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