God With Us, Still

Introduction

At the beginning of Advent, we learned that King Ahaz was the king of Judah.

Judah is under threat from a coalition of two neighboring Kingdoms...

...Aram with its capital in Damascus, and...

...the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria.

At the same time, the Assyrian empire was expanding aggressively...

...forcing smaller nations to choose sides or face destruction. 

When Judah refused to join the coalition against Assyria...

Damascus and Samaria responded with violence.

They invaded Judah and plotted to remove Ahaz from the throne...

...replacing him with a puppet king of their own choosing.

It turns out that regime change, political fear, and international violence are not modern inventions.

And yet—God is with us.

God sends the prophet Isaiah to meet Ahaz, not after the danger has passed...

...but right in the middle of it.

Isaiah speaks a word of reassurance and offers a sign...

...not because Ahaz is faithful, but because God is.

Today…

We also long for signs of promise and hope amid times of political, social, and economic turmoil.

In recent days, we have witnessed once again how violence and hatred erupt in public life.

Antisemitism continues to target Jewish communities.

Gun violence reaches into places meant for learning, celebration, and safety.

Fear shapes how people gather, worship, and envision the future.

Scripture does not ask us to minimize this reality. It asks us to tell the truth.

There are times when violence and fear leave us wondering where God is present in the world. When such times occur, Scripture tells us that God is with us.

God was with King Ahaz.

God was with Mary and Joseph.

God is with us today.

And so, on this final Sunday of Advent, the question for us to wrestle with is...

When violence and fear leave us wondering where God is present in the world, how do we awaken to the truth that God is already with us?

God Moves First

We awaken to the truth that God is already with us...

...by recognizing that God Moves First.

God Moves First.

John Wesley described prevenient grace as the grace that meets us on the porch of faith...

...before belief,

...before the decision,

...before trust.

In Isaiah 7, God goes even further.

King Ahaz refuses to ask for a sign, yet God gives one anyway.

The Lord does not wait inside the house for Ahaz to knock...

God steps into Ahaz’s line of sight.

It is as if the lights are already on, the door already open, and God is standing in the driveway saying...

“You are not alone.”

The sign is not a demand...

...not a test...

...not a proof...

...but a presence: Emmanuel, God with us...

...given before faith is formed and before courage is found.

This particular sign that God gives in Isaiah...

“Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.”

This sign… arouses hope.

At the same time, it opens up the gap between what the world is and what it ought to be.

Recognizing that God moves first does not simply change what we do; it changes who we are.

...it changes who we are, and who we are becoming together.

...together.

If God has already stepped toward us...

...already turned on the lights,

...already spoken a word of presence...

...then we do not have to live from fear or defensiveness.

We do not have to secure ourselves by winning arguments, providing ourselves with the right, or reacting to every provocation.

Prevenient grace forms us into people who can pause, listen, and respond with compassion rather than outrage.

...and when that grace shapes us...

...it also reshapes our lives as a community.

In a world marked by violence, hatred, and deep division, the church is called to be a living sign of Emmanuel.

...a place where fear does not get the final word,

...where disagreement does not erase dignity,

...and where hope is practiced even when the future feels uncertain.

Emmanuel does not remove us from the world’s pain, but it anchors us within it.

It allows us to gather honestly,

....to worship without denying grief,

...and to speak with courage rooted not in panic,

...but in trust that God is already at work.

So this week, when you encounter words or situations that stir anger or anxiety...

...whether online, in conversation, or in the news...

Pause.

Pause and pray first.

Remember that God has already moved toward you, and toward them.

Let your response, and our shared witness, be shaped not by fear, but by the grace that met us before we were ready.

That is possible because God is present in the world amid fear...

...because God Moves First.

God Dwells With Us

Not only does God Move First...

...God Dwells With Us...

God Dwells With Us.

Isaiah speaks: “The young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.”

Before this child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, Isaiah tells us, he will eat curds and honey...

...the simple food of a land under siege...

...the diet of people living with fear and uncertainty.

The Emmanuel Isaiah predicts is not yet triumphant or powerful.

In Isaiah’s own time, this sign points first to God’s nearness in the midst of fear....

