As many of you know, I am a Chicago Cubs fan. What you may not know is that the offseason is one of my favorite times of the year. That may sound odd, but hear me out. I love the offseason because that is when all of the planning and strategizing and preparation for the year happens. Free agents are courted and signed. Trades are made. Players are released or put on waivers. It’s complex and interesting. I love to try to figure out how the Cubs front office will try to construct the next season’s roster. It’s like a game of chess. And even though I’m not the one playing, it is fun to try to anticipate the next move. I love it because the excitement is in the details. How can the Cubs put together a good team? What happens if their first option doesn’t work out? What then? It is exciting and unpredictable!

Our passages for this morning talk about something exciting and unpredictable too. They talk about the birth of a child. In Luke, that child is John the Baptist. John is born of Elizabeth in her old age, which in itself is exciting and unpredictable. But then, in our story this morning, the community comes to Elizabeth and asks her what the child’s name will be. And she gives an answer they did not expect. She named the boy John. And the community members said, “No! You can’t name him that. That is not a name from your family tree.” They are shocked by Elizabeth’s choice. So they turn to Zechariah for confirmation because a man’s voice was more respected and authoritative than a woman’s. But Zechariah does something unpredictable too. He is unable to speak, but he writes down a confirmation of Elizabeth’s choice of the name John. The community is surprised by this, but they finally accept it since it came from Zechariah.

Have you ever played the game Telestrations? The Youth Fellowship loves this game. The basic idea is that the first person gets a word. They write it on the first page of a book. They pass it to the next person who looks at the word and draws a picture of it on the next page. Then they pass the book to the next person who looks only at the drawing and has to guess what the drawing is depicting and write that on the next page of the book. And then the next person draws and the person after that guesses and so on until all the pages are used up in the book. Then the book goes back to the original person and they show the group the progression of drawings and guesses. The fun part of the game is when someone’s drawing leads the next person to guess something unexpected. It’s kind of like the game telephone that many of us played as kids. Where the message starts and where the message ends up are oftentimes not the same. They are unpredictable and quite often exciting!

In our passage from Isaiah, we read these exciting words, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.” There were so many unknowns here for the people Isaiah was writing to. Who is the young woman? And who will this child be? What does it mean that he will be named Immanuel? I imagine the people of Israel who were reading this were wondering those things, yet also excited because this child was to be a sign from God. Now, we can’t really see from this passage what this child would be a sign of. So we have to go back a little ways in the chapter to figure it out. It would seem that Ahaz, the king of Judah, was worried about being attacked by Israel and Aram. And Israel’s and Aram’s armies vastly outnumbered Judah’s. So Ahaz was very concerned about Judah being defeated and about the extermination of the royal line of Judah which could be traced back to King David. But God, through Isaiah, tells Ahaz not to worry because Aram and Israel will not prevail. God promises something unpredictable and exciting to Ahaz. Victory, when victory seems impossible.

Understandably, Ahaz had some doubts about this. His army is vastly outnumbered. How could they possibly win? It simply doesn’t seem possible. So God says to Ahaz, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God.” God is saying, “You don’t believe me? Ask me for a sign to prove it to you.” But Ahaz’s response to that is surprisingly honorable for a rather wicked king. He responds, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” Isaiah then scolds the king and says he is wearying God. But Isaiah tells Ahaz that God will give him a sign anyway. And that sign will be a child. And Isaiah says that before that child even knows the difference between evil and good, Israel and Aram will no longer be a threat to Judah. What an unpredictable and exciting promise from God.

As we approach Christmas (only a week away now), the excitement is building. Kids are looking forward to opening presents and seeing family and having a break from school. The rest of us are madly dashing around trying to get those last minute presents and pick up supplies to make a nice Christmas dinner. We are cleaning our houses to get ready for guests and a visit from St. Nicholas. And in all that excitement, perhaps we don’t take time to just enjoy the waiting and the anticipation. We are maybe a bit like Ahaz and don’t want to trust God to help us. We just feel we have to take matters into our own hands and feel overwhelmed by the army of commitments that is threatening to destroy us. We don’t always trust God to get us through. Or maybe show us a different way.

Ahaz felt that the only way to save Judah was to somehow find a bigger army to help. But Isaiah tells him to trust God instead. Ahaz’s way was military might and alliances with foreign nations to help him. But God’s way was different. God was going to bring about the defeat of Israel and Aram in another way. And God was asking Ahaz to have faith. Which I’m guessing was not something Ahaz was very good at. And I wonder how much better we are at that. I know that when I get stressed or overwhelmed my first instinct is not to take a step back and rely on God. Usually I either freak out and shut down or I try to press through and do as much as I can by myself. I rarely just rely on God.

Zechariah and Elizabeth had to rely on God. Here was Elizabeth who became pregnant in her advanced age. And her husband couldn’t talk for the whole pregnancy. That had to be stressful and frustrating. But they kept their trust in God, even through all of that. And the baby was born. And they were excited and happy. And they showed their trust in God by naming the baby John as the angel of the Lord had instructed. And the Lord did another exciting and unpredictable thing. Zechariah’s voice returned to him. And God also did something exciting and unpredictable through Zechariah, even when he still had no voice. God used Zechariah to lift up the voice of his wife Elizabeth. In those days, women were second class citizens. Their voice meant very little. So when Elizabeth said that her child’s name was John, the community criticized her. But John lifted her up by agreeing with the name. And they chose that name because they trusted in God who told them through the angel of the Lord to name the baby John.

God shows God’s love for us in the little details of life. And our hope comes from faith in God’s love for us. Trusting in God is not a cure all for everything that overwhelms or frustrates or harms us. But trusting in God will always do something inside us. When we trust in God, God will lead us and guide us in ways that are unpredictable. But often God will lead us into exciting possibilities. I don’t know what that will look like for myself or for any of you. But maybe this Christmas we can begin to explore that together as we celebrate the unpredictable and exciting birth of the Son of God. And perhaps that will lead us to follow God’s star that will lead us into a new year and perhaps a new you and new me. As the prophet Jeremiah once wrote, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” May we trust in God’s plan for us and be led by God’s Spirit. Amen!