Author Leonard Sweet summarizes the essence of Methodism
with a four-word mantra: be there with
all[1].
With Advent now upon us, I have been mulling over these words in a different context...
We believe that Jesus
came to be. Jesus was the Living
Word. Followers of Christ view Jesus as the Second Person of the Trinity; John
says he was with God from the beginning.
Paul calls Jesus the image of the
invisible God. We believe he was human—he was born, lived, and died—but
he was also divine—the only one resurrected
after three days. Through Jesus, we see
the ultimate example of a human life lived for God. While we can’t be Jesus, because Christ
dwells in us, we do possess the potential become the best version of ourselves
that we can possibly be.
We believe that Jesus
came to be there. In Eugene
Petersen’s translation of John 1, he
says, the Word became flesh and moved
into the neighborhood. N.T. Wright suggests God decided to set up his tabernacle—his portable dwelling
place—on our planet, at a specific place and time in history: Nazareth in ~5 BC.
The birth of Jesus brought God’s Divine
Presence into our ordinary lives. He had
an ordinary birth and for a while, at least, had an ordinary childhood—and by
his Presence, he made these and other ordinary things extraordinary. He breathed
the same air molecules, drank the same water, and walked on some of the same
soil that we do today. You can imagine
that he cared about the people that lived in his neighborhood just like we do. At home living with his family is where he acquired
many of the traits that came to characterize his later ministry: e.g., love,
mercy, compassion, justice. As he watched his parents model hospitality and
fellowship and other spiritual practices, he learned skills that would serve
him later in life.
We believe that Jesus
came to be there with. The Birth narratives in Matthew and Luke say
that Jesus had a mother and father, and at least according to some accounts,
family. So he experienced what it is to
interact with others. Surely, as with
any human being, there were those with whom he didn’t get along—but I bet he learned
from those people as much or more than he did from his friends. In our Advent
readings, the Prophet Isaiah speaks of Immanuel—God with us. Christians interpret this as a reference to
Jesus. So we see Jesus as God with us. Later, in a passage we typically read during
Holy Week, Isaiah speaks of a Suffering
Servant who will bear the sin and pain of his people.
In some mysterious
way, in order for God to be with us
in every way, Jesus had to experience
the full range of what it is to be human—from birth, throughout life, and culminating
with death.
.
We believe
that Jesus came to be there with all.
He came proclaiming the good news that because of his birth, the Kingdom
of God was now available to all—not
just after we die. The way he was born,
the kind of life he lived—and the type of death he would eventually die—all
pointed to this reality.
Jesus’ entire being embodied the
all-inclusive message that he was so passionate to proclaim.
God so loved the world that He gave
his only Son—John 3:16.
In other
words, God was willing to give all of
Himself for all of us.
The journey from
Christmas to Easter shows just how far God goes to be there with all.
Through
the Incarnation, God chose to be there
in a more personal way than ever before. God took on a human face and moved into a specific place.
He lived out his life at a specific place and time in history—but the
impact of his life continues to reverberate across the globe and backward and
forward through all of human history. Followers
of Christ believe that all that has happened or will happen must be seen in
light of this single transformative event in history. We call Jesus alpha and omega—the beginning and end of all things.
The coming of Jesus also made it possible for God to be with all like never before. Prior to
this, people of God had contact with God through indirect means (via a priest
or a prophet) but Jesus’ earthly life was all about God making direct contact with humanity—with a particular
emphasis the least, the last, and the lost of his day. Jesus immerses us in the reality of our “God-breathed
world[2]”. Through Jesus, many ordinary people
experienced God’s amazing grace and love and went on to share the message with
others long after Jesus was no longer physically present. Jesus also lived the content of his “curriculum”.
He modeled his mission, embodying the present availability of Kingdom of
God for all.
N.T. Wright says that
Jesus came to “put the world right”.
Marcus Borg called it the “great restoration project”, which began with
Jesus’ birth, continued during his life, entered into a new phase after the resurrection
that continues to the present day—and will someday be finished when Christ
comes again.
During Advent, then, we remember when ancient people
anticipated Christ’s coming to be with them, we celebrate that Christ is with
us today, and we anticipate and hope for that day when Christ comes again. Perhaps during this season it is appropriate
to expand the familiar recitation from our Communion ritual to say:
Christ was born… Christ has died… Christ is
risen… Christ will come again!
Every gift we will receive under our Christmas tree this
year will eventually fade and decay, but Paul says that faith, hope and love are gifts that endure, and the greatest of
these is love.
Jesus shows us that
God’s love never fails and that God will go to the ends of the earth to be there with all…
