“And the glory of the Lord will appear,
and all humanity together will see it,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” (Isaiah 40:5 CSB)
Have you ever considered what you might do should God reveal himself to you in some unmistakable manner? If you knew without a shadow of a doubt you were in his presence, face to face, what do you imagine you would do? I am confident of this: you would immediately respond in some way. It might be a response of dumbfounded awe that leaves your mouth hanging open. It might be to fall on your face in fear. It might be to turn and run. But of one thing I am certain, the moment would demand a response.
Although I would never suggest that the physical manifestation of God will make an appearance in your local house of worship this Advent season, I do believe that God is making himself known there. And when God makes himself known, it demands a response.
God has been in the business of making himself known for a very long time. Ever since he expelled Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden, God has been in hot pursuit to reclaim all of creation.
Take, for instance, the deliverance of the people of Israel found in the book of Exodus. In Exodus 12:33–42, God reveals himself through his servant Moses and delivers his people from Egyptian enslavement. In Exodus 13:17–22, God’s presence goes before them in a pillar of cloud and a pillar of fire. In Exodus 14, God parts the waters of the Red Sea, providing safe passage for the Israelites from the pursuing Egyptian army, and subsequently drowns Pharaoh’s entire army in the Red Sea.
Here, in the midst of this great liberation of an entire population of people, God’s power, presence, and mighty saving acts are on display for all of Israel to witness: “When Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord and believed in him and in his servant Moses” (Exod 14:31). God made himself known. And in response, the people of Israel sing. That’s right. Exodus 15 opens with Moses and the Israelites singing a song of remembrance and praise as their response to all that God has done:
I will sing to the Lord, for he is highly exalted;
he has thrown the horse and its rider into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
This is my God, and I will praise him,
my father’s God, and I will exalt him. (Exod 15:1–2)
I don’t know if you’ve put much thought into what happened in that moment, but one thing we know: the people of Israel’s initial reaction to God making himself known was an act of creativity and expression. And if you turn the pages of your Bible to a thousand years later, you will find a similar response emerging from the mouth of a young girl named Mary after she hears of God’s favor being poured out onto her, making her an a pivotal character in his story of redemption and restoration.
“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you will name him Jesus,” the angel Gabriel tells her. “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35). She hurries off to reveal what has happened to her cousin Elizabeth, and as she shares the news, she cannot contain herself any longer and breaks into a response of praise:
My soul praises the greatness of the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
because he has looked with favor
on the humble condition of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations
will call me blessed,
because the Mighty One
has done great things for me,
and his name is holy.
His mercy is from generation to generation
on those who fear him. (Luke 1:46b–50)
In response to God revealing himself in her womb, Mary breaks out in poetic verse. Overcome by her encounter with the God of the universe, she has to give expression to what she is experiencing in some kind of way. Spontaneous. Creative. Praise.
In this season of Advent and in the celebration of Christmas, we find perhaps the most profound moment in God’s revelation story. In the angel’s message to Mary, God proclaims the dawn of a new day as his revelation is now being given flesh and bone. God reveals himself in personhood through proximity—in other words, God makes himself known by becoming physically knowable. Jesus Christ is God’s saving action in human skin. And so, if you think about it—really think about it—the season of Advent is God doubling down on his revelation as he runs head on in hot pursuit of his creation. And, in response to this never-ending, all-consuming pursuit, the question we have to answer is this: What do we do with this person of Jesus—Emmanuel, God revealed to us—when we come face to face with him? For his revelation demands a response.
And so we find ourselves in the church pew this Christmas hearing the familiar story of Jesus again. But we need to listen to it again as more than just a story. For it is the very revelation of God to you and to me.
Therefore, he asks us to recall this story over and over by gathering to proclaim it, connecting our present location in time and history to it, and rejoicing in the deliverance and hope we find in it. Through the words of Scripture and the retelling of God’s story, we encounter God again this time of year not simply because of the familiar story but because of his revelatory act once again through it. And the revelation of God—through the Word of God, the power of the Holy Spirit, and the person of Jesus Christ—cannot be encountered without some kind of response from us.
How will we respond this Christmas when we come in direct contact with the revelation of God through Jesus? My suggestion is that we should make like the Israelites and sing, however it is that you “sing.” And sing with guts and gusto! For the God of the universe is making himself known to us once again. So let it pour out unrestrained: Spontaneous. Creative. Praise.
Randy Bonifield is a piano-playing, singer/songwriter and film composer from humble roots and the grand musical heritage of Kansas City. His recent work reflects a wide range of musical exploration – a collection of songs for Christmas in 2019, a liturgical journey through Lent in 2018, and film scores from successful independent films on the festival circuit in 2017 and 2019. While these projects represent the breadth of his work (or artistic wanderlust, one might say), he has devoted most of his career to the world of sacred artistry and liturgy, serving as a pastor of congregational worship for the last sixteen years at Christ Community Church in the southern part of the Kansas City area. A graduate of North Park University (1989) with a B.A. in Music, Randy earned his Master of Worship Arts degree from Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies in 2017. Randy and his wife, Wendy, met at summer camp when they were fourteen and have been married for 30 years. They have three daughters: Erin, Hannah, and Grace.
© 2019 Randy Bonifield
Scripture quotations have been taken from the Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible® and CSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.