“What if God was one of us?” A little
over 20 years ago, a song that was recorded by singer Joan Osborne asked just
that question. “What if God was one of us?” That recording made it into the Top
10 Billboard hits of the year, and was even nominated for three Grammy awards. That
song intrigued people who had never really thought of God as anything other
than an old man with a long white beard sitting on a heavenly throne bedecked
with jewels. The God in the lyrics was nothing at all like that.
“What
if God was one of us?”
it asked.
“Just
a slob like one of us.
Just
a stranger on a bus
Tryin’
to make his way home.”
That vivid imagery of God as a bus
passenger trying to get home made a lot of people wonder: What if we ran into
God on a bus… on the street… or in a grocery store? What would that be like? A
more important question to ask, though, is: how would we recognize God if we
ran into him on the street or sat next to him on a bus?
The gospel of Luke tells us about a man
who recognized God right away when he ran into him. The old man Simeon knew the
Christ child immediately when he ran into the Child and his parents in the
Temple (Luke 2:22-32). Simeon had been waiting for this child for years – all
of his life, in fact – and he believed with all his heart that he would live to
see the Christ in the flesh. I can just imagine him peering closely at all the
people who came into the Temple, scrutinizing each face with eyes grown dim
with age, waiting for the one who was “God with us.” But when that one finally appeared,
Simeon knew who he was right away. How did Simeon recognize him? The Child
looked just like any other newborn baby, with soft baby hands and eyes that
couldn’t even focus on the world around him yet. He couldn’t wave to Simeon and
say, “Over here! I’m the one that you’ve been looking for!” He didn’t have a
halo shimmering around his head that was probably covered with dark, baby peach
fuzz. No, he was absolutely ordinary, this God who had become “one of us” on
Christmas. But Simeon knew that this Child was The One. Don’t you wish that you
knew how Simeon recognized him? Maybe we should ask ourselves that question as
we celebrate Christmas and worship the God who became “one of us.” How do
recognize that God when we run into him? Jesus’ earthly body certainly isn’t
here anymore. He was born, died, was resurrected, and ascended into heaven long
ago. But his Presence is still among us. He will always be, “one of us.” So the
question remains: Where do we look for this God who has become “one of us”?
Where do we even start to look for him?
Theologian and novelist Frederick
Buechner recalls such Christmas Eve when he happened to be in Rome. He joined
the crowds at St. Peter’s Basilica to hear the Pope (Pope Pius XII at that
time) celebrate midnight Mass. He recalls his impression of the Pope as the
pontiff entered the basilica: “I can
still see his face as he was carried by me on his throne – that lean face,
grey-skinned, with the high-bridged beak of a nose, his glasses glittering in
the candlelight. And as he passed by me, he was leaning slightly forward and
peering into the crowd with extraordinary intensity. Through the thick lenses
of his glasses, his eyes were larger than life, and he peered into my face and
into all the faces around me and behind me with a look so keen and so charged
that I could not escape the feeling that he must be looking for someone in
particular. He was not a potentate nodding and smiling to acknowledge the
enthusiasm of the multitudes. He was a man whose face seemed gray with waiting,
whose eyes seemed huge and exhausted with searching, for someone, some One, who
he thought might be there that night or any night, anywhere, but whom he had
never found, and yet he kept looking. Face after face he searched for the face
that he knew he would know – was it this one? Was it this one? Or this one? –
and then he passed on out of my sight.”
Was the Pope searching for “God with
us”? Buechner believes that he was, and concludes his thoughts this way: “In one sense, of course, the face was not
hidden; and as the old Pope surely knew, the one he was looking for so hard was
at that very moment crouched in some doorway against the night or leading home
some raging Roman drunk or waiting for the mass to be over so he could come in
with his pail and his mop to start cleaning up that holy mess. The old Pope
surely knew that the one he was looking for was all around him there in St.
Peter’s. The face that he was looking for was visible, however dimly, in the
faces of all of us who had come there that night….”
“God with us” – God as “one of us” – is
here in every single person! The historical Christ child lived and died 2000
years ago, but God is still present with us in each one of us. Is that hard to
believe? Turn to the person next to you. Take a good look at them. God is in
that person, just as God is in the person on your other side, and in the person
sitting behind you, and in the person sitting in front of you! What a
difference it would make if, as we search for God as “one of us,” we would
remember that.
The story is told of a monastery
somewhere in Europe. It was old, and so were the monks who lived there. In
fact, it was in danger of closing, a prospect that gave its monks many
sleepless nights. One day, a traveler stopped by to take advantage of the
monastery’s hospitality. The monks knew of him; he was rumored to be a prophet.
As he was preparing to leave, the monks begged him for a word of hope for their
monastery. The prophet smiled and said, “The Messiah is one of you.” “One of us”?
the monks asked each other. The Messiah is “one of us”? They began to wonder
which one of them it was! Was it Brother Charles? He was a gentle man, but none
too bright. Surely the Messiah would be smarter than Brother Charles! Was it
Brother Edgar? He was a good cook, but a little abrupt in the kitchen. Surely
it couldn’t be grumpy old Brother Jerome! He complained about his gout day in
and day out! Which one…? Since they couldn’t identify the Messiah among them,
they decided that they had better treat every single brother as the Messiah,
just in case that one was The One. They helped Brother Charles when he had
difficulty learning something. They made sure not to get in Brother Edgar’s way
in the kitchen. They were even patient with Brother Jerome’s complaints. And
something happened. New brothers began not only to visit their monastery, but
to stay! Within a few years, it was once again a thriving religious community.
Did the brothers ever identify the Messiah? No – but their search for him had
increased their compassion, patience, and love for one another, because… well,
the Messiah was one of them!
God is
“one of us.” He was born among us at Christmas, and he is still here! Keep
searching for him in every single person that you meet! Treat everyone as
though they are the Messiah – because, in great or small ways – they are! In
the coming new year, may you recognize the face of God in everyone you see. If
you do, I guarantee that you will have the best year of your life!
(The quotes by Frederick Buechner were
taken from Listening to Your Life: Daily
Meditations with Frederick Buechner, 1992, HarperSanFrancisco, pages
334-335.)
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