2020 Christmas Eve Sermon
This was a mini-sermon for Christmas Eve 2020, after nearly a year of virtual worship and general suffering.
Tonight, we’re going to look at the promise of Immanuel, God With Us. This idea of God “dwelling among us” has a long history in the Old Testament. Jewish readers of John would have immediately thought of the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God dwelled in Israel. God set up shop right there in their midst, pitching HIs tent right next to them and being actually present in our physical world.
We actually see this idea all over the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms. David says that in God’s presence, there is fullness of joy and tells us to seek this presence continually. When he sins, David pleads for God not to cast him from his presence. This isn’t just a metaphor for having warm fuzzy spiritual feelings about God’s presence. When David talks about the presence of God, he’s thinking about a real physical tent where there’s a real physical object, where the real presence of God actually dwells.
Moses says that this idea of God literally being with His people is actually key to their identity. When God threatens to depart from disobedient Israel, Moses pleads in Exodus 33:
And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
The Presence of God is what Moses says is the defining feature of Israel. Not the law, not the rituals or circumcision, but the thing that makes Israel Israel is God Himself being actually present through His Spirit.
In the New Testament, we see Jesus as the fulfillment of Immanuel, God with Us. But, the promise of Immanuel extends far beyond that. Paul says that our physical bodies are actually a temple of the Holy Spirit. Jesus says he will “abide in us” and that if you believe in Jesus, you right now have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. Jesus even says in John 16 that having the Holy Spirit actually in you is even better than having Jesus physically with you! Again, these aren’t just spiritual descriptions, these are physical descriptions of God literally With Us. The promise of God With Us wasn’t just fulfilled when Jesus was born. That promise is fulfilled everytime we call out to the Spirit and grab on to the reality of the God actually with us.
I’ve come to realize that I really short-change the Spirit here. I usually see the Holy Spirit as just a lens by which I see the world. His work is mainly to change my mind and help me think correctly. Now, while this is a valid and very important work of the Spirit, this isn’t enough to get me through the isolation of COVID. God dispensing wisdom and helpful life tips here and there doesn’t even come close to the full promise of Immanuel.
What is actually available to us in the Holy Spirit is what Moses pleaded for–our community to be completely defined by the real, physical presence of God in our midst.
What we have available to us is far more than warm vague feelings of the divine. We actually have what John saw–the glory of the Word who became flesh and actually lived with him.
We have what Mary had–the real presence of God, literally inside of us, changing our anatomy, biology, emotions, and physiology. God didn’t just change Mary’s mind to help her face her trials–he actually changed and dwelt in her body.
The glory of Christmas is that God Himself, Immanuel, dwells with us today in a real and palpable way. Through Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, we have now become children of God and have access to the Holy Spirit, given by Christ. In a time where we are isolated from one another, and our only interactions are virtual or at a distance with covered mouths, God gives us right now the closeness and intimacy of his presence. Even if we are social distancing, our God is not distant. God quarantines with us, shelters-in-place with us, and is really really with us. Right now! Over Zoom!
For this message, I was thinking about just reading verbatim the wonderful advent devotionals that Pastor Chris and Natalie wrote, since they’re both way better writers and theologians than I am. I thought Chris’ devotional for today really spoke to the nearness of God in Christ, through the Holy Spirit:
“Prayer is simply you gabbing with this reality. Near to you. Now. Worship is you kneeling because His throne is right there in front of you. Near to you. Now. This was the promise in the cradle in Bethlehem. There at your elbow, just within your reach, just within hearing, is the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, the eternal I AM in the center of unending and undying praise. Your friend. Praise Him!”
Do you believe that God dwells with us in this way? When I look back on 2020, I struggle to believe it. If we really have the Creator of the universe in us, why are many of us so anxious? Why do we feel so crushed or depressed or drained or apathetic? Where is the power of God when so many of us are desperately lonely or afraid? Why is our church shrinking if the almighty God himself is as close as I’m saying? In other words, how can we possibly claim that God is really here, really entering into space and time and into our lives after the year we’ve just had?
The presence of God with us doesn’t mean that everything is going to magically be okay, or easier, or more exciting. After building the tabernacle and the Ark, Moses wandered years through the desert, eating the same manna every day, waiting for God to lead his people into a promised land he could never enter. Even as he walked alongside the Ark of the Covenant and spoke with God directly, he still lived a life full of monotony, wandering, and unrealized expectations.
Or look at Mary. After giving birth to the Word made flesh, she was a refugee, protecting her son from being brutally killed as an infant only for him to be brutally tortured a few decades later. The one who physically had God in her body still experienced tremendous pain, suffering, injustice, and loss. John spent his last days in exile. The apostle who saw the transfiguration and plumbed the depths of what it meant to have the Holy Spirit dwell in and with you died alone and isolated.
Just like them, even though we have the actual presence of God with us, we are still suffering. Suffering through COVID, isolation, political unrest, racial injustice, and so many unanswered prayers. But like Moses and Mary and John, our experience and entire existence isn’t defined by our sufferings–it’s defined by the one who suffers them with us.
Maybe this Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas because you’re alone. Or your family traditions have been shattered by COVID. Or maybe there’s an empty seat at the table this year. Or, if you’re like me, everything just feels so empty, so mundane, so meaningless. Friends, I tell you tonight that in all these things, God is there, present–reach out and take hold of this reality now! God fulfilled HIs promise of Immanuel at the birth of Jesus, at Pentecost, and in every single moment of 2020 in the life of a Christian. And he fulfills it right now, whether we “feel” this presence or not. What an incredible hope! But the promise of Immanuel goes even further! The Bible describes the Holy Spirit as a “firstfruit”, or a “deposit, guaranteeing what is to come”. In other words, the presence of God we have right now (which is mind-blowing enough!) is just the beginning! One day, on Jesus’ second advent, we’ll experience the complete fullness of HIs presence as all of creation is restored and those who receive him and believe in his name will reign with him forever.
Before we sing Silent NIght and light our candles, we’re going to sing Joy to the World. If you pay attention to the lyrics, you’ll see that this isn’t just a Christmas song–it’s a second coming song! It talks about a day when sins and sorrow will no longer grow, when the thorns that bring toil to our work will no longer infest the ground. It looks forward to the day when our relationship with God is fully complete. God with us, us with God. But until that day, we suffer, and we wait. We wait for God to heal our bodies and communities. We wait for him to bring justice, and to answer our prayers that we’ve prayed so many times. But even so, we have the presence of God and the promise of Immanuel: that as we wait for God to act, God waits with us, and in us. Really.