Last night I preached on our taking a step back to consider our image of God. God who is Emmanuel – God with us. As we consider this image of God - this image of God revealed to us through Scripture - we must consider the Christmas event. That God came in human form, as a baby, born into a poor family and whose first visitors were poor, socially marginalized shepherds.
What’s your image of God?
Is it an angry old man on a cloud concerned about petty moralism here on earth?
Is it like a World War I general, far from the front lines of the battle?
Is it a distant something that is not all that concerned about what happens? Not too concerned about anything that happens here in the world.
Our image of God must consider the Christmas story.
Our image of God must contemplate the vulnerability of a child.
Our image of God must contemplate this child who grew into a penniless field preacher from Galilee who went to the cross to perfectly reveal Divine Love to us.
Our image of God must contemplate the humanity of God.
Our image of God must contemplate that the humility of God is an expression of a great love that God has for you. Yes, you.
In today’s Gospel we read from the prologue of John's Gospel. The important words that understand Jesus as God, the logos behind all that is, seen and unseen.
Jesus came into a context of Roman occupation, deep divisions among the Jewish people and much fear.
Today, as we are in yet another COVID shutdown, it is an act of mercy and compassion to take a step back and acknowledge how much we have been through over the last two years. I know for me; I have been with lonely people whose loneliness has only gotten worse. People who couldn’t travel to grieve the loss of loved ones. Those with delayed medical procedures.
In the past week I heard stories of bus drivers who regularly get spit upon and yelled at by angry commuters. I spoke to a young man who works a minimum wage job at a local pharmacy who is regularly yelled at and insulted. I have read in the local media of the mistreatment of medical staff by patients and protestors who are angry with public health protocols.
What kind of dull, dreary, angry do we allow to be revealed to us when we cease to see the wonders and miracles all around us. God is with us. Divine Love is all around us, even in the midst of the dull, dreary, anger that seems to catch our focus more easily.
Our world is suffering from a self-inflicted wound of selfish nonsense and spiritual blindness.
Throw on top of it all the reality of parish amalgamation we are in the midst of, and it could seem like a nearly continuous drip of negativity that attached itself to the core of our beings. We seem to live in this space that is oscillates between hypervigilance and the numbness of shutting down.
I wonder if underneath it all is a deep desire to simply rest and to feel safe again. Surely this is a normal and healthy human desire: to rest and to feel safe.
God is with us. Divine Love is still being revealed to us in the midst of the wounds of the world, in the midst of all the pain and anger. Even in the midst of our selfish nonsense. As such, this is also a prophetic moment to not let this period in history pass without taking stock of our soul. There is a wellspring of truth, beauty and goodness to be found in the midst of all this and we should not let the moment pass too quickly through our soul because the precious gold will be revealed when all the other stuff is sifted away. When the dull, dreary, angry, selfish nonsense is sifted away; when the loneliness and hurt and pain are sifted away, there is life-giving beauty to be found amid everything that is falling apart. Yes, in you.
This is a prophetic moment for our soul.
It is an invitation to true wealth in the midst of so much spiritual poverty.
It is an invitation to wholeness in the midst of so much falling apart.
It is an invitation to healing your soul in the midst of so much hurt.
It is an invitation to peace in the midst of so much chaos.
It is an invitation to re-birth. It is a nativity that takes humility, vulnerability, patience and courage.
We need – we must - have a clear understanding of our image of God to navigate this space well. If your image of God is more like a cosmic traffic cop worried out giving out tickets for petty moral failures, you will probably miss out on the beauty of surrendering to God who is gentle, compassionate, awesome, merciful, powerful, beautiful and vulnerable.
This God is with us. Emmanuel.
This is an invitation to receive the grace that is available, even in the midst of all this unknown.
Today, let’s take a moment alone to pray to this God of Light in whom there is no darkness, this Jesus of Mercy, this Holy Spirit of Comfort to ask for the grace to see the tender beauty of the moment that has been given to us.
God is with us.
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