God with Us

By Rev. Dr. Ron Barnes, LSW

When I was ordained as an American Baptist Minister back in 1993, I was asked to close the service as a newly ordained Pastor. It surprised me that I was called on to end the service. I remember very clearly the words that came to me from Romans 8:38-39.

The words are: For I’m persuaded to believe that nothing can separate us from the wonderful love of God.  For above He will send us if we let Him live within us while in this sinful world we trod.  Neither heights nor depths nor principalities, things present nor things to come, and though the Devil hate us, He will never separate us from the Wonderful love of God.

In actuality, that is a camp song that I learned back in 1974 and it just stuck with me. People snickered at the end of the service because I sort of sang it as the benediction.

Tomorrow it will be Christmas. We are awaiting the day for all that it brings and for all the memories associated with Christmas. It is a very mystical day as it carries so much meaning to most people whether they be Christian or not.  Christmas is the beginning of the most amazing story we will ever hear. For some it is too unbelievable and they do not believe it. Some think it is a beautiful story and they hope it is true. Others bank on the story and stick with it as belonging to them. The birth of Jesus is part of our heritage as Christians. It is ingrained in us as believers. It is like the stories that get passed down about different family situations which bring a smile and/or a tear to us. These stories are part of our life and they are important pieces of our identity.

Christmas is full of memories of how we celebrated it as a youth and then the changes that perhaps have taken place over time. Christmas for many, is a time of recalling and retelling many family memories and stories. It is extraordinary time, not ordinary time.  This is what makes it so special.

Perhaps we remember the most special gift we ever received at Christmas. Or, we are full of a keener awareness of those relatives who made it a special time and who are no longer with us. We may remember a very silly incident that occurred on one specific Christmas that set that one apart from many other Christmases and it is a fond memory.

For instance, my wife, Cheri, our son, Dylan, and I always went to New Jersey for Christmas when Dylan was young. One year it snowed heavily and we could not get there in time for Christmas dinner, so we stopped at a truck stop and had Christmas dinner with the truckers. Little did I realize how many truckers were on the road at Christmas and away from their families. It was a new awareness as we had never done that before. It was very encouraging and touching to experience how the waitresses waited on the truckers and us with sensitivity to our not being at home for Christmas. Looking back it was indeed a memory maker.  Not that I want to spend Christmas at a truck stop every year but it did open my eyes to those who are trucking even on Christmas.

In Matthew 1:23, we are informed that they will call him Immanuel—which means “God with us.” Indeed God is with us and has been with us. Christmas reminds us of this promise and of God’s purpose of entering into our world…to be with us.

Can you think of times in your life when you have needed to feel and experience His presence and you did…When His presence was comforting?  When it was experienced as an unexpected insight, as an ah-ha awareness? When a situation came together providentially (some people call it a coincidence)?  Can you see that as God with us?

I can recall some very tight spots that I have been in when I have experienced God with me.  I remember somewhat of a humorous event in my freshman year of high school. It may have turned out rather badly if I did not feel there was providential intervention. I was at the freshman lunch table when one of the senior football players threw a banana at our table and it hit me. I looked up and saw who threw it. I picked it up and threw it right back at him and hit him squarely. He got up and came over and was going to beat me up, I am sure. I was ready to do the necessary battle and probably would have taken a pretty good whooping but my friend, Dick Reinking, who was also on the football team and who was 6 foot 6 inches and weighed 250 stepped in and asked, “Is there was a problem?” The other guy backed down to my great relief.  I do think that was very providential.

Through a very serious breakup of a relationship, when I felt I had no one to talk to nor did I want to out of privacy and some embarrassment, I felt God with me. He somehow comforted me keeping me from some stupid ideas of self-harm. On several occasions in my life, when I experienced some intense loneliness, I would be comforted by reading scripture and by praying out to God to help me and enable me to persevere amidst such inner pain. Somehow God showed me through loneliness to appreciate people all the more and to be a more sensitive person to others no matter who they might be.

Immanuel, God with Us, is a great name for God. He promises to be with us through it all.  In Romans 8 we read, “If God is for us, who can ever be against us?”  There are times when people are against us and it is unpleasant. Maybe it is an overbearing boss, a critical co-worker, or conflict with our child, an in-law, our spouse or a very close friend.  What does God with Us mean in these situations? Perhaps God gives us the wisdom to resolve a situation. Perhaps he gives us the patience to let a situation run its course and allow a slow healing to occur.

Perhaps God gives us that deep understanding of His love that permeates us and melts our particular perspective and allows us to ask for forgiveness or to apologize because it is clear that the other party will not do so.  God has taught us by the life of Jesus the importance of humbling our self when needed, and that is a tough one for most of us.

God with Us is God’s spirit abounding within us. It is experiencing His love working through us in the types of situations I just described. God with Us is us believing that this is true and that He is working in our lives all the time.  This is part of the mysterious relationship we have with God.  He doesn’t send us text messages or emails telling us what He is up to at that particular moment.  People want God to be more visible so we can have an easier time believing that He is With Us.

I am one of those people, you may be too.

If only I could have one two minute experience in God’s presence, while I am alive of course, then I could be even more on fire for God in my life and with other people. But, God does not work that way and I think I am beginning to understand why. But I can’t tell you, you will have to find out for yourself.

I have a client who is now 23. About 5 years ago he had a very vivid dream about Jesus. My client was on the beach and he was incapacitated, he could not move. He is lying there on the beach when out of the water comes Jesus. My client said that every part of him began to move toward Jesus, it was instinctual. Jesus was reaching out to him and my client was somehow attempting to crawl toward Jesus. My client knew that Jesus was inviting him to be healed. Then he woke up with this amazing feeling inside. I saw my client several weeks ago and he recalls that dream as if it were yesterday.

We should all be so blessed to have a dream like that. Maybe you have. I have not had a dream like that. Why can’t Jesus come to me in a dream like that? I do believe that God does reveal Himself to us in dreams if we are so blessed. It has been a very real experience for my client and has helped him in his affirmation of his Christian faith and belief in a God that is With Us.

I really do not know why God is so mysterious but I do know that He promises to be with us. I do know that you have to come to God personally and not through someone else’s experience. I do not know how God relates to each of us personally as there are so many of us (7 billion plus). That is a great mystery.

Christmas is the great reminder that God came to earth and became one of us. He lived among us. He experienced the human condition with all its complexities and all its natural desires and temptations. God was with us. It is an amazing story to be shared. And it needs to be shared because God is still With Us and people need to know this because they need to know and believe in God to be healed from their sins.

Christmas is not the happiest day of the year for me because I know there is still sadness, poverty, injustice, and evil in the world.  It is however a deeply joyful day that is full of meaning and of God’s promises. I think we all know the difference between happiness and joyfulness.

I will close with a quote from the Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who helped to plot against the tyrannical Adolf Hitler and was imprisoned and eventually executed for his involvement. He wrote this from his prison cell on his last Christmas in this world.

“Joy to the world!” Anyone for whom this sound is foreign, or who hears in it nothing but weak enthusiasm, has not yet really heard the Gospel. For the sake of humankind, Jesus Christ became a human being in a stable in Bethlehem: Rejoice, O Christendom! For sinners, Jesus Christ became a companion of tax collectors and prostitutes: Rejoice, O Christendom! For the condemned, Jesus Christ was condemned to the cross on Golgotha: Rejoice, O Christendom! For all of us, Jesus Christ was resurrected to life: Rejoice, O Christendom!…All over the world today people are asking: Where is the path to joy? The church of Christ answers loudly:  Jesus is our joy! Joy to the World.

Indeed Joy to the World for God is With Us now and forever. Amen.