Earlier in our service we sang together a contemporary version of words that go back to the dawn of the Christian faith, the words of the Apostles' Creed. As my Church School students so vividly remember from this morning's vigorous and stimulating class, the Creed pulls together some of the essential beliefs of the Bible and brings them home to us in a personal way.
"We believe" -- that's what we say.
This is what we know in our minds to be true.
This is what we depend on in our hearts.

"We believe...... in Jesus Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary."
So - what does your mind know about that?
What heart strings are tugged with that statement?

Let's travel to the main bible-based teaching document of our Reformed Heritage, the Heidelberg Catechism. For it addresses these questions in a very direct way. Read with me, please:
 

Being there: Someone being there for us. We being there for someone else in need.
Sometimes it's not so hard to do, but sometimes...- When the person suffers from a truly dreadful disease and it turns your stomach to have to see, then to travel down to the Civic Hospital can be a herculean task.
- When the classmate has awkward social habits and manages to behave foolishly, even when it's only the two of you present.
- When the neighbour with the sick kids had been yelling at your children the week before.
- When the one who needs a listening ear seems to always need an ear, and never seems to have the time to listen to you.Being there.

It's tough sometimes to be there for fellow human beings. But could you even begin to imagine being there for a crab? Or a lowly, slimy slug? Forget the sort of heart-tuggy stuff the anti-fur lobby is broadcasting on their current TV commercials about big bad hunters killing cutsy-wutsy baby seals and the need for us to intervene. Think of a little, slimy slug of the common sort that no one even notices they crush along the sidewalk. Or a crab, that'd just as quickly tweak you in the nose with its pinchers, given half a chance.
Could you be there for them?
Get down on their level?

It's Christmas time, and among other carols we sing, "O Come, O Come Immanuel." Immanuel - a Hebrew word meaning, "God is with us."
God being there.
For us.

CS Lewis tells that for us to even begin to understand the truly enormous weight and significance of Christmas we need to try and imagine precisely this. For who are we, 5'10" 165pound somethings, each but a blip on the screen of history?
And who is God? The Great and Holy One. Almighty Creator. Lord of All.
And what is this event called Christmas? Celebrating that Almighty God condescended to be there -- one with us. For us. Immanuel.
That's the truth which the Catechism explores with statements drawn from various Bible passages. For us who have earlier said, "We believe", tonight becomes a chance to reaffirm that belief, and to refocus on it's meaning for our lives.
Being there --
GOD being there in Christ.
That's the first and most vital thing to remember. When you talk to people it's amazing how many different answers you get to the question, "What does Christmas mean to you?" I'm sure that'd be true if we were to pass the mike around here this evening. There's a lot of variety, and that's OK. But one thing on which there can be no hesitation, and where there needs to be unity among us is that Christmas is the time to remember GOD becoming one with us.

The divinity of the baby whose birth we celebrate, absolute and unqualified divinity, is the heart of the Christmas message. Without that truth we are left with an empty shell of artery clogging food, jingle bells and fa-la-la.The eternal Son of God is and remains true and eternal God.
I guess most of us by now have read the flap on this point that has graced the pages of the Ottawa Citizen over the last few weeks. Tragic really. It's my prayer that this sort of hesitation and spiritual second guessing would not go on among us. That instead we could accept the message of the Christmas story as the Bible presents it, and as we read it over the course of this season;the message of John 1, when it speaks of Jesus, calling Him "The Word" and saying, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God...... the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us."
It's the basic truth told in Matthew 1 when we're told about Jesus, "His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit."The miracle of the immaculate conception.
Accept that at face value. The Holy Spirit touches the ovaries of Mary, and the Divine Spirit of Jesus enters her womb to begin the most amazing pregnancy ever. God becomes a foetus inside a woman's body. He is born and grows tired, hungry, cold, wet; needing diaper changes and comforting, suffering teething pains like any other baby.
When God first created the world there was intimate contact between Heaven and earth. The Fall into sin ruined all that and a Great Divide opened. A chasm impossible to cross...... Till now.
Immanuel - one with us, for us.
Being there.

