We have a dilemma today friends! Today marks the fourth week of Advent and yet it is Christmas Eve! I’m starting this week with a fourth theme for Advent – and that is to receive. It might seem a passive action, but we know it is not! I might pop on here later in the week with what would be the first week of Christmastide. Feel free to take part in all or any of it! I love this quote from Robert Webber, which is from the Catholic liturgy for Christmas Eve; “Today you will know the Lord is coming, and in the morning your will see his glory.”
Immanuel – God with us
I think it took me a very long time to see how often Luke talks about joy in his gospel. There are over 20 mentions of joy – far more than any of the other gospels. From the very beginning – when the angel appeared to Zechariah to the very last verse in Luke, when Jesus ascended into heaven, and Luke says – “they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy” (Luk. 24:52). There is joy in the angel’s song over the shepherds; there is joy in the disciples over the effectiveness of their ministry (10:17). Heaven cried out for joy over one sinner who repented! (15:7); and the disciples rejoiced over breakfast after the resurrection (24:41). So much joy.
Immanuel, God with us. This, I believe, is at the heart of every mention of joy by Luke. Even after Jesus returned to heaven, the disciples were left with an assurance that He would never leave them. And their joy can be ours – especially as we acknowledge just how fundamental this need is.
John is a bit more poetic than Luke (in my opinion). In the first 18 verses of chapter one in his gospel – he speaks of glory, and presence and life and light. Such poetry there! Verse 14 is a beautiful hymn of praise: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Indeed, these first 18 verses are a doxology filled with joy.
One reason I think that the idea of Immanuel resonates so much with us is that it speaks to a longing deep in us for a home. John captures this when he says – “Christ made his dwelling among us.” C.S. Lewis describes this longing as “an inconsolable longing in the heart for we know not what” (where). The name he gives for that longing is joy.
Perhaps this is why Christmas can be so hard on some people. Everything around us speaks to the perfect home, the perfect gift, the perfect gathering. But in our own experiences we often feel lonely; there’s conflict around the family table; and our desires are shattered by expectations not met.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.
John 1:4-5
Immanuel, God is with us.
There is (or can be) a legitimacy to our desires and dreams. They’re not the problem. The expectation for the perfect is. There is where our disappointments live – that’s the root of so much of our despair. Yet joy is a gift, a fruit of our abiding in Christ, and it can be present in those dreams, just as it can be present even in the pain those desires draw out from us!
Two of my very favorite people in Luke’s birth narrative are Simeon and Anna. It’s said of Simeon that he was righteous and devout, and that he spent his last years in the temple – waiting for the consolation of the Lord. What an interesting phrase – I suppose another word would have been better – Messiah, Coming, Victory… But Consolation? – That’s a balm on an old wound. It’s a comfort to someone who has suffered. It implies that for Simeon, this was no ordinary Messiah (hmmm.).
Anna as well, was old, and this is what Luke said of her – “she did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luk 2:37-38). Childless, presumably without family, her life could have been an unfulfilled one- she could have been bitter and resentful. But these two incredible “saints” held their dreams and their desires lightly, offering them to God – acknowledging before Him that life was not what it could have been, but they trusted Him. Joy was theirs. And it was rooted in the kind of peace and confidence and trust that came not after their desired future arrived, but during the waiting for it.
What better consolation, what better joy can we have than when we proclaim that our God is with us!
Dr. Martin Luther King knew this in his very bones. One night in 1965 he got yet another phone call, threatening him and his family. He was warned – “get out of town or we will blow up your house.” He realized that if he were to continue this work he had to know that his religion was real. He had to know God was with him. And so he prayed. This is his prayer:
“I said, ‘Lord, I’m down here trying to do what’s right. I think I’m right. I think the cause that we represent is right. But Lord, I must confess that I’m awake now. I’m faltering. I’m losing my courage. And I can’t let the people see me like this, because if they see me weak and losing my courage, they will begin to get weak.’ Then it happened: And it seemed at that moment that I could hear an inner voice saying to me, ‘Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness. Stand up for justice. Stand up for truth. And lo I will be with you, even until the end of the world.’ . . . I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone. No never alone. No never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.”
Where are you today? Are there sorrows or fears or struggles in you today? Is there grief or pain? Today as I finish this particular reflection I am reminded of our little grandson, Zekey who would be 14 years old today. He’s with Jesus –what joy! But his pain and his death were real. And our grief is there 10 years later. But this I know: there is no greater healing than to know that God is always with us, and that he will never leave us or forsake us. In that we can find joy. In that we know that “all our hopes and fears are met in Thee tonight.”
Immanuel. Our God is with us.