The Freeing Power of God’s Love (Advent 4)

Isaiah 7: 14-16 & Matthew 1: 18-24

Roger Lynn

December 18, 2016

Fourth Sunday in Advent

(click here for the audio for this sermon)

In a time of political, social and spiritual turmoil and upheaval, the prophet Isaiah longs for the day when people will trust God and seek God’s guidance, rather than depending on the power of military might and political alliances. Isaiah’s vision is outrageous in its simplicity. He dreams of a time a young mother will be bold enough to trust in God’s presence so completely, to trust in God’s ongoing care so implicitly, to trust in the power of God’s love so totally, that she names her child “God is with us!” In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Isaiah proclaims this vision.

As he attempts to tell the story of what Jesus’ life and ministry was really all about, the writer of the Gospel of Matthew chooses to begin by drawing on Isaiah’s vision. The longing is the same. In Jesus, Matthew sees the fulfillment of Isaiah’s dream. We can get all caught up in discussions about biology, and whether or not the ‘virgin birth’ is literally true. Such debates have certainly occupied the time and attention of a great many people down through the years, and no doubt will continue to do so. And I remain convinced that when we stop there we pretty much miss the point. Matthew is trying to tell us something extraordinary about the profound meaning he finds revealed in the life of Jesus. Drawing on the hopes of Isaiah is one of the tools he uses to accomplish that task. All of the pieces of the story which Matthew tells work together to open us up to the reality that God’s love cannot be contained or understood by conventional wisdom or culturally accepted norms. However we understand Mary’s pregnancy, from the outside looking in it would have been nothing less than a scandal. And yet, Matthew describes it as the work of the Holy Spirit. 

At the heart of the narrative in today’s reading from Matthew’s Gospel, we find a description of what Jesus’ purpose was all about. “She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:21) It is one of those sentences that we barely even look at because it comes weighted with so much preconceived baggage about what it means. We move at the speed of light from these opening verses of Matthew to the description of the crucifixion to the centuries of commentary and interpretation and re-interpretation which have informed us that Jesus “died for our sins.” But what happens if we slow down and really read what verse 21 says (to say nothing of what it doesn’t say)? What if we ask the question, “What might it mean to say that Jesus saves his people from their sins?” Perhaps if we can let go of our preconceived notions, we will discover whole new vistas of possibility.

One very basic definition of sin is any action or attitude which blocks or inhibits our relationship with God. This is true not because of some unwillingness on God’s part to be in relationship with us, but because such actions and attitudes get in our way and keep us from  recognizing or receiving God’s presence. Working with this definition, one of the things which can be understood as sin is spending time and spiritual energy thinking that we are sinners. It gets in the way of being in relationship with God. When we walk around with our eyes focused on our shoelaces, believing we are unworthy pond scum, we tend not to notice most of the ways in which God is knocking at the door to our heart, just waiting for an invitation to be welcomed in. One of my favorite scenes in the farcical British comedy “Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is when God appears to King Arthur in a cloud. The first thing Arthur and all the knights do is fall to the ground and grovel, whimpering and muttering things like “I’m not worthy.” At which point God tells them, in no uncertain terms, to get up and stop groveling.

What if Jesus “saving us from our sins” means literally saving us from the debilitating effects of thinking in such terms? Throughout his ministry he consistently points people towards a new way of understanding God and being in relationship with God, each other and even ourselves. On numerous occasions he declares that people’s sins were forgiven. In other words, he tells people to let go of that weight which is keeping them from full, rich relationship with the God who already loves them utterly and completely. 

Let me be clear. We do not need to be “saved” from our sins in the sense that God is going to send us to Hell otherwise. If Heaven is being fully in the presence of God, then Hell is being in the absence of God. And since God is, by definition, everywhere, then the only way to be in Hell is by closing our eyes to the Heaven we are already in. God does not, will not, cannot send us there. We do far too good a job of putting ourselves there. That is literally what sin does – it puts us in the Hell of being blinded to the reality of God’s presence. And that is what Jesus seeks to save us from. He calls us, points us, leads us, guides us to other ways of living, other ways of seeing God, other ways of being in relationship with God and with each other – ways which focus on love and acceptance, connection and community.

Isaiah longs for the day when the reality of “God with us” is fully recognized. Matthew sees that dream realized in the life and ministry of Jesus. At Christmas we celebrate the birth of one who sought to save us from our sins and set us free to live. The only question is whether or not we will choose to follow. When we choose to follow the path which Jesus shows us, when we choose to open ourselves to the presence of God which Jesus reveals to us, then we are saved from sin and saved to a life that is filled to overflowing with the sacred, loving presence of the Divine. We are saved to the life we are created to live. May we choose such love! May we choose such living!