The first smells that entered God’s nostrils of flesh were most likely the stench of manure.  The prince of peace was subjected to a stink that we modern humans avoid at all costs.  He was wrapped in rags of cloth and laid in the place from which the livestock fed.  The co-owner of creation, at his birth, was left among the marginalized and the dispossessed.  It is important in viewing this scene not to view it with rose-colored glasses.  It is important not to see this in soft fuzzy lighting with an eye toward some nostalgic perspective.

God entered the world into squalor.  The scene at his birth was likely a chaotic one.  It is unlikely that Mary and Joseph were alone in the cave that functioned as a stable.  This place was likely filled with other poor travelers that couldn’t find lodging anywhere in Bethlehem. It is unlikely that this place had been cleared of animals.  And so it was that God came into the world among a crowded cave filled with the flotsam and jetsam that made up the bottom rungs of Jewish society at that time.   The stench of sweaty, unwashed people most likely mixed with the foul odor of the livestock and their decaying offal to create an overwhelming odor that I honestly cannot begin to imagine.

This moment at God’s birth was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah regarding, “A great light” and “Unto us a son is given”.  Our modern minds tend to focus on the great chorus of angels that heralded the birth of the Messiah and the Magi that came from the east.  We tend to try and avoid focusing on the stable in which the Christ was born.  And yet it is in this humble cave that an amazing event occurred.  A teenage virgin, engaged to a carpenter, gave birth to the prince of peace there.  And the miracle of this season took place.  The miracle that affirmed God’s will for his creation was brought to fruition there.

It is puzzling that the creator of the universe chose such a lowly place to enter the world he created.  The God that parted the Red Sea, gave Daniel comfort in the lion’s den, provided the support for Meshack, Shadrack, and Abednigo; entered the world in a place, and a time that none would have expected.  God confounded the expectations of his people as he began fulfilling his promise of a messiah.  The birth of the Messiah was primarily witnessed by livestock, the unlucky, the dispossessed, and a small band of shepherds. Not exactly a proper court for the King of Kings, but it is what God selected.

The moment of the birth of the Messiah was an amazing moment in time.  It was a majestic event that happened in the midst of manure.  I cannot help but be awed by it.  I cannot help but be left speechless when I consider it.  The march to the cross began in a stable filled with the fragrant aroma of decaying fecal matter.  The nostrils of the Messiah were filled with the stench of this life from His very first breath.  The stench of our sin, and degradation was in his nose from the very beginning.  And God didn’t run from it, or select a different place to avoid it.  God chose to step into this life in the most humble of circumstances and be exposed from the very beginning to the stench of our existence.  He chose to seek out his creation at its most raw and basal level.  He didn’t shrink from the appointment with us.  He welcomed it, he invited it, and he took it squarely head on, beginning with the moment of his birth.

In a lowly cave in Bethlehem, God came near to us two millennia ago.  He has chosen to abide with his creation.  He has chosen through substitutional sacrifice to impute value into his own, to impute his value into his own.  He chose to draw near to those capable of hearing his voice.  And he has never left us since.

There are a number of definitions for this perspective.  The one I like best is: a perspective that affirms God to be not only still active in the affairs of men, but as a being with a stake and a vested interest in the outcome.  A key attribute of this perspective relates to God’s firm resolve to bring his will into being in every situation by any means necessary. 

Distilling this personal definition into a functional understanding means for me that God hasn’t wandered off to something more entertaining. God isn’t hanging ten in Maui right now because the waves are just bitchin’.  He isn’t playing the back nine at Augusta because, as God, he gets a killer tee time.  He isn’t off playing in another sandbox, because it’s better than the one he created.   No, he is actively seeking to manifest his will in the everyday and mundane events of his creation with the explicit goal of bringing it back into relationship with himself.

More simply put, God isn’t a disinterested third party.  He isn’t the Watcher from Marvel comics.  He isn’t a neutral observer that mediates disputes in his creation.  God is an interested entity with an agenda.  He has skin in the game as it were.  He is a being that is seeking his creation’s best interest as he defines it.

Some might look at this exposition and think that I’ve reduced God to a lobbyist seeking to cajole his creation into doing what he wants.  While there are some in the “Name it and claim it” crowd that teach something very close to this, in my view nothing could be farther from the truth.  A lobbyist seeks to influence others into implementing his agenda or that of his client, through all the tools in the persuasion arsenal.  And while God does use some of these tools on occasion, there is another dimension to this.  God has the power to enforce his will in order to bring it into being.

Can a lobbyist fling stars into orbit?  Can a lobbyist speak life into existence?  Can a lobbyist speak the fate of man with absolute certainty?  Can a lobbyist heal the lame, give sight to the blind, and restore hearing to the deaf?  Can a lobbyist create eyes for a blind man from spit and mud?  Obviously not….

Can a lobbyist insist that a reluctant prophet go to Nineveh?  Can a lobbyist arrange a great fish as a method of conveyance to enforce his will?  Can a lobbyist insist on an outcome and have the ability to make it so 100%  of the time?  Obviously not…  God has the ability to do all of those things and much more.

The Bible clearly states that God has an interest in the lives of men and women.  It unambiguously shows that God has a heart for his creation.  It displays vividly that God has a burning desire to restore his creation to relationship with himself.  It demonstrates in absolute terms that this is a primary ministry of and mission for God.  It has played out numerous times in the Bible.  From Noah to Moses to Abraham and beyond we are surrounded by what the writer of Hebrews calls a ‘cloud of witnesses’ to this ministry of God.

Some read the bargaining God allowed by Abram regarding Sodom’s fate, as a hint of malleability in the will of God.  This is a valid conclusion to draw from this particular instance, but I think a flawed one.  God knew the outcome was not going to be affected by Abram’s bargaining.  The end result was ultimately the same; Sodom and Gomorrah were still the same smoldering holes in the ground they were going to be at the outset. God being the timeless being that he is understood that only in allowing Abram to bargain in some fashion could the life of Lot and his family be spared. And this was an important part of God’s agenda in this instance.  

We also see the activist God at work in the life and ministry of a reluctant and otherwise obscure prophet by the name of Jonah.  God calls him to go to Nineveh and Jonah balks.  From the text it doesn’t appear Jonah had any trouble with serving God or accepting the calling to the role of prophet.  He only has trouble with the specific ministry he’s been called to in terms of audience and geography.  Jonah’s response is to bail on the whole mission and ministry.

The possible reasons for Jonah’s balk are many.  Some have posited that he just didn’t want to go there for racial or cultural reasons.  While others have posited that Jonah knew God was planning to use the Ninevites as a tool to bring the Jewish people back into right relationship with him, by captivity if necessary.  Both possibilