Messy. What do you
think of when you hear the word messy?
Your messy kitchen. Your messy
purse. The mess that winter weather
makes of the roads. The mess of mail on
the counter. The mess of mud tracked on
your clean carpet. The mess of
post-Christmas. The messy house. The mess after a dog rips up a toy. The mess of spilled coffee on your new pants. The mess of wax on the church floor after 5
worship services. The mess of the return
lines after Christmas. The mess of the
kid’s toy room. You get the idea. There are a lot of messy things in life.
I
recently heard a story about a mess.
There were two little old ladies, both in their young 80s. They were old spinsters living in North Dakota. They were not only living in North Dakota, they were living on a farm in North Dakota. It was not only a farm in North
Dakota, it was a dumpy farm in North Dakota. It was the dumpiest farm you have ever seen
in North Dakota. The chicken coop was falling down. The barn was falling down. The rusted machinery was falling apart, and
the old rusted spinsters were falling apart.
These were two old spinsters and they were as tough as nails. They had weathered every storm for the past
sixty years and they were tough. Well,
it so happened that a nephew came to visit them one fall day from the city, and
he took out his camera to take a picture of his weather worn aunts, with the
barn and the chicken coop and the rusted machinery in the background. The aunts just stood there, strait and stiff
for the picture. The nephew took a
picture and later sent them a copy. The
old aunts just loved that photograph, and they decided to use it for a
Christmas card that year. At the top of
their picture, they put the words, Merry Christmas, in bold, black
letters. And at the bottom of the
picture, in big bold letters were the words:
God is with us in our mess.
Indeed,
God is with us. “The virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, “God is
with us.” If you think about it the
Christmas story is a bit messy. A young
unmarried teenager conceives a child.
Mary, who is with child and Joseph travel several days, about 80 miles
(and it wasn’t by plane, train, or automobile).
The innkeeper declares that there is no room in the inn for the pregnant
Mary and her husband, Joseph. Jesus, the
son of God, a babe born in a barn in Bethlehem,
placed in the animal’s feeding trough, knows messy. In the midst of messy, God is with us. In the midst of messy, the holy shows
up. God is with us. God proclaims, “This is Emmanuel.”
God is with us when things are going well. God is with us when marriage vows are
said. God is with us when children are
born. God is with us when we walk across
the stage on graduation day. God is with
us when we land the job we have always dreamed of. God is with us when laughter and joy are
shared. In these good times I think it
is often easier to remember God’s presence.
God is with us. God proclaims,
“This is Emmanuel.”
Sometimes it is more difficult to remember, but God is
with us all the time. God is with us
when things are not going well. God is
with us when terminal illness comes upon a loved one. God is with us when fertility problems are
encountered. God is with us when divorce
enters the picture. God is with us when
life ends too quickly. God is with us
when holiday are not happy days. God is
with us when tears and sadness are shared.
God is with us. God proclaims,
“This is Emmanuel.”
As the Christmas card from the old ladies in North Dakota proclaimed,
“God is with us in our mess.” That is
the message I hope you take away this Christmas. God is with us in our mess. Emmanuel, God with us, is foretold in Isaiah
and then proclaimed in Matthew as Joseph is told of Mary’s pregnancy. Christ enters into the world as one who is
both human and divine. Christ enters
into a world filled with mess. Christ
lives amidst the mess. Christ knows what
it is like for us to live in the messiness.
Through the good and bad God is with us.
God is with us. God proclaims,
“This is Emmanuel.”
The
truth of life is that it is more often messy than neat and tidy. Do you know of anywhere that is not messed
up? Relationships are messy. Families are messy. The world is messy. Life is messy. And in the midst of the messy, Christ comes
in. God will not protect us from the
messes, but God will walk with us in the messes. God will show up. God will not forsake us or leave us. Just when we think life has gotten too messy,
Christ bursts in. Just when we think
that we have strayed too far for God to care about us, Christ comes to us. In the messiness of our lives, Emmanuel
comes to us. God is with us. God proclaims, “This is Emmanuel.”
It may seem like a dark, silent night here in this
sanctuary, but there are still messes surrounding us. Messes in our lives. Messes in our hearts. Messes in the lives of those we love. Messes in the lives of strangers near and
far. Messes in our society. Messes in our world. Messes surround us. In all of those messes Christ is showing
up. God first burst into our world as a
human some 2,000 years ago. And God
continues to burst into our world each and every night. Emmanuel is coming to us this night. Born again this night for you and for me this
Christmas. Emmanuel – God with us. God is truly with us. God proclaims, “This is Emmanuel.” Amen.
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