GOD SHOWS UP

Throughout history, we Jews and Christians have had a large variety of ways of thinking about who and what God is.  You only have to scan the pages of the bible to see that.  For some of us, sometimes, God is an inner life force, very close.  For others, God is far away – in the heavens, and too busy to much notice what we experience here.

For some, He is the tender face of mercy, the one who always forgives.  For others, He is the stern judge, ready to name our every fault and to punish.  

For some, He is the consummate peacemaker.  For others, He is a warrior.  For some, God is the source of social order and stability.  For others, God is a revolutionary whose wish is to upend the present order of things for the sake of justice.  Pick your favorite scripture, and you can find any of these.

It seems that a lot of how we think about God depends upon how we want or need God to be for us in any given moment; created in our image.  But of course, that’s entirely backward.  We must look to God to disclose who and how He is.  

We speak of God as a Holy Mystery and rightly so.  But that doesn’t mean that we can’t speak at least a few things about God with truth and confidence.  And that is what this Christmas celebration enables us to do, with joy and gratitude.

His name is Jesus who was – at various times in his earthly life, the forgiver, the judge, the peace-maker, the trouble-maker, the observer of the law, the breaker of the law, the strong man, and the deliberately vulnerable man.  What does that tell us about God?  It tells us that God shows up for us, and never more so than when we are in greatest need.  Each of the four gospels has its own way of saying it, but they tell us of God who cares desperately for our well-being, particularly when things seem bleak.  He is the star in the dark night.  He is the gathering in the cold stable.  He is the one who arrives at the Jordan river to share in our search for salvation; the one who became flesh to dwell among us.  He is Emmanuel. Not God, but God-with-us!  That’s the only god we know – the one who not only cares but the one who shows up and abides with us always.  God would not have had to do that, just as God would never have needed to create us in the first place.  He didn’t need to pour out Holy Spirit into our community, but He did – and still does.  Every day.  

That’s lesson #1 about who, how, and what God is.  God is ever with us.  Not merely in our minds and prayers, but with presence here and now.  Thanks be to God.