God Comes Down
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GOD COMES DOWN
The Rev. J. Donald Waring
Grace Church in New York
Christmas 2024
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. (Isaiah 9:6)
In the sermon that follows, I am going to tell you about two, high and lofty people who reached down from their impossible heights to bless me. Long ago and far away, my first job out of seminary was on the clergy staff of a big church in suburban Detroit. I was the lowest of the low in the pecking order. My title was something like “Second Assistant to the Night Vicar.” My office was accessible only by walking through the vesting room for choir women – meaning I was barred from entry on Sunday mornings. Silly me: I had always assumed that beneath their vestments, the ladies of the choir were fully clothed.
In those days, at the other end of the power spectrum, the CEOs of both GM and Ford – Roger Smith and Donald E. Petersen – were members of the church. Imagine, on any given Sunday, one if not two of Detroit’s three kings – or wise men, if you like – might be in attendance (the third being Lee Iacocca, who was a Roman Catholic). I remember Mr. Petersen especially as an active, engaged, and generous parishioner. I was sad to read of his death earlier this year at the age of 97.
One Sunday I preached a sermon about the lure of possessions. Ford recently had redesigned a model called the Probe, and I thought it was the most attractive thing on four wheels. I confessed in the sermon how tempted I was to do the truly financially reckless thing and go buy one. As luck would have it, Mr. Petersen was there and heard the sermon. At the door of the church he said that if I’d really like to drive a new Probe he’d have his assistant call me the very next day. “Sure,” I said, knowing full well I couldn’t afford it. You see, I’d finally finished making payments on my Chevy, and didn’t want to go into debt again. I was living on a steady diet of peanut butter and aerosol cheese. Now one of the most powerful executives in all of corporate America was trying to sell me a car. Or so I thought. I figured he didn’t get to the corner office by giving cars away. He was trying to sell me a car. He wanted to report to his shareholders that he, personally, had sold another one.
Sure enough, Mr. Petersen’s assistant called the next day, offering to put me behind the wheel of a Probe. But with faulty reasoning swimming in my brain, I politely declined. I never thought to ask the simple question: what’s this going to cost me? It was only much later when I learned what the price would have been: nothing. By the authority vested in him at Ford, Mr. Petersen had cars to give, and he wanted to reach way down to my lowly estate and give one to me.
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Of course, at the sound of these familiar words our minds turn towards Christmas. But the truth is, they date from a time over seven centuries before the birth of Jesus. To understand them fully we must encounter a man who has never appeared in any Christmas pageant or nativity scene. The man’s name was Ahaz, and he was the king of Judah and heir of David. Ahaz was the latest in the long line to rule in the Davidic Dynasty, which itself was a sign of God’s presence with the Jewish people. The understanding was that as long as an heir of David reigned, God would be in the midst of the people.
The reign of Ahaz was troubled. In 732 BC he faced an international crisis that put the dynasty in danger of extinction. Three stronger and hostile kings threatened to move against tiny Judah. Two of them had already taken up siege positions around Jerusalem, and the biggest of them all, Assyria, loomed in the background. In the seventh chapter of Isaiah the prophet describes how the heart of Ahaz and the heart of his people shook with fear as the trees of the forest shake before the wind. Ahaz didn’t know what to do. Just then, God reached down from the heights, and spoke through the prophet Isaiah. God gave the king a gift. Isaiah told Ahaz not to fear. Judah would not perish at the hands of her enemies. God’s gift was an invitation to trust. Fear not. Do nothing. You can wait this one out. God is with you. Ahaz found Isaiah’s words impossible to believe, so the prophet gave him a sign that would be a tangible token of God’s presence. Isaiah pointed to a young woman standing nearby and said, “Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” By the time the child is about two years old, this crisis before you will be forgotten.
Who was the young, pregnant woman? What makes the most sense is that she was the wife of Ahaz, the king. The child she carried would be Immanuel – God with us. The sign of God’s presence was the Davidic Dynasty. Only a child of Ahaz could continue the line and embody the promise. What is more, Isaiah went on in chapter nine to announce just such a royal birth, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. But the question that bedevils Biblical scholars is whether the Immanuel child in chapter seven the same as the Royal child in chapter nine of Isaiah. Let me put the matter to rest for you. Yes, they are one and the same. Now, finally, you can breathe easier. Now you know the answer to the age-old question, “What Child is This? Merry Christmas, people. You’re welcome, everyone. What does it mean? It means that God follows through with his promises. Isaiah’s words were the gift of hope and promise for Ahaz. If you focus on the child, Ahaz – on your child – and not on the problems surrounding you, you will endure. The child is a sign that God is with you from this time forth, even forever.
