Advent IV

Advent IV Emmanuel (Matthew 1:18-25)

God’s math is not like human math.

In God’s math one plus one plus one equals one. The three distinct persons of the Holy Trinity are one God.

In God’s math, one divided by two also equals one. Jesus Christ is one single person with two natures: human and divine. Jesus is not half human and half divine. He is one person who is fully human and fully divine.

Jesus is Emmanuel: God with us.

Human math insists that God is either one or three. Human math insists that Jesus is either human or divine. Of all of the people on earth it was holy mother Mary who knew that Jesus was fully human and fully God. Mary had the knowledge of personal experience.

We cannot have the same kind of knowledge Mary had. We can not have the same personal experience. We can have the knowledge that comes from faith. We can have the personal experience of Jesus Christ that comes from grace.

The incarnation of the second person of the Eternal Trinity is the reality that God not only wants to be found by human beings, he has in fact come to earth to find us- all of us, each of us.

Jesus is God with us.

Jesus is God fully embracing human nature. Jesus is God who has become a particular human being so he can relate to us the same way a friend relates to a long lost friend. We are the lost. Jesus is the friend (and more than a friend) who seeks us out and finds us.

Jesus finds us where ever we are. Jesus accepts us as we are. Jesus invites us to enter into a new place. The place is at the altar of sacrifice.
The altar of sacrifice is where Jesus pledges infallibly to be here for us, to be here with us.

Jesus invites us to become more than we are now. He invites us to give him our sins so he can transform them back into virtue. He invites us to surrender our self will so he can transform it by divine will into free will.

Jesus offers us a new life- eternal life. He offers us a new way of living- holy living. The world exalts separation, rebellion and self indulgence. Jesus very patiently asks: so, how is that working out for you? Are you tired yet? Are you tired of feeling tired? Are you tired of the skepticism, the cynicism, and the spite? Are you tired of a world at war with itself? Are you tired of fighting and accusing, of using and being used?

There is another way. Jesus himself is that other way. Jesus is that other way because he is Emmanuel, God with us.

God wants to be found. He reaches out to find us in Jesus Christ. What keeps us lost is our own self will, fear and pride. What keeps us lost is sin. The sin is the log in our eyes that blinds us from the reality of the Living Lord Jesus Christ.
Where do you live from the place of self will? Where you live from the place of demand? Where do you live from the attitude of judgment and exclusion? It is in that place that Jesus offers to become real to you as you surrender your sins to him . It is as he transforms those sins from selfishness into selflessness that Jesus becomes more real to us.

Despite the many distortions of the secular holiday season there is still an important insight in all of the materialism. The insight is that life is more blessed as we give. We are more blessed as we open our hearts to become channels of giving.

The world narrows the concept to a single day in a single way- the way of materialism. Jesus opens and expands this concept from an infinite and eternal way. It is the way of grace- unmerited favor, unconditional love.

As we open to the way of grace we open to the reality of God. And God finds us in that moment. Every time we approach life from the way of unconditional love we encounter Jesus Christ at our side. We find him who first finds us.
Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us in a single moment of grace.