Feeling Far From God at Christmas

Many people feel far from God, to say nothing of religion, and never more so than at Christmastime.

Though Christmas may have moved them deeply as children – and they may still get off on the lights, music and TV Christmas movies – God remains a distant abstraction, and religion appears to have nothing to do with their lives. They feel like outsiders, on the fringes of God’s love.

I don’t believe that’s how God sees it.

One of my favorite stories from the gospels is about a father and son, a story that’s overshadowed in most people’s minds by the much more famous father/son account of the Prodigal Son.

“Tell me what you think of this story,” Jesus asks the high priests and leaders of the people in the Gospel of Mathew, according to The Message translation. “A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went.

“Sure, glad to”

“The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went. Which of the two sons did what the father asked? They said, ‘The first.’

“Yes,” said Jesus, “and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John (the Baptist) came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.”

This is not to compare non-believers to “crooks and whores,” many of whose lives were changed after hearing Jesus, nor is it meant to put down believers. It’s meant to illustrate that Jesus was most interested in reaching outsiders, precisely those who believed themselves far from God’s love.

Feeling alienation

For starters, people who believe themselves estranged from God may have such doubt about God’s very existence that the feeling of alienation may seem inevitable.

Many people feel far from God, to say nothing of religion, and never more so than at Christmastime.

Though Christmas may have moved them deeply as children – and they may still get off on the lights, music and TV Christmas movies – God remains a distant abstraction, and religion appears to have nothing to do with their lives. They feel like outsiders, on the fringes of God’s love.

I don’t believe that’s how God sees it.

One of my favorite stories from the gospels is about a father and son, a story that’s overshadowed in most people’s minds by the much more famous father/son account of the Prodigal Son.

“Tell me what you think of this story,” Jesus asks the high priests and leaders of the people in the Gospel of Mathew, according to The Message translation. “A man had two sons. He went up to the first and said, ‘Son, go out for the day and work in the vineyard.’ The son answered, ‘I don’t want to.’ Later on he thought better of it and went.

“Sure, glad to”

“The father gave the same command to the second son. He answered, ‘Sure, glad to.’ But he never went. Which of the two sons did what the father asked? They said, ‘The first.’

“Yes,” said Jesus, “and I tell you that crooks and whores are going to precede you into God’s kingdom. John (the Baptist) came to you showing you the right road. You turned up your noses at him, but the crooks and whores believed him. Even when you saw their changed lives, you didn’t care enough to change and believe him.”

This is not to compare non-believers to “crooks and whores,” many of whose lives were changed after hearing Jesus, nor is it meant to put down believers. It’s meant to illustrate that Jesus was most interested in reaching outsiders, precisely those who believed themselves far from God’s love.

For starters, people who believe themselves estranged from God may have such doubt about God’s very existence that the feeling of alienation may seem inevitable.

One of my all-time favorite writers, Tomas Halik – winner of the 2014 Templeton Prize – writes in Patience with God: The Story of Zacchaeus Continuing in Us: ”I agree with atheists on many things – often on almost everything – except their belief that God doesn’t exist.

“In today’s bustling marketplace of religious wares of every kind,” he writes, “I sometimes feel closer with my Christian faith to the skeptics or to the atheist or agnostic critics of religion. With certain kinds of atheists I share a sense of God’s absence from the world. However, I regard their interpretation of this feeling as too hasty, as an expression of impatience.”

Halik says he knows of three mutually and interconnected forms of patience for confronting the absence of God: faith, hope and love.

Patience, however, is what Halik considers to be “the main difference between faith and atheism,” and the rest of his book is about the parallels between Zacchaeus, the diminutive and patient bystander who in a gospel story has to climb a tree to get a look at Jesus, and contemporary people who feel estranged from God.

Many “outsiders” may have a tiny spark of faith, occasionally feeling the presence of a loving God. Doesn’t it make sense to nurture that instead of ignoring it or fighting it? Should we ask ourselves to what extent we read or view material, or associate with people, that nurture that spark instead of exclusively reading and viewing, and associating with people, who confirm us in our doubt and alienation from God and others?

Emmanuel, God with us

Genevieve Glen and Jerome Kodell write in “Daily Reflections for Advent & Christmas” that “over and over again in Scripture our God describes himself as Emmanuel, God with us, and says to each of us, ‘I am with you; I will be with you on your way.’

“We find it very hard to believe that this is true,” they write. “We may feel it momentarily in a moment of peace …but very quickly the demands and distractions and pains of the world wash in to smother our awareness of God’s loving presence.”

I pray that the readers of this blog feel God’s loving presence this Christmas, and act on this feeling in the coming year