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| Children of Men: The Key for Humanity |
"The best of all is God is with us."
+ John Wesley's dying (and rising) words
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
+ Matthew 1:18-23
Matthew 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20 But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).
He. Will. Save.God. With Us.
God always gives God. Hush away the hurry, the worry. We can always have as much God as we want. That's what Joseph's angel says – that what is stretching Mary's skin is God. (What is always stretching us is God.)
That only the Ancient of Days has the authority to name this coming child, because the instant He inhales His first breath, He is older than His parents, older than the earth.
He is Jesus; He is "the Lord Saves"; He is "God with us," Immanuel.
It is Advent that first makes the absolute claims of Christ. Like the diagnosis of a doctor, every other religion says that good-enough living will save us. But like a soul specialist, Christianity examines our hearts and says that actually we're all terminal unless we take Christ – that it's Jesus who saves us.
Every Christmas tree is shadowed by the Cross Tree: it's at the Tree that God does heart transplants – He takes your heart and does surgery ... Christianity isn't so much about exclusiveness but effectiveness. What will actually save us? ...
He. Will. Save.God. With. Us.
God can't stay away. This is the love story that has been coming for you since the beginning. The God who walked with us in the Garden in the cool of the evening before the Fall shattered our closeness with Him is the God who came after His people in the pillar of cloud, of fire, because He couldn't bear to let His people wander alone. He is the God who came to grieving Job as a whirlwind, a tornado, a hurricane, who convenanted to Abraham as a smoking furnace, who wildly pitched His tent with the Holy of Holies so somehow, in all His holy Shekinah glory, He could get close enough again to live amidst His people. He is the God who is so for us that He can't stay away from us. The God who loves us and likes us and isn't merely 50 percent or 72.3 percent for us, but the God who is always, unequivocally, 100 percent for us ... the God who chooses to be with us.
Jesus disarms Himself of heaven so that you can take Him in arms on earth.
He comes vulnerable because He knows the only way to intimacy with you is through vulnerability with you.
You can't get to intimacy except through the door of vulnerability. So God throws open the door of this world – and enters as a baby.
As the most vulnerable imaginable. Because He wants unimaginable intimacy with you ...
What God ever came so tender we could touch Him? So fragile that we could break Him? So vulnerable that His bare, beating heart could be hurt? Only the One who loves you to death. Only the God who had to come back to get you. Only the God who would risk vulnerability, pay the price for your iniquity, because He wanted nothing less than intimacy ...
There are candles to be lit. There is space to be made. The stars are moving nearer now.
John Wesley died with the words "The best of all is God is with us" on his tongue. They could also beat in our hearts. They could be the ever beat of our drum, like the ringing of a hammer, like the thrum of love coming close.
+ Excerpt above from "God Came in Vulnerability to Get Us Back," from Ann Voskamp's The Greatest Gift
P.S. Bonus words for Christmas 2023:
P.P.S. Bonus quote and article for Christmas 2023:
" ... In the Hebrew Scriptures, we’re told many times that God is compassionate. It is at the center of the Jewish conception of God.
But for Christians, there is an incarnational expression of that compassion. The embodiment of God in Jesus — the deity made flesh, dwelling among us — means that God both suffered and, crucially, suffered with others in a way that was a seismic break with all that came before.
In the Gospels, we repeatedly read of the compassion of Jesus for those suffering physically and emotionally, for those 'harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.' ...
Jesus’ touch was not necessary for him to heal the man of leprosy, but the touch may have been necessary to heal the man of feelings of shame and isolation, of rejection and detestation. ... "
+ NYT: "This Is Why Jesus Wept" by Peter Wehner, December 24, 2023
Next post: Christmastide | Jesus Wants His Joy to be in Us Fully
Here are links to other Christmas articles: Immanuel: God Present with Us, for Us; Making Room for Limits; Making Room for Outsiders; Experience God-with-Us Today in Your Fears; Waiting is the Womb in Which We Are Formed; Christ with Shopping Bags or Generous Christ?; All the Light We Cannot See; When We're Afraid, God Pursues; He Is Not One to Leave Us Hurting; There is Great Joy in Our Darkest Hours; In the Wilderness with the One Who Is Wilder; Courageous Response; Be Not Afraid Means Merry Christmas; The Paradigm-Shattering Event of Human History
Christ is all,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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