The Rev. Joseph Peters-Mathews is the vicar of St. Hilda St. Patrick. The sermon for the First Service of Christmas was preached as a response to Isaiah 9.2-7 based on the manuscript below.
Everybody,
take a deep breath.
inhale / exhale
Do it again.
This is the air
that God breathed
when God took on human flesh
in Jesus the Christ.
We’re here together.
Merry Christmas!
Unto us is born today
in the city of David
a savior who is the Messiah
the Lord.
The Zondervan Academic blog
has this to say about our passage from Isaiah:
“As their enemies only seemed to grow in strength and tighten their grasp,
[Judah – the southern kingdom of a divided Israel–]
didn’t know if God was for them or against them
or if [God] had simply abandoned them.”
Isaiah is writing at a time
before the people of Israel are taken captive
by Babylonians.
Judah feels weak and powerless
and like they just can’t win.
Isaiah in some ways
says as much.
He prophecies defeat,
captivity,
and eventual release and return.
But among those warnings and sad newses
he shares the good tidings:
Unto us is born today
in the city of David
a savior who is the Messiah
the Lord.
Zondervan Academic says,
“This prophecy is an encouragement
that God is indeed on Judah’s side,
and an assurance that by the time this child is grown,
Assyria and Syria — Judah’s enemies to the north —
will be defeated.”
Regardless of how you count time,
we’ve been walking in loneliness,
or may have felt like we have been
at least from time to time.
Everybody,
take a deep breath.
inhale / exhale
Do it again.
This is the air
that God breathed
when God took on human flesh
in Jesus the Christ.
We’re here.
If we feel like we’ve been walking alone
or that we’ve had extended periods of gloomy time
I’ve got good news for you beloved.
Unto us is born today
in the city of David
a savior who is the Messiah
the Lord.
The prophet Isaiah promised the people of Judah
that by the time a messiah was grown
God would have already delivered them
from Syria and Assyria, at least.
Regardless of how you count time,
we’ve been walking in loneliness,
or may have felt like we have been
at least from time to time.
As Christians,
we understand Isaiah’s prophecies
to be connected to one another
and fulfilled when Jesus —
Second Person of the Trinity
fully God! —
humbled himself and gave up power to be
really and truly born
into flesh just like we are.
The God of the universe,
the eternally begotten son of the Father
through whom all things were made
comes to us not as a king in great power and glory
but as a newborn,
small and precious as Aria.
God does that in Jesus
as an act of love.
God comes to live among us
to restore us to right relationship with God
and with one another.
God takes on our flesh,
becomes human
so that we may, through God’s grace freely given
unable to be earned,
become sanctified and holy,
becoming like God.
Regardless of how you count time,
we’ve been walking in loneliness,
or may have felt like we have been
at least from time to time.
Everybody,
take a deep breath.
inhale / exhale
Do it again.
This is the air
that God breathed
when God took on human flesh
in Jesus the Christ.
We’re here.
God is with us.
God has come to be with us in Jesus,
no matter how lonely we feel,
no matter how abandoned,
confused, frustrated, sorrowful, or disappointed.
God is with us.
Unto us is born today
in the city of David
a savior who is the Messiah
the Lord.