Outline of Sermon on Isaiah 7:1-14, St Mary's 24th October 2010

I saw a most beautiful rainbow this week. In fact it was part of a lovely holiday when despite the dire weather forecasts for virtually everyday at one point or another we had virtually perfect October weather for virtually the whole time. The day of the rainbow was well almost a case in point. There had been as shower or two but nothing very much. By late afternoon when we saw the rainbow – a double one, and both ends we saw, where we were it was not raining at all.

A rainbow is a strange thing. There is virtually nothing there. It is just the trick of the sun coming through raindrops. Yet it grabs our attention and we say, 'wow'. I grabbed my camera and I have the shots to prove it.

It was easy to ignore it. I had pulled the car to the side of the road to get out and enjoy and to take some photos. I was congratulated by a neighbour as her came out into his back garden. But most people continued to sail past in their cars, busy with other things.

In our Old Testament reading it is something like that. The king of Judah is under attack. The great Old Testament kingdom if Israel, founded by King David, has almost reached its end. The kingdom has split in two. The north: Israel. The south: Judah (hence Judaism, Jews etc.) Now the north has turned on its smaller brother, like children do in families, and has called on some of the local bullies, nearby kings, to help.

The king of Judah is paralysed with fear. I guess most of us know what it is to taste fear at some point in our lives. Some know the fear of warfare or or family being involved in warfare. Or perhaps the fear that comes from seeing our pensions begin to disappear or our secure Council house become a little less secure. Or the desperate worry that many around us will have at the moment following the government's spending review.

Then the king of Judah was offered a rainbow. He was offered the chance to look up to the heavens as it were and remember that God was with him.

10 The Lord sent another message to Ahaz: 11 "Ask the Lord your God to give you a sign. It can be from deep in the world of the dead or from high up in heaven." 12 Ahaz answered, "I will not ask for a sign. I refuse to put the Lord to the test."

But Ahaz would have none of it. He did not trust in God. We can read between the lines from the rest of his life (read Kings and Chronicles) that he was simply dressing up his lack of faith as godliness.

When you are afraid like this there are two alternatives.

• You can try to sort it out yourself. In this case, you'll probably either panic or seize up with fear like a rabbit. That is the effect fear has on us.

• Or you can turn to God prayerfully and with his guidance and help do whatever he leads you to do.

Ahaz decided up front that he would do the first.

But God decided that he would give Ahaz a sign anyway. God is bigger than our lack of faith. He doesn't stop working just because we stop believing. However, we lose out because our hands are no longer open to receive the gift of God's help.

Isaiah 7.14 Well then, the Lord himself will give you a sign: a young woman who is pregnant will have a son and will name him 'Immanuel.'

Immanuel means: God with us.

In the crises of this recession, or whatever else you face, God is with you.

But more: you remember I said that I has stopped to enjoy the rainbow. But most didn't. God's signs to us are like that. They are easily missed. He calls out to us, but mostly quietly, gently. He is asking us, like he asked Ahab, Do you want to trust me? If you do, I am here, I am here and will give you signs of my presence with you. But if you don't want my help, you can drive past in your car and you will hardly miss me. Indeed, you won't know what you have missed as we rush about and panic.

Are you and I spending those moments stopping and watching for the signs of God's presence? That is called reading the Bible, or prayer, or waiting on God. Anyone who has sensed God speaking through a scripture or through a spiritual gift or in other ways will know what I mean.

There is great comfort in knowing that God is at work, whatever our faith. We are so often tempted to think that it all depends on us. Here is Ahaz, the king. Surely he can get it sorted. Well, no he can't. Some things are too big for even the most powerful of people.

But God delights to use the small.

In the Old Testament, of all the nations in the world he chooses to work through the small nation of Israel

When the kingdom splits, he chooses to work through the smaller southern part of Judah.

When the king refuses God's help, he chooses to work through the small church of Isaiah and the other prophets of his day.

And God goes even smaller than that, for the sign Isaiah mentions will have an even greater fulfilment. In the birth of the child at Bethlehem. Who other kings will ignore and overlook or try to kill. Do not be discouraged if you find yourself small or alone as you seek to serve God. It is often the way.

For Christ, it was the way even to the cross, where he died virtually abandoned.

But in the strange topsy turvy logic of the kingdom, the small child, born of the virgin, arose from the dead and now rules over all.

Let us be those who today, born after the fulfilment of the sign, choose not the way of Ahaz but the way of stopping and looking out for not the rainbow (though that is good too) but all the signs of God at work in the world.