What if God was one of us?

Many of you wi l l remember the song entitled “One Of Us,” written by Eric Bazilian, and which became a hit for pop singer Joan Osborne in 1995. The refrain asks the question: “What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us.

Just a stranger on the bus Tryin’ to make his way home.”

Some critics took offense at the lyrics, especially the “slob” part. To some, the idea that God might be sitting next to you on a bus ride was inconceivable. Others thought the song was a cynical putdown of faith. Bazilian himself said that he did not intend to mean God was a slob, but rather that the song is about being human. Paul Evans from Rolling Stone magazine explained the lyrics saying the song imagines a God as hurt as any human.'

If God was one of us, God would know, as we know, what it’s like to feel love, joy, sorrow, disappointment, temptation, betrayal, loneliness and loss. If God had an earthly body, God would know what it’s like to feel hunger, thirst, weariness, pain; God would know what it is like to suffer and die. If God was one of us, God would be able to identify fully with you and me.

We never know how or where or when God might show up. Every moment is alive with the possibility of Christ “adventing” into our lives, because he surprises us by coming at the time and in the places, and through the people we may least expect. In the words of poet Ann Weems: “Christmas comes every time we see God in other persons. The human and the Holy meet in Bethlehem or in Times Square.” Or as Francis Thompson wrote: Jesus comes walking to us not only on the Sea of Galilee, but also on the River Thames.

Hugh Hildesby, an Episcopalian rector in New York City, tells the story of Phil, one of his parishioners who is a street person. Schizophrenic and homeless, Phil refuses to stay in a shelter. He spends his nights sleeping in doorways, and he spends his days in church. “He keeps us honest,” says the pastor.

Once, during a funeral service for a prominent lawyer, Phil, filthy and dressed in rags, sat in the back of the church. The law partner of the deceased c ame up to Reverend Hildesby and said, “Can you get him out of here?”

The pastor answered, “Yes, I can get him out; but you should know that if he leaves, I go with him. He belongs here; he’s been a member of this parish for ten years.”

One Christmas Eve after the service, the parishioners were enjoying cookies and coffee together in the fellowship hall when out of the sanctuary arose a magnificent voice singing “O Holy Night.” It was a trained, professional voice, radically beautiful. Awed by the holiness of the moment, everyone stopped to listen. When the singing ended, they rushed into the church to find the source of the music. And there they found him: That Christmas Eve, God and appeared to them and serenaded them as homeless and ragged Phil.

What if God was one of us? What if Jesus is one of us? To eat the Bread and drink from the Cup at Christmas Eve Communion is to proclaim, as did the John the Evangelist: “The Word became f lesh and dwelt among us.” Indeed, dwells among us! It is this that keeps us honest as to what Christmas means, and can mean, every day. God bless us every one. Merry Christmas.