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you know that feeling when the

electricity cuts out unexpectedly
and you are plunged into sudden darkness
as a child alone in your room your first
instinct might be to cry out mom dad
or maybe even god
many thousands of years ago
a woman named hagar did just that
the light of her life was abruptly
snuffed out when she found herself
pregnant under dubious circumstances
not unlike someone else will be hearing
and singing about tonight
she was frightened
alone and on the run
feeling invisible small and abandoned
so hagar cried out to god for help and
when he comforted her
she responded in relief by calling him
adonai elroy
the god who sees me
hagar felt seen
and known
which is all anyone really wants
and i gave her the courage to face her
dire circumstances with the confidence
that god was with her watching over
never going to let her go
65 generations later a prophet named
malachi
whose name means my messenger
wrote down these words
behold
i will send you elijah the prophet
before the great and awesome day of the
lord comes
and he will turn the hearts of fathers
to their children
in the hearts of children to their
fathers
lest i come and strike the land with the
 decree of utter destruction
with that final word
destruction
fittingly
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the lights clicked off
the people of god were plunged into
darkness as there would be no more words
from the prophets
god's messengers
for hundreds of years
silence cast a shadow over israel that
seemed to only deepen when alexander the
great rode in with his macedonian army
and conquered jerusalem
followed by the ptolemies of egypt
the syrian seleucids
and finally rome
ruler after ruler oppressor after
oppressor it was hard to fathom the name
adonai elroy
the god who sees us
was he really watching
paying attention
had he turned his face away or shut his
eyes
that's the thing about being mortal
we can't see in the dark
but god can
somehow david knew this
and he wrote about it in psalms
even the darkness is not dark to you
the night is bright as the day
for darkness is as light with you
even when we can't see god
he sees us
even we can't see a way forward through
the night he's preparing away
the oppression that crushed the people
of god during the 400 years of silence
made israel feel small
vulnerable
 covered in blood
kicked out of the house and told to
sleep in the barn
little did we know
the god who sees even when we can't
was preparing a savior
who would arrive the same way
small
vulnerable
covered in blood
and hidden away in a lowly stable on a
cold night
in a small town
no one could agree on anything
during the 400 years when god stopped
speaking people took it upon themselves
to fill the dead air with their own
ideas
splintering into factions
pharisees
sadducees
essenes
zealots and more
all obsessing over minutia and casting
judgment on the other groups
everyone was completely certain that
their way of following god was the right
way
the only way
and anyone who differed in the slightest
was an aberration
a pariah
irredeemable
not to be associated with
perhaps even a pagan enemy
the word nuance didn't exist yet
and even if it did it wouldn't have
mattered because no one was willing to
come to the table and listen
choose generosity of spirit or pause to
consider another's point of view
sound familiar
everywhere we look in the world today it
feels like there is no peace
hunkered down in silos of discord and
division everyone seems to have decided
they have a corner on the truth
all others be damned
but we must not give into hopelessness
if you think the world looks scary today
take a look at the period of the judges
the people of god were being massacred
besieged and attacked from every
direction
to the point that they were hiding
themselves in the mountain cliffs caves
and strongholds
and yet
in the midst of all the chaos
there was a man named gideon
who called god jehovah shalom
the lord is our peace
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can you imagine
jehovah shalom when war was raging all
around
an angel of the lord a messenger
came to get in at ophra and assured him
that god was with him
that gideon could lead his people into
battle and defeat their enemies
in faith that the word of the lord would
prove true gideon built an altar to god
and called it jehovah shalom
shalom it might be the most beautiful
word in the universe
it means peace
wholeness
perfection and tranquility
the opposite of what the world often
reflects today and during the 400 years
of crushing silence between the old and
new testaments
it's a word that hebrew speaking people
both then and now used to say hello and
goodbye
it marks the beginning and end of an
interaction
the alpha and omega
and so it is with all of redemptive
history the world began in shalom
a garden unblemished by sin
and we know it will end in shalom
a new heaven and a new earth where god
will wipe away every tear from our eyes
and death shall be no more
neither shall there be mourning nor
crying nor pain anymore
and the city has no need of sun or moon
to shine on it for the glory of god
gives it light and its lamp
is the lamb
by its light will the nations walk and
there will be no night there
the apostle john
wrote those words while in exile on the
isle of patmos
but the man whose death and resurrection
would make it possible for people to
access the renewed kingdom of which he
wrote was prophesied centuries before
christ's birth
isaiah described a coming messiah who
would be called
wonderful counselor
mighty god
everlasting father
prince of peace
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we needed him then
and we need him now
more than ever
our prince of peace
jehovah shalom
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god has a name
it's composed of four hebrew characters
yod hey vav hey
sometimes called the tetragrammaton
it is considered so holy sacred
that the jewish people would not even
say it out loud
instead referring to god as simply the
name
or hashem
like if they said his real name
the tongue might fall out of their mouth
so their vocal cords twist into a knot
and explode
that's how seriously they took it
they took to using descriptive terms
instead to identify them as we've
learned
adonai el roi the god who sees me
jehovah shalom the lord is our peace
most high
el shaddai
almighty god
on a lonely hillside far from polite
society a kid who smelled like sweat
wool and mud
came up with another one
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jehovah
the lord is my shepherd
bald choice
never was the phrase it's a dirty job
but somebody's got to do it more
befitting of an occupation than that of
a shepherd
they worked and slept outdoors moving
their sheep to cooler pastures when the
sun threatened to kill them from heat
exhaustion
sheltering their flocks in caves to
protect from hyenas and jackals
remaining hyper-vigilant to keep them
from falling into ravines or crevices
 it's not a relaxing work environment
contrary to what you may have seen in
sentimentalized paintings
they did triple duty as watchmen
defenders and midwives
delivering lambs from pregnant use
slippery messy bloody affair and one
that came with stipulations
every first-born male lamb was
considered sacred
would be set aside for sacrifice in
jerusalem
even though shepherds were at the bottom
of the economic food chain
they did get one piece of special
attention from the highest aristocratic
class of priests
the priests furnished the shepherds the
consecrated temple cloths to swaddle the
newborn lambs as they laid in a manger
to inspect for blemishes
so
when john the baptizer called jesus the
lamb of god who takes away the sin of
the world
he was simultaneously foreshadowing a
future of sacrifice and atonement
while also calling back to his cousin's
humble birth
the lamb of god
wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger
it's almost like someone planned it
when david first penned jehovah ra the
lord is my shepherd
he went on to describe the valley of the
shadow of death
a dark place
in the years before the light came into
the world that the people of god had
become like sheep without a shepherd
dying from the heat exhaustion of rome's
 oppressive taxation and brutality
the souls led astray by hyenas and
jackals dressed as false teachers
falling into the ravines of crevices of
tribalism
the vision
untended in our valley of the shadow of
death
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we needed a shepherd
we knew that much
we just
never would have guessed that shepherds
themselves would be the first ones to
find out
he was here
almost every name of god uses attributes
that reinforce how lofty and exalted and
separate he is
hello lamb
everlasting god
jehovah
mekodeshika lord who sanctifies
jehovah
the lord who heals
jovanisi
the lord is my banner
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jehovah
lord will provide
all true
comforting and singular
emphasizing his untouchable unattainable
unrivaled power
someone so big and omnipotent that
language can never fully capture his
essence
any more than a graven image could
but you know what
there's something better
than words or statues or names
something the prophet isaiah foretold
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behold
the virgin shall conceive and bear some
it shall call his name
immanuel
god
with us
it's not about the name
emmanuel
it's about the manifestation
of that name
the audacious this really happened
miracle of god taking on human skin
arriving down at our level
surrounded by straw barn animals manure
tears a wooden feeding trough for a crib
frightened parents way
over their heads total strangers barging
in on the whole scene every detail so
deeply human
and raw
and he was willing to go through it
even the worst i would come 33 years
later all for one reason
to be with us
almost sounds too good to be true
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and that's because there's one thing you
could say god is too much of
because a little overboard with
it's goodness
and truth
what then shall we say what of names of
prophets conquerors
secret pregnancies and surprise guests
at a birth
for we cannot but speak
of what we have seen and heard
that we're not alone anymore
emmanuel
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god
 with us
the messages we've received mean we are
not hearers only but doers and
messengers of word proclaiming the news
the four corners of the earth inviting
all to
come and see
that the word became flesh and dwelt
among us
in him was the life and the life was the
light of men the light shines in the
darkness and the darkness has not
overcome it
and it never can
and it never will
it's not that people ought to know
people could know people should know but
people must know the wait is over
we're the messengers now