What more needs to be said about the year 2020? A global pandemic, racial unrest, and a deeply divided America continue to dominate our headlines and our hearts. And where is God in all of this? Why hasn’t God delivered us from all of these things? If God is all-powerful and all-good, if God listens to the prayers of his children, then why are we still in this mess? And why is it not getting any better?

These are fair questions. Good people in the Bible asked these kinds of questions all the time. Individuals asked them, families asked them, and nations asked them. And while they are fair
and honest questions, God listens and then begins to ask other questions. When presented with this kind of chaos, heartbreak, and turmoil; God (like the good Father, Son, and Spirit that God is) asks, “How can we get in this with them - how can we walk right next to them – how can we live beside them, with them, and in them – no matter the circumstance?”

We call the answer to God’s questions “Incarnation.” Incarnation is the vastness of God united with the smallness of a baby. Incarnation is the greatness of God united with the weakness of our human frames. Incarnation is the wisdom of God united with the striving of our finite minds. This incarnational union of God and humanity begins in Jesus, but Jesus graciously extends it

to us. This idea that God unites with humanity through the work of Jesus and the presence of the Holy Spirit is the good news of Christianity. God is with us, even in these hard times. The times may not change quickly, but God can change us – and that is a miracle in and of itself.

One of the founders of Methodism, John Wesley, was not a man of few words - he had a lot to say and said it often. At the end of his life, he was not able to speak as quickly and easily as he once did. When faced with his last moments in this life, he gathered what little strength he had to offer this one last (and surprisingly short) sermon: “The best of all, God is with us!”

As we walk, crawl, and stumble through the last part of this year, our sermon to the world and to each other is “Best of all, God is with us!” Given the times, it might be hard for us (like Wesley) to get anything else out. But God is enough, and Advent calls us to both long for and rest in that union with God – a union that finds its beginning in Christ’s incarnation at Christmas.