Sunday, December 28, 2014

An Intimate God

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen, Jersey City NJ
December 28, 2014

The First Sunday after Christmas
Isaiah 61:10-62:3
Psalm 147
Galatians 3:23-25; 4:4-7
John 1:1-18

An Intimate God

            Merry Christmas!
            Christmas got off to a beautiful start here at St. Paul’s.
            I wish you all could have been here.
            In fact, I wish you all could have been here for each of our Christmas services.
            Each was a little different but all were beautiful and joyful.
            For me, one of the real highlights of Christmas was the Christmas Pageant offered by the children of St. Paul’s and Incarnation, led by Gail Blache-Gill and a team of dedicated and rather patient adults.
            It was the first pageant we’ve had here in many years – and really helped make it feel like Christmas.
            As you’d expect, the kids were adorable in their colorful costumes, dressed as John the Baptist, the angels, the shepherds, the three wise “ones,” sheep, and of course Mary, Joseph and the Baby Jesus.
            The Baby Jesus was played by a real-life baby, our own Lena Jacobs. She was absolutely serene through the whole thing. In fact, I think she slept through the whole thing!
            She was watched over by her real-life mother, Velma, who was cleverly disguised in a First Century costume, maybe as a midwife.
            Seeing the story of Jesus’ birth acted out made real for me – and I hope for others who were there – the intimacy of what happened in Bethlehem long ago.
            The Word becomes flesh.
            God becomes one of us.
             God joins us here in our messy world and in our messy lives as a real live flesh and blood baby “born of a woman” (as Paul notes in the passage we heard today from the Letter to the Galatians).
            It’s an intimate moment.
            You know, we have all different kinds of images of God.
            One of the most common is the old man with the flowing beard sitting a throne far, far away, up in heaven looking down at us, perhaps judging us when we mess up as we always do.
            But, I’m pretty sure that one of the lessons – one of the messages – one of the truths about Christmas is that God isn’t like that at all.
            No, God is an intimate God.
            In and through Jesus, God enters the world in the most intimate, most personal, way imaginable.
            God is an intimate God.
            Throughout his life, we know that Jesus went off sometimes by himself to pray. But, it seems that most of the time he was with people. He was close, intimate, with others.
            His disciples were always around him, listening to (and trying to understand) his teaching, eating and drinking together, and, probably, like all friends, laughing at jokes and old stories.
            In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ first sign is changing water into wine during the wedding party at Cana.
            We’re told that Jesus often invites himself over to people’s houses for dinner, including one time when a woman bathed his feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.
            We’re told that Jesus spit into soil to make clay and put it on the man’s eyes, restoring his sight.
            We’re told that when the crowd was going to stone the woman caught in adultery, Jesus at first just sat there, writing in the ground with his finger. After the accusers all dropped their stones and went away, it was just Jesus alone with the woman. “Go, and sin no more,” he told her.
            And after the Resurrection, we’re told that Jesus appears to the disciples and invites the doubting Apostle Thomas to touch his wounds.
            After the Resurrection, we’re told that Jesus breathes the Holy Spirit on his disciples, strengthening them – strengthening us – to continue his work in the world.
            God is an intimate God.
            Sometimes we think that God will appear with trumpets and drums and bright light. Sometimes we think that God will enter our lives in the most spectacular way.
            Well, God’s entrance into our lives is spectacular but it’s nothing like Hollywood special effects.
            Instead, God appears in, enters into, the most intimate moments of our lives.
            We first gaze into the eyes of our parents.
            We get baptized.
            We know failure and success, despair and hope, rejection and acceptance.
            We help others and others help us.
            We fall in love.
            We give our lives to another.
            We hold and caress the hand of another.
            We give birth and gaze into the eyes of our children.
            We take the bread and wine – Jesus’ very body and blood – into our hands, into our bodies, and into our hearts.
            We get sick.
             We grow old.
            We face death.
            At all of those moments throughout our lives – and so many more – our intimate God is right there - God is right here - with us, supporting us, strengthening us, loving us.
            It’s Christmas.
            And one of the lessons – one of the messages – one of the truths - about Christmas is that God isn’t a faraway God.
            In and through Jesus, God enters the world in the most intimate, most personal, way imaginable.
            God is an intimate God.
            Merry Christmas.
            Amen.