Video Transcript: Pondering the Word -- Module 2

The whole idea of chaplaincy revolves around that idea of bringing the presence of God into the hurting world, which is exactly what Jesus did. 

He brought the presence of God's Son himself into this world that was hurting this world that was lost this world that was dying. And Jesus brought God's presence to everyone who's there. 

So in this module, we're going to be taking a look at the idea of the manual and I, I chose a message out of my files that that had to do with Christmas. Christmas is the time when we talk about a manual that, and yet, the more I've worked on this course. The more I thought, you know, we should talk about the manual, probably every two months or so in our churches, and just remind everyone of the whole idea that God gives this name a Immanuel to the child who would be born because he wants us to know that in Jesus, we have God with us and when we as Christians, bring the presence of Jesus into our world in whatever place we might be ministering as a chaplain as a pastor, we are we are fulfilling the purpose of Immanuel. So I want to read a little bit from Matthew chapter one. 

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph. But before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband was a righteous man, and did not want to expose her to public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

But after he considered this an angel, the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home is your wife. because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. 

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

Whatever else the Christmas season brings, besides weight gain, and for many of us here in the United States, credit card debt, some time or another, our exaggerated expectations of holiday cheer will clash with the hard realities of life as most of us limit. The result is annoying sense of what the disconnect is between what is and what should be between what we long for and what we actually experience. And for some, this disconnect is so profound and deeply personal, that it can actually lead to clinical depression. I call it a favorite song of mine, it's got a beautiful tune, and it sounds so nice, but there's a singer and you can find this online. 

Just look up Bette Midler is B E T T E  M I D L E R, and it's from a distance and she captures this human, this deeply human but ambivalent sense of longing. And she thinks about from a sanitized distance life feels safer, and better than what we experienced up close and personal. Here's how the lyrics go. From a distance the world looks blue and green and the snow-capped mountains white. From a distance the ocean meets the stream and the eagle takes the flight. From a distance, there is harmony and it echoes through the land. It's the voice of hope. It's the voice of peace. It's the voice of every man. From a distance we all have enough and no one is in need,

There are no guns, no bombs and no disease. No hungry mouths to feed. From adistance we are instruments, marching in a common band, playing songs of hope, playing songs of peace, they are the songs of every man. From a distance you look like my friend, even though we are at war, from a distance we all have enough. And no one is in need. From a distance.

I just cannot comprehend with all this fighting for, from a distance, there's harmony. And that goes through the land. It's the hope of hopes. It's the love of loves. It's the heart of every man. And then comes the chorus that she goes like this. God is watching us. God is watching us, God is watching us from a distance, such as life at arm's length or the dramatic distance between human longing and the empirical reality up close where people really live. 

Life is quite different. In his recent report, a health you use the United States as we looked at it, in 2004, the Center for Disease Control reported that almost half of Americans take at least one prescription medicine.

And also in that year, a few years back Business week read reported that, in 2003, the average Chief Executive had to work a mere day and a half to earn the equivalent of a typical employee's yearly salary. In addition to these elusive hopes of physical health and, and economic equality, we also fail ourselves.

I resonate with a Benedictine nun, Joan Chittister, who in her book called to question the spiritual memoir wrote, we know ourselves to be weak. we stumble along being less than we can be never living up to our own standards, let alone anyone elses. We eat too much between meals, we work too little to get ahead. 

We drink more than we should at the office party. We're all addicted to something. And those addictions not only crippled us, they convinced us that we are worthless and incapable of being worthwhile. It is a self fulfilling prophecy of the worst order because it traps us inside our own sense of inadequacy, of futility of failure. 

Now, for its part, the scriptures especially the Psalms are brutally realistic. The Psalmist often sounds like Bette Midler when he when he bemoans with God's anger smouldering against the prayers of his people, and as a result, he speaks of drinking tears by the bowlful facing the devastation of civil war, Isaiah writes that his people were shaken, as the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind. 

But then we turn to the Gospel of Matthew. And there Matthew quotes Isaiah 7 he says, The virgin will be with child and would give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel. And then Matthew translates that Hebrew word for his readers adding, which means God with us. In that single Hebrew word, Immanuel, God with us, lives the essence of what Christians believe happened at the birth of Jesus. 

In a moment of divine love, and divine wonder God took on our human flesh and entered our world, to embrace us and to redeem us. And whether we feel his presence or not, he is near us. And even though we may might stumble in all our ways and do not marry his favorite, he is near us nothing we say or do could draw him closer or drive him away. God is not watching us from a distance.

A song even though it has such beautiful lyrics in a beautiful sound, beautiful tune. It tells us lie. God is not watching this from a distance. God has become God with us in the midst of all of our problems are in the midst of our suffering in the midst of our pain, in the midst of our grief, in the midst of our doubts, God is with us. He is present 

And that is what a chaplain brings to the table, when they meet with someone else personally, when they, when they meet online in a chat room, what they're doing is they're bringing God's holy, redeeming presence, his loving presence, so that whomever is hurting, whomever is doubting, whomever finds their faith, struggling, they can know God is with us. And that word us is kind of important. Because it's not, God is with me. God is with us. Human beings, were not meant to live by themselves. 

Just shortly after God created Adam. He looked at what he had made. And he said, It's not good for the man to be alone, I will make him a helper meet for him. And so he created woman. And in that moment, we realize that what God has done is made us into people who need him together. God saves a people group, he saves a community, he saves people in relationship with other people.

That's what's so beautiful about CLI two is that what we're doing here is we can take and give you training so that you can create another community of God's people sit together you can, you can experience this, this experience of knowing that it is God, with us. 

God together with all of us, in our lives. And so we realize that in our lives in this Christmas time, and I'm recording this a few months before Christmas, but at the same time, you might be taking your ride during the Christmas season or the Christmas season might just have been passed. But what we see is Joseph, discovering that she and Mary are in relationship, not just with each other, but also with God, the child that is to be born, is to be called Jesus because he will save us from our sins. He used to be called Immanuel, God with us. 

And so Joseph takes Mary as his wife. And when she gives birth, they call his name Jesus. In your ministry of mind, my ministry, what we are seeking to bring together is a community focused on Jesus. So often we make our ideas all about ourselves, and, and we make our faith about us, Jesus saves me from my sins. 

What we need to see is that Jesus saves us from our sins. We're always looking to bring others into this redeeming relationship with Immanuel, God with us so that we have a relationship not just with each other, but also God is the center of this relationship. It is what God calls us to be the people who realize that Jesus has brought about the fact that God is not watching us from a distance. Instead, God is living with us in our presence. 

Bring that to your people. Bring that to the ones that you come in contact with. Bring that to the ones that you you gather online or that you gather in your communities, and know that Immanuel, God with us, is also present.