The Sign

Scripture: Isaiah 7:10-16

               While I was the exception, I grew up in a family of picky eaters.  Despite that my parents tried to offer vegetables, even though my siblings did not want to eat them.  Because of this, Cracker Barrel was a favorite restaurant choice for my family.  This was because Cracker Barrel had a loophole.  I think they have now changed it, but it used to be that Cracker Barrel labeled all their sides as “vegetables.”  So, at Cracker Barrel Macraoni and cheese qualified as a vegetable choice.   It was fully possible to order a Country Vegetable plate, which gave four choices of “vegetables” and not have anything actually green on the plate.  This is what made it a popular choice.   It was not in my family.  In general, trying to get kids to eat vegetables is a battle for a lot of parents.  While there are some kids who are exceptions, for many it is an uphill battle.

               This is because kids are physically predisposed not to like vegetables.   Scientific research has shown that kids have more taste buds and more sensitive taste buds.  For most kids vegetables, especially green vegetables, can taste incredibly, even overwhelmingly bitter.  This is because for younger children their sensitivity to bitter flavors is turned way up.  It is thought this is a survival reflex, because if kids cannot stand bitter tastes, they are less likely to eat things that might be poisonous.   As we age our sensitivity to bitterness lessens, and foods like vegetables, will actually taste different to us. 

               A lot of times our food preferences get set when we are young, and we tend not to budge from them.  However, over time the way the way that we perceive their taste can change.  It is possible that if we are open to the experience, the taste of food can be different as our context changes.   This is true about more than just food.  The context we find ourselves in can have a major impact on how we experience or make sense of a great number of things.   This morning’s scripture from Isaiah is a great example of this.   In its original context it had a specific meaning, but over the course of several hundred years the scripture came to have a different understanding.   This morning’s scripture was relevant in the time it was written, but it also has a greater, future looking meaning.   This morning’s scripture is a reminder that God is active and present in our world.  The signs are all around us, the question is whether we are open to experiencing them?   

               This morning’s scripture is deeply embedded in the geo-politics of the Middle East as it was in the 700s BCE.  The Israelites had been divided into two kingdoms for generations.   Ahaz was the king of the Southern Kingdom of Judah.  Even though the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom shared a common language and cultural history, they were not always the best of friends.  The northern kingdom of Israel had made a military alliance with Aram, their neighbor to the north, and the combined power of both of these nations had put Judah in their sights as an easy conquest.  Isaiah 7:2 states that the severity of the threat was such that “the hearts of Ahaz and his people were shaken as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind.”

  Even though 2 Kings reports that Ahaz was one of the many kings who did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD, God still sent Isaiah to give a message of deliverance and a promise that Judah will not fall to this military threat.   The sign that God promises through Isaiah is that in the time it takes a child to be born and weaned, before they are old enough to know right and wrong, the threat of the two kings that Ahaz dreads will pass.  

               In the context that this morning’s scripture was originally written the promised sign was a sign of deliverance for the kingdom of Judah.  It was a sign of God’s enduring love, despite the unfaithfulness of the king and his people.   Several hundred years later the context of God’s chosen people had changed.  By the first century there were no longer two kingdoms.  There had been exile, return, and restoration.   However, the Jewish people found their homeland occupied territory.   They found themselves still looking again for deliverance, and a sign of God’s enduring love.   In this context, this morning’s scripture pointed to the coming of a messiah, a virgin birth, and the promise that God is with us.  The gospels of Matthew and Luke take very different approaches to relaying the birth of Jesus, but both emphasize the miracle of the virgin birth.  The gospel of Matthew even explicitly states the birth of Jesus was the fulfillment of this morning’s scripture.   One miraculous sign embodying God’s enduring love is understood to be fulfilled in different ways in different contexts. 

               I find it fascinating that the gospel authors were able to see how this sign from Isaiah also applied in their time.   This points to the dynamic nature of the holy scriptures.  Every word of the bible was addressed to an original audience in a specific context, and at the same time every word of the bible is also eternally relevant.  This morning’s scripture finding new meaning in the birth reminds us that our faith is not static, we do not simply gather to commemorate events that happened long ago and written down in an old book.  We gather to worship a God who is active in the world today, to praise a savior who lives, and to celebrate that best of all God is with us.  What was a sign for Ahaz, king of Judah, was also a sign for all people that the savior had come.   This leads me to wonder what signs are all around us waiting for us to discover them from the right context? 