How do you think Ahaz responded to God’s gift? Sadly, with faulty reasoning swimming in his brain, Ahaz declined the gift. Rather than trusting God’s sign of Immanuel, Ahaz tried to play power politics. He panicked and sold himself and his people into the service of the biggest bully on the block – the Assyrian king. Judah became a vassal state.
Seven centuries later God was preparing to reach down and give the gift again. This time some people were willing to receive it. Not all of them, mind you, but some of them. You know the cast of characters all too well. You know Mary, barely a teenager when the angel Gabriel visited her with the news that she would conceive and bear a son named Jesus. It was hardly the perfect gift for an unmarried Jewish peasant girl, but Mary said, Yes, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. You know Joseph, Mary’s espoused husband. When he learned of Mary’s unusual pregnancy, he no more understood nor trusted her story than Ahaz did Isaiah’s words. Joseph contemplated calling off the marriage. But unlike Ahaz he decided not to fear, and to receive the child as a gift from God. You know the shepherds. We’ve heard how the angels said to them: For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Immanuel. God is with us. Here was the same invitation to trust and not to fear. Unlike Ahaz of long ago, they received the gift. They came in haste to see the child, and went away glorifying God.
Make of the pageant cast what you will. If the skeptic in you registers alarm over choirs of angels singing to shepherds, and a star in the sky guiding two or three wise men to Bethlehem, be of good cheer. Fear not. You can still celebrate Christmas in all its depth of meaning and glory. You see, apart from Mary and Joseph, we stake no truth claims whatsoever on who might have peered into the crib of Jesus: be they shepherds, wise men, or even extra-Biblical friendly beasts and a little drummer boy. Rather, what the Gospel writers Matthew and Luke want us to take from the story is essentially two things: First, that when Mary was great with child, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son. At a certain time and place, Jesus was born. Second, they want us to understand that in the birth of Jesus, God visited us in a unique way. “God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself (2 Corinthians 5:19),” is how St. Paul would phrase it.
So let’s turn the clock forward again – this time two-thousand years until we reach today. Today, God is giving the gift of himself again. Yes, Christmas comes once more, but we needn’t think that it’s only in this season when God comes to us. By the power of the Spirit, God is available and accessible to us each and every day. I’m sure you know the unwritten rule of the social climber: always entertain up. Well, God respects no such rule of engagement. God entertains down. God comes down from the heights of transcendent otherness through the mysteries of being and existence to visit humanity. Down he comes through the dimensions of time and space to dwell among us, so that we could behold his glory. Down he comes through culture, myth, and prophecy to be born of Mary at a specific time in a certain place. Down from heaven above to earth he came in the birth of Jesus. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, God came down. Love came down at Christmas. In Jesus, God humbled himself to be born in our likeness. God emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.
The question is, will you accept the gift that God has to offer? Will you accept the gift of God’s presence? Of course, we can say no thank you. People said no thank you to Jesus all the time. Jesus would know rejection. St. John records that he came into his own, but his own received him not (1:11). But he went on to write that as many as received him, to them he gave power to become children of God (1:12).
At the beginning of the sermon I mentioned that I would tell you about two high and lofty people who reached down to bless me. The first was Donald E. Petersen. Now let me tell you about the second. When I was in elementary school my parents would send my older brother and me to a basketball day camp at Seton Hall University. The highlight of the week was on Friday, the last day, when Dick Barnett, one of the starting five of the New York Knicks’ championship teams, would visit. This was the early 1970’s, so I’d see him on TV playing with Walt Frazier, Willis Reed, and other stars. All week long the buzz was, “Dick Barnett is coming!” “Work hard, because Dick Barnett is coming.” When Dick Barnett finally walked into the gymnasium on the last great day, it was as if a god had entered the room. He would spend hours dazzling us with his ability and teaching us.
At the end of the day all the campers had the opportunity to have their picture taken with Dick Barnett. Then Seton Hall would send the photos to your hometown newspaper, and you’d be famous. When it came to be our turn, my brother and I stood before Dick Barnett quaking in fear. He was 6’4 – not overly tall by today’s standards – but it seemed as if we only came up to his knee caps. The photographer was trying to get us to smile or look natural but we were too nervous. Finally Dick Barnett, star of the world champion New York Knicks who had spent the whole day with us, stooped way, way down to my eye level and said, “Just look at my pretty face.” I’ll never forget it. I still have the picture that appeared in the Glen Ridge, NJ paper.
What we celebrate at Christmas is that through the birth of Jesus, God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, has entered the room of time and space. God in Christ stooped way, way down to our level. By the power of the Holy Spirit, from this time forth, even for ever, God says to all of humanity: “Just look at my pretty face.”
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.