"Courage Can't Wait"

Courage (Love) Can’t Wait

(Is 7:10-16; Mtt 1:18-25) JG White ~ 10:30 am, A4, Sun, Dec 21, 2025, FBC Amherst

It was Christmas Day, 1983. I have some memories of it, back in those years when Dad and his sisters and families, and Grampie & Ruth, got together for turkey dinner together. We were at Aunt Karen & Uncle Gary’s little house in Kingston. There was gift giving and opening. Lots of chatter. And dinner was, well, a big turkey dinner. One person really feeling it was Aunt Jeannie; she was nine months pregnant. Very much ‘great with child.’ Due. Nothing extraordinary happened at the gathering, but that night, things started. On December 26th, my cousin, Luke, was born. 

A couple decades later, one of our cousins also had a baby on December 26, a girl named Holly. That certainly is a Christmassy name. Luke, not so much. Unless you are biblically literate and think of the famous Christmas story from the Gospel of Luke. What would you name a kid, born at Christmas? 

We will read from Luke 2 on Christmas eve here. Today, Matthew’s story, in Matthew chapter 1. Matthew starts with a family tree of Jesus, then this story. It culminates with the birth, and the child is named Jesus, as Joseph had been instructed by an angel. ‘For he will save his people from their sins.’ Yeshua sounds like ‘saved by Yah,’ by the LORD. The name Joshua is rooted in the same sounds. Joshua, Yeshua, Jesus, Jesu, Jesús. 

 What’s in a name? A lot, especially when you think of a child, any child, named by a loving parent. All the hopes and dreams for that child. What do you name him, her? Born December 26? Holly. Firstborn son? Name after father: George. Was going to name the boy Ian, but your co-worker Ian is not a nice guy? Steven. Was going to name the girl Marie, but she doesn’t look like a Marie? Sharon. 

In the Middle Eastern cultures we see in the Bible, naming was often significant. For a prophet, naming could be a prophetic act! Matthew quotes Isaiah the prophet, who once spoke of a child to be born named Immanuel, meaning God Is With Us. Back at that moment, in the eighth century BCE, there was likely a pregnant woman there the prophet was pointing out, perhaps Isaiah’s own wife, if not the wife of the King. 

Isaiah and Mrs. Isaiah had other beloved children with special names. For the sake of Isaiah’s ministry and message. Their son, Shear-jashub, which means, A Remnant Shall Return. And their son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz, which means, The Spoil Speeds, The Prey Hastens. That’s quite a handle when you call the kid in for supper: ‘Dinner’s ready, Speedy-Spoil-Hastening-Prey.’ How you nickname him might depend upon his behaviour. ‘Well done, Speedy!’ Or, ‘Spoiled, don’t let me catch you doing that again!’

However a child is named, because the kid is loved and cherished, the name becomes dear. No matter how the parents spelled the name, it becomes wonderful because the person is in your heart.

This famous child born in Bethlehem is given two names in today’s scriptures. A common name, Jesus, that does go back to the meaning God Saves, and Emmanuel, God With Us. 

If there was a first child born named Immanuel, in the days of prophet Isaiah and king Ahaz, Jesus of Nazareth is the second one in history, centuries later. He arrived for God to be present to people in a very close way. Perhaps, in those ancient days, people did not think about this move on God’s part being a great risk. Did the ancients assume that the child in the womb would survive, and live through childhood to become an adult - because the Almighty was doing this? Protected, safe, a sure thing. 

In our day, though far more infants in the womb and in our lives survive than back in previous centuries, we wonder at the risk God takes, to become a human fetus. To become present to the world in a totally needy newborn. (I met a six week old human yesterday morning.) To be so loved but so vulnerable. So cherished but so fragile. So heart-touching but so temporary. It strikes us, the courage it took for the Unknowable One to be birthed among us. And the story is filled with all sorts of unwanted and unexpected threats. This Baby survives… to age thirty-three. 

In 1995 Joan Osborne had a hit on the charts with a song (by Eric Bazilian), One Of Us. Do you remember it?

If God had a name, what would it be?

And would you call it to His face

If you were faced with Him in all His glory?

What would you ask if you had just one question?

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Tryna make his way home?

If God had a name what would it be? Jesus? God saves? Emmanuel? God Is With Us? The God of ultimate courage loves the world so much that God gets born among us, at one special point in history. The One Who is beyond words… comes into life as an infant who has to learn to speak, to eat, to walk, from mom and dad and family. It is the usual risk that people take; but extraordinary for God. 

We hear, in our own time, of the concerns young adults have about bringing children into this world. This world - our world - seems so harsh, so dangerous, so difficult, so depressing, so doomed to some people. So hard that they won’t risk bringing a new human into it. It seems like a big risk. It takes courage; it takes some hope.

I love the story of Jesus. Part of it tells me God is willing to take big risks to come to us, be with us, renew the connection with us. If you were God, would you come into creation as a mere human? So much could go wrong. Anything could happen. 

And it did! This Kid gets executed. 

This God-With-Us, Emmanuel, is, like Isaiah of old said, a sign. A sign of hope, in the face of national danger, for Isaiah and Ahaz. A sign of hope again for the Hebrews when Christ was born. A sign of hope for us, thousands of years later, in these interesting times. 

What sign of faithfulness might God be showing us today? What courage might be promised to us for the living of these days? Does God still love us deeply enough to make some promises, to get active in our society, to transform people?

Richard Rohr taught: Jesus tells us to love and to pay the price for loving. The heart and the soul are the first to attach to things and [be] in love. Look at the image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. His heart is out in front of his chest. It may not be great art, but it is great theology. The heart is given, and the price is paid. (June 18, 2016)

Rohr also wrote: We can’t risk walking around with a negative, resentful, gossipy, critical mind, because then we won’t be in our true force field. We won’t be usable instruments for God. That’s why Jesus commanded us to love. It’s that urgent. It’s that crucial. (Oct 30, 18)

Love takes courage. Courage to ‘wear our heart on our sleeve’ as we say, or wear it out in front of our chest. This is courage. For love can be rejected. Misunderstood. Used. Jesus experienced this. 

And love can't wait. This world can’t wait for the love of God to show up. For our love to show up. For our care and compassionate action. For Jesus, born in us, to arrive. 

So we are named - renamed - Christians, which means Little Messiahs. Jesus the Light of the world; we are lights in the world. Jesus - God with us; we - temples of the Holy Spirit. 

What’s in a name? The hopes and fears of all the years.