Christ With Us

“You Belong Here,” reads the yellow sweatshirt of the parking lot greeter at the church near my house. By the welcoming waves and the stream of people going into the building, I think they mean it. What LifeChurch and other houses of worship like it have discovered is that one of the greatest dangers and products of modern society is isolation. We are a divided people. We are a lonely world. The pace and fullness of life pull us apart socially, emotionally, and psychologically. And in that reality, perhaps the church is the perfect place to rediscover that we belong together. 

Another way to conceive of this dynamic is as a form of estrangement. We are estranged from one another. The ties that should bind us together - family, friendships, neighbors, colleagues, etc. – are increasingly broken by conflict, disagreement, bitterness, greed, distrust, and more. We are a people against ourselves, simultaneously working towards our individual purposes and growing distant from one another. While we can describe “sin” in a lot of ways, one of the most personal is in this context: sin as estrangement from God and one another. “You Belong Here” is a surprisingly simple and straightforward response to such an epidemic of fractured relationships and sin. 

At Christmas, we are reminded that God’s greatest act to remedy sin was to send Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, God with us, into this world. The incarnation is God’s response to this estrangement. Not to continue or further the distance between the divine and human, but to bridge the divide and enter into humanity in a baby born to Mary and Joseph. Estrangement, isolation, sin, and brokenness are shattered and overcome. We no longer have to live separated from God and one another. We can choose relationship over retribution, too. We can reconnect with God and each other in the incarnational reality of this season and beyond. 

We belong together. Christmas reminds us that the reconciling love of God came to us in Jesus Christ to show us just that. We are not isolated and alone. We are siblings in Christ. We are beloved children of God. We are drawn together because this baby Jesus came into this world.

Blessings, 

Rev. Tim Blodgett

General Presbyter