Mark's thoughts: Where do I find God for me?

 

Where do I find God for me?  This is more than the question of where we can find God.  It asks where we find God for me – for my benefit and salvation. I have had people tell me that they “go out in nature” in order to be with God.  Certainly, God is everywhere, and his creation bears witness to him.  Psalm 19 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge” (Psalm 19:1). 

However, such knowledge can only reveal that the God who made this creation is awesome, powerful, and overwhelming.  And in turn, it tells us that we are inconsequential.  As the psalmist wrote: “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4). “Going out in nature” tells me nothing about how God views me … or if he even does.  It certainly doesn’t reveal God as present for my benefit and salvation.

During Advent we are preparing to celebrate the incarnation of the Son of God – we are preparing to celebrate Christmas.  John tells us, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). The Son of God became man, without ceasing to be God.  We hear in the Gospel for Christmas Eve, “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:6-7).

Where do I find God for me?  We find him in the manger for there God has entered our world and revealed himself.  He has revealed himself in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.  The baby in the manger is God with us – Immanuel (Matthew 1:23).

Yet he is not just God with us.  He is God for us – God for me.  He is God present to save us from our sin (Matthew 1:21) and from death.  St. Paul wrote, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).  By his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ has won for us forgiveness and eternal life with God.

In the incarnation we see that God works through located means. He worked through means of the flesh of the Son of God – the baby Jesus.  It was located because he was lying in the manger in Bethlehem.  One did not have to look around trying to find where God was for me.  Jesus Christ was in the manger in Bethlehem.

We do not have to look around in order to try and find where God is present for me now.  A beloved seminary professor, Dr. Norman Nagel, used to say, “A God who is everywhere is no better than a God who is nowhere, if he isn’t somewhere for me.”  The incarnation of the Son of God provides the model for how God continues to deal with us as he delivers the benefits that Christ won by his death and resurrection. 

God uses the located means of the Sacraments.  He uses water in a font.  He uses bread and wine on an altar.  Through Baptism we share in Jesus’ saving death (Romans 6:3-5; Colossians 2:12).  In the Sacrament of the Altar Jesus gives us his true body and blood for the forgiveness of sins.

I do not have to look around wondering where God is for me.  He is present for me – for my benefit and salvation – in the located means of Holy Baptism and the Sacrament of the Altar.  Here he deals with me as a whole person – body and soul.  He does so because Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection has won salvation for the whole person. 

Jesus’ first coming celebrated at Christmas points to his second coming.  However, his second coming will be very different.  No one will wonder where God is as Jesus returns in glory. St Paul wrote, “For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God” (1 Thessalonians 4:16).  The risen and exalted Lord will raise and transform our bodies (Philippians 3:21).  All people will appear before his judgment seat (2 Corinthians 5:10) as Christ declares us justified through faith in him.  And we will live with our Lord forever in the creation which he has renewed (Romans 8:19-23).