This year, 54% of Americans report feeling lonely. Being around people doesn’t always help. We can be in a crowded plane, classroom, or church, and still feel alone. We can be at a work party with colleagues and friends and still feel unseen. We can be gathered around a dinner table with our own families and still feel misunderstood.
But the miracle we’ve gathered to remember this Christmas Eve is that through Jesus, God reminds us that we are not alone. Instead of leaving us on our own, God physically moved right into the middle of our broken, lonely world. The word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us.
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This year, 54% of Americans report feeling lonely. Being around people doesn’t always help. We can be in a crowded plane, classroom, or church, and still feel alone. We can be at a work party with colleagues and friends and still feel unseen. We can be gathered around a dinner table with our own families and still feel misunderstood.
But the miracle we’ve gathered to remember this Christmas Eve is that through Jesus, God reminds us that we are not alone. Instead of leaving us on our own, God physically moved right into the middle of our broken, lonely world. The word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us.
In his gospel, Mark is purposefully stringing seemingly random and unrelated stories together and in doing so, invites us into the interpretive process. He wants us to not examine these stories in isolation but in relationship to one another to see for ourselves the bigger picture he is painting. This bigger picture of course is a picture of Jesus, who he was, what he did, how he did it, and why he did it.
The picture is radically good one. Jesus’ good news is too good and his religious and political opponents can’t take it anymore. Jesus relieves the oppressed of their oppression but invites their oppressors to dine with him. Jesus brings restoration and healing to those exploited by political, religious, and economic systems, and he also appeals to those in charge of those systems.
Jesus’ arrival is good news. For us and for our enemies. For the oppressed and the oppressor. For the ones who think they’re righteous and for the ones who know they are not. Jesus came to love us all.
Haverhill Commons Church
This year, 54% of Americans report feeling lonely. Being around people doesn’t always help. We can be in a crowded plane, classroom, or church, and still feel alone. We can be at a work party with colleagues and friends and still feel unseen. We can be gathered around a dinner table with our own families and still feel misunderstood.
But the miracle we’ve gathered to remember this Christmas Eve is that through Jesus, God reminds us that we are not alone. Instead of leaving us on our own, God physically moved right into the middle of our broken, lonely world. The word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son. Jesus. Immanuel. God with us.
