Emmanuel - God is With Us
Dear Family of Hope,
At Christmas, as the year draws to a close, we often reflect back on the highs and lows of the past twelve months. It’s a time for introspection and reflection on what we learned, how we grew, and what we would like to be different in the year to come. As we look back on 2020 there is no question that it has been a hard, hard year. There are a lot of things we hope will be different in 2021!
It’s the pandemic, of course. COVID-19 has upended all our lives and reshuffled almost everything about how we go about our daily lives. Who imagined, last Christmas, that by the end of the year we would have a new sense of appropriate physical space? (six feet – the length of a hockey stick) That face masks would be a new fashion accessory we would match with the rest of our outfits? (I was given one in Advent blue.) Or that we’d undertake a trip to the grocery store with fear and trepidation? (I remember how unsettled I felt last April to venture in to Safeway and see shelves empty of staples like flour, bread, and toilet paper.) Who imagined that we’d not be able to see grandchildren and celebrate holidays and milestones with our families? Or even share the daily burden of childcare? The pandemic has changed so much.
Beyond the inconveniences of masking and not being able to shop whenever we want, COVID-19 has given rise to significant hardships that many in our community have faced over the past year. Some of us have lost our jobs. Some have faced increased stress in doing our jobs with fewer coworkers and changed routines. Some have had long periods of confinement to their homes. We’ve been cut off from seeing our families. Sometimes that has meant not being able to offer or receive important help in caring for young children. Routines, and for some, dreams, of foreign travel have had to be shelved. Loved ones have died and families have not been able to gather for support and comfort. Elective surgeries have had to be postponed, sometimes indefinitely. Some have had extended hospital stays without being able to have family visitors. We’ve had to juggle routines and work schedules to suddenly accommodate homeschooling our children. School and university have gone online and young people have been unable to socialize with friends. As pastor I’ve heard all these stories and more, and I know that this list of significant hardships could go on and on.
But it’s the inward effects of the outer circumstances that are the most significant challenges of all. Members of the Hope family have experienced heightened anxiety, depression, loneliness, anger, irritability, disappointment, fear, sadness, confusion, stress, and disconnection. This list of hits to our emotional wellbeing could also go on and on.
But amidst all these challenges there has also been good news. To name the good is not about “looking on the bright side,” or in any way trying to minimize the difficulties we have faced. It has truly been an extraordinarily hard year for so many of us. But naming the good helps us to adjust our overall perspective and tell the whole truth about our reality.
In the congregation there has been a beautiful outpouring of energy as people have called each other, reached out with gifts and (physically distant) short visits, and remembered each other in prayer. The crisis has enlivened our empathy and compassion, and we have drawn together as a community as never before. Crisis has given us as citizens a new sense of solidarity – that we’re all in this together. In the very loss of important pieces of our lives, like face-to-face time with family, many of us have come to new realizations about what is most important to us. We don’t take things for granted any more, and in the future this may lead us to make different decisions about how we spend our time. A few have made their home confinements into opportunities to develop hobbies or give more time for self care.
With everything that 2020 has been, we will all be celebrating Christmas differently this year. No family dinners. No work parties. No choirs or caroling. Shopping is curtailed. Some of us might not be finding the interest or energy to decorate our houses at all. But does this mean Christmas won’t come? Right now I’m remembering the moral of the classic Dr. Seuss tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In that story the hard-hearted Grinch sets about to wreck Christmas for the people of Whoville by stealing every last trapping of the season. But to his surprise and initial dismay he discovers that people still come together with joy, gratitude, and thanksgiving. If COVID is the Grinch of 2020, may it find us just as undaunted in our sharing of peace and goodwill with each other as the citizens of Whoville.
Somehow I know it will find us undaunted in our celebrations. Because we as Christians are celebrating the coming of God into the world in the person of Jesus. He has many titles that we celebrate in word and carol—Prince of Peace, Sun of Righteousness, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God, to name just some—but the name that seems most meaningful in 2020 is Emmanuel, or God-With-Us.
The story of Christmas is the story of God coming to the least likely of people—an itinerant carpenter and his teenage wife, shepherds, pagan astrologers, refugees—and being with them in all their struggles and joys. God is with them, and if them, then also us. Christmas is the great story of God coming to us in the middle of all our trials and saying “I’m with you. I get you. I see you. I love you.”Dear Family of Hope,
At Christmas, as the year draws to a close, we often reflect back on the highs and lows of the past twelve months. It’s a time for introspection and reflection on what we learned, how we grew, and what we would like to be different in the year to come. As we look back on 2020 there is no question that it has been a hard, hard year. There are a lot of things we hope will be different in 2021!
