Love in Sabbath Rest
Fourth Sunday of Advent – Dec 21, 2025
Isaiah 7:10-16 and Matthew 1:18-25
By Pastor Jane Shelton
It is evident in today’s Old Testament scripture the lengths to which our Lord will go in order to show us how much we are loved when we trust and have faith in his goodness for us.
Ahaz, in his despair to save himself and his land, seeks outside alliances rather than trusting God to take care of him and his people.
Ahaz’ father was a righteous man; however, Ahaz has gone astray, worshiping idols and making child sacrifices to get what he wants rather than seek the direction of the Lord.
The Prophet Isaiah warns him that he not only wearies his people but also the Lord.
Through Isaiah, God informs Ahaz of the sign to come, the Christ Child, Immanuel, but Ahaz doesn’t wait.
God knows our future and what is best for us if we only wait for his direction, and for his action. God wants us to trust him in his love for us.
Immanuel or “God with us,” were words of information that Ahaz ignored.
As we come to the Gospel of Matthew, we see the same sign revealed to Joseph through the angel in his dream.
I try to imagine what it must have been like for Mary and Joseph in their day. Times being very different than they are for us today. Women having little or no status in society, and many men like Joseph going about their daily lives working their trade to earn a living.
Here these two become engaged, and I’m sure the planning for the wedding day was ongoing when Mary finds out she will conceive a child through the Holy Spirit.
What did this even mean? And how could this be possible when she and Joseph had not yet celebrated their wedding night together.
Mary, being the favored one by God, the chosen one, is also immediately told following the news, “The Lord is with you.”
There is joy in the message for Mary in knowing that her Lord would not abandon her.
Mary, unlike Ahaz, trusts God’s messenger angel and has faith in God’s plan. Although, I’m sure she was filled with questions and fear and doubt, she carried the most beautiful gift of love, Emmanuel.
The angel then visits Joseph in a dream reminding him of who he is, the Son of David, and in so doing is also reminding Joseph of the sign prophesied by Isaiah. It is a prophecy that Joseph would have remembered from teachings of old and stories passed down.
Perhaps it was a point of confirmation in which Joseph could buy into knowing the prophecy told by Isaiah.
Not only does Joseph obey the messenger of God, he trusts God’s path for his life.
Think about the magnitude of the responsibility that is placed in Joseph’s hands to protect the Messiah to be born.
So often, I think Joseph is overlooked as also being the favored one by God to protect and provide for Mary and her child.
How many times do we wake from a bad dream, put our feet on the floor step back into reality, and say, “Whew, that was a bad dream!” And then we continue on our way without giving our dream another thought.
Joseph and Mary awakened to a reality in which they both chose out of love and faith in their God to proceed as commanded.
For some reason when I was writing this sermon, I thought of John 15:13 where Jesus tells his disciples, “No one has greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”
We relate this scripture to someone dying for us so that we might live, which is exactly what Christ did, yet when I think of Mary and Joseph, they also laid down the lives they knew, the life they had planned together as a married couple, in order to fulfill God’s plan for the world.
Our future is in God’s hands, not ours. We are called to responsible planning recognizing that God’s plans may intervene and take us in a totally different direction than what we had planned for ourselves.
God’s intentions are to benefit the good in the world. The question remains, “Are we open to moving in the direction God is pointing for us to go? Are we willing to put our complete trust in God’s plan for us?
By Joseph being reminded of the sign that was prophesied, and Ahaz’ disobedience in the story, Joseph also remembers what happened when Ahaz disobeyed God.
As we consider God’s love for us, we can rest knowing that regardless of whatever we are tasked to do for the good of the world, God will be with us leading the way.
God uses the trust that Joseph had in his command to repair the damage of the faithlessness of Ahaz through the child Immanuel, the death and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.
As you make your Christmas plans, rest in the knowledge that in God’s love, your plans may change. Be open to what God has in mind for you. Maybe God wants you to press pause and rest in his love and in his presence. Maybe God is calling you to something new or a deeper experience of faith.
In this season of rest, maybe we can ponder, are their needs of neighbors, the church or the world that need to be met?
In our rest might we ponder what faithful Christians before us and those now along side us have to say.
Let us ponder, whether the plans we are making fit into God’s plans for us.
And while we rest here on these pews, perhaps with our eyes closed, may we hear this prayer, “Lord God of Wonder and Love, you call us to places where we cannot see the ending. You call us to places where we have never walked before and places we have not seen before. Give us faith to go out with courage as big as your love for us, as we wander toward your light not knowing where we go. Lead us as we take your loving hand, support us, and remind us that you will never abandon us. We feel your presence near, and we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Emmanuel, God with us. Amen.