The Nearness of God

“Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart

   be acceptable in your sight,

   O God, my strength and my redeemer.” ~Psalm 19:14

The Nearness of God

That’s what seems to come to me today. Therefore, let’s consider this text from today’s Gospel; “Repent, The kingdom of heaven has come near”

   ~Matthew 3:2

Many years ago one cold and blustery Friday in December when I was a young priest in Hyde Park, I found myself in the bank across the street from the church. Suddenly dark clouds and a violent wind whirled outside. For a moment everyone stood still. Well, you know me; I am not one to let such a moment pass by; I wheeled about, fierced myself up with eyes blazing to say; “Repent!” There was a moment of suspended animation, then finally we all had a good laugh for ourselves. 

John the Baptist, likewise, was a fierce and edgy sort. His appearance in the wilderness, clothed in camel’s hair, his diet of locusts and wild honey is an indication of his somewhat feral nature. When it came to the Pharisees and Sadducees he did not hold back or mince his words; “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath that is to come?” Fair warning! It is a matter of ironic interest to me that for both John and Jesus, it was the fundamentalists of the day who proved to be the source of violent danger.

And yet folks flocked to him. His message; “Comfort ye, Comfort ye, my people!” drew us to him. When he appeared; he proclaimed the nearness of God. In the midst of that arid desert; in the rocky, dusty earthen experience of human suffering and injustice; John proclaimed Good News. The Waters of Baptism make new life possible. Copious amounts of water go hand in hand with the extravagant promise of God that we can indeed die to sin and rise to newness of life. God can bury bury sin and death and raise us up in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Rejoice! God is near.

The Christian hope is built brick by brick and person by person into a whole new realm of eternal life.  The nearness of God becomes an unmistakable sign of who we are. Jesus is very near to us. John said so. “The kingdom of heaven has come near.”

This blessed Advent season is full of the expectation of a new birth. That expectation is of the sort that is inevitable given the condition Mary finds herself in. She ponders what all these things might mean that the Angel Gabriel announced to her. Neither she nor Joseph could possibly understand it all. But there was no time for that. The Nearness of God was upon them and within her.

So they journeyed on from Nazareth to Bethlehem; an arduous and dangerous journey of just over 97 miles. Imagine that! Not an easy trip for anybody on foot, let alone a woman on a donkey in the fullness of her pregnancy. The Nearness of God comes to us much like every earthen journey; fraught with danger, distance, and possibility, requiring determination.

Thank God! The Nearness of the Holy One is with us every step of the way. I believe this is why we flock to John the Baptist. He proclaims the kind of repentance that understands our predicament. Like Mary and Joseph, there is no way we can possibly understand what it all means while going through it.

I remember when our boys were young. Those years were busy and demanding. After dinner, we put the three of them into the tub, dried them off, put on their P.J’s and sent them off to bed. But because of our baptism, I also remember story time every night. I remember lighting the sacred candle. We said our prayers. And then there was slumber in the Nearness of God. 

There were mouths to be fed, dishes to be done and endless loads of laundry, and a living to be earned to provide for it all. The whole journey was and continues to be a demanding one. If we do not stop to remember the Nearness of God in the Joy of Repentance, we miss so much of life. It is a sad and depressing world that doesn’t know the Nearness of God.

“Repent, the kingdom of God has come near.”

I think we flock to John and to Jesus precisely because in them we see the nearness of God.

Throughout the Biblical narrative we read the record of God’s Nearness. Today the Prophet Isaiah proclaims: 

“A shoot shall come out from the stock of Jesse,

   and a little child shall lead them.

for the earth will be full of the knowledge of God

   as the waters cover the sea.”

Likewise the Psalmist points to a kingdom not yet completely fulfilled but no less hoped for.

“Give the King your justice, O God, *

The King shall defend the needy among the people; *

       he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.

He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure”

In Sacred history we see Jesus as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and he shall reign for ever!

These words sing to our hearts in the Nearness of God.

As for the one in whose name you have dedicated and consecrated yourselves in and from this sacred place, he writes to us today in words of immediate and practical value; 

“May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus”…and…”Welcome one another, therefore, just as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God.”

Paul brings the nearness of God front and center right up to the present moment. Here we are living as Paul urged us to live. I am grateful beyond words that you live this way because you become living evidence that Jesus is indeed present in the nearness of our friendship with one another. 

When John invites us into repentance I suspect it is more with a note of Joy than it is with a note of Severity. After all, John’s point was that the kingdom is near. God is near. God is no further away than Forgiveness, Reconciliation, or the next act of Compassion and Love. This is how Jesus is with us when he heals the sick, teaches the crowds, feeds the multitudes, or overturns the tables in the Temple Precincts, then dies, puts our sin away and rises again in Glory. 

God has come as near to us as the Holy Child who is born to us yet again this year. Prepare ye the way for the Holy One in your hearts!

Repentance is a matter of deep Joy. God’s day is not a day of darkness and gloom as it was on that that Friday in Lent on a Boston Bank so many years ago. Repentance is a matter of Joy to John, to Jesus and to all of us who would embrace this new life born to us in the nearness of God. 

“Repent for the kingdom has come near.” Amen. 

In the Name of God; the Most Holy, Undivided and Everlasting Trinity. Amen.