Advent 10

God With Us.

We got to the God with Us part today! Poor Joseph, who got so ignored yesterday, fearlessly marries the suspiciously knocked up girlfriend and then agrees to name the babe, Immanuel, God With Us which somehow ends with the kid being called Jesus.

Names matter and we are reminded tonight that we are of a people who name with thought and consideration. And God, our God, chose a name that would remind the babe and everyone who came to know him, God Has Come to Be With Us.  This truth is at the centre of my faith - it is the reason I stay in the boat with Sarah and the rest of the fools - the secretish hope that Jesus is in the boat too.

The other thing I love in the story and that we're reminding of in this particular passage, is how required each person is in this story.  This isn't a story about Mary. Or about the baby particularly.  This is yet another story where God does what God does, drawing each person into the story to remind them that they are known and required and noticed and central while at the very same moment reminding them that they are not at all the point.  The story always comes back to God With Us. But the story happens With Us.  It's so mysterious and awesome and wonderful.  Joseph matters. The shepherds will matter.  Those three kings will matter.

I matter.

But mostly? Mostly God matters. See? The Giver, not The Gift.

Matthew 1: 22 - 25

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel”—which means, “God with us.”
²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.