We need saving!

12/15/2022 0 Comments

We need saving!

Beloved of God,

   I know many of you are about to get really busy, and then be really unplugged until the new year. It’s the way of things, but if I have your attention in the meantime I want to remind you of a few of the happenings at WRBC this month.
   Our Christmas Eve service will be in the great room at 6:30 pm. We’ll have a chance to sing together and meditate on the Christmas story.
   The following morning, Christmas day, we will have a Bible study at 10:30 am. Feel free to come in whatever is comfy and we’ll spend some time studying Scripture together.

   Our Scripture reading this week comes from Isaiah 7:10-16. Most of you will recognize verse 14 immediately from the Gospel of Matthew’s telling of the Christmas story. But in its original context, this passage is at the center of a rebuke. The Lord has told Ahaz to ask for a sign. God wants the king to know that he’s not lying about his intent to rescue His people. God wants a venue in which to prove His earnestness so that Ahaz will receive it.
   But instead, Ahaz hides behind the law and rejects God’s command. He won’t ask for a sign. He says he doesn’t want to test God, but I wonder if Ahaz didn’t want to trust God. After all, he was the king! It was his duty to lead his people through political danger. He wanted a chance to work on the problem himself. He didn’t want God’s help. He was (he thought) capable of navigating this trouble on his own.
   We love being capable. We like to know that we can face problems and navigate them through our own intelligence, strength, and perseverance. Capability is one of our most persistent idols. It’s been a pet idol for many of God’s people. People like us. People like Ahaz. Ahaz, who was too capable and too pious to ask for a sign got one anyway: a baby. A little boy, a sign of the truth that God is with us, and God is for us. He sends Ahaz a sign of a child who knows right and wrong before he can even manage solid food. And God promises that before he can move off of curds and honey, the threats Ahaz is facing will be no more.
God wasn’t asking for Ahaz’s capability. He was asking for his trust. As I read this passage I think about how often Jesus, our Immanuel, would pull children into the middle of a crowd and say “you’ve got to become like this. This is who the Kingdom belongs to!” Jesus’ whole life was both a demonstration of that kind of trust and a powerful picture of the lengths God will undergo to bring rescue to His people. He does it because He loves us. He does it because no matter how capable we are, we need saving. As we come to this last week of Advent, let’s use it as a laboratory for learning to trust that God is faithful rather than obsessing over our own capability to meet our troubles.

Please join me this week in praying for:

Those among us who are traveling.
Students and teachers who are finishing academic terms.
Those who come to this season missing someone.
Those we know who are sick or hurt.
Those who respond to emergencies on our highways, in our wildlands, in our communities, and even in our homes.
Those in positions of public trust at the federal, state, and local levels, especially those assuming office for the first time.
That we might learn to trust in God’s presence and faithfulness.
That we will find peace in our relationships, in our hearts, and in our minds this season.
In thanksgiving for the Christ child, who trusted perfectly and rescued powerfully.
Each other (please email [email protected] if you’d like to be added to our prayer list).