The Lord is With You…Yes, You!

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As followers of Jesus, we celebrate Christmas in remembrance of his birth “long ago in a Galilee far away,” as the internet meme proclaims. Jesus is the One through whom God has revealed his righteousness, worked salvation, and made it known! We cannot help but declare his praise along with the psalmist,

Oh sing to the Lord a new song,
    for he has done marvelous things!
His right hand and his holy arm
    have worked salvation for him.
The Lord has made known his salvation;
    he has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations.
He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness
    to the house of Israel.
All the ends of the earth have seen
    the salvation of our God. (Psalm 98:1-3)

Perhaps you heard many Christmas sermons this year, as well as read or listened to plenty of Christmas devotionals. Sure, the decorations are down now, but I would like to consider how the birth of Christ reaches out to the poor, the working poor, travelers, and refugees alike, who too often consider themselves excluded from sharing in the joy of Christ in the church.

I want to share with you the familiar verses from Luke 1-2 and a few simple thoughts that we considered in our Christmas Eve service this year about how to respond when God comes near and begins to reveal his will for your life.

1. “Strange Greetings” (Luke 1:26-29 ESV)

In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

Gabriel said to Mary, “Greetings, O favored one, The Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). The greeting was strange! Mary was “greatly troubled” and couldn’t figure out what kind of greeting this was. Certainly, I would think that angelic greetings would be startling, but Mary was blown away and was trying to read between the lines and reconcile the message with her circumstances…perhaps asking questions such as:

• What do I have to rejoice about?
• How could God be with us, a sinful people? How will sin be dealt with?
• Wait…isn’t this the kind of greeting Gideon received not far from this very spot?

Perhaps you didn’t get that last question, but Mary was well-versed in her knowledge of the Scriptures, and perhaps it was that similarity to Judges 6 that caused her concern as she waited for the other sandal to drop. For those of us without familiarity with the story of Gideon, let’s read Judges 6:11-16:

Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, “The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 

And Gideon said to him, “Please, sir, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 

And the Lord turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” 

And he said to him, “Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 

And the Lord said to him, “But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.”

When Israel needed to be delivered from its oppressors, the Lord heard their cry and commissioned Gideon to lead them to victory…beginning with the admonition,  “The Lord is with you…”. Now, do you see why this got Mary’s attention?

Ironically, the Lord was with her, and she was going to carry the child who would be called Immanuel. So what does "Immanuel" mean? It simply means “God with us” (Matthew 1:22-23), and it is the answer to the cry of our heart...individually and collectively, whether we know it or not. As believers, our community comes from the presence of God, as does our witness. It is not based on our personal impressiveness, wealth, or social standing, as the Apostle Paul pointed out to the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:26-31).

God is with us. In the incarnation (God the Son coming in a physical body), God has made a permanent link with his creation. The scope of this goes way beyond this short reflection. Suffice it to say, God is all in; he is with us to the end…which is much brighter for his having come to us!

2. Don't Be Afraid (Luke 1:30-31)

And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. 

This is the second dose of “fear not” in Luke 1 (Zechariah got one). It is rare for an angel to not lead with the “Fear not!” line. Sometimes when God calls us to respond to him in faith, we are afraid, and our fear is quick to make excuses for us:

• I’m not good enough.
• I don’t have anything to offer.
• It is too good to be true for the likes of me.

Well, long ago the Lord spoke through the prophet Micah about a “too little” town that felt how we saw Gideon feel, and perhaps you feel as well…

But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
    who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
    one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose coming forth is from of old,
    from ancient days… (Micah 5:2)

Does the thought of God speaking to us, average people in the little wooden church by the laundromat in the bad part of town, and calling us to be part of something with cosmic ramifications scare us? Yep…pretty much! But the messenger of God says to us, as to Mary, “Don’t be afraid.” The basis of our courage is the love of God for us and his presence with us!

3. Know the Power of God (Luke 1:34-37)

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

To her credit, Mary didn’t doubt that the Lord could do what he said, nor did she argue over being chosen. Her question was simply because she didn’t understand how the Lord would work it out. It seemed impossible since she was a virgin, but as the angel answered, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” I think we could also say that nothing God has said will fail. This One who was to be born was the power of God working to shepherd and protect his people. He is our peace.

And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
    in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
    to the ends of the earth.
And he shall be their peace. (Micah 5:4-5a)

Mary took this message at face value, responding, “I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

4. Believe What He Says (Luke 1:38, 45)

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

“…And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Mary was blessed when she believed what God had said to her. Abraham was similarly blessed. The trick for us average people is to believe, or trust, what God has said in his Word. We want to believe, but sometimes we have to be honest about our doubts. It reminds me of when Jesus came down from the Mt. of Transfiguration and encountered an argument arising from his disciples’ inability to cast out a demon that was convulsing a man’s son. The boy’s father petitioned Jesus,

“But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 

And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:22-24)

Will we respond in faith to the God who loves us and came to earth to show us that he exists and is good?

