A Bit of Christmas in...August?

How often do you hear the name Emmanuel in church outside of Advent and Christmas?

Can you recall it in any of our readings on Sunday or in any Bible Studies you may attend? If we sang O Come, O Come Emmanuel on Sunday, I am most certain I would be met with some questions. Yet, we celebrate with this Emmanuel – this God with us during the winter, every winter. But what about the summer? What about now?

Poet Ann Weems says this in her poem We Seem to Forget:

What concerns me,

what lies on my heart,

is this:

That we in the church

papered and programmed

articulate and agenda-ed

are telling the faith story

all wrong,

are telling it as though it happened two thousand

years ago

or is going to happen

as soon as the church budget is raised.

We seem to forget that Christ’s name is Emmanuel,

God with Us,

Not just when he sat among us

but now

when we cannot feel the nailprints in his hands.

It is hard to imagine at times, but God is truly with us…all the time…everywhere.

How would the church’s faith story change if we tell it in such a way that centers God in everything? How would your faith story change if you were able to find God living in each moment?

Yours in Christ,

Pastor Jason