The Power of God's Presence: Understanding 'God With Us' in Everyday Life
by Richard Hovey, Deer Island Churches of Christ, NB
We are entering into the season of Advent in the church year; a season in which we celebrate the arrival of something notable, which is, namely, the presence of God. As we enter into this Advent season, a large part of what we celebrate is God being revealed as Immanuel: God with us! What a thought - that God, the creator and sustainer of all things, is God with us. Perceiving God this way makes a difference in our lives. Often, in experience, we come to understand God as being way up there somewhere, distant and aloof; while we believe that God is concerned about us, for this is what we have been taught, we do not always remember just how near He is (though, perhaps, we have been taught this too but it seems harder to believe or grasp for some reason). Regardless of how we feel, God is here! I appreciate the way Wendell Berry described understanding the value of what is here when he wrote: “what we need is here. And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye, clear. What we need is here.”1 As we celebrate Advent, leading up to Christmas, on this side of the birth and life of Christ, we celebrate what is here: the presence of God.
God with us is at the heart of a biblical understanding of who God is.
God who walked with
Adam and Eve in the garden; God who spoke to Moses on the mountain; God who tabernacled (tented) among His people in the wilderness; God who spoke to his people through the prophets; God whose presence filled the temple; God who became man in Jesus Christ; God who fills us with His Spirit. It is the presence of God among us that sets us apart as God’s people. Even more broadly, it is the breath of God within us that makes us alive as people. If God were to withdraw His breath, all people would cease to be; if God were to withdraw His Spirit, the church would cease to be. God is a God among us, and nowhere is this more powerfully seen than in what has been called the incarnation: when God became man in Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul states so powerfully that in Christ “the fullness of God dwelt bodily” (Colossians 2:9). The presence of God took on human form at the birth of Christ.
Mary and Joseph were the first to experience in a powerful way the meaning of the name Immanuel, God with us. If you know the story, as laid out for us in the opening of Luke and Matthew’s gospels, God was on the move. God had already visited Zachariah and Elizabeth, who were now with child in their old age (nothing is impossible with God!). This child was to be the forerunner of the One who was to come: Immanuel. The God who dwells with his people spoke to Mary, a young woman engaged to a young man named Joseph, and also spoke to Joseph; God told them both of the child who was to come, whom they were to name Jesus - “for he shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). The name Jesus is the Greek form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, which means to deliver or to redeem. God has always been a God with His people for the purpose of both delivering and redeeming a people for Himself. Immanuel Yeshua: God with us in Jesus, our deliverer and redeemer.
To convey this good news to Mary, God sent His angel Gabriel to the unknown young woman in the small peasant village of Nazareth. I think the unknownness of both Mary and Nazareth may be significant. The opening words of the angel Gabriel to Mary were these: “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). To be favoured is to be shown grace. The proclamation of God’s grace is conditioned with God’s presence; where God is present, grace is found. The unknown young woman, surprised by the greeting, wondered what it might mean. She is quickly told to not be afraid, for she is in the midst of grace. Grace extends beyond our circumstances or our condition. Perhaps we see this most powerfully in the fact that Mary was a virgin, and was to be with child. Grace works beyond what is possible, what is earned, or what is attained by human effort. The presence of God is a gift of grace. We do not earn deliverance or redemption, nor do we attain it; we receive it as the gift of God’s presence among us.
The Lord is with you! What do we do with this gift of grace? Perhaps the best response is one of receptivity. After hearing the good news given her by Gabriel, Mary simply but powerfully responds with these words: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Luke 1:38). Might we find within ourselves the faith to respond to the grace of God’s working among us with these simple words: here am I. Not here am I with all of my credentials; not here am I with all of my experience; not here am I with all of my aptitude; no, here am I, lacking any credentials, experience or aptitude to host the presence of God, in an attitude of humble receptivity - let it be with me according to your word. Yes, indeed, all we need is here.
The good news of grace came to Joseph a little later than it did to his fiancée Mary, and the
good news came in a different way. Instead of an audible heads up from a visiting angel of what was about to take place, Joseph is informed by an unnamed angel, after the fact, in a dream, without the opportunity to enter into conversation. Joseph is just given the facts: Mary is with child, a child who is the fulfilment of the words of the prophet Isaiah: “Look, the virgin is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14, cf. Matthew 1:23). Joseph wakes from sleep, and proceeds to take Mary as his wife; remaining a virgin until the birth of Immanuel, they name Him Jesus. At times God moves not only in ways that we may not understand, but also with limited communication; we may not even be fully awake when He speaks. But yet He speaks; He draws near and the sound of His voice is heard in a gentle whisper, indicating His nearness. Jason Upton wrote a song in which he reflects upon the nearness of God; the lyrics, in part, state:
I was told when I was young that one day soon I'm going to see You
We'll take a train far from this place where all our pain will be over
My God how I long to see you now
And something in my heart tells me somehow You're one step away
God is near; yes, what we need is here, whether presented to us in the audible voice of the angel Gabriel, or in a still small voice in our dreams while we sleep at night. Either way we are called to receive. In the receiving, our lives will be changed; to take up the presence of Christ among us will lead to a life different from the one we had planned for ourselves. Mary, young and yet to be married, is now with child; Joseph, a righteous man who planned to part ways with his pregnant fiancée, is now front and center awaiting the birth of Immanuel.
In Christ, the fullness of God dwelt bodily - God drew near, very near. In the prologue to John’s gospel we read that “the Word became flesh and lived among us” (John 1:14). We lose some of the significance of this verse in our English translations; the word often translated lived or sometimes dwelt, is a word which means quite literally to tent. For the early readers of John’s gospel, their minds would have travelled quickly and naturally to the God who tabernacled (tented) among His people in the wilderness as they journeyed to the promised land. While we wait for the new heaven and new earth, what we need is here. For the God who tabernacled among His people is the God who lived among us in Jesus Christ, and now takes up residence among us by His Spirit.
Perhaps the reason, at least sometimes, we miss God with us, is that we are expecting to see Him in large and impressive ways, as opposed to seeing Him in the ordinary: a young woman, an uncertain young man, an infant, manger, unimpressive town - yes, here: among us in all of our ordinariness. God is here: in our simplicity, uncertainty, poverty, want and hope. And we are called to care for his presence. And what we need to do this is here. So let us not be so focused in our prayers during this Advent season on the new heaven and earth, but rather let us ponder Immanuel in our hearts, our eyes clear, let us realise that truly what we need is here. For we are, through Immanuel Yeshua, a “dwelling place in which God lives by His Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22). Advent season may we receive the greatest gift of God’s grace: His holy presence.
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1 Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things (Great Britain, UK: Penguin Books, 2018), 56.
Images:
Jeremy Park, Bible-Scenes.com
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