Sermon – God is with us

(I preached this mini-sermon on Sunday, December 21, 2025 at Christ Lutheran Church in Harrisburg following a time of table discussion about the reading for the day from John 1:1-18 during our quarterly brunch church in which we worship in the midst of a meal).

Thank you for what you shared—your words, your questions, your stories.
What we heard today wasn’t just talk.
It was people listening for where God is already at work.

John begins his Gospel the same way the Bible begins:
“In the beginning.”

He’s taking us back to Genesis, back to when God spoke and life began.
Back to when light broke into darkness.

And John is also remembering Exodus.
When God set the people free, God didn’t stay far away.
God stayed with them—right in the middle of their lives.

So when John says,
“The Word became flesh and lived among us,”
he’s saying something very simple and very bold:

God is with us.

And before we go further, it matters to say this clearly.
When John talks about light and darkness, he is not talking about skin color.
He is talking about love and truth breaking into a world that hurts.
Light is God showing up.
Darkness is everything that tries to crush life.

And John says the light shines—and it is not put out.

Here is the good news John wants us to hear:

God does not watch our lives from a distance.
God does not send advice and stay safe.
God takes on a body.

Which means:
God gets tired.
God gets hungry.
God knows pain.
God knows fear.
God knows what it feels like to be pushed aside.

Not a palace.
Not comfort.
Not power.

God is with us.

God is with families when ICE shows up at the door.
God is with people standing in food lines, wondering how they’ll make it.
God is with those who are sick and scared because their health care is slipping away.
God is with people behind bars, sitting alone in a cell.
God is with anyone who has been hurt, forgotten, or told they don’t matter.

Not watching.
Not waiting.
Standing with them.

God is with us.

That’s why some people didn’t recognize Jesus.
They wanted a God who stayed above it all.

Distant, far away, untouchable.  

Because that type of God is safe.  

That type of God prevents encounter and offers no disruption of the status quo.  

There are a lot of people in the world who prefer that type of God because they get to continue pretending that they are in control and that God will follow their lead.  

You see, worshipping God is safe.

It’s all about knowing about God.  

Following God is dangerous because impacts lives and communities and more.  

It’s about God knowing each one of us – breaking through the barriers that we put up to protect ourselves from being truly known. 

But instead, God came right into the mess.

And this didn’t stop with Christmas.

In John’s Gospel, we see it again and again:
Jesus touching the sick.
Jesus feeding the hungry.
Jesus weeping with those who are grieving.
Jesus lifting people up when they fall down.
Jesus refusing to walk away from suffering.

This is a God you can rub elbows with.
A God who puts an arm around you.
A God who stays when things get hard.

Even now.
Even here.
Even around these tables.

God is with us.

Because of that, we are not alone.
This world is not abandoned.
Cruelty does not get the final word.
Fear does not win.

God is alive.
God is present.
God is still showing up in flesh and blood.

And that—
that is very good news.

So now we sing—not because God is far away, but because the Word has taken on flesh and drawn near to us in Jesus Christ.