be negated because their lands will have been vacated by the invasion of the Assyrian Empire (vv. 16-17).  Judah’s time of peace will be short-lived, however, as Assyria (the “bee”) and its enemy, Egypt (“the fly”), will become an even bigger threat to Judah’s future (v. 18).

The sign of Immanuel, in Isaiah’s context, was thus a short-term sign of hope for Judah, but the sign was bound up more in the child’s name than in his person.  There is no indication here that this child will be a messiah or a savior – only that the child represents “God with us.”  The good news is that despite threatening circumstances and the waywardness of kings and their people, God has still not abandoned them.  Amid real-world problems and political intrigue, God continues to be present.

Somehow the gospel writers got a hold of this retro sign of God’s presence and hope when considering Jesus’ birth.  Although Isaiah’s original prophecy had an immediate context, the New Testament writers saw within this prophecy of birth and other similar references in Isaiah (9:6, for one) that God had a larger sign in mind – the ultimate sign of God’s presence, peace and political power revealed in Jesus.

Even Isaiah would have found it hard to imagine that God’s ultimate sign for all of creation would be God’s own coming in the person of a helpless child. The gospel writers saw Isaiah’s old sign, updated it and made it visible to the whole world.  The question for us, are we still seeing the sign?

Have we imagined the brightness of “God with us” in the midst of a world darkened by death and violence?  Are we bearing the light of Christ in our daily interactions with people who are being lured by many other signs? Who or what do we really trust to save us – technology, politicians or anything or anyone else?  Are we looking for new ways to tell an old story so that those for whom Christmas is just a nostalgic evening can begin to see Jesus’ birth as something that really matters?  Now is the time for us to see Christmas not as a memory of times past but as the key to the present and future because God is, indeed, with us.

And the light still shines within and for each of us!  An old light made new – now that IS something to celebrate! Amen.

Source:

Mangum, Aja. “Neon: A brief history.” New York Magazine. December 8, 2007.
nymag.com/shopping/features/41814/