Do you remember the song “From a Distance” sung by Bette Midler in the early 1990’s?
“From a distance, the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance, the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight
From a distance, there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It’s the voice of hope
It’s the voice of peace
It’s the voice of every man
From a distance, we all have enough
And no one is in need
And there are no guns, no bombs, and no disease
No hungry mouths to feed
From a distance, we are instruments
Marching in a common band
Playing songs of hope
Playing songs of peace
They’re the songs of every man
God is watching us
God is watching us
God is watching us
From a distance”
I was 17 years old when Bette Midler made this song famous, and I loved it. It spoke to me because it was about an ideal world in which human beings were kind to each other and cared for each other. It said to me that deep down we are all the same if we could just back up and get some perspective. It encouraged me to imagine a world where everybody has enough and there is no more war and to wonder what it would take to get there. But there was one part of the song that always bothered me—the bridge “God is watching us. . . from a distance.”
I didn’t want a God who kept apart from humanity and saw everything as beautiful because their creation was too far away for them to really see the truth of what was happening here on earth. I wanted a God who is in this life with us, intimately. I wanted a God who shows up in the midst of war. I wanted a God who holds the hungry child close to them. I wanted a God who understood that there is a lot of pain and suffering in every human life and would not abandon us in the midst of this pain and suffering. And I still want this God.
And the God shown to us in Hebrew and Christian Scriptures is not a God watching us from a distance. The God of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures is a God who is intimately involved in the day to day lives of individuals and nations. The God we see in the Bible didn’t create the world and walk away. The God we see in the Bible created the entire universe and stuck around to be in relationship with all they created. We heard two of the many Biblical stories of God being present with humanity this morning.
The first was our Old Testament reading from Second Samuel. Our story comes from the beginning of David’s reign when Israel is transitioning from “a loose federation of tribes” to an emerging monarchy. David had consolidated political power in Jerusalem and built a royal palace of Lebanon cedar and with great fanfare had brought the ark of the Lord to rest in a tent in Jerusalem. The ark symbolized God’s presence with David, his dynasty, and the people of Israel. Naturally David wants to give God a permanent home in his midst, a home at least as good as his new palace. Initially the royal prophet, Nathan, agrees with him. But in the night God has words with Nathan and makes it very clear that God is not interested in a fancy house built of stone. God wants a people built by God. God wants to dwell with the people. God does not want to watch their creation from a distance. God wants to be in the midst of their children.
The second story is our Gospel story, the annunciation of Mary when the Angel Gabriel comes to talk with Mary and convince her to bear God’s son, God incarnate, God coming into the midst of us. Mary, a young girl betrothed to a man named Joseph but not yet married to him is sought out by the angel Gabriel to receive an unbelievable request. There is no indication in Luke’s story that Mary asked for this encounter or that she sought it out or expected it in any way. God seeks her and Mary is perplexed, or in some interpretations even “greatly troubled” by the angel’s words. They make no sense to her.
Behind the text we have in Luke I hear her unspoken words, “what do you mean I have found favor? I am a poor young woman soon to be married in a small, occupied no-name town in the Roman Empire. There are some who are worse off than me, but not many. And what do you mean I’m going to bear a son? Are you crazy? I am not yet married! And this son I’m going to bear? How can you describe him as great and as a king? Don’t you know I am a poor peasant girl and my soon-to-be husband is a carpenter? Do you want to see me stoned? Will you promise me that Joseph won’t abandon me? What on earth are you talking about?” It is no small thing to be seen by God. It is no small thing to have God come along side you and be with you close up. We are accustomed to feeling as though God is a great distance from us. It can be more than a little overwhelming to realize that God is as close to us as our nose is to our face.
Fortunately, Gabriel persists, and it is his declaration that Mary’s relative Elizabeth, who has remained childless and is now beyond the age when she can expect to have children, is six months pregnant that finally convinces Mary that God is indeed very close to them all and is doing something very remarkable in their lives. It is this that convinces her that perhaps God is doing something remarkable in her life too.
And what is this remarkable thing that God is doing? Well, God is not only continuing to walk with their creation. Now God is going to become their creation. God is going to get as close as possible to that which God created because God loves and cares so much for humankind. God is going to become vulnerable, fragile, limited, suffering, mortal flesh to become a living breathing example of their love for us. There will be no distance at all between us and God. And Mary will be the person who will birth this God made human. And Mary is this person because she says “yes.”
The question we have to ask ourselves on this fourth Sunday of Advent is this: Do we believe that God is active in the world, or do we believe that God is watching us from a distance? Is God an active character in the story of our lives or not? Like Mary, does God favor us and seek to do great things through us too? If we truly believe that God became incarnate in that baby born of Mary, then we must also believe that God does not view us from a distance but is instead as close as our very breath. And this God that is as close as our breath loves us and favors us too. The God that is as close as our breath wants to do great things through me and you too. I wonder, will we say yes. Amen.
