Immanuel-God With Us

                                                                Immanuel-God With Us

December 6, 2020

John 1: 1-5, 14; Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 28: 20; Matthew 18: 20; John 14: 16-17; Isaiah 43: 1-3;

Matthew 1: 23; Psalm 85: 7-13; Zephaniah 3: 17; Romans 8: 38-39

 

Glory to God and peace to his people on earth.  Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, this year has brought to many untold heartache, fear, and misery. We remember today, that your son, Jesus, came to us, fully human, fully God.  We ask that you open our hearts and minds to the assurance that you sent us Immanuel, who is with us always. Let us not forget we are held securely in your love, grace, and mercy.  Amen

2020…what can we say? It has been a challenging year for all of us. In my lifetime, I have never had to fear hugging a loved one.  I have never worried about a cough or a sneeze quite like this year.  Prior to 2020, I moved about among people and never doubted their ability to manage their health or my own. Even when we had a diagnosis of a lifetime condition, we expected that through good choices and medication, we would be able to manage.

I am by nature, a hugger.  I especially enjoy the touch of my grandchildren and children. Nothing is better than having a lap full of a grandchild or grandchildren. Imagine explaining to a child that they are not able to feel loved by touch. Near heartache came this year, when my youngest grandchild, Mabel, explained to me that Dada said it was okay if we touched each other.  She said, “Grandma, we can hug.” And this came from a three-year-old! What would I have done if Mabel’s Dada had said we couldn’t hug?

Not being able to feel the presence of a loved one means deep sorrow. For many, this is a daily experience. There are those who are alone. We know there are those who are housebound. Some may be in prison, some in nursing homes. Some are in the hospital. We have among us the homeless.  Some who by distance are separated from family.  Many are separated from loved ones by death or family discord. For many, going to church, the grocery store, or running errands provides their only human interaction. And then the pandemic took that away from them. Today, more than others, people need to feel the presence of a loving Savior.

 It is with great joy, that I bring a message of hope to those who need to feel the assurance of a God who is present with us.  The prophet Isaiah foretold the coming of our Messiah.  Isaiah 7: 14 says this: “Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.”   (NIV) And in Matthew 1: 20-23, the prophesy again is given to Joseph by the angel, “an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’ which means ‘God is with us.’” (NRSV)

God with us.  There is no doubt of that for throughout scripture, we have assurances that Jesus-our Immanuel came to us fully human and fully God.  John 1: 1-5 and 14 brings us such wonderful news: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.  What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it… And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” Jesus was in the beginning. He also came to us as a living person to spread the knowledge of His father to all people, and He died and was resurrected to save us from our sinfulness.  He will come again in glory to save the living and the dead.

I found this Bible verse in an essay about the assurances of God being with us.  It comes from the book of Zephaniah. “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love, he will exult over you with loud singing.”  That our heavenly God would save us, rejoice over us, that he would quiet us with his love, that he would exult over us with his loud singing is almost incomprehensible.  We often put more emphasis on these conditions in our response to God rather than his response to us. Our blessings are many when we consider that we are never forgotten or alone.

Psalm 85 that was read today, gives more of those wonderful assurances of love and salvation: “Show us your unfailing love, Lord, and grant us your salvation.  I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants-but let them not turn to folly. Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.  Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The Lord will indeed give what is good. And our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.”

We need to bring to them the assurances of a loving, ever-present Lord and Savior to those who feel hurt, a lack of love, a fear of the unknown, and an over-whelming aloneness in the struggles of life. Our church name ‘Immanuel Lutheran Church’ puts upon us a mandate to show to all that “God is with us”.  How we minister, how we treat one another, how we teach, how we live, how we respond to life, is measured by those who witness us in our daily lives. If we don’t live as those who believe that ‘God is with us’, then how can we hope that others believe in an ever-present God?

