Looking for the Face of God Isaiah 9:2-4, 6-7, Psalm 96, Titus 2: 11-14, Luke 2:1-20 Christmas Eve, December 24, 2003 The Rev. William V. Livingston, Rector Church of the Resurrection, Starkville, Mississippi Can I have all the children here come close? I have two stories to tell, and I'd like for them to help me tell the stories. Of course any moms or dads who also want to hear the stories can come down with them. Who do we have here that's 5 years old? Well, I ask the question because I am going to tell you about a little boy named Johnny, and Johnny was 5. Johnny decided one day he wanted to meet God. He most wanted to see what God looked like. Unfortunately, way too many people had told Johnny some wrong things about God. They had told him that God lives so far far away, in Heaven that we won't be able to see what God looks like until after we die. Johnny so wanted to see what God looked like that he decided even if a long way, he would try to find God. Being a long trip to where God live, Johnny knew he would have to have something to eat and drink during his journey. So, he took everything out of his backpack and put in some cookies his mother had made. From the refrigerator he got some grape juice boxes and put them in, and off he went. As he got to the sidewalk in front of his house, he wasn't sure which way to go, but since one block to the right was a very busy street and his mother had always told him to never play along that street, he went left. After he had gone only two blocks, Johnny realized how daunting his task was going to be because at each intersection he didn't know whether to go straight, turn left or turn right. As he stood at the second block, he noticed an old woman sitting on her porch swing. She was real old. She must have been at least . . . well, let's just leave it that she was real old. Sadly her doctor had told her son that his mother had Alzheimer's disease. Often his mother would just sit on the porch swing and stare. Johnny went on the porch, took off his backpack and sat next to her. But, she never said a word, only sitting and staringt. Johnny sat, and she sat. After a while, Johnny started getting hungry. So he reached into his backpack and pulled out his cookies. Being taught to share, he offered one to the old woman. She gratefully accepted and smiled at him. Her smile lit up her whole face. (It was the type of smile - if we all look at Diane, the type of smile that Diane often has - a smile that lights up a room.) They sat for a while longer, and Johnny, after eating his cookie, began to get thirsty. He reached in and pulled out two boxes of grape juice. He punched his straw in his and gave one to the old woman and again she smiled. Realizing she didn't know how to drink from a box, he punched her straw into her box. She took a sip, and once again, her smile filled her face. Johnny was delighted. All afternoon they sat there eating cookies, drinking grape juice from their boxes, and smiling, but they never said a word. As it grew dark, Johnny realized how tired he was and he got up to leave, but before he'd gone more than a few steps, he turned round, ran back to the old woman and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. Johnny ran all the way home. As he burst in the house, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God!" And before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's much older than I thought she'd be and she's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!" Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, got up from the swing and went inside. Her son, stunned by the look of peace on her face, asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate cookies on the swing with God." And before her son could respond, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected, and he makes the best cookies and makes grape juice in little boxes now." That's our first story. The second story is very similar. It's the one we heard Diane read from the Gospel of Luke. If you were going to visit the richest, most powerful, and most important king or president in the world, what kind of house do you think he would live in? What kind of army would this king or president have? What kind of friends would he have? That's our problem. Just like Johnny had always heard that God lived far far away and that he would never see what God looked like until he got to heaven, the world had been taught that the Messiah, the Child of God, would be the richest and most powerful king. He would have more money than Bill Gaites. He would have the most aircraft carriers, helicopters, fighter jets, and modern tanks than anyone else. But, in the story who first hears about Jesus birth? The shepherds. So, we ask the shepherds. Excuse me Mr. Shepherd, what does God look like? The shepherd responds, "We paused long enough, opened our eyes just enough, trusted our ears just enough to hear the angel's simple words, 'He is born to you this day.' And our vision was somehow broadened, for just an instant we could see. Perhaps you should ask the angels what God looks like." In the mystery of this night that has drawn us, if we watch carefully we might get a glimpse of the angels. Pardon me, Angel Choir Director, I know how little Leanne our choir director likes an interruption in the church anthems, but can YOU help me? I've searched for God's light, in the darkness of this world. But there is so much flash and dazzle in the beacons and the sirens of our muddled world. They illuminate for an instant, but still leave us in the dark. Where is that light, that warms, that lasts? Where might I see the face of God? From the Angel comes a response echoing through time and place. "God's face and brightness are too much for you to bear. So much brighter than the light to which you are accustomed, they would blind you, beat upon you, strike deathly fear. Our light, a pale echo of the heavenly brilliance is stunning enough to such as you. Our light announces God but is not God. It's news is God's light shines within a new born child. So, go to Bethlehem and ask Mary and Joseph what God looks like. Please excuse our tardiness. We have come a long way to see God's love. We look for love, as you do too, in each other's eyes and thoughts and hearts. We love our children as best we can, and long to be loved in return. And yet we find this love isn't complete. We wait and wonder and suffer ill in silence and pain. Our children grow and move away, and we grow weary and die. Can you show us the face of God? Mary responds, "We know the love of which you speak we found it in our child, though he too, grew and moved away and grew weary and died. But his love did not fade, through time and years. Look, the manger is empty. The love you seek is not a child, nor is it found perfected in us. God's own love was lived and died on a cross. Look there for the face of God No need to seek nor question me, says Jesus from close by. I have heard your longing throughout the centuries? You have sought me in the lights of the world, in your works, and in your preconceived images of me but never finding me. So instead I have sought you. I came as a child like you and lived among you so that I could have a face that you could see. The face of a child so full of love, the face of one dying on the cross with a love deeper still. For this I came, and continue to come, for this I will come again - so that you can see the face of God, know the love of God, feel the forgiveness of God, enjoy the Peace of God. It does seem strange to think of God as a little boy with cookies or as an old woman sitting on a porch swing! Surely God is grand and majestic and all-powerful? Surely God can do anything, work any miracle, determine whether we live or die? Surely the whole point of God is, God could zap the entire world with a click of his fingers if God so wished? It seems pretty strange to think of God as a baby. Yet that's what Christmas is all about. About God being born. About God in a baby. Yet what use could a baby God ever be?