God's Continued Creation - Isaiah 7:10-16, Matthew 1:18-25

Last year, I heard an interview with Adam Moss. Moss spent many years as a magazine editor, including heading up the prestigious New York magazine. But after leaving that job, he decided to pursue painting, dedicating himself to being good enough to be a professional. Through that combined history, Moss became interested in how creative people make the choices that end in a finished work. How does an artist know when a painting is complete? What is the process by which a writer turns a manuscript into a satisfying novel, or a poem where no word seems misplaced? How does a chef recognize when a recipe is just right? How does a composer hear her music and know it is complete?

To explore those questions, Moss began to interview creators of all sorts: sculptors and musicians, cookbook writers and playwrights, to understand their creative process. All of those interviews were then collected in a book. In the conversation with Moss I listened to, he said that his first proposed title for the book was On Editing for that is what he found at the heart of all of the interviews—creators were constantly asking, what needs to be added, what needs to be taken away, how can this or that change and still keep the intial creative energy of the work alive? In the end, Moss’s title itself underwent editing, and the book was published under the title The Work of Art: How Something Comes from Nothing.

In classic Christian theology, only God creates from nothing, the great “Ex Nihilo” act of speaking the world into being we find in Genesis 1. And there can be a tendency, drawing from that theology, for us to see God’s creative act as coming to a quick completion. All was called good, and that was the end of God’s work. But a more careful attention to our scriptures shows that God is not a creator who finishes a masterpiece, hangs it in the museum of the cosmos. Instead, God has created a world of dynamic, interactive relationship filled with a myriad of willful beings. In this world of continuing creation, God acts like a jazz band leader, carrying the improvisation forward with every move from the varied members.

That God has not abandoned creation, and especially human life within it, can easily be forgotten. We are often so caught up in our small dramas, our failed works, our unraveling projects that we think that God has simply let creation go and left us to make the best of our messes. Our scriptures call for us to work with God, to join in the slow and patient work of God’s ongoing creation. But in our fears, our limited perspectives, our lack of trust, we think that God has left us to our own devices and that there is no hope beyond our compromises and schemes.

This is the reality we heard in our reading from Isaiah. In this scene, which takes place in 8th century Judah, the world is in seeming chaos. Two powerful neighbors are threatening Judah and king Ahaz is afraid. In his fear, he is considering selling out the kingdom to the Assyrian Empire to the North. It’s a compromise move that will save Judah from destruction but make it a subject state to a pagan empire.  Ahaz believes God has finished with creation, that God has left Judah to its own devices. Now he has to make do with the world as it is and save Judah. How often do we live like Ahaz? How often do we assume that God has left us to our own devices?

But God is not finished. Though Ahaz is blinded by his anxieties and cannot see beyond the world as it is, the prophet Isaiah comes to show that this is only a moment of a brush on a grand canvas. God is working toward mercy and goodness; God has not abandoned Judah to the power politics of empires. Isaiah comes to show the sketch for the work that God is creating. “Do you see that pregnant woman standing in the court, Ahaz? Those kingdoms you’re so worried about won’t even be in existence by the time her child is eating solid food.” God has not abandoned Judah. God has not abandoned us. The child will be called Emmanuel, Isaiah proclaims: God is with us. The sketch we find in Isaiah’s proclamation will come to a completion centuries later with another one called Emmanuel.

Over the chaos of a world upended by empire, a people mired in the miseries of oppression, where it seemed like no lovely thing could last, God’s Spirit moved through the waters of a womb. Gone now from the scene are the kings and rulers, those who claim to have the power to make things happen. Gone, too, is the patriarchal system by which only male agency counts. God invites a young peasant girl to join in the most radical move of all creation. In her yes, with her collaboration, the Artist of it All enters the frame and begins an unimaginable drama that will end in a completely new possibility for human life: God has become us so that we can be joined with God.

New creations have often sparked scandal. There were riots at the first performance of Stravinsky’s groundbreaking ballet, “The Rite of Spring,” and we know that more than a few artists have been imprisoned, blacklisted, or dragged before congressional hearings for their work. God’s new creation in Jesus was no different. For those who thought they knew the art, hanging safely in the gallery, here was something different and unsettling. It was a move that would offer transformation and we often resist having our lives transformed into the newness God is always bringing.

Thankfully, in this story, we have Joseph. While Mary represents the ready and radical yes of faith, Joseph is there for those of us who would like to politely excuse ourselves from such unsettling new creation. How often is God offering us something new and wonderful, but we find it too surprising to say yes? God, however, is patient even with those of us who want to remain in the comforts of the status quo. Just as Joseph is heading for the door, God invites him into the wonder of this new work. Joseph, too, will have a role in this collaboration. He will name the child, a critical task in the ancient world, and he will raise him with Mary. In his home, Joseph will provide a settled, safe place for the one who will unsettle everything.

On this final Sunday of Advent, as we move toward the celebration of God’s radical new creation in Christ’s coming, we are reminded that God is not finished with us. Though the news may seem dire, and our energy for new work may be waning, our projects of self-fulfillment are failing, God is inviting us to the newness of God’s mercy that is fresh every day. Our task, like that of Mary, is to open ourselves to God’s Holy Spirit and let the chaos of our lives turn toward the Yes of God’s unfolding work of love. And our task is like Joseph’s, to answer God’s call to step beyond the supposed safe and responsible choices of our society.

God is still at work, so let us open our lives to the art of the Spirit and become collaborators in this new creation. Amen