Sermons at Immanuel
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Sign of God’s love - Jesus our Immanuel
Scripture Readings
Old Testament Reading: Isaiah 7:10-16
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. 16 For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted. (NRSV)
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New Testament Reading: Romans 1:1-7
1 Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, 3 the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4 and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, 6 including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
7 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. (NRSV)
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Gospel Reading: Matthew 1:18-25
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 fulfil 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. (NRSV)
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Sign of God's Love
Those of you who are on the ball may have noticed that today’s theme, "Sign of God’s Love", is the same as it was last week. That’s because there was a mistake – not our mistake, but a mistake by the people who produce our "Seasons of the Spirit" programme, who got their own titles muddled up. We’ve sorted it out now – but in a way, it didn’t really matter – at least, not with a theme like "Sign of God’s Love". It wasn’t difficult for Marion last week to speak of God transforming desert experiences and meeting us in the wilderness as signs of his love, even though that wasn’t supposed to have been the title.
However, today we turn to what is surely the greatest sign of God’s Love – Jesus. God shows his love supremely by coming to us in Jesus – to live with us, and of course to die for us. On Christmas Day itself we will be looking at the stories of Jesus’ coming – his birth – from Luke’s Gospel, and today we look at the story as it is told by St Matthew, in our Gospel reading.
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Jesus and Emmanuel
And again, those of you who are on the ball may think you have spotted a bit of an inconsistency in that story from Matthew’s Gospel. After all, what does the story tell us? In v 21 of chapter 1 Matthew tells us that the angel appeared to Joseph and told him Mary was going to have a son, and he is to name him Jesus. And what happened? In v 25 we see that Mary duly had a son and they called him Jesus. So far so good.
But Mathew insists that it was all a fulfilment of prophecy – the prophecy that we read for our Old Testament reading, from Isaiah. In v 23 Matthew tells us what the prophet said. "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him....Jesus?" No! Not Jesus! Emmanuel!
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Oh dear! It seems the prophet didn’t get it quite right. Right about a virgin having a son – wrong about the name.
But that’s to look at these two names, "Jesus" and "Emmanuel" without realising what they mean. And Matthew tells us what the name "Emmanuel" means – at the end of v 23 – it means "God is with us".
Matthew also hints at what the name "Jesus" means when he says in v 21 "....name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." The name "Jesus" is actually the Greek form of the Hebrew name "Joshua" which means "God saves". It’s perhaps worth mentioning here that the two spellings of "Emmanuel" that you may have noticed today – with as "E" in our Gospel reading and with an "I" in our Old Testament reading, are just the Greek and Hebrew forms of the same name - and those who founded our church and dedicated it to "Immanuel" chose to use the Hebrew form of the name.
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What does it mean to say, "God saves"?
"God saves" and "God is with us". Two names, and two phrases, which at first seem different but which, if we think about it, really mean the same. After all, what do we mean when we say, "God saves", or even, "Jesus saves"? Some may want to suggest that it means saving us from the fires of hell or some similar fate – but that is at best just the negative side of it. When God saves us it is to be with him – it is to draw us into his arms and receive us as his beloved children. It is for God to be with us and we with him.
So when Matthew says that calling a child "Jesus" fulfils a prophecy of calling a child "Emmanuel" he is not being naďve or silly but pointing out a profound and central truth. To say "God saves" is the same as saying "God is with us". God saving us isn’t just a matter of keeping us out of hell or putting us in some idyllic heaven with endless sun, beaches and palm trees, or however else you like to imagine heaven. It is bringing us into relationship with him.
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We often say that it is Good Friday and Easter that are the most important occasions for the Christian, not Christmas. Good Friday and Easter were the moments when God saved us, redeemed us, through Jesus’ death and resurrection. That, we say, is what lies at the centre of the Christian faith. Christmas, the birth of Jesus, was of course necessary – but primarily because Jesus had to be born in order to die.
Well, I wouldn’t want to completely disagree with that, but I do think it’s a view which devalues Christmas too much and which actually risks us forgetting what lay behind the events of Good Friday and Easter. Why did Jesus go through with the anguish of the crucifixion? Why did God raise him from the dead? Because he loves us – and, not just that, he wants us, he wants us to be with him for him to be with us. The story of Christmas, whether it’s the more detailed version we read in Luke’s Gospel, with manger and shepherds and angel choir, or the simple version that Matthew gives us here, is the story of God actually coming to be with us. He loves us so much he came to be among us.
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Jesus and Emmanuel - his names sum up his mission
Those two names, "Jesus" and "Emmanuel" which Matthew somehow seems to think we will think of as being one and the same, sum up what Jesus came to do. Jesus – "God saves" – that was the end of his earthly mission, on the cross and then risen from the dead. But Emmanuel – "God is with us" – that tells us what lay behind it – a desire to be with us, to unite us with him. God loves us – but not just with a love that merely looks down benignly from heaven, but with a love that wants to be there with his beloved. A love that made him choose to step down to our level, be born as we are born, to live as we live, to suffer as we suffer, to work as we have to work, and to meet with us, friend and foe alike. It was a love that drove him to the cross, but he went to the cross so that the truth of “God is with us” could last, not just for a brief span of an earthly life, but for eternity.
Christmas is the time when we celebrate God coming to be with us – Emmanuel. It’s really more than just a sign of God’s love. It was actually part of the outworking of that love – a love that not only came to be with us to save us but also saved us so that we could be with him and he with us – for ever.
At Christmas we give one another presents. It’s a tangible sign of our love for one another. As we give and receive, let’s try to make it a reminder of the fact that God loves us and that that love worked out in the greatest Christmas present of all that only God could give – himself, to be with us for ever.
This sermon was given at Holy Communion on 23rd December 2007 - the 4th Sunday of Advent. © Copyright David Gray 2007.
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