Do you remember a comedian back in the 90’s; his whole tagline was, ‘Here’s your sign?’ I’ll refresh you. He wanted a sign for people that he just knew were stupid, before he even interacted with them. He thought everyone that was stupid should have a sign.
These are a couple of the jokes that he made his whole career on this one. Before my wife and I moved, our house was full of boxes, there was a U-Haul truck in our driveway, my friend comes over and says, “Hey, you moving?” “Nope. We just pack our stuff up once or twice a week to how many boxes it takes. Here’s your sign.” (laughter)
There was this guy with an 18-wheeler truck, wouldn’t you know it, he misjudged the height of a bridge, and the over pass and the truck got stuck. He couldn’t get out no matter how hard he tried. He radioed in for help and eventually a local cop showed up to take the report. He went through the basic questioning, no problem and he thought, he can’t say it, he’s a paid official. He thought he was clear of needing a sign until the cop said, “So, is this your truck?” The guy couldn’t help himself, he looked at the cop, he looked back at the rig and then back at the cop and said, “No, I was delivering this overpass and my truck stalled. ‘Here’s your sign.’
One day I locked my keys in my car and I was standing there with a coat hanger, half-way through the top my window. A guy walks up and say, “Lock your keys in the car?” Without missing a beat, I said, “Nope. Just washed it and wanna hang it up to dry. Here’s your sign.”
We hear about sign and dreams in the first reading today. The Prophet Isaiah is coming to Ahaz and he’s telling him to pray for a sign. It’s interesting because I think sometimes as Catholics, we wonder, are we allowed to pray for signs? Should we pray for signs? Doesn’t Jesus say in the Gospel an evil generation seeks a sign? There’s sometimes when we shouldn’t seek a sign, sometimes we should just say I have a sign, I’m stupid.
Here’s a couple examples: I’ve really, really got this bad drinking problem, I’ve had three DUI’s. God, should I quit? ‘Here’s your sign.’ You don’t need a sign for that, right? The Church has given us these Commandments. Another one might be a gambling thing. I’ve already gambled my life savings away, and I am broke. Should I quit gambling God? Here’s your sign, probably. Or Sunday mass. Sometimes people will say, ‘Father, I don’t know, I have sports, or my grandkids are in town, should I miss mass or should I go? You ask God, ‘Here’s your sign.’ Don’t miss mass, these basic things, we don’t need to ask God signs for, he’s already given us the signs. Jesus has already given us the Commandments.
When aught we ask for a sign? The Prophet Isaiah is in Jerusalem. Ahaz is the King of Judah, which is in Jerusalem, and it’s important to know a little bit of the history because it makes this make a little more sense, of why Ahaz says I will not ask the Lord for a sign, even though Isaiah is telling him to.
At that time Jerusalem, the same Jerusalem as today, is part of the Kingdom called Judah. It’s a smaller vulnerable Kingdom. The northern Kingdom is called Israel. At one time they had been one Kingdom, but they separated and Israel is kind of a super power. Jerusalem and Judah, where the Prophet Isaiah is, and where King Ahaz is, is very small and very weak. The Prophet
tells Ahaz, just depend on God, trust in God, don’t trust in anybody else but God and he will protect you. Ahaz has already made a deal with another super power kingdom called Syria. He’s already made this deal with this kingdom that they’re going to come together to be this new super power. What he doesn’t know is that Syria is just using him to take over the kingdom.
So, he already knows what his plan is, so when Isaiah says to him ask God for a sign, it can be as high as the sky or as deep as the netherworld, just ask him for a sign. Ahaz says, I will not ask him for a sign, I will not trouble him. And Isaiah says c’mon. I’m telling you ask him for a sign.
Sometimes we think Ahaz is being really pious, he’s being really holy, he’s not asking God for a sign. He’s not asking for a sign because he doesn’t want to hear what God has to tell him.
Sometimes in our lives, we say I’m asking God for a direction and he’s not telling me. Sometimes, it’s because we don’t want to hear what he has to say. Deep down we know what he’s calling us to in life.
When it comes to life-decisions and important things, we should ask God. But the sign should always be, ‘Father, let me know your will.’ For Ahaz, the sign from God to do his will was to rely only on God; not to make any other partnerships with these superpowers, but to rely on God.
That sign would have saved his life if he followed it.
It’s also interesting because Catholics also wonder, ‘What do we think of dreams? Can
God come to us in dreams?’ And He can, it’s all throughout scripture. Angels are all throughout scripture. Joseph has this plan. He realizes that his beloved, Mary, who he has already wed, she is still living with her parents, and he finds out she has already been conceived through an angel. He thinks to himself, ‘I don’t want to bring any harm upon Mary or myself, so the best thing is to probably divorce her quietly.’ He was doing this to care for Mary because she could have been stoned.
The interesting thing is that he goes to bed, God gives him a dream, and says, “Do not be afraid Joseph to take Mary into your home.” Joseph wakes up and he completely changes his mind. Instead of divorcing Mary and leaving her quietly, he then goes to Mary to take her into his home. When God speaks to us, when He gives us a sign, when He works through our dreams, sometimes that can be terrifying because it can completely alter our lives. God may take us in a completely 180-degree direction than what we were planning or thinking.
So, we can ask for signs. We can even ask for God to come to us in our dreams. We can ask the angels to give us messages. The important thing is, the sign, the message, the dream, the angels, they are all there to help us do God’s will. If there is anything in our lives that we are truly discerning what is your will Father, please give me a sign. But, don’t be stupid. There are some things we don’t need a sign for; there’s some things that the church in the great wisdom of the Holy Spirit has given to us.
Finally, the Prophet Isaiah says, “This will be the sign for you. That there will be a virgin who will bear a child, and He is to be named Emmanuel.” This is fifteen-hundred years before Jesus will be born. God is giving us, through the prophets over all these thousands of years; he’s telling us I am going to give you a sign, and this sign is going to be the virgin, who bears a son, and names him Emmanuel, ‘God is with us.’ Two thousand years ago, we’ve already had the sign, God became man, he was visible. For the first time ever, people could see in this tiny child, God.
Then that child grew up, became an adult, and John the Baptist would point him out as being the Son of God. Then he would go and work miracles, all these things he was doing as signs to show that He was the Son of God. Then he would get to these Pharisees, who didn’t believe him, and they would say, ‘Give us a sign, show us a sign that you are God.’ And Jesus is thinking, ‘Here’s your sign,’ (like the comedian). Everybody knows it but you.
He says I will give you no sign except the sign of…Jonah, which is three days in the belly of a whale. Jesus suffers, dies on Good Friday, buried in the Tomb Saturday, rises on Sunday, fulfills the prophecy, rises from the dead, shows everyone himself that he is risen from the dead, ascends into Heaven, sends his Holy Spirit upon the church, goes to Peter, gives Peter the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven, the keys to our Catholic Church. He says, “Peter, whatever you bind on this earth, will be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth, will be loosed in Heaven.”
He gives them the power to take bread and wine and transform it into the Body and Blood of our Lord.
We as Catholics can’t have more signs. He is with us in the Church. He is with us in Mass.
Remember the four ways he comes to us at every Mass? First, in the Eucharist. Second, in the Word of God, every time we hear him. Third, in the Priest. Fourth, all of you, the gathered assembly. He is constantly revealing himself to us in the Eucharist.
And, so, there are certain things that we don’t need a sign for and sometimes God probably wants to say, ‘Here’s your sign.’ But then there are things in our lives that we do need him to make clear to us. If there is anything in your life right now that you are agonizing over and wanting to know his will, just ask Him. Be truly open because it might radically change your life.