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. (Hebrews 11:6)

Jesus is not like some fictional fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants Aladdin-type asking us, “Do you trust me?” But perhaps we should be a little more like Jazmin, or in this case, like the real-life Mary, and say “Yes!” to him this year. Indeed, we cannot change the world by our own power and plans…but it never was about that. It is about Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who were sent by the Father—God with us. Yes, with us!

If there was one group of people in the dark that night who had no expectation of being included in God’s marvelous plan, it was the shepherds, which leads us to our last point.

5. Tell Others (Luke 2:8-20)

v. 17 "When they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child."

v. 20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

We can’t have a Christmas message that leaves anyone out. From the oppressed peasant girl giving birth to the Messiah to an old woman who lived in the social shame of failing to give her husband a son and would have thought that it was too late for her to be a part of God’s plan, to simple shepherds who were not even allowed to worship in the temple (for they were considered unclean) now having God come to them that night to announce the good news—what a gift!  And they went and told all that they had seen and heard…who would have thought that they would one day announce the birth of the Good Shepherd!

Arise, shine, for your light has come,
    and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
For behold, darkness shall cover the earth,
    and thick darkness the peoples;
but the Lord will arise upon you,
    and his glory will be seen upon you.
And nations shall come to your light,
    and kings to the brightness of your rising… (Isaiah 60:1-3)

And speaking of gifts, we can’t leave out the Magi who came later,

the wealth of the nations shall come to you.
A multitude of camels shall cover you,
    the young camels of Midian and Ephah;
    all those from Sheba shall come.
They shall bring gold and frankincense,
    and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. (Isaiah 60:5b-6)

Beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Lord loves you—no one is beyond the reach of his plan to fix a broken world. He is our Advocate, our Helper, but he didn’t just come to fix things; he came to dwell with us!

Perhaps you may still be puzzled like Mary was about this whole incarnation thing. Let me share a helpful story with you that I first at Christmas in 2001.

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THE MAN AND THE BIRDS (written by Paul Harvey)

Now, the man to whom I’m going to introduce you was not a Scrooge. He was a kind, decent, mostly good man, generous to his family and upright in his dealings with other men. But he just didn’t believe all that incarnation stuff which the churches proclaim at Christmas time. It just didn’t make sense, and he was too honest to pretend otherwise. He just couldn’t swallow the Jesus story, about God coming to earth as a man.

“I’m truly sorry to distress you,” he told his wife, “but I’m not going with you to church this Christmas Eve.” He said he’d feel like a hypocrite and that he’d much rather just stay at home, but that he would wait up for them. And so he stayed, and they went to the midnight service.

Shortly after the family drove away in the car, snow began to fall. He went to the window to watch the flurries getting heavier and heavier, and then went back to his fireside chair and began to read his newspaper. Minutes later, he was startled by a thudding sound. Then another, and then another. Sort of a thump or a thud. At first, he thought someone must be throwing snowballs against his living room window.

But when he went to the front door to investigate, he found a flock of birds huddled miserably in the snow. They’d been caught in the storm and, in a desperate search for shelter, had tried to fly through his large [picture] window. Well, he couldn’t let the poor creatures lie there and freeze, so he remembered the barn where his children stabled their pony. That would provide a warm shelter if he could direct the birds to it.

Quickly, he put on a coat and galoshes and tramped through the deepening snow to the barn. He opened the doors wide and turned on a light, but the birds did not come in. He figured food would entice them in. So he hurried back to the house, fetched bread crumbs, and sprinkled them on the snow, making a trail to the yellow-lighted, wide-open doorway of the stable. But to his dismay, the birds ignored the bread crumbs and continued to flap around helplessly in the snow.

He tried catching them. He tried shooing them into the barn by walking around them, waving his arms. Instead, they scattered in every direction, except into the warm, lighted barn. And then, he realized that they were afraid of him. To them, he reasoned, I am a strange and terrifying creature. If only I could think of some way to let them know that they can trust me – that I am not trying to hurt them, but to help them. But how, because any move he made tended to frighten and confuse them. They just would not follow. They would not be led or shooed because they feared him.

“If only I could be a bird,” he thought to himself, “and mingle with them and speak their language. Then I could tell them not to be afraid. Then I could show them the way to the safe, warm . . .  . . .  . . . to the safe, warm barn. But I would have to be one of them so they could see, and hear, and understand.”

At that moment, the church bells began to ring. The sound reached his ears above the sounds of the wind. And he stood there listening to the bells – listening to the bells pealing the glad tidings of Christmas. And he sank to his knees in the snow.

The Beauty of Red Cups

Every Christmas, there seems to be at least one retailer who forbids employees to wish customers a “Merry Christmas” or one municipality that removes a manger scene and as a result, bears the brunt of Christians venting a year’s worth of frustration at being marginalized by our post-Christendom culture. This year is no exception.