It’s the pandemic, of course. COVID-19 has upended all our lives and reshuffled almost everything about how we go about our daily lives. Who imagined, last Christmas, that by the end of the year we would have a new sense of appropriate physical space? (six feet – the length of a hockey stick) That face masks would be a new fashion accessory we would match with the rest of our outfits? (I was given one in Advent blue.) Or that we’d undertake a trip to the grocery store with fear and trepidation? (I remember how unsettled I felt last April to venture in to Safeway and see shelves empty of staples like flour, bread, and toilet paper.) Who imagined that we’d not be able to see grandchildren and celebrate holidays and milestones with our families? Or even share the daily burden of childcare? The pandemic has changed so much.
Beyond the inconveniences of masking and not being able to shop whenever we want, COVID-19 has given rise to significant hardships that many in our community have faced over the past year. Some of us have lost our jobs. Some have faced increased stress in doing our jobs with fewer coworkers and changed routines. Some have had long periods of confinement to their homes. We’ve been cut off from seeing our families. Sometimes that has meant not being able to offer or receive important help in caring for young children. Routines, and for some, dreams, of foreign travel have had to be shelved. Loved ones have died and families have not been able to gather for support and comfort. Elective surgeries have had to be postponed, sometimes indefinitely. Some have had extended hospital stays without being able to have family visitors. We’ve had to juggle routines and work schedules to suddenly accommodate homeschooling our children. School and university have gone online and young people have been unable to socialize with friends. As pastor I’ve heard all these stories and more, and I know that this list of significant hardships could go on and on.
But it’s the inward effects of the outer circumstances that are the most significant challenges of all. Members of the Hope family have experienced heightened anxiety, depression, loneliness, anger, irritability, disappointment, fear, sadness, confusion, stress, and disconnection. This list of hits to our emotional wellbeing could also go on and on.
But amidst all these challenges there has also been good news. To name the good is not about “looking on the bright side,” or in any way trying to minimize the difficulties we have faced. It has truly been an extraordinarily hard year for so many of us. But naming the good helps us to adjust our overall perspective and tell the whole truth about our reality.
In the congregation there has been a beautiful outpouring of energy as people have called each other, reached out with gifts and (physically distant) short visits, and remembered each other in prayer. The crisis has enlivened our empathy and compassion, and we have drawn together as a community as never before. Crisis has given us as citizens a new sense of solidarity – that we’re all in this together. In the very loss of important pieces of our lives, like face-to-face time with family, many of us have come to new realizations about what is most important to us. We don’t take things for granted any more, and in the future this may lead us to make different decisions about how we spend our time. A few have made their home confinements into opportunities to develop hobbies or give more time for self care.
With everything that 2020 has been, we will all be celebrating Christmas differently this year. No family dinners. No work parties. No choirs or caroling. Shopping is curtailed. Some of us might not be finding the interest or energy to decorate our houses at all. But does this mean Christmas won’t come? Right now I’m remembering the moral of the classic Dr. Seuss tale, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In that story the hard-hearted Grinch sets about to wreck Christmas for the people of Whoville by stealing every last trapping of the season. But to his surprise and initial dismay he discovers that people still come together with joy, gratitude, and thanksgiving. If COVID is the Grinch of 2020, may it find us just as undaunted in our sharing of peace and goodwill with each other as the citizens of Whoville.
Somehow I know it will find us undaunted in our celebrations. Because we as Christians are celebrating the coming of God into the world in the person of Jesus. He has many titles that we celebrate in word and carol—Prince of Peace, Sun of Righteousness, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, and Son of God, to name just some—but the name that seems most meaningful in 2020 is Emmanuel, or God-With-Us.
The story of Christmas is the story of God coming to the least likely of people—an itinerant carpenter and his teenage wife, shepherds, pagan astrologers, refugees—and being with them in all their struggles and joys. God is with them, and if them, then also us. Christmas is the great story of God coming to us in the middle of all our trials and saying “I’m with you. I get you. I see you. I love you.”
You know how significant it is when someone connects with you in empathy as says those kind of words. Your heart can suddenly be opened as you know you are embraced. The vulnerability of one person begets vulnerability in the other, and hearts can connect. That’s what Christmas is. God saying, in the person of a little baby, “I’m with you.”
I hope your celebrations of Christmas this year, while probably muted compared to years previous, will still be full of the joy and wonder of the season. I hope you will hear the voice of God saying “I’m with you” as you gather online for worship and over the phone with family. And finally may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13)
Pastor Kristian
Photo by Gareth Harper on Unsplash