...a child born into history, vulnerability, and uncertainty.

Isaiah’s original hearers would have understood this as a sign of God’s presence before deliverance was complete.

But we know the fuller story...

…As Christians, we later come to see the fullness of this promise revealed in Jesus Christ...

This is a God who does not remain distant or untouched.

This is a God who empties themself and chooses to dwell fully within human life...

...learning,

...growing,

...eating,

...and living among a people caught in political turmoil and violence.

This is why the church continues to sing:

“O come, O Come, Emmanuel,

and ransom captive Israel,

that mourns in lonely exile here,

until the Son of God appear.”

This is not the song of a people who have arrived.

It is a song of a people who know what it means to wait...

...to live with vulnerability...

...and to trust that God is present even before deliverance is complete.

Rooted in the prophetic tradition, Emmanuel...

...is able to unmask evil and not from above it...

...but from within it...

...and to give hope precisely because God refuses to abandon the world to fear.

We Live Emmanuel

We awaken to the truth that God is already with us by living Emmanuel.

Like Joseph, we awaken to God’s presence by embodying trust through faithful action.

St. Matthew tells us:

“When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.”

Joseph does not awaken to a picture-perfect Christmas.

He awakens to disruption.

So often, Christmas comes wrapped in false expectations...

...expectations of family harmony, good cheer, and lives that look neat and complete.

We are surrounded by images of the “proper” Christmas...

...the perfect tree,

...the perfect gathering,

...the perfect joy.

...and when our lives or our families fall short of those images, many feel a quiet emptiness...

...or sadness, wondering why their Christmas doesn’t look the way it’s supposed to.

The first Christmas was nothing like that...

In St. Matthew’s telling… God’s work upsets comfortable social expectations and conventions.

What unfolds is both a wonder and a scandal.

Mary’s pregnancy is not just surprising...

...it is, to Joseph, a violation of social convention and ethical norms for an unmarried woman.

This is not how things are supposed to happen…

This is not proper...

This is not safe...

...and yet, when Joseph awakens, he chooses trust.

He violates convention not recklessly, but faithfully.

He remains with Mary not because the situation suddenly makes sense...

...but because God, as God so often does...

...intervenes in an unexpected way.

Joseph lives Emmanuel by aligning his life with what God is doing, even when it costs him reputation, certainty, and control.

That is how Emmanuel becomes visible in the world...

...not through perfection, but through trust.

John Wesley insisted that faith is never merely something we hold in our minds or confess with our lips.

True faith, he said, is a religion of the heart and the lift...

...a trust in God that takes shape in how we actually live.

Joseph’s faith is not loud or dramatic.

It is quiet, embodied, and faithful.

...and in that faith, Emmanuel takes flesh in the world.

...and this matters for us.

Because amid all our less-than-picture-perfect Christmases…

God is still doing something new.

Emmanuel does not wait for ideal conditions.

Emmanuel takes shape in ordinary lives, lived faithfully in uncertain circumstances.

Joseph and Mary did not know where God would take them.

They did not have a map or a guarantee.

All they knew was that something wonderful had been promised...

...and that they had been beckoned to follow.

To live Emmanuel is not to have everything figured out.

It is to wake up, as Joseph did, and take the next faithful step...

...trusting that the God who moved first, and the God who dwells with us, is still present as we go.

Kerygmatic Fulfillment

This is the good news of Advent...

Emmanuel is not waiting for ideal conditions.

God is already with us...

...moving first, dwelling among us, and taking shape in ordinary, imperfect lives.

...and that means that even now, Christ is being made visible in this community.

When we choose presence over perfection...

When we make room for questions as well as convictions...

When we acknowledge both light and darkness without fear....

We are not inventing Emmanuel...

...we are living into what God has already promised.

University United Methodist Church does not have to become something else to bear this witness.

We are called simply to be who God has already shaped us to be...

...a people who stay close to one another,

...who honor the stories of those who came before us,

...who welcome the seeker and the believer alike,

...and who trust that God is at work even in uncertainty.

This Advent, Emmanuel is not only proclaimed here...

...it is practiced.

God is still doing something new among us.

In the name of our Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer.