William H. Willimon - "Unto Us a Child" (December 20, 1998)
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| - | Yesterday | 0:19 |
| at holiday drop-ins, | 0:21 | |
| more than one person said to me, | 0:24 | |
| well, I can't wait to hear what | 0:28 | |
| you have to say about, in your sermon, | 0:30 | |
| about this tar pit in Washington. | 0:33 | |
| And, until about 8:00 this morning | 0:38 | |
| I intended to say nothing, | 0:41 | |
| because what is there to say more. | 0:45 | |
| I've never committed adultery, so | 0:50 | |
| there's nothing exciting for me to reveal. | 0:51 | |
| (laughter) | 0:55 | |
| And this fall, the students have taken delight | 1:00 | |
| in pointing out to me that | 1:03 | |
| I wasn't one of the three pastors | 1:05 | |
| summoned to the White House to serve | 1:07 | |
| as the presidents' spiritual advisors. | 1:09 | |
| And furthermore, I expect | 1:15 | |
| that the majority of you are just dying to hear | 1:19 | |
| nothing. | 1:22 | |
| The woman at the mall yesterday | 1:25 | |
| when I asked about impeachment, I think, | 1:27 | |
| spoke for most of us when she said | 1:29 | |
| I'm just dying for it to get off TV. | 1:31 | |
| After hours of redundant, mostly unedifying | 1:36 | |
| debate and posturing | 1:39 | |
| in the House yesterday, | 1:42 | |
| what additional word could there possibly be? | 1:45 | |
| Its time for Christmas. | 1:52 | |
| Let's get on with | 1:54 | |
| Christmas and forget politics. | 1:56 | |
| But, unfortunately, | 2:02 | |
| because we're Christians we just can't. | 2:03 | |
| This is Church. | 2:08 | |
| And we're on the threshold of the Incarnation. | 2:10 | |
| And I would like nothing better | 2:15 | |
| than to get this | 2:17 | |
| whole political mess | 2:19 | |
| out of the way to let it | 2:21 | |
| slither into the muck and the mire | 2:24 | |
| it deserves, but we can't because, | 2:26 | |
| well, our Scripture for today | 2:31 | |
| just won't let us. | 2:32 | |
| What does the Church say | 2:36 | |
| about a president | 2:40 | |
| who can't tell the truth | 2:42 | |
| and a Congress of hypocrites, | 2:44 | |
| of Democrats defending the indefensible | 2:46 | |
| and Republicans who smell blood | 2:49 | |
| and a First Lady saying yesterday, | 2:51 | |
| hey, its Ramadan, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, | 2:53 | |
| can't we just all forget about it and go on? | 2:57 | |
| Is there a word from the Lord? | 3:03 | |
| Isaiah 9. | 3:08 | |
| "The people who walked in darkness | 3:11 | |
| have seen a great light. | 3:14 | |
| Those in the land of deep darkness, | 3:17 | |
| on them a light has shined. | 3:19 | |
| For a child has been born to us, | 3:23 | |
| a Son is given to us | 3:25 | |
| and the government shall be on his shoulders. | 3:27 | |
| And he is named Wonderful Councilor, | 3:32 | |
| Mighty God, Everlasting Father, | 3:35 | |
| Prince of Peace." | 3:37 | |
| Now, I expect it comes as a shock | 3:42 | |
| to a number of you | 3:44 | |
| that those words originate | 3:45 | |
| with Isaiah rather than Handel, | 3:46 | |
| and though you may be hoping, | 3:49 | |
| and deserve a respite from politics, | 3:54 | |
| nothing could be more political | 3:59 | |
| than the Scripture just read. | 4:00 | |
| Sorry. | 4:04 | |
| We're just going to have to mix | 4:05 | |
| religion and politics today, | 4:07 | |
| whether you like it or not. | 4:09 | |
| Not because the world is awaiting me | 4:11 | |
| to comment on presidential veracity, | 4:14 | |
| but it's because we're on the way to Christmas. | 4:18 | |
| And Christmas is the most politically charged | 4:22 | |
| of the Church's seasons. | 4:28 | |
| We're going to have to talk politics | 4:32 | |
| because you may have forgotten in all the debate | 4:34 | |
| in the House, | 4:37 | |
| you may have forgotten | 4:40 | |
| who's in charge here. | 4:42 | |