Do you give hope to those struggling with life? Do you bring to them the assurances of an ever-present Lord and Savior? If you haven’t before, then this is your time. I know of people here in our church family and community who are being challenged in almost incomprehensible ways this year. I know of families who are hungry.  I know of families dealing with life-threatening illnesses.  I know of people struggling with loss of loved ones through death or divorce or family discord. Financial struggles are real.  Jobs are compromised, schooling is disrupted. The loss of social contact is overwhelming. Others have lost their faith in their former church family. Division is real.

What is our message to the struggling? Our message can start at the manger. God came down in the form of an infant. Born in a lowly stable, with all the smells and reality of a barnyard. Fully human who felt hunger and thirst, felt the cold, felt pain, felt the need for his mother’s touch. He wasn’t immune to tiredness. He felt joy, experienced sadness in the loss of his best friend Lazarus. He knew anger, with righteous indignation in those who misrepresented God to the people. He was tempted in the desert but by his divine nature, did not give in to the temptation. He was by all means except sinfulness, just like us. 

This should bring immense comfort to us because we who feel hungry, thirsty, sad, angry, lost, and alone know that we have a God who knows exactly what we feel like.  His compassion and empathy for all that we experience lets us know that He understands and will help us.

David Mathis in his essay “Jesus Is Fully Human” says this: “Jesus is like us in every respect-human body, heart, mind, and will-except for sin. How amazing that the divine Son of God would not just take on part of our humanity on that first Christmas, but all of it-and then take that true humanity all the way to the cross for us, and now into heaven and the new creation. Jesus took a human body to save our bodies.  And he took a human mind to save our minds.  Without becoming man in his emotions, he could not have rescued our hearts.  And without taking a human will, he could not save our broken and wandering wills…He became a man in full, so that he might save us in full.”

We often forget that our God comes to us in different forms.  We have a Father God who loved us so much that he wanted us to be his people. Isaiah 41: 10 says this about our God, “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you.  I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” And Isaiah 43: 1-3 reminds us: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you.  For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” I love this reminder in the book of Isaiah from our God, “Even to your old age and gray hairs I am He. I am He who will sustain you.  I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. (Isaiah 46: 4) God with us. 

We have a Savior who loved us so much that He experienced human life. He came to save us from our sins.  We are not separated from God because of Him. Romans 8: 38-39 reassures us: “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, not things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” In our study on the Great Commission, we became reminded of Christ’s promise, “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28: 20) God with us!

 We have the Holy Spirit, the comforter who abides with us when Jesus ascended into Heaven. We are never alone. Jesus reassured the disciples that when He ascended to be with the Father, that He would not leave the disciples alone, “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him.  You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” John 14: 16-17. Believers have received this gift upon their baptism in the Holy Spirit. In our gospel lesson today, we heard the words of John the Baptist who explained, “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.  I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1: 7-8) God with us.

As I was rereading the sermon, I noticed how many italicized words are in it…Bible verses. I know of no better way to find God’s reassurances of his presence than by living in the word.  I find that being in prayer and contemplation with my God daily leads me to feel his presence. I find that when I reach out to others in word and deed, I am able to show that God is with us. As we contemplate this advent season and await the celebration of our Lord and Savior’s birth, we should give thanks that we have a loving Father, the loving Son our Savior, and the comforter-the Holy Spirit with us always to the end of the age.

Let us pray,

God, let us live daily with the assurance that you are with us.  Let us bring to the lost, the hurting, the lonely, that same assurance of your presence.  Make us instruments of your peace and give us hearts of graciousness, mercy, and love. Amen

 

[I do not write these messages without help from those who are blessed with hearts of God. Thanks to Max Lucado, Because of Bethlehem; David Mathis, Jesus is Fully Human, Debbie McDaniel, Fresh Days Ahead; Thomas Nelson, The Humanity of Jesus. I especially bring thanks and gratitude to the Holy Spirit who answers prayers when seeking knowledge and wisdom.]