 Pastor's
Message
by Rev.
Robert S. Jungé
 In the dark moments of
temptation we often ask, “Where is the Lord?”
Sickness and pain strike and we perhaps say, “Does He really care?”
In our worst moments the doubt may even raise its head, “Does He
really exist?”
Because the Word speaks
to each of us in human terms, we can compare our own dark days to the
times just before the Lord’s Coming.
Before the Advent the prophets, even as we, asked the Israelites,
“Where is thy God?” There is
no doubt that Israel felt forsaken and abandoned even when the truth was
that they had abandoned the Lord.
Of course He cared for them as He cares for all mankind.
Yet more and more they became a people not only walking in
darkness, but loving darkness rather than light.
Our challenge is never to let that happen with us.
The time before the
Advent is a profound picture of the human heart in the depth of
temptation. At such times the
voice of the prophets, like the voice of conscience may seem to be silent.
We imagine the people of Israel under the Romans, day by day
plodding a treadmill even worse than the treadmill we sometimes trod.
How often we feel conquered by circumstances beyond our control and
unable to break out. Yet the
Lord was not truly absent in Israel and He is not truly absent from us.
From within a simple but
earnest desire to understand holds fast.
Somehow we know that things should have a meaning and purpose if we
can but discover it. This
virgin longing for understanding is the means for God to come into our
lives and be with us again.
His name was called “Immanuel” which means “God with us.”
The Lord did not come in
the way people expected. Our
belief in Him takes years to grow from childlike innocence to full
conviction. In love we follow
Him step-by-step, doubting at times and at other times seeing miracles.
With each step we choose to follow and become disciples or else we
choose to give up. When His
mission was finished those who became His disciples became apostles. In a
wonderful fulfillment, even when He left this world, seeming to be gone
away, He became even more God with them. They had learned the lessons of
their master, and now had a mission to carry out in His name.
Some of us may be in
states of longing like Mary. Perhaps a sense of wonder and hope has
suddenly appeared to us as we go about our daily tasks as it did to the
shepherds. Perhaps through
study and reflection we will begin to see our God and to realize that no
other knowledge can compare to knowing Him. It will be just as it was to
the wise men when the light of that special star was so different from all
the others in the sky.
Wherever we are in life,
however, we need to remember Mary said, “Be it unto me according to thy
word.” The shepherds “came
with haste.” The wise men
rejoiced at the star and presented gifts.
The disciples left their nets and followed Him.
When they became apostles they spread the Gospel, the good new of
His coming. That
responsibility, that ability to respond as free human beings, is the gift
of life from the Lord.
Wherever we are in life we are called upon to respond.
If we respond, He can come to us, and be truly “Immanuel,” “God
with us.” It also might be regarded as a legitimate choice by those who
had no specific need for the substitution.
Rev. Robert S. Jungé
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