| Well, it was a dark, difficult time | 4:47 | |
| in Israel. | 4:49 | |
| Poor King Ahaz had attempted to placate Assyria. | 4:51 | |
| But things had gone badly | 4:57 | |
| the Assyrians had turned against him, | 4:59 | |
| they had laid waste much of Israel | 5:00 | |
| and now, the whole Assyrian army stood | 5:04 | |
| at the very gates of the Capitol. | 5:08 | |
| All of that darkness that is spoken of | 5:12 | |
| by the prophet in today's Scripture, | 5:14 | |
| it's darkness of the battlefield | 5:18 | |
| and war and blood. | 5:20 | |
| Israel is on the verge of total annihilation. | 5:22 | |
| And into that darkness | 5:27 | |
| light comes. | 5:31 | |
| Light in the form of a birth. | 5:34 | |
| For a child has been born to us. | 5:38 | |
| A Son is given to us | 5:42 | |
| and the government shall be | 5:44 | |
| on his shoulders. | 5:45 | |
| Poor Ahaz. | 5:49 | |
| He was never able to be quite the king | 5:51 | |
| his granddaddy Asiah was. | 5:53 | |
| Ever since he had ascended the throne | 5:57 | |
| there had been nothing but trouble in Israel. | 5:59 | |
| Dark times. | 6:02 | |
| He had attempted to hold off Assyria for himself | 6:04 | |
| but he was too weak in his resolve. | 6:07 | |
| Now, there he was, hunkered down in Jerusalem | 6:11 | |
| and all of Israel with him, | 6:14 | |
| shaking in his boots, | 6:16 | |
| awaiting the sure doom that was to come | 6:17 | |
| when the Assyrians finally rolled over | 6:20 | |
| the country and laid waste to all. | 6:23 | |
| Trembling in this dark day, | 6:27 | |
| when he'd tried everything else, | 6:29 | |
| as politicians often do, | 6:31 | |
| he invited a preacher over | 6:32 | |
| to the palace. | 6:36 | |
| And King Ahaz said, | 6:40 | |
| "Oh man of God, give me a sign. | 6:41 | |
| Give me a sign that when I finally stand up | 6:45 | |
| and start acting like a king | 6:47 | |
| and put my armor on | 6:49 | |
| and fight these Assyrians and their allies, | 6:51 | |
| give me a sign | 6:54 | |
| that I'm going to win." | 6:56 | |
| The prophet looks at him with contempt. | 7:00 | |
| He's been working with Ahaz for years | 7:03 | |
| trying to make a good king out of him. | 7:05 | |
| He says, | 7:08 | |
| "You want a sign? | 7:10 | |
| Okay, okay. | 7:12 | |
| I'll give you a sign from God. | 7:14 | |
| A young woman will give birth to a baby, | 7:17 | |
| whose name will be Emmanuel, | 7:21 | |
| God with us. | 7:23 | |
| The government is gonna be put on his shoulders." | 7:25 | |
| King Ahaz must have laughed out loud. | 7:31 | |
| A baby? | 7:35 | |
| Hey, I don't need a baby, okay? | 7:37 | |
| I need chariots, swords, cruise missiles, | 7:40 | |
| a majority in the House, that's what I need. | 7:43 | |
| I need some help from you religious people | 7:47 | |
| and you come in here and | 7:49 | |
| tell me a young woman is gonna get pregnant | 7:50 | |
| and have a baby? | 7:52 | |
| Scholars believed these words, | 7:55 | |
| "for unto us a child is born, | 7:57 | |
| unto us a Son is given", | 7:59 | |
| come right out of Israel's coronation rituals. | 8:01 | |
| When the king was crowned in Israel, | 8:04 | |
| Israel spoke of that coronation day | 8:07 | |
| as his day of birth, of rebirth. | 8:09 | |
| And the priest would stand up and say, | 8:12 | |
| unto us a king is given. | 8:15 | |
| A prince, and he shall be called | 8:18 | |
| defender of the poor, | 8:20 | |
| he shall be called a mighty councilor, | 8:21 | |
| the wise one, et cetera. | 8:23 | |
| You're kidding. | 8:28 | |
| You gonna put the government | 8:31 | |
| on the shoulders of a baby? | 8:34 | |
| Imagine entering the Oval Office | 8:39 | |
| for an important meeting with the | 8:40 | |
| security council, and seated behind | 8:42 | |
| that eventful desk | 8:45 | |
| is a baby. | 8:48 | |
| In just a few verses, | 8:52 | |
| the prophet moves us from the dark, | 8:54 | |
