Called to Belong
Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2022
Fourth Sunday of Advent, 2022
Readings: Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25
“God becomes human, really human. While we endeavor to grow out of our humanity, to leave our human nature behind us, God becomes human, and we must recognize that God wants us also to become human—really human. Whereas we distinguish between the godly and the godless, the good and the evil, the noble and the common, God loves real human beings without distinction…. God takes the side of real human beings and the real world against all their accusers…. But it’s not enough to say that God takes care of human beings. This sentence rests on something infinitely deeper and more impenetrable, namely, that in the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, God took on humanity in bodily fashion. God raised his love for human beings above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty by himself entering into the life of human beings as a human being, by bodily taking upon himself and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings. Out of love for human beings, God becomes a human being. He does not seek out the most perfect human being in order to unite with that person. Rather, he takes on human nature as it is.” -Dietrich Bonhoeffer1
In our Gospel reading today, St. Jospeh is told that the baby his fiancée is pregnant with has been conceived, not by Mary two timin’ him, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. Joseph is instructed to name the baby that will be born to Mary— Jesus, which means God saves. This echoes the prophecy in Isaiah that a baby will be born to a virgin, and named Emmanuel— God is with us. The birth of Jesus has always been God’s plan, as we see in the echoes back to Isaiah in our first reading, and as St. Paul reminds us in his letter to the Romans— Jesus, Emmanuel, is the fruition of promises echoed throughout the history of Israel. Jesus has always been plan A.
Emmanuel means God is with us, and Jesus means God saves. They are interchangeable in that for God to be with us, means that he is on our side. He is on our behalf. He saves us. But saves us from what? He saves us from our sins, from our brokenness within a broken world, by taking our very human nature upon Himself in the incarnation, and ultimately on the cross.
As Bonhoeffer puts it, “God raised his love for human beings above every reproach of falsehood and doubt and uncertainty by himself entering into the life of human beings as a human being, by bodily taking upon himself and bearing the nature, essence, guilt, and suffering of human beings” (Bonhoeffer).2
Deep down in the hearts of each of us, all of us want deeply to be truly loved. And to be truly loved, means to be truly known. God has entered into our very human nature in order to be joined to us, to know us, to love us fully. Not in our perfection, but in our reality. “He does not seek out the most perfect human being in order to unite with that person. Rather, he takes on human nature as it is” (Bonhoeffer).3
You are loved beyond the boundaries of your ability to reach up to God, He has descended to you, and is descending to you. Coming to meet you right where you are.
As St. Paul reminds us today, we have been “called to belong to Jesus Christ”.4 My siblings in Christ, you belong to the One who made you. The only One who can know you fully, does know you, fully. You are called to belong. You are called to be known fully. Loved fully.
For many of us our communities, families and even churches have not made us feel that we are seen, known, or loved for who we are in our entirety. We do not feel like we fully belong. That pain is deep in the fabric of our broken relationships and broken existence. Jesus meets us right in that pain. He comes to meet you right where you are and says to you, “Child, you belong. You belong to me. I know you. I see you. I love you. I am with you.”
Child of God, you are loved, exactly as you are.
Come Jesus, save us. Come Emmanuel, be with us.
Amen.
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. God Is in the Manger. Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. 2010. Page 50.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Romans, 1:6, NRSV.