Pastor's Message
December 2012
To the Children of God at Emmanuel,
Advent and Christmas are upon us. We prepare for the birth of Jesus the Christ, as well as new possibilities, in the season of Advent. Preparing our lives for the birth of Jesus is more than simply a pious act. It is also a time for being open to the wonder of God emptying into the flesh and blood of humanity. God came into our experience by becoming flesh and blood; touching, seeing, smelling and hearing as we touch, smell, see and hear.
We Are Christians because we believe Jesus enters our existence to unite us fully with the God of the universe. Why? Theologically we can say it was to bring us into a new and lasting relationship with God. I think James Finley reminds us that we have been brought into this relationship with God through Christ for a very specific reason. Finley writes, “The world is the place where we meet God because it is the place where God meets us in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ did not merely inhabit human flesh; he became flesh. He made himself, as God, to be one with humanity in the concrete, historical realities of human life. Truly, God has entered into the world and it is in the world that Christians must turn to find God.”
We find God in this world in the flesh and blood of other human beings. We often fail to see and meet God in our daily lives because our eyes of faith fail to perceive God in the poor and forgotten. Our racism, our classism, our ageism, and our sexism can blind us to God living in those we see as less than us. When we do this then we fail to remember that God became less in Jesus Christ so we could have a relationship with God. Jesus came to save all and in his humanity he reached out most often to those human beings considered less than human by others.
The birth of Jesus comes to remind us that we too are to empty ourselves of our “selves” so we can enter into the lives of those we most likely would overlook in our journey. God, who became flesh and blood so that we might see that God truly gets us as we are, calls us to get those we are least likely to understand. We meet them where they are in the world in the same manner Christ meets us. When this happens we are really open to being filled with God’s hope, peace, joy and love.
I pray that you will be open to the hope, peace, joy and love of God! Mary’s Christmas to each one of you!!
One of Christ’s servants,
Pastor David A. Hendricks - Child of God