| bloody chaos of the battlefield, | 8:56 | |
| the mire of real politic, | 8:59 | |
| to a baby, who shall be called Emmanuel. | 9:03 | |
| Little, God with us. | 9:07 | |
| That's quite a move | 9:12 | |
| for the prophet to make | 9:15 | |
| in just a few verses of poetry. | 9:16 | |
| But it's a move that Christians | 9:21 | |
| are called to make | 9:24 | |
| every year at this time of year. | 9:26 | |
| Imagine Phillip Waugerman, | 9:30 | |
| or one of those preachers who got invited | 9:32 | |
| to the White House saying to our | 9:33 | |
| beleaguered chief executive, | 9:35 | |
| "Mr. President, I think we've | 9:37 | |
| thought of a way out of your dilemma. | 9:38 | |
| It's called a baby." | 9:41 | |
| In the context of this scripture, | 9:45 | |
| this sign, this little Emmanuel, | 9:46 | |
| God with us, | 9:49 | |
| is politically ambiguous. | 9:52 | |
| The prophet goes on to explain | 9:55 | |
| that this baby is good news, | 9:57 | |
| 'cause he's a sign to | 10:00 | |
| the King Ahaz that these Assyrians | 10:01 | |
| will be held at bay for another year. | 10:05 | |
| Jerusalem shall be at peace. | 10:07 | |
| On the other hand, king, | 10:11 | |
| I hate to tell you, | 10:12 | |
| the baby is bad news for you. | 10:13 | |
| This baby is a sign | 10:17 | |
| that God's given up | 10:20 | |
| on you and your house. | 10:21 | |
| God's given up on trying to | 10:24 | |
| make a good chief executive | 10:25 | |
| out of Ahaz and his family | 10:27 | |
| and is now gonna pass | 10:29 | |
| the government off | 10:30 | |
| to another ruler. | 10:31 | |
| To Emmanuel and his people. | 10:33 | |
| There's good news, and there's bad news. | 10:38 | |
| But when you think about it, babies, | 10:43 | |
| little Emmanuel or any other baby, | 10:45 | |
| are always good news and bad news. | 10:47 | |
| A friend of mine speaks of his life | 10:52 | |
| BC and AD. | 10:56 | |
| That is life | 11:00 | |
| before children | 11:02 | |
| and life after delivery. | 11:03 | |
| And those of you | 11:07 | |
| who've tried being parents | 11:09 | |
| you know what I mean. | 11:11 | |
| Babies. | 11:13 | |
| They are cuddly and sweet and cute | 11:15 | |
| and they are demanding, and expensive, | 11:20 | |
| and relentless. | 11:23 | |
| No wonder we live in a culture | 11:26 | |
| where nearly a million | 11:29 | |
| are aborted every year. | 11:30 | |
| 'Cause babies are a threat | 11:34 | |
| to grown ups. | 11:36 | |
| And in our culture we waiver | 11:38 | |
| between cute sentimentalization of childhood | 11:40 | |
| and the toleration of wide-spread child abuse. | 11:44 | |
| A couple of years ago at Duke commencement, | 11:48 | |
| Marian Wright Edelman spoke of | 11:50 | |
| America's war against children. | 11:52 | |
| The most poverty-stricken segment | 11:56 | |
| of our population. | 11:58 | |
| If a baby is a sign God is with us, | 12:01 | |
| Emmanuel, | 12:06 | |
| then those of us who've had babies | 12:08 | |
| can testify that that is invariably | 12:10 | |
| both good news and bad. | 12:12 | |
| We don't like for signs to be ambiguous, | 12:15 | |
| we want signs to be unequivocally good news. | 12:17 | |
| But babies are always ambiguous blessings. | 12:22 | |
| Yeah, they're blessings, | 12:26 | |
| but they're blessings that always | 12:27 | |
| come as a kind of demand. | 12:30 | |
| I remember a man in my church | 12:33 | |
| explaining to me | 12:35 | |
| about how his life got turned around | 12:37 | |
| by somebody one week old. | 12:40 | |
| He had lived a rather | 12:43 | |
| carefree, irresponsible life. | 12:46 | |
| He had set on his marriage vows rather lightly. | 12:48 | |
| But he said, the day that my little one | 12:53 | |
| was brought home, I looked over into | 12:56 | |
| that crib, and I saw staring back at me | 12:58 | |
| a demand. | 13:02 | |
