January 4, 2026 "God, Vast and Intimate"

2nd Sunday of Christmas

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 147:12-20

Ephesians 1:3-14

John 1:1-18

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,

grace and peace to you from the one who is both vast and intimate Amen

Merry Christmas!

I know, it may not feel like Christmas anymore,

Especially since the hope for peace on earth

Has been shattered once again.

As we struggle to understand

And Wonder what to say

And Pray for those in Venezuela

 Christmas feels like it is over.

And yet this year the way the calendar falls

we get a second Sunday in Christmas,

 the season in the Church calendar

 runs until Epiphany on January 6th,

 that’s where we get the 12 days of Christmas.

As epiphany is not until Tuesday

this year we get one more Sunday to dwell on Christmas. 

So often when we think Christmas

we think of the baby in the manger

and the angels and shepherds

but today we get to focus on Christmas as the incarnation of God,

 God the Word becoming flesh

 and dwelling among us,

the Greek is literally translated as “pitching a tent among us”,

 God became one of us

and lived with us

no special treatment

but the full human experience and all that goes with it,

 including suffering and death,

things God could easily have avoided and yet didn’t.

which means we have a God

who knows what it means to be human

God understands with an understanding born of experience

Something we humans treasure greatly

We’ve all had times

where we’ve felt like the only people who understand us

 are those who have gone through what we are going through,

 an illness, a relationship change, what have you,

so how much more meaningful is it that we have a God

that loved us so much

 and wanted to be as close to us as possible

that God became one of us,

to connect with us on the deepest level

the level of shared experience.

That God is this intimately concerned with our lives,

 Is all the more amazing

when we consider this is the same one who created the universe

 a universe so vast that we have yet to comprehend the farthest reaches

and a universe so detailed

 that we are still discovering the many tiny ways that life is connected

This is the God that is concerned with us!

Who seeks intimate relationship with us!

 Jesus is close to us,

 closer than we sometimes like to think

 and yet God is mysterious to us,

 because as intimate with us as Jesus is,

 and as much as he reveals God’s will to us

 according to God’s good pleasure,

 at the same time God is so much bigger,

than even our wildest imaginations can comprehend.

John, in his description of the incarnation,

brings us all the way back to before creation

when God the Father, Word, and Spirit

 all together created the world

set the foundations of life in motion

and had hopes and dreams and a plan for interacting with creation,

 first through the gift of the law and then through Christ. 

That is both big and intricate planning.

Paul in Ephesians tells us

that God chose us in Christ

before the foundation of the world,

we wonder at the enormity of that

as well at the intimacy of being part of God’s plan

 from even before time

God is bigger than we are,

bigger than all of us together

 with greater understanding,

but even as God is so much bigger

God has included us

God doesn’t need us but God has made us part of the action

Again as Paul explains to the Ephesians “with all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in heaven and things on earth. In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, that that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.”

God’s will for us is abundant life,

and “us” means all creation to God,

as we are well aware,

sin has entered the world

and because of sin there is pain and suffering

but God has promised to gather us in

 the gathering is still in process,

and until then

our purpose is to live for the praise of God’s glory.

And how do we do that?

 We live for the praise of God’s glory

when we live in ways

 that bring more of God’s will into the world,

the will of abundant life for all,

 and that means sometimes living in ways

 counter to the way of the world.

 The world says there is not enough for everyone,

God’s will says that there is plenty to go around.

The world says that those who appear different

 are to be feared,

God’s will says that they too are children of God.

 The world says power is gained through shows of strength.

 God’s will says that serving your neighbor is the strongest way to live. 

Our purpose is to live for the praise of God’s glory,

 not the praise of the world,

and the world will push back,

it will be difficult at times

but we are able to live this way

because we have been claimed by God,

 and promised that whatever the world does to us

 will not have the last say.

At our baptisms

God claimed us and marked us

 “with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.”

And yet even marked with the Holy Spirit

there may be times when the enormity and mystery of God’s will

become overwhelming,

and then Jesus comes to us again,

in Word and water,

 bread and wine

reminding us that God knows exactly what we’re going through

 that God is with us.

This is the miracle of the incarnation

that we celebrate at Christmas,

 the intimacy of God with us

all as part of God whose will stretches before time.

 Some days we need the baby in the manger,

the Word become flesh living among us,

 and some days we need God who is bigger than us

 with plans and understanding far beyond our measly comprehension

 but who still cares for us.

 At Christmas we get both

and we celebrate all the mysterious truth that comes with it

secure in the knowledge that God is bigger than we are

and that God is with us. Merry Christmas. Amen