Adaptable God
Eagle Harbor Congregational Church, UCC
Christmas Eve meditation preached by Rev. Emily Tanis-Likkel
Rescheduled. Cancelled. Rain check. Snowed in. Plan B. Sound familiar? Did any of you have to change any plans in the several days? I'd venture to say that we all have. Maybe Amazon hasn't gotten you the packages you've ordered? Maybe you were not planning to be here tonight but couldn't get to the airport? This past Saturday my husband and I canceled our 12th Anniversary evening out and instead had dinner in the ferry terminal and watched Santa Claus 3 with our kids. Then on Sunday--the final Sunday of Advent, which normally would have been packed—we had a sparsely attended service. My baby-sitter has been stuck at home and so I prepared this meditation in little bits and pieces of time. We have to be adaptable don't we? We can plan all we want, but as one of you remarked to me recently, that doesn't mean any of it is going to happen. If there is anything that is planned to the minute detail and never goes according to plan – it is childbirth. Mary's childbirth was no exception. I doubt that her birth plan included an arduous journey in her ninth month and giving birth among animals – but she adapted.
It is no minor detail that the son of God slept in a feeding trough. God showed up as a helpless infant in the lowliest of surroundings, to an ordinary couple who could have been anyone. There is no place that God would not go to be with us. God did not choose to magically descend fully grown, but chose instead the messy avenue of human birth. That was no accident. Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. Sometimes what appears to be plan B is the way it was supposed to happen all along. As John Lennon said, Life is what happens while you are busy making other plans. A ruler was busy making plans for a census, people are scrambling to buy and wrap gifts, folks tromp through snow for yet another trip to the grocery store, and all the while Emmanuel is here. God is with us--Showing up in the unlikeliest of places. Working through the unlikeliest of souls. A young woman and her carpenter fiance. Sheep-herders turned preachers of the good news. People today who strive to love as Jesus loves. Ordinary folks like us.
The prophet Isaiah in the Old Testament wrote, “For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His authority shall grow continually, and there shall be endless peace for the throne of David and his kingdom. He will establish and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time onward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.”
Some of you were part of our Christmas Pageant this year. It was a play within a play called I will do my part. It began with three young people who served as narrators realizing that they were to tell the Christmas story, even though they had not prepared anything. They adapted to what they had – shooing Dee and I out of our seats and pulling kids out of the congregation to play their parts. They all maintained their own selves in the play instead of becoming the characters. For example, the Joseph figure said, “My name is Nate. I am any carpenter, any father but yet I have been called. I have chosen to say 'Yes!' and play my part, because I long for God's promises to come true.” When it came to the end of the play, they didn't have anyone to play baby Jesus, but they had a candle that they placed in the manger. It was a reminder that Christ transcends that moment in time so long ago. The light of Christ shines among us – a light in the darkness, everywhere and always. A light that knows no bounds.
I have often thought of adaptability as one of my strengths. But I wasn't feeling very adaptable last Saturday when I realized we would have to change our anniversary plans. But then grace surprised us when friends from church cheered us up on our ferry ride. Mary and Joseph adapted too. She would have preferred laboring at home with the midwife she had grown to trust, but there was no way around it – they had to go to Bethlehem. But there was grace there too. God adapted to the human situation. As Eugene Petersen puts it, the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood. God has adapted Godself to humanity. When things don't go according to plan, our blood pressure rises, but we have an adaptable God. Wounderful Counelsor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, adaptable? That sounds pretty anticlimactic, doesn't it? Yet God adapted to the human situation as a statement of deep and genuine love for all of creation. God adapted in order to identify completely with the struggle, the pain, the joy that people experience in life. God became weak and vulnerable, became dependent on other humans. God adapted to understand you and me, to more closely be our brother, our friend. God adapted in order to die, in order to be raised, to offer forgiveness and renewal. No matter how low we are feeling – God is there. No matter how separate we feel from God, God is with us. We may plan to sense God's presence on the mountaintop, but we may need to go with plan B. God is with us on the bus, at work, as we sleep, when we are anxious or bored, when we are in our finest hour, and in our shame. God adapts to whatever situation we find ourselves in, whatever state of mind and heart. May we be fearless and open enough to sing Glory like the angels, gasp amazement like the shepherds, and ponder it all like Mary. May we be illuminated by the light that knows no bounds.