The Uncertain Joy of God is With Us

(Audio here)

One day a minister was asked to go visit a friend of a friend who had fallen on hard times. He had lost his job, his home, and was living at the local halfway house. While visiting with the man, another homeless man approached him and struck up a conversation. He talked about how he felt safe under the familiar stars. Without the minister’s asking he told him how stayed warm, how he got money. And then he said something that caught his attention.

He said, “Ya want to know how I keep my stuff safe at night?”

“Sure,” the minister replied.

“I put it up in the trees.”

“Why is it safe in the trees?” The minister asked.

“Homeless guys are always looking for treasure on the ground. We never look up. The homeless are always looking for treasure on the ground—coins, something someone’s dropped, half smoked cigarettes. I if I put my stuff in the trees, they’ll never find it because they never look up. Never.” (Andrews, Al. “How a Homeless Man Taught Me about Heaven”. http://storylineblog.com/2013/12/11/how-a-homeless-man-taught-me-about-heaven)

How often do we look towards the ground for our hope? Isaiah urges Ahaz not to look to the power of Assyria for reassurance but to the Lord for a sign. Feigning piety, Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, an exasperated Isaiah gives him a sign, “A young woman shall conceive and give birth to a son. He shall be called Immanuel.” Isaiah urges Ahaz not to look east for the aide of Assyria but to look to the young woman, to look to the child born in the midst of chaos and pain; to look to birth, for that is the sign God is with us.

How often are we like Ahaz? How often do we place our trust and salvation in the hands of elected leaders or news analysts, and multi-millionaires? How often do we look down instead of up for our salvation? How often do we miss the reminders of Immanuel, of God is with us, because our eyes have fixated on the trivial matters of this season? After all, it is Immanuel, God is with us, that is Christmas, that is Advent, that is the beauty of this season. Not a “We wish you a Merry Christmas” or the things wrapped neatly in boxes, packages, and bags. It is not found in the early morning sales of Black Friday, no the season is found in the bright star which shined above, the star the poor shepherds saw while caring for their flocks by night, the star in which the Angel said, “Fear not! Listen, I’m bringing you good news of a great joy in which all people will share. Today your deliverer is born in the city of David. He is the messiah. And here’s a clue for you: You will find the baby wrapped in a blanket and laying in a manger.”

How the shepherds might have missed it had they been looking down towards the palace gates far off in the distance. How often have we missed the manger because we were told to look down towards the governor mansions? How often have we missed the reminders of God is with us in the faces of our children because we were too busy looking down at our self-important chores? Yes, how often have we been looking down, instead of up, to be guided to the manger?

How often have we sang: O come, o come Emmanuel, looking down instead of up? How often have asked for Emmanuel to ransom captive Israel looking down instead of up? How often have we mourned in lonely exile here among the tombs of our ancestors looking down instead of up? How often have we waited until the Son of God appears, looking down instead of up? How often have we missed the reminders, God is with us?

Immanuel, God is with us: that is Christmas; that is Advent; that is the beauty of this season. As winter begins to take dominion and morning ice covers the cars and grass, we are reminded God is with us. As the nights get longer, the days shorter, we are reminded God is with us. As a family gathers for the first time in ten years to celebrate an 80^th birthday, we are reminded God is with us. As families gather around tables this season, we are reminded God is with us. As people are longing to be fed, given something to drink, clothes to wear, and places to keep warm during these harsh cold nights, we are reminded God is with us. And such reminders ignite the spirit of generosity in our hearts to live out what we tell our children, “It is better to give than to receive.”

Immanuel, God with us: that is Christmas; that is Advent; that is the beauty of this season. It is the ambiguity of Christmas religious truth of Isaiah saying, “Immanuel, God is with us”, and the daring reinterpretation of Matthew, that creates an uncertain joy during this season. It is the religious truth of God taking the initiative, coming to earth, and dwelling among us takes its place front and center, and we are reminded God is with us. The religious truth that man did not become divine, but that God took the initiative and established permanent residence on this earth.  The religious truth that the Word became flesh and dwells with us, an action that is not earth to heaven but heaven to earth. By such action we are reminded God is with us.

How often have we reversed this action? How often by looking to the ground, by placing our faith in wealth and power, have we reversed the coming of God from heaven to earth, to earth to heaven? How often have we reversed this action just so we can better handle, better understand God? Instead of looking up for the star to take us to the manger, we move God from earth to heaven, and we continue to look down. Yes, we want God to be with us, but only in the metaphorical so we can build our churches and raise our special offerings so we do not have to get up and go out. We do not want God dwelling in our workplace, in the lives of our neighbors, our enemies, the strangers, the oppressed, the poor, the lost, the hungry, the naked, the sick, the dying, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the mute, or the different, so we remove him from the manger by feigning piety in the form of Christmas laws. But if we were honest we would see that we simply cannot handle this great religious truth that God became man and dwells among us.

We are okay with the ambiguous uncertain joy of Christmas as long as God stays God up in a far off land with streets of gold. We can handle God if he stays God. We can take our money and build him monuments, fountains, refurbish barley worn choir robes, hold our banquets, and maintain our piety in decorations of mangers on the courthouse lawn. But when God becomes man we have to feed him, clothe him, visit him, and give him something to drink. When God becomes man, we have to live with him. There is a responsibility that comes with being a follower of a God who dwells with us. When God becomes man we are forced to acknowledge the great light that shines in the darkness, and acknowledge the sin of this world it exposes. Because that is the great transcendent truth: God Almighty has come into the affairs of humanity and dwells with us. Immanuel, God is with us; that is Christmas; that is Advent; that is the beauty of this season. It is a reminder that God is with us.

Christmas and Advent promises hope, peace, joy, and love, with a mix of wonder and nostalgia; but the ambiguous uncertain joyful reality of Christmas brings God to earth to dwell with us. That heaven to earth action will change everything we thought about God and challenge everything we thought about ourselves. Do we want the light of God to shine in our dark world, revealing our true selves? Only if we wish to be healed and cleansed, but that too hurts. Do we want a God in diapers and suffers? Only if we want to change him and accompany him to the cross. For that, too, is Immanuel, God is with us. (Gaiser, Fred. “Commentary on Isaiah 7:10-16” http://www.workingpreacher.org)

So let us steady ourselves, loosen our grips on traditions of the past and our fears of the unknown future, and together, throw back our shoulders, raise our eyes and look to the star that will lead us to the manger, where we will ask, “What child is this?” and the Angels will say, “Fear not, for he is your deliverer, he is Christ the king.”

Let us, then, raise the song on high, while the virgin sings her lullaby. Joy, indeed, for Christ is born, the babe, the son of Mary! For Immanuel has come, and this is Christmas, this is advent, and this is the beauty of the season: Christ the king is born, God is with us! Let us bring him a joyful and beautiful noise.