Immanuel . . . God with us.
With the Christmas story . . . the birth of Jesus . . . we are promised that God is with us, always with us. Jesus is the physical representation of God’s presence in the world around us and within us. In Jesus we witness God. We hear the words of God. We see the actions of God. Through Jesus we are given the most intimate picture of God and God’s presence . . . an intimacy witnessed . . . an intimacy offered.
So, what are we waiting for?
You have heard the idiom before . . . “give me the word” or “give the word”. You’ve probably even used it before. “Giving the word” is to give an order, to make a request, or to expressly state a desire for someone to do something or undertake some task. It is what people wait for before they start doing something. It is what we wait for. We do it with our lives and we do it with our faith . . . we wait. We wait to be given the word.
Well, as we discover this morning in our scripture reading, the writer of John’s gospel “gives us the word”. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it . . . The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” And the “word” was Jesus in flesh and bones.
Immanuel . . . God with us. That is what the Christmas story tells us. It tells us that God is with us. Through Jesus we witness the essence and presence of God as Jesus goes about living life. We hear the words of God. We see the actions of God. Jesus shows us God and shows us how God acts. With Jesus the “word” is given. It is a “word” we are called upon to embrace and to live as we follow Jesus through life.
With the Christmas story we have been given the “word”. We have received our orders, heard the request, and know of the desire for us to embrace and receive the “word” into our lives. We have been invited . . . no, challenged . . . to take our place in God’s family . . . to become the children of God. The writer tells us, “. . . to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”
So . . . what are we waiting for?
Let us live our lives in the presence of God! After all, God is with us. That is what the Christmas story tells us. Jesus bears witness to this promise . . . this fact. And Jesus shows us the way . . . shows us how it is done. If we are truly the children of God, then we live as Jesus lived. We follow the example of Jesus showing the presence of God.
Think about it . . . as Jesus lived his life, he embodied the presence of God in how he acted and in how he treated others. In the same way, as his followers, we embody God in our lives. The writer of the gospel tells us, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” When we embrace the intimacy of God’s presence in our lives, we to become the living “word” . . . we, too, project the presence of God to others.
That is the obligation we take on when we receive and accept the gift of Christmas . . . that we will be a witness to God’s presence wherever we are. God’s presence is witnessed in the way that we live. As we embrace and live as followers of Jesus the “word” comes to life through his love, compassion, forgiveness, healing, peace, justice . . . all of it comes and takes flesh in our lives.
Here is something else to think about . . . God loves us. God loves us so much that God is willing to extend this invitation to be in relationship. In relationship with the Holy. In relationship with others. To claim our place in the family . . . to claim our place at the table. And . . . God loves us enough to trust us to share the “word” so that others may also have the opportunity to discover their place in the family of God.
If you go a little further in the Gospel of John . . . over to chapter three, we hear how much God loves us. The writer tells us: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”
Through the Christmas story we have been given the “word”. We have been given our orders . . . given our charge. Jesus showed us the way. Now it is up to us to truly receive and accept the “gift”. We are to live our lives in such a way that the presence of God can be seen and experienced. We are to bring the “word” to life through the way that we love . . . the way that we love God, ourselves, and others. We are to show compassion and care for others. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven . . . to be grace in a world desperately seeking grace. We are to be instruments of healing . . . spiritual, mental, and physical. We are to seek peace . . . to be peace in a world that is violent and divisive. We are to fight for justice and be a voice for those who have no voice. We are to live as Jesus lived . . . and, in doing so, we bring flesh to the “word”.
The Christmas story is a story of transformation. It is not a story that is an end to itself. No, it is a story about the “word”, the “living word”. May our lives be transformed by the “word” of God—Jesus--and may we all become just like him. In this the “word” lives and we find blessing. Amen.
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