A normally chilly November has featured a rather heated debate, even a firestorm of resistance to Starbucks’ rollout of their plain red cups for the holidays this year. Many have taken to social media to proclaim their dissatisfaction. I have remarked to several people that this argument is misguided and actually counter-productive to the cause of Christ. I would like to go on record and say that I like the relatively simple yet elegant red cups marking the Christmas season at Starbucks…for several reasons.

I was encouraged to find that the Starbucks news blog post, dated November 1, 2015, shows an astute cultural awareness that is unfortunately lost on many American Christians who think that all cultures should revolve around them, using their language and symbols. The Starbucks cups appear after Halloween and signal the addition of special holiday drinks to their menu. While Starbucks might be trying to spin this conflict in its favor, I sensed a sincerity that needs to be heard. And that is the problem, isn’t it? Frequent readers of my blogs will recognize that this is a regular theme in my writing. Any time we respond without actually listening to the viewpoint of another (no matter which side of the argument we are on) we reveal ourselves to be unwise.

Why Did They Do It?

Jeffrey Fields, Starbucks' vice president of Design & Content is quoted in the post and I want you to be able to read his words for yourself,

Taking a cue from customers who have been doodling designs on cups for years (Starbucks held a contest to support this creativity), this year’s design is another way Starbucks is inviting customers to create their own stories with a red cup that mimics a blank canvas.  

“In the past, we have told stories with our holiday cups designs,” said Fields. “This year we wanted to usher in the holidays with a purity of design that welcomes all of our stories.”

In the nearly two decades since the first red Starbucks cup, the company has grown from 1,400 stores in a handful of countries to more than 23,000 stores in 68 markets around the world.

“Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays,” he said. “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.”

Creating a culture of belonging, inclusion, and diversity is one of the core values of Starbucks, and each year during the holidays the company aims to bring customers an experience that inspires the spirit of the season. Starbucks will continue to embrace and welcome customers from all backgrounds and religions in our stores around the world.[1]

While I have liked the special cups of Christmases past (I happily own some) I love the idea of the cup being a symbolic "canvas" where we can create our own stories in community with others. Past years’ cups have been almost too cluttered with seasonal themes (hope, peace, love, giving) and symbols—trees, snowflakes, ornaments, reindeer, gifts, etc. All are placed there with a marketing connection to increasing sales. None of these things are really outwardly Christian, so it is hard to see this as a credible attack on Christmas by Starbucks. The biggest danger to the western church is not the “bleak midwinter” of Christ-less secularism, but it might just be consumerism. In which case, a simple cup might point us back in the right direction… toward open engagement with others in time spent, stories shared, and all done around an open table.

A Place of Sanctuary

Are our homes a sanctuary?

Are our homes and churches known as places of sanctuary, or are they filled, in turn, with bustling acrimony or bored apathy? Not only am I impressed with the reasoning behind the red cups, but I am also personally convicted when Mr. Fields says, “Starbucks has become a place of sanctuary during the holidays,” he said. “We’re embracing the simplicity and the quietness of it. It’s a more open way to usher in the holiday.” As I have written previously (Rethinking “Don’t Talk to Strangers!”), I rarely sit in a Starbucks without speaking to a stranger, making a new friend, working on a sermon, mentoring other Christians, or just enjoying being with family and friends. I see others doing likewise. Why are we the church not more of a “sanctuary”? Why is it that we are rarely described by words like “simplicity” and “quietness”? And for those who consider “holiday” a trigger word, it literally means “holy day” so if we truly considered a day holy how would we treat others on it? I have apologized to the baristas in my local Starbucks because they have to work on Christmas, but they say they love sharing the day with the crew and the people who come in are happier than normal.

Back to the Red Cups.

What does red mean? Is it not rife with biblical symbolism? Certainly, it reminds me of the “blood of Christ” that was shed on a Roman cross to wash away our sins. But perhaps more seasonally appropriate, red is the color of humanity for Adam was made from the red dust of the ground. It is at Christmas that God the Son left the culture of heaven behind to become fully human so that he might redeem us, become the perfect advocate for us, and set us free from our slavery to the fear of death (Hebrews 2:14-18). If we are going to engage the world like Jesus did, we will have to start with humbling ourselves, not grasping or demanding (Philippians 2:1-11).

I don’t agree with everything Starbucks does nor with all the values that they profess…like when they spell my name wrong. Yes, coffee drinks are often too expensive, though I usually drink the less expensive iced coffee. Having said that, Starbucks has been a blessing to the church as a “third space” in the community to talk, listen, laugh, study, and share with believers and those who don’t—even without reindeer on their cups.

Finally, I don’t need to fib about my name to force baristas to write "Merry Christmas" on my cup and then have to call out “Merry Christmas, your tall non-fat iced coffee with mocha is ready!” I am more interested in talking to them while they take my order and make my coffee…treating them as fully human and even as friends. So hopefully, when I wish them a "Merry Christmas!", and I will, they will believe I mean it and agree that it has been merry indeed.

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[1] Pasted from https://news.starbucks.com/news/the-story-behind-the-design-of-starbucks-red-holiday-cups-for-2015