Jim Street

I remember Johnny.

How could I forget him?

For three or four years in elementary school Johnny haunted my very movement.

Johnny was the meanest person I have ever met.  I say that in my late 50s...  Johnny was the meanest person I have ever met.

Johnny had a prison tattoo by the sixth grade.  His older brother gave it to him.

I saw Johnny almost beat one of my classmates to death.

Johnny almost sent me to the ER once because I had the nerve to laugh at him when the wind blew his well-oiled hair.

Johnny was anti-social and greasy.

He struck fear into the heart of every 4th, 5th and 6th grade boy I knew.

You would have thought Johnny and I were best friends...the way I shadowed Johnny.

Fear can do some strange things to you. Fear can make you do some strange things.  

Dr. Freud would have had a field day with me.   He probably would have called it a "reaction formation."   In a reaction formation, which was one of Dr. Freud's classic defenses against anxiety, you do things that are polar opposite to how you really feel: the child porn politician champions laws against child pornography ...the preacher who visits prostitutes rails against adultery...The kid who fears the anti-social bully embraces him.

When Ahaz saw Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, outside the walls of Jerusalem flanked by their armies and intent on toppling his throne, his heart and the heart of his people "shook as the trees of the forest shake before the wind."  (Isaiah 7:2)

God sent the prophet to him to tell him that the Kings Rezin and Pekah did not amount to a sneeze.  He encouraged Ahaz and told him to pay attention, keep quiet, resist fear, keep on keeping on.

God would fight for him.  God would take care of him.

But young Ahaz was afraid and, like I said, fear can make you do some strange things.

He was also hard-headed, stubborn and intent on "doing his own thing."  As the history book tells us, "He did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God...He...made his son pass through fire, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel. He sacriced and made offerings on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree." (II Kings 16:3-4)

Ahaz did not follow the way of the Lord from the get-go.  He did some abominable things.  He was ill-prepared to deal with the threats of Rezin and Pekah.

Ahaz turned to "Johnny"...the ruthless warrior king of Assyria, Tiglath-pileser.  He even offered sacrifices in the presence of Tiglath-pileser and gave him the silver and gold from the house of the Lord. (II Kings 16:8ff.) 

In his stubborness, faithlessness and fear, Ahaz rejected the promise of God and sidled up to Satan.

Such "leadership" led to destruction.

When Isaiah came to Ahaz and offered him a sign to confirm the faithfulness of God, Ahaz refused him.  Feigning piety, Ahaz said he did not want to test or trouble the Lord.

And... he did not want to change his well-laid plans.

What irony!

In a fire we grasp at straws.  In the face of threat, we forget the God of our fathers and mothers, make our own plans and sometimes sidle up to Satan.

"If I stand close enough, if I feign friendship, if I become one of them, if I join-'em-because-I-can't-beat''em, if I can't quit shaking any other way...."

We often fall when we take our stand...our stand....our stand

During Advent we hear the promise of a son..a son...A Son...whose name shall be called "God with us."

God with us.

God with us.

God with us.

But in our fear we do not wait. We tremble and make our plans...the best laid plans of mice...

++++++

For resources related to the season of the church year or the Revised Common Lectionary go here.

For a series of questions for personal reflection/small group discussion on the RCL texts for the week go here.