Advent: God With Us

Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

The Promised Seed

From the very beginning there has been the promise that God would provided the means whereby humanity would be saved out of their estrangement from him, even as our first parents, under the deceptive sway of Satan,  set the course of human civilization. 

"And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel"Genesis: 3:15

This verse is called by some Theologians the "Proto Evangaliuem",   which means, the First Preaching of the Gospel.  This is the message that has been consistent, that God will save His people. That he will be with them. In Jesus, Who The Apostle St. Paul identifies as "the Seed" , God has accomplished this and more for each of us. In Jesus, God has come to us as one of us and he meets us all in a very unlikely place.

To See The Glory

Moses during a time of prayerful dialogue with the Great God.  Moses asked to see what all humanity truly has   sought, even if they are unaware of it.

"And Moses said, I beseech you, show me your glory." Exodus: 33:18

 God responded by giving Moses just a glimpse of His glory.

  "And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. And he said, You cannot see my face: for there will no man see me, and live": (19-20)

The Lord then tells Moses that his face cannot be seen, this means far more than we may first understand, what is being told to Moses and all of us, is that God was not, at that time yet incarnate, that is, in the flesh in Jesus.

Apart from the incarnation we cannot see the full glory of God, that is  "His face", we can only see a glimpse of his glory , "His back". 

   "And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by me, and you shall stand on a rock: And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and will cover you with my hand while I pass by: And I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back parts: but my face shall not be seen".(21-23)

Jesus is the face of God wherein we can truly see God's glory at its greatest, as we are the recipients of His mercy and grace through Jesus, as the Lord God said to Moses:

"and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy"(19c)

Jesus Reveals God

At the conception and birth of Jesus God has come to us, in the person of his Holy Son the second person of the Holy Trinity. In Jesus we meet our God even as we peer into  the manger of the  Nativity.  God is there come to us as one of us.  We are beholding the face of God even in the infant Jesus.

 In the Nativity there in the manger long ago as we count years, yet ever present for any and all who will but come forward to look and gaze upon the child Jesus, who, was and is,  wrapped in swaddling clothes of  old linen strips used mostly to bury  the dead .

 If we will but look even here in the manger, we will see the glory of God; we will meet our God there, even  in this the humblest of places  just to be with us as one of us.

Emmanuel 

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

But just when he had resolved to do this, 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, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus” .Matt:1:18-25

Jesus is God with us, not just in a historic sense but rather in a very real and personal sense, a one of us, yet in his Holy Self all of God is found and met in Jesus even in the manger of Bethlehem .

"All the history of Israel was to prepare them, and all humanity to encounter the great God, to meet God face to face in Jesus. "

The Great God had prepared all history, not just Israel’s history but all human history for this moment when we meet our God in the person of Jesus.

   "Therefore thus will I do to you, O Israel: and because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel" Amos:4:12

  

Jesus came to reveal to us the loving Creator, to give us all what Moses had asked  to see God;  to know God.

 "show me your glory" Exodus:33:18

In Jesus, we come to know God; he has made this possible by becoming one of us.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made." John: 1:1-3

"and the Word became flesh"(14)

Jesus has come to show us the Glory of God in its clearest most powerful way.

"Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes to the Father, but by me.

If you had known me, you should have known my Father also: and from now on you know him, and have seen him.

Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it suffises us. Jesus said to him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not known me, Philip? he that has seen me has seen the Father; and how say you then, Show us the Father? Believe you not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak to you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwells in me, he does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Truly, truly, I say to you, He that believes on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to my Father. And whatever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “John: 14:6-13

From his very birth Jesus has been showing each of us the Glory of God in his very self, Jesus is the self of God for if he were not, God could not reveal himself in and thru  Jesus , even in His High Priestly Prayer affirms this.

"I have glorified you on the earth: I have finished the work which you gave me to do. And now, O Father, glorify you me with your own self with the glory which I had with you before the world was."John: 17:4-5

The Fullness of God

In Jesus the fullness of God dwells in him. We can encounter the fullness of God in the person of his Holy Son Jesus.

"For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form", Colossians: 2:9

  Meets Us Still

There in the manger, all of this was present and made possible by the workings of the power of the great God. That Child, in this place suited more for livestock, which stunk of the dung and animals; this is where we meet our God. This where we see His glory, then and now some times in the worst of conditions, where we would have never had expected to find him, we encounter Jesus.

He is not a God who has removed himself from us and stands a-far off, aloft and withdrawn, no he is a God who is come to us amidst our toils and trials and hardships, even when we stubble and fall he is there with us to reassure us of his unconditional love, his mercy and grace.

Jesus lifts us up and encourages us to move forward in life knowing that he walks with us. 

 He is still meeting us in the places of our lives that have the offensive smell of the dung of our broken humanity. Jesus is there to assure us that God is near and he has come to us.

Our God has come in the least threatening way possible to us. As an infant. Our God does not want us to fear, but rather, our God wants us to know that he loves us and has come to us even where we may not think to have found him.

He loves us so much to have descended into the humblest of places, the feeding trough of animals. Jesus awaits each of us, ever still, there calling us to come and look upon Him and know that our God loves us.

Here, in the Nativity manger, is where we all see His glory and first meet our God and come to know that he is Emmanuel God with us.

Benediction: May we each and all  ever meet our God and see his glory in the person of his Holy Son Jesus, today, tomorrow and forevermore...Amen

Rev. Todd Crouch, Pastor
The Fountain of life Church a Congregation of Grace Communion 2101 Old National Pike,  Washington, Pennsylvania, 15301     www.gcfountainoflife.org

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