In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. . . .
And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”
John 1:1, 14
This is the season of the Christian year that focuses on the incarnation, the mysterious idea that God became human and came to be with us. In so doing, the love of God was manifest in the presence of God. When it comes to experiencing the gift of love, few things substitute for presence. Throughout scripture, God’s most consistent promise was to be “with us”, it was another way of God promising to love us. After all, to leave someone (the experience of rejection) speaks the just the opposite. That is why just before his death, Jesus was careful to reassure the disciples that though he was going away, he would not leave them alone, and just before his ascension, his last words to the disciples were that he would be “with them” always. In Jesus, God modeled for us the power of the “ministry of presence”, and then charged us (the Church, the “Body of Chris”) with extending that ministry until he returned.
Certainly technology has changed the way in which we can be “present” with people. How reassuring it is for our children to be able text or call us from anywhere. And we are grateful for monitoring services for older adults who can call for help by mashing a button around their neck. Today we can even “see” people on the other side of the world as we talk to them. But, that same technology makes it easy to be physically isolated from each other. From “distance learning” to electronic banking, from “Facebook” friendships to “live streaming” of our worship services, we connect without touch or “presence”. For all we have gained by the gift of technology we have to be intentional that something more important is not lost.
As pastors, we need to use every means of technology to “connect” with people and “communicate” the Word, but that will never substitute (only supplement) for the ministry of presence. For all of us it gets far too easy to do ministry from a keyboard, and what is lost is incarnation (the Word made flesh). Our ministries must be moving out of the church buildings and into the world where people are lost and lonely. If the world is to know that God is still “with us” then it will be up to us for His love to be manifest in and through us in tangible and personal ways. This season, let’s ask ourselves how we are doing with the ministry of presence, and in celebration that God loved us enough to come to be with us, let us go out to be with his people. Instead of the Word being made digital data, let’s make it flesh again.
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