I found this week that
just about every time someone would say
this must be a busy time for you or how are you making out – I would respond I can’t wait for the December 26th
to arrive. But really my life isn’t any
different than rest of you right now- we are all in the hamster wheel right now
that is spinning out of control-- we are all scrambling to get everything we
need to get done- done.
I
would hazard a guess many of us are ready to be done with the craziness
already- we’re ready to wake up on December 26th and put this season
behind us. Sometime the craziness is
self- inflicted with the seemingly endless preparation --other times we find
this is just a difficult time of year as we have to celebrate without those
who’ve gone on before us-- sometimes the craziness has to do with all of the
lovely family dynamics that seem to rise to the surface when everyone gets
together.
All these things
conspire against us and it’s so very difficult during this is a hectic to stop
and look and wait for Jesus in our midst- so I commend you for stopping today
and for putting your arms up and saying enough is enough- I need to be still- I
need to clear a moment for my walk with Jesus.
As I reflected on this
sermon- I began to wonder if there ever was a message that I would want to hear
from the Holy bible- what would it be?
I guess what I realized is that I would want to hear, I would want the bible to tell me
again and again and again that no matter what I am facing- everything’s going
to be alright.
Kind of like that Bob
Marley song- don’t worry about a thing- cause every little things going to be
alright, alright. Some great utopia-
where everything is going to turn out just right. The healing I am hoping for will be
alright. The work dilemma I am facing
will work out. The young family I
encountered last Friday in downtown Buffalo who had
couldn’t find any shelter to take them would not be walking the street with
their infant bundled up.
And yet, I know that
that is something that the bible can’t and doesn’t offer- everyone does not slip away in their sleep at
100 years of age- people still die in very dreadful ways- we live in an unjust
world where people will starve to death not because we don’t have enough food
to feed the world but because we don’t have the will to feed the world . We live
in a young families where young family still walk the streets looking for a
warm place for the night. Everything is
not always going to be alright- everything doesn’t always work out all
hunky-dory.
And that’s life It’s
life and God doesn’t promise us an easy life.
But if God can’t promise us that everything’s going to be alright- What
then does God offer?
Today we don’t hear
about how everything is going to be alright, but rather we hear stories from
Isaiah and from Matthew about a child who will be born who will be named
Emmanuel- Matthew tells his readers that Emmanuel means God is with us.
God is with us. King
Ahaz can look at the pregnant woman even as the nations around him threaten to
over throw his kingdom and know that God is with him. Joseph can look at Mary and know that the baby
buried deep in Mary’s womb is sign to
all the world that God is with us.
Over and over we hear
this message emerge, we hear this message bubble up from the pages of
scripture—Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death and I
will fear no evil- for you are with.
Jesus as he leaves this earth is about to ascend to his father says to
his disciples at the end of Matthew. I
will be with you always even to the ends of the earth. Emmanuel God is with us.
The Promise today, the good news today is not
that everything is going to be alright, but that when everything is not
alright- God promises us that he will be with us always- Emmanuel God is with us.
When the dread disease
strike- the promise is God is with us. When
we take our last breath – the promise is God is with us. When Neil Armstrong
planted that foot on the moon God was with him. When that young family was
wandering the streets of Buffalo God is with us. When everything is crumbling down around us-
the promise of Emmanuel is that God is with us.
Do you believe
that—Joseph was challenged to believe- can we believe that God in Jesus always
walks with us? This season- this holiday
says that the answer is absolutely. AMEN
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