               A sign from God is something that I think a lot of people want.  A lot of people want direction from God, they want to know what they should do, or how they find greater meaning and purpose in life.  A lot of people would love to have a sign from God, but the reality is they are already there.  Just like the first followers of Jesus were able to see how this morning’s scripture applied in a new context we can see the signs from God once we are more mindful and aware of where God is already at work around us. 

               This is actually related to a psychological phenomenon called the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.  This is when once you become aware of something the more likely you are to notice the frequency.  As an example, let’s say you get a new blue car, and it is the first time you have ever driven a blue car.   Chances are you will then start noticing all of the other blue cards on the road, it might even feel like lots of people are all the sudden driving blue cars.   The number of blue cars on the road has not changed, what changed was your awareness of them.  This is the essence of the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon a change in context creates a new awareness in perception.  

               In the first century, messianic expectation led people like the gospel writers see this morning’s scripture in a new context that points to Jesus.  In the same way, Jesus already told his followers what to do, we already know many of the ways we are supposed to put our faith into action and join God in transforming the world.  We just need to become more aware of those directions in our context. 

               For instance, when Jesus preforms the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 he first tells his disciples, “You give them something to eat.”  This was a directive from Jesus, a call to action, and a challenge to step up in their faith.   Just like Isaiah’s prophecy in this morning’s scripture was meant for the context of King Ahaz but still relevant to the context of the gospel writers, Jesus’s directive to “give them something to eat” was for meant for the context of the original disciples, but still a call to action and a challenge to step up in faith for us today.  

               Nathan and Ashley Pugh of Tallahassee Florida experienced this for themselves just a few years ago.   To own their own home, they had to move across the city to a new zip code, and this opened their eyes to a part of the city they had never see before.  In the neighborhood they now live in, over 50% of households were below the poverty line, and this included 43% of all children who lived in the zip code.   Once they became aware of the need, they began to see it all around them.  While the city does have some social services, they saw in their community many people were falling through the cracks.   They did not turn an apathetic, blind eye to the need.  Instead, they heard the call of Jesus to give them something to eat.  Inspired by the idea of a little free library They got hold of an obsolete newspaper box, painted it, and put it in front of their house to help their neighbors.

 As they helped meet the need of their block, they became even more aware of the need and noticed that often the biggest obstacle to people getting help was transportation.   They got hold of more old newspaper boxes and put more little food pantries at bus stops.   It became more than they could do on their own, so they made strategic partnerships to keep little pantries stocked, and they expanded to delivering food to families with limited transportation in food deserts.   In just a few short years, what started with one box in front of their house has expanded to 19 food boxes across Tallahassee, and through these boxes around 10,000 pounds of food have been distributed annually. 

Jesus told his disciples to feed the hungry, and that is still a directive for today.   Jesus also told his disciples to clothe the impoverished, visit the imprisoned, and love the least of these.   Those directives were given in a specific context, but they are eternally relevant and applicable even to this day.   Friends, many of you-most of you- know this community.  You have been here for years.  You know the needs that are around us.   Perhaps, seeing those needs is a sign to you.   Perhaps it might even be the sign that you have been looking for, because perhaps God is directing you to not just see the needs, but meet the needs.  Not just see what someone should do but be one the to do it.  Perhaps the needs you see is the sign, to the least of these that God is calling you to love. 

From the writing of the gospels, this morning’s scripture has been associated with the birth of Jesus.   However, the sign promised in this morning’s scripture was originally meant to be a sign that Judah would not fall to two opposing kingdoms.   The sign was relevant to more than one context, that continues to be true for scripture.  The teachings and examples of Jesus are not just a historical footnote for us.  For those who call themselves Christians, they are not confined just to their historical context, but they remain eternally relevant.   So may we seek to not just know the words of Jesus but live the words of Jesus.  May we see the needs and meet the needs.  As we see the needs around us, may we become more aware for how God is already at work in the world.  May it be a sign to us, and may we join God in the world of bringing deliverance and redemption to this world.  May our actions communicate to those we see and care for the unconditional love of God that became known in the form of a baby boy born to a virgin.  May our lives be a sign to other of God’s unconditional love and care.  May we see the signs so that we can make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.