On this Winter Solstice, this shortest day of the year, as our Jewish friends light the final candle of the hanukkiah, and as the circle of our Advent wreath comes to completion, I want to share a beloved story about a Jewish sage who asked God for a sign of his loving presence during a time of stress and anxiety. This Jewish sage, who lived a century before Jesus, was named Choni HaMe’agel or Choni the Circle Maker; and he earned his name as the Circle Maker because in a season of drought and scarcity, the people of Judea asked for his prayers. Choni responded to their request by praying and asking God for a sign of his loving presence. At first, there was no response from God, so Choni drew a circle in the center of the village and stood inside it and said, “Adonai, Melech HaOlam, Master of the Universe. Your children have asked me to pray; and now I, a child of your household, ask you for a sign of your loving presence; and I will not step outside of this circle until you give me a proper sign!”
The people were shocked by his audacity until they began to feel gentle drops of rain fall softly upon their heads. They looked up and smiled and began to thank God when Choni cried out again to the heavens, saying, “God, I asked you for a proper sign. Is this it? This drizzle?” And at this, the rains started gushing down in torrents, filling all the cisterns and trenches and reservoirs. Choni cried out, “God, I asked you for a sign of your loving presence, not a sign of your awful power.”
So, then a proper rain began to fall, and it fell for days, and the people of Judea were overjoyed until they began experiencing floods and needed to ask Choni to pray for the rain to stop, which he did. One of the rabbis heard about this and sent a message to Choni, saying, “If not for the fact that you are Choni, I would have excommunicated you for your audacity, but what can I do against you? You are clearly a beloved child of God, and you have encouraged us all to be more bold and courageous in our prayers.”
When it comes to asking for and receiving signs from God, the Bible offers a perspective that simultaneously warns against putting too much stock in signs alone while also encouraging us to ask God for signs of his loving presence, as Choni did. In this morning’s reading from the Prophet Isaiah, the King of Judah is told by the great prophet: “Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” In other words, ask God to reveal himself to you in any way you’d like. The King of Judah said, “No, I will not ask for a sign. I will not put the LORD to the test.”
This king of Judah, King Ahaz, a distant ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:9), was a relatively young king at the time and he was under enormous pressure as the northern kingdoms of Israel and Syria were joining forces to attack his kingdom. It is amidst this stressful situation that the prophet Isaiah urges King Ahaz to pray and to ask God for a sign. But King Ahaz rejects the prophet’s advice. Why? Because King Ahaz was choosing to rely on a political alliance with the Assyrians rather than trust in God and so he cloaked his distrust and defiance in the pious-sounding excuse that he would not “test the Lord.” The prophet Isaiah’s response is priceless. He says, “Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?” In other words, he says, “King Ahaz, your false piety is not only annoying to all of us. It’s also annoying to God. So, whether you ask for it or not, God is going to give you a sign; and the sign will be a child, who will soon be born of your young wife, and who will be named Immanuel. God promises that by the time your son grows old enough to know the difference between good and evil, the two kingdoms that are now causing you so much dread (Israel and Syria) will essentially be impotent.”
With this sign, God teaches King Ahaz that in only a few years, everything that is stressing him out now won’t even matter. God invites King Ahaz to let go of the stress that makes him think that everything is a disaster and that a decision must be made right away. God invites him to embrace the faith that reassures him that everything will happen in God’s good time and that God will be with him all along the way. And his son Immanuel, which means “God with us,” will be a living reminder of God’s promised presence and assurance.
Young Immanuel grew up to become one of the greatest kings of Judah (King Hezekiah) and also the great (x 12) grandfather of Joseph who appears in this morning’s Gospel, struggling with his own stress as he learns that his beloved fiancé Mary is with child, out of wedlock. While he is planning to dismiss Mary quietly, Joseph receives a sign from God, whether he asked for it or not. The sign is an angel of the Lord telling him not to be afraid and inviting him to let go of the stress that makes him think that this is a disaster and to embrace the faith the assures him that everything will happen in God’s good time and that God will be with him all along the way. And the author of Matthew’s Gospel is wise enough to see how God’s sign to Joseph is in many ways the same as God’s sign to King Ahaz: a child who becomes a living reminder of God’s promised presence and assurance. A child whose name is “Immanuel,” which means “God with us.”
During these final days and hours of Advent, we are preparing for the great feast of the Incarnation and the twelve days of the Christmas season, when we celebrate God’s sign of his loving presence, given to all of us. Just as God sent a sign to Choni the Circle Maker and King Ahaz and St. Joseph, so too has God sent us a sign, an invitation for us to let go of any stress or dread and to embrace the promise of God’s presence. May we be so bold to ask God for more tangible signs of his loving presence and assurance this holiday season and may we have eyes to recognize the signs he sends our way in our friendships, our family, our church, our liturgy, and our collective service to those in need, and in the bread and wine made holy. May we remember that most of what is stressing us out now may likely not matter at all in a few years (or even a few days) so we can let go of our stress and embrace the faith that reassures us that everything will happen in God’s good time and that God, whose sign to us is a child named Immanuel, will remain present with us each moment all along the way. Amen.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 