| I felt my life had been judged | 13:04 | |
| by her. | 13:06 | |
| I realized that she was a gift, | 13:08 | |
| but it was a gift that was | 13:11 | |
| demanding me to grow up | 13:13 | |
| and start acting like more of | 13:15 | |
| a human being than I had been. | 13:16 | |
| That's an amazing thing, | 13:21 | |
| all that judgment and demand | 13:22 | |
| to come out of a little baby. | 13:24 | |
| Babies are the future. | 13:29 | |
| We adults, we decline, we pass away, | 13:32 | |
| they increase. | 13:36 | |
| Babies are an ever present reminder | 13:38 | |
| that tomorrow belongs to them. | 13:41 | |
| They remind us that the world | 13:45 | |
| isn't all left up to us. | 13:47 | |
| It isn't just in our hands. | 13:50 | |
| King Ahaz assumed that Israel's future | 13:52 | |
| was his kingly problem. | 13:55 | |
| But to be told that God had made | 13:59 | |
| Israel God's problem, | 14:01 | |
| that with redemption | 14:04 | |
| and the saving of the nation | 14:05 | |
| there is also judgment and punishment | 14:07 | |
| of the nation. | 14:10 | |
| Well, if it's hard to know | 14:13 | |
| when you were thinking about this baby | 14:14 | |
| if this was good news or bad. | 14:16 | |
| When God comes among us, | 14:22 | |
| it's not just to protect or confirm us. | 14:25 | |
| God also comes to judge us, | 14:30 | |
| that God might redeem us. | 14:34 | |
| Last night at a party | 14:40 | |
| a man said, | 14:42 | |
| "I think this mess in Washington | 14:44 | |
| may turn out to be a good thing | 14:46 | |
| for our country. | 14:47 | |
| Maybe if we're forced over the weeks | 14:50 | |
| to look at ourselves, | 14:52 | |
| that'll be good." | 14:54 | |
| Well, we marveled that he could | 14:57 | |
| have such faith that good could come of this. | 14:58 | |
| And then he added, | 15:01 | |
| "But of course, before it gets better | 15:03 | |
| I expect it's gonna get a lot more painful." | 15:05 | |
| When another Emmanuel was born in Bethlehem, | 15:11 | |
| with all the shepherds and the angels | 15:15 | |
| just rejoicing at his birth, | 15:17 | |
| you remember it was a politician, | 15:22 | |
| whether he was a Republican or a Democrat | 15:25 | |
| I know not, | 15:27 | |
| King Herod, | 15:28 | |
| who may have been, in a way, | 15:31 | |
| the only one to get the point | 15:33 | |
| about the baby. | 15:37 | |
| Herod figured out that that crying, | 15:39 | |
| cooing, little baby in the manger | 15:42 | |
| was a sign, | 15:45 | |
| a threat to everything on which | 15:46 | |
| his kingdom had been based. | 15:48 | |
| So Herod, whom Jesus nicknamed later | 15:51 | |
| The Fox, | 15:56 | |
| took matters in hand | 15:57 | |
| and launched the very first | 15:59 | |
| Operation Desert Fox. | 16:00 | |
| So Isaiah the prophet | 16:05 | |
| comes up before King Ahaz | 16:06 | |
| and dares to tell him | 16:09 | |
| the hard political truth. | 16:10 | |
| Yes, Virginia, | 16:13 | |
| there was a time when preachers | 16:14 | |
| would tell politicians the truth, | 16:15 | |
| whether they got invited to | 16:17 | |
| the White House or not. | 16:18 | |
| Isaiah says that God is gonna give you | 16:20 | |
| a sign, but unfortunately, | 16:23 | |
| maybe not the one you wanted. | 16:25 | |
| A young woman will give birth to a baby, | 16:28 | |
| fatefully named Emmanuel, | 16:31 | |
| God right down here with us. | 16:33 | |
| That baby will be a sign | 16:38 | |
| that you're not really king after all. | 16:41 | |
| That your ways of dealing with | 16:45 | |
| the world are false. | 16:46 | |
| That there's no hope for Israel, | 16:49 | |
| or anybody, | 16:52 | |
| unless its hope | 16:54 | |
| come from God. | 16:56 | |
| God's gonna take the government, | 16:59 | |
| the rule of the world, | 17:02 | |
| off your trembling shoulders, | 17:03 | |
| in order to put all the authority | 17:09 | |
| on the back of a baby, | 17:11 | |
| and he's gonna call his name, | 17:14 | |
| Emmanuel. | 17:16 | |
| Now, I know that's not the way | 17:20 | |
| we like to get things done in the world. | 17:22 | |
| I know this is not what you call a | 17:26 | |
| politically effective solution | 17:28 | |
| to problems. | 17:30 | |
| What good | 17:33 | |
| is a baby? | 17:35 | |
| Church, say something realistic | 17:38 | |
| about the current constitutional crises. | 17:41 | |
| The Church says, Emmanuel. | 17:44 | |
| When President Clinton once again | 17:52 | |
| ordered the bombing of more rebel | 17:53 | |
| in Baghdad, | 17:55 | |
| it was said that one reason he did it now, | 17:57 | |
| was, well, we're almost at the Muslim time | 18:00 | |
| of Ramadan, and he didn't want to offend | 18:03 | |
| the Muslim world by killing Muslims | 18:06 | |
| at such a special time of the year. | 18:08 | |
| Isn't it interesting that neither he | 18:13 | |
| nor anyone else mentioned | 18:15 | |
| the possibility | 18:17 | |
| that Christians might be offended | 18:19 | |
| by Christians bombing Muslims | 18:23 | |
| on Christmas? | 18:24 | |
| It's probably another sign | 18:28 | |
| that we Christians | 18:31 | |
| have so capitulated to the | 18:32 | |
| demands of the modern nation | 18:34 | |
| we've lost the ability | 18:35 | |
| even to know the difference between | 18:36 | |
| Jesus and Caesar? | 18:38 | |
| Between the king and the babe. | 18:40 | |
| Maybe more so, it's like we've lost | 18:46 | |
| the courage to get into step | 18:48 | |
| behind the babe. | 18:50 | |
| To see our future linked | 18:53 | |
| not to missiles and power plays | 18:54 | |
| and posturing and parliamentary maneuvering, | 18:57 | |
| but to God's gifts. | 19:00 | |
| The babe. | 19:03 | |
| Some of you might have seen the | 19:07 | |
| new chapel Christmas show and | 19:08 | |
| there I was in a conversation with | 19:12 | |
| Doctor Richard Hayes and | 19:14 | |
| our professor of New Testament, | 19:17 | |
| and I asked Dr. Hayes, | 19:19 | |
| "How come Herod the King | 19:20 | |
| got so upset over the birth of the baby Jesus? | 19:22 | |
| How come he ordered the killing | 19:25 | |
| of all those little Jewish babies?" | 19:26 | |
| And Dr.Hayes said, | 19:31 | |
| "You remember when the angels came | 19:32 | |
| and the angels said to the shepherds, | 19:35 | |
| "Glory to God in the highest | 19:38 | |
| and on earth peace and goodwill to men | 19:40 | |
| with whom he is pleased." | 19:44 | |
| Those words were taken right out of | 19:47 | |
| the imperial proclamations | 19:50 | |
| of Caesar Augustus. | 19:56 | |
| Whenever he would order the people | 19:59 | |
| out in the hinterland to get | 20:00 | |
| in step behind the empire, | 20:01 | |
| he would send out a decree, | 20:03 | |
| and the decree would begin, | 20:05 | |
| Glory to God in the highest, Caesar, | 20:07 | |
| and on earth, peace | 20:10 | |
| to those with whom he's pleased. | 20:12 | |
| It's like Herod got the point | 20:18 | |
| that maybe there was another king. | 20:20 | |
| This shall be a sign to you, | 20:24 | |
| light shall dawn into your darkness. | 20:26 | |
| Peace into our perilous time. | 20:30 | |
| There shall be a babe named Emmanuel. | 20:34 | |
| The Church does have something fateful | 20:39 | |
| and political to say at this time. | 20:42 | |
| One, there shall be bipartisan judgment. | 20:46 | |
| The judgment of God upon us. | 20:51 | |
| Because God, not nations, rules the world. | 20:54 | |
| Two, | 21:00 | |
| there shall be salvation. | 21:02 | |
| There shall be a way out, | 21:05 | |
| not of our devising. | 21:06 | |
| There shall be darkness, | 21:09 | |
| yes, but there shall also be light | 21:11 | |
| as gift. | 21:13 | |
| God with us. | 21:15 | |
| God with us. | 21:16 | |
| I wish I could get you to vote for the babe. | 21:20 |