As we said at the beginning, we gain comfort from others who can be there for us. Most of that comes from them simply sharing our pain. Very often there is very little they can do to bring relief to the situation. They're as powerless as we are. I mean -- what can you do at a graveside, except give a silent hug?
Things are different with Immanuel, though.
He is one with us - like us..... almost.One important difference.
Because there was no human father involved, the flesh and blood that grew inside the Virgin Mary was perfect flesh and blood. If you want to think of the taint of sin, the skewing of total depravity which exists within every human being from conception on -- think of that as a genetic defect of sorts, a defect passed from generation to generation by parents who suffered from it, well, this is one defect not found in Christ. He was born as Adam and Eve were created -- perfect, pure, without sin.

He was born with the power of God at His fingertips.
Meaning that He had power to bring change, real change to our banged-up, desperate condition.With us in our pain..... and able to do something about it.
Like at that graveside.
1998 is just around the corner. I don't know precisely what it will bring. But this I do know - the truth of that old saw, "The only things you can count on in life are...."Revenue Canada will come calling for their pound of flesh.
And as a church we will gather at a graveside. There will be birth in 1998.
And there will be death in 1998.

We will stand powerless by that grave. Absolutely nothing we can do. But Immanuel is not so powerless. For as one of us, with us, for us, sinless He is able to bring change to what otherwise is a dark, swirling vortex that sucks us under. He is able to turn death into a harmless doorway through which we pass into eternal glory.
And on the other side of death, where there awaits the inevitable time of judgement, Immanuel -- one with us, will be there for us. And when the Great Cosmic Judge calls our name, demands that we rise and give an accounting, and when the measuring stick of all time is raised,"cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything that is written in the book of the Law." (Gal 3.10)Immanuel will rise at that moment of judgement to be there with us,
right at our side.And He will declare to that judge that there is nothing to be paid. No curse to descend. Because He has taken it, suffered it, and come through it. He, Immanuel, as a perfect Human Being who lived with us, suffered for us, died for us, and rose for us -- hands us His life's record saying, "This belongs to you now. My gift. No charge. Want it?"

Through His power, power that invaded earth and began to work on that first Christmas, real change is brought to the graveside scene. Despair is replaced by hope. The end becomes just a beginning. And separation is soothed by the promise of a day of reunion before the glorious heavenly throne of the Creator of Life.

Before we leave this behind I'd like to read a bible passage with you, one that focuses on this whole thing of "being there". It's a very straightforward passage, one that nails it right down, driving this stuff home:

And while we continue to walk towards that final and great moment, Immanuel will go with us. Look at the closing verses of Hebrews 2. When we feel like life's throwing too much our way, we can cry out in prayer knowing that He won't be sending a vacant stare our way. He's been there. Knows what it's like. And when we're feeling terribly alone -- remember Immanuel, never too busy or distracted. There to help us. And when we're feeling weak and ready to collapse -- remember Immanuel. Sitting beside God the Father, knowing what's it like to be in that state, having collapsed in a garden under the weight of anxiety, and on a roadside under the weight of a cross. Calling to the Father to send us the physical, emotional and spiritual strength to carry on.
 
 

One of the things that many young boys love to do in their more perverse moments is to take a magnifying glass and focus on ants scurrying across the patio, trying to toast them and hear them pop.
Ever done it?
Is this the time to confess how many notches are on my belt?

Wait -- before you give me condemning looks let me ask, "How many worms have you impaled on a fish hook?"

Now remember CS Lewis' statement about the crab and the slug.
Consider it well, fellow believer.
And join me in recognizing that we have received, in this, the greatest of all possible Christmas presents. What riches. What hope. What life!

With us.

Even now.

And forever.