Emmanuel

God disrupted all creation as Emmanuel. In the midst of all the chaos and crisis, in the midst of the violence and pain, and in the midst of despair and grief, God came to be with us. God came to be with us with true peace and love.

Emmanuel means “God with us.” God came to us. God left God’s place and came to our place. When Joseph woke up, he did just as an angel from God commanded and took Mary as his wife…she gave birth to a son.

Joseph called him Jesus. Jesus means “Savior” or, “saves his people.” Together, the names Emmanuel and Jesus help us see in the birth of Jesus, God has come to heal us and to make us whole.

A New Year

What would happen if this new year, you and I think differently about ministry? In addition to inviting people to worship, what could happen if we invite the people in our congregations to serve in the community?

What would happen if we disrupted the community by leaving our places and going into the community to be with the people? What would happen if we took the love of God, the special music, the light of the world and became holy communion in the communities in which we live? God did not say “come to my place and I will give you peace.” God came to us with peace and love.

Disrupt our Communities

I will be in worship every Sunday in 2018. But in every church I worship I will be thinking of how you and I might disrupt our communities. Not for the sake of disruption. But disrupting our communities by bringing love and peace into every situation and circumstance we find ourselves.

I’ll sing the hymns, the praise songs, and listen to the music. But I will be thinking about how you and I can bring a kind, caring, encouraging word into our communities. I’ll be thinking about being God’s Word in the places we live, work, and play.

I look forward to celebrating holy communion with God’s people. But I will be thinking of how you and I might enter our communities, come alongside our neighbors, both friends and strangers, to include all people in God’s love in Jesus.

The Word became flesh and lived among us. How will you and I become part of God’s love that brings peace to our communities and goodwill to all people…whether we like them or not?

I hope you will make worship a regular part of your spiritual discipline through 2018. But even more, I hope your worship will be a true celebration of disrupting the world in which you live. Why? So that you might become more the person God created you to be.

I’ll be praying that your worship will lead you into the community with the God’s peace and love. So let it be!

Prayer for Today

O God, disrupt my peace so that I may experience your peace. By your grace fill me with so much of your shalom that I have to disrupt the world in which I live to share your shalom in all places with all people. I offer myself to you in the name of Jesus. Amen.