Quick Summary:

An awful lot of us are looking at signs these days and trying to parse what those signs might mean. I'm talking cabinet appointments, Russian hacking schemes, the future of healthcare, the fate of the Earth—and scores of other talking points that mark the transition from the Obama administration to the Trump administration. The signs are everywhere, and the signs all say the stakes are enormously high.

It is to a context not unsimilar to our own, a context of anxiety and apprehension that Isaiah aims his voice this morning, to speak of a hope whose name is Immanuel—GOD-WITH-US. King Ahaz chose not to embrace that hope. But 7 centuries later, Joseph did. In a moment when he could have been overwhelmed by fear or anger or self-pity, Joseph took in the message the trajectory of his life. And not only his life but the life of Mary and the child she would bear. This is the point where we begin to understand, along with Joseph, that what's playing out here in Nazareth and Bethlehem isn't simply Joseph's story or Mary’s story but God's story. And that Joseph and Mary are God’s chosen instruments to help bring that plan—literally—to birth.