Beyond "In Between"
Isaiah 9:2-7
After twenty years of shaving himself every morning, a farmer in a small Southern town decided he was going to treat himself to a little extravagance. He headed down to the local barber shop owned by Herb and Gracie to get a professional shave. It just so happened that Herb was away from the shop that morning so his wife, Gracie, performed the task. Gracie placed a hot towel on his face to prep him, lathered him up, shaved him and sprayed him with lilac water. When she was finished, she said, "That’ll be $20."
The farmer thought the price was a bit high, but he paid the bill and went out to do his work. The next morning he looked in the bathroom mirror, and his face was as smooth as it had been when he left the barber shop the day before.
“Not bad,” he thought. “At that price, at least I don’t need to get a shave every day.” The next morning, again his face was still smooth. Two weeks later, he is still unable to find any trace that his beard has started to grow. It was more than he could take, so he returned to the barber shop.
He told the barber’s wife, “I thought $20 was a bit steep for a shave, but you must have done a great job. It’s been two weeks and my beard still hasn’t started growing back.”
The barber’s wife’s expression didn’t register a glimmer of change. She simply said, “Of course. You were shaved by Grace and once shaved, always shaved!”
Wouldn’t it be nice to have things so neatly wrapped up? Christmas has finally arrived. The Christ candle on the Advent wreath is lit and our in-between time is over… at least in this part of our lives. I don’t know about you but I’m really tired of the in-between times – those times when resolution hasn’t been achieved, when decisions are still to be implemented, when a process has yet to reach its conclusion. Christmas calls us to celebrate the moments when we reach getting beyond the in-between. And even though much of life keeps us stuck in the “in-between”, we are called to ever press beyond it.
Our text is part of the Christmas story on which we rarely focus at Christmas Eve. This passage from Isaiah was originally written for King Ahaz who ruled the southern kingdom of Judah about 700 years before Jesus. Ahaz was in a terrible spot. The northern kingdom of Israel had allied itself with Syria and Aram against its sibling nation Judah. Ahaz was between a rock and a hard place. He had three choices: he could stand alone against powerful neighbors, he could ally himself with his enemy’s enemy, or he could trust God to lead him beyond his “in-between” predicament. He chose door number 2. Ahaz allied himself with the Assyrians – an increasingly powerful neighbor who history would show would eventually overrun the entire region – friend and foe alike.
The message I hear from this section of Isaiah is that God desires to bring peace through faithful leaders. The peace (shalom) described is more than an absence of conflict but encompasses wholeness, well-being, reconciliation, prosperity and safety.
We know that ancient Judah was very different from 21st century Minnesota. But in both time periods, this announcement would have been considered “unusual.” Ahaz had no confidence that a child could lead him out of his uncomfortable predicament. We still struggle with how the power of incarnation in a baby can make our world better. Can you imagine, for example, if this child that Isaiah was describing decided to join Facebook? Under “Attributes” he could put: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Creator, Prince of Peace. For “Interests” he would list: increasing government, establishing justice and righteousness forever. I’m thinking he wouldn’t be getting a lot of friend requests.
So what does this teach us about how to live beyond the in-between?
Isaiah says that the people walking in darkness have seen a great light. The Hebrew word for darkness is the same as the one used in Psalm 23 for the valley of the shadow of death. The shadow is always a part of life. We can concentrate our energy on the shadow or on the light. We can give away our power to the shadow or invest our power in the light. Most of us know how to make ourselves at home in the shadow. We’ve become adept at wallowing in the “in-between.” We know the tools of the trade. That’s why we have so many jokes about it. For example, do you know how to make a mountain out of a molehill, just add a little dirt. That is shadow living. That’s the in-between.
Living in the light calls us to a different place – calls us beyond the in-between. For example, the best way to get even is to forget... How is that possible? We only give power to that on which we focus our attention.
Last Sunday our children performed their Christmas program. It was called “Matt and Lucas’ Version Birth.” We have some budding movie stars growing up in our church. They did a great job of telling the two Christmas stories found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke and how the stories don’t match up. The shadow side would say, “Oh, then the stories aren’t true and I don’t need to listen to them.” The light tells us that we learn something about the teller in the story that is told.
As we prepare to enter a new year, all of us must struggle to release ourselves from the shadows that would drag us back to stuck places in-between. God calls us to so much more. A baby’s innocence and vulnerability is a sign of grace changing a stuck world. A star in the dark sky reminds us to follow the light when the shadows are pressing in. The voices of angels echo in our hearts at the possibilities that truth can overwhelm the powers of darkness.
Do you feel that tug of the Spirit – that desire, that yearning to reach beyond? That’s the light shining in the darkness. That’s the essence of Christmas.
Sources:
www.homileticsonline.com Friending Jesus, December 2009.