\u201cBefore the creation of the world,\u201d Ephesians tells us, God had a plan.<\/p>\n
Before you made plans to join us here in worship at Immanuel.
\nBefore the star in the sky led the Magi to Bethlehem.
\nBefore the prophets first heard the voice of God.
\nBefore the moon and the stars were set in the sky.
\nBefore everything!
\nWhile \u201cthe earth was without shape or form\u201d as the first words of the Bible tell us\u2026
\nAnd while \u201cthe Word was with God and the Word was God\u201d as John proclaims\u2026
\nThere. Was. A. Plan.<\/p>\n
What kind of a plan was this?
\nIf we look to the root of the word used here in Paul\u2019s letter to the Ephesians, oikonomia, we find that it describes the administration of a household or an estate.
\nIt\u2019s the same word we find at the root of ecology and economy.
\nIt describes how something is held together\u2026 the rules that govern how it functions, what sustains it, how it thrives.
\nSo Paul is telling us that from the very beginning, God had a plan for how all of creation, God\u2019s household, was going to work.
\nGod wanted to bring everything – from the highest heights of heaven to the deepest crevices of the earth – together and to make a home among us.
\nAnd God\u2019s plan was made known to us in Jesus Christ.
\nImmanuel.
\nGod-with-us.<\/p>\n
In these weeks leading up to Christmas here at Immanuel, we have been exploring God\u2019s love for all of creation.
\nWhen we open up our bibles to the very first chapters, we discover this plan of God\u2019s was already set in motion.
\nFor six days, God was building, creating, and giving life to all things in the heavens and on earth.
\nAnd God looked around and saw that it was all very good.
\nAnd then God rested.<\/p>\n
Now, I have to admit to you. Typically, when I think about God resting, I imagine that God goes back to wherever God has come from\u2026 leaving earth to go and take a day off.
\nAfter all, that is how we treat Sabbath, isn\u2019t it?
\nThe day we get away from everything?
\nTurn off the work email\u2026 veg out in front of the television and watch Netflix\u2026 get away from everyone and go fishing or golfing?<\/p>\n
But, what if we have it all wrong?
\nWhat if the Sabbath is part of God\u2019s plan?
\nWhat if in that moment of rest, God is with us?<\/p>\n
The theologian Jurgen Moltmann describes Sabbath as a time when God \u201cbegins to \u2018experience\u2019 the beings he has created\u2026 He adopts the community of creation\u2026 He allows them to exist in his presence. And he is present in their existence.\u201d (God In Creation, page 279)
\nGod-with-us. Immanuel.
\nGod creates us and on the Sabbath day of rest and presence, heaven and earth are one.
\nThat\u2019s why we are called to honor the Sabbath and make it holy.
\nBecause whenever we truly stop to rest and worship and simply be in God\u2019s presence, we are participating in that amazing plan set in motion before the stars were put in the sky.
\nWe remember that God has already moved into the neighborhood.<\/p>\n
If we are honest with ourselves, however, we know that is not how we usually keep the Sabbath.
\nIn fact, throughout human history, the people of God have often forgotten the presence of God in their midst.
\nWe turn our backs on God.
\nWe seek our own will.
\nWe make mistakes and fail in our humble striving.
\nBut God is not content to be driven out of our lives.
\nGod refuses to be turned away.
\nGod has a plan, remember, and so God acts over, and over again, in ways that bring heaven and earth together.
\nAfter all, as John\u2019s gospel tells us, \u201cthe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn\u2019t extinguish the light.\u201d (John 1:5)
\nAnd so God heard the cries of the oppressed and rescued them and brought them into the land of milk and honey.
\nAnd so God called the people of faith over and over again through the words and actions of the prophets.
\nAnd then God acts by coming in really close\u2026 diving in deep to all of the mess and the struggle, the pain and sorrow of our human worldly lives.
\nAs we moved away from God, God moves towards us.
\nThe Word became flesh.
\nImmanuel.
\nGod-with-us.<\/p>\n
And it happened in a particular life, in a particular time, in a particular place.<\/p>\n
Now\u2026 I don\u2019t want to ruin the Christmas story for you\u2026 but I\u2019ve come to realize that we\u2019ve been telling it wrong.
\nAnd I think when we hear this story again, put back into its context and place, in many ways the story of Christmas becomes all the sweeter and more meaningful.<\/p>\n
You see, as we read in Luke\u2019s gospel, Jesus was born in the city of Bethlehem to parents who really weren\u2019t anyone important. And Mary \u201cwrapped him snugly, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the guestroom.\u201d
\nWhen you look back to the original koine Greek, it says katalyma. This was a place where travelers spent a night\u2026 and while it could have referred to an inn, it was used to describe \u201cthe sleeping area in a single-room Palestinian peasant home\u201d or a guest space in such a house.
\nThe homes in Bethlehem would have had one large living space and if they were lucky, they might have had a smaller private room set aside for guests.
\nThere would have been an area by the entrance where animals were brought in at night to keep them safe and warm.
\nAnd that large multi-purpose room would have not only had places to sit and eat and cook\u2026 but also mangers, built out of wood or hollowed out of the ground, where straw for those animals were kept.<\/p>\n
The scene reminds me a lot of Christmas celebrations among either sets of my grandparents. You see, my dad was one of five kids and my mom was one of seven kids and the holidays were always a big deal. Everyone would come back home and the grown-ups would get the bedrooms that they slept in as children, but the grandkids would all pile together in the living room with sleeping bags and pillows. If you had to get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you had to take care not to step on one of your relatives!<\/p>\n
If we peered back into Bethlehem on that night long ago, instead of a cold and lonely couple huddled in a shed, we probably would have discovered Mary and Jospeh surrounded by family\u2026 in fact, maybe a bit too crowded by family \u2013 remember, Luke says there wasn\u2019t room in the guest room. Everyone had come to town to be registered in the census so aunties and uncles and cousins galore would have been packed into the room together.
\nAnd right there in the midst of it all \u2013 in a normal home, in an everyday life, in the midst of community and the animals, Christ was born.
\nGod moved into the neighborhood.
\nImmanuel.
\nGod-with-us.<\/p>\n
I think the most powerful statement of the incarnation is the reminder that right here\u2026 on this earth, among all of creation, surrounded by our community, is where we are redeemed.
\nGod\u2019s plan is not that this earth will waste away and we will be whisked away to some far off heaven.
\nNo\u2026 in Jesus Christ all things in heaven and on earth will be brought together.
\nRight here is where salvations shows up.<\/p>\n
As we have been leading up to this day, this time of worship, when we remember the birth of Christ, we have also been looking ahead to a moment that is yet to come.
\nFor, we are still waiting.
\nThis morning, I prayed for two colleagues who lost their mothers yesterday.
\nThis world is still filled with disease and struggle and this might be the last Christmas we celebrate with certain loved ones.
\nWe even remember that places like Bethlehem are today places of conflict and strife.
\nGod\u2019s plan isn\u2019t complete yet.<\/p>\n
So as people of faith, we are also looking ahead to that day of new creation when the kingdom of God is made known.
\nJohn tells us that the light shines in the darkness and has not been overcome by it\u2026 and when we keep reading to the Revelation, we find hope in the words that \u201cdeath will be no more. There will be no mourning, crying or pain anymore\u2026 There will no longer be any curse\u2026 Night will be no more. They won\u2019t need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will shine on them.\u201d (21:4, 22:3,5)
\nAt the climax of all times, when the plan is fully complete, the heavens and earth will be brought together and God will make a home among us.<\/p>\n
The Letter to the Ephesians may seem like a strange text to share together on Christmas Eve, but for me it is a reminder that the promises we hope for can already be experienced right now. Paul\u2019s words here remind us that while the plan isn\u2019t quite yet complete\u2026 it has already become a reality within the church.
\nYou see, from the moment the heavens opened and the angels began to proclaim the birth of our Messiah, we have been invited to participate and respond to the kingdom of Glory.
\nShepherds left their flocks to search out the baby in the manger.
\nMagi traveled great distances to greet the newborn King.
\nFishermen would leave their boats to follow the Messiah.
\nRich men like Zacchaeus gave away their wealth.
\nScholars like Paul set aside everything they thought they knew about God to discover the message all over again and then carried it across the world.
\nThe ripples from the birth of that one moment built the church, the Body of Christ alive in this world today.
\nFriends, you and I are that body of Christ right here and right now.
\nAnd as Ephesians 2 tells us, \u201cwe are God\u2019s accomplishment, created in Christ Jesus to do good things. God planned for these good things to be the way that we live our lives.\u201d
\nWe have been adopted into God\u2019s household, filled up with the Spirit of God, and called to imitate Christ wherever we go.
\nSo fall on your knees in this time of worship.
\nRemember that God set the stars in the sky and the ground beneath our feet.
\nImagine the birth of that child in Bethlehem.
\nAnd ask how God is inviting you today to love one another and to bring peace and joy to all who struggle.
\nBecause it is through you\u2026 and you\u2026 and you\u2026 that the presence of God can be known in this neighborhood today, and tomorrow, and the day after that.
\nYOU are also God\u2019s plan for this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cBefore the creation of the world,\u201d Ephesians tells us, God had a plan. Before you made plans to join us here in worship at Immanuel. Before the star in the sky led the Magi to Bethlehem. Before the prophets first heard the voice of God. Before the moon and the stars were set in the…<\/span><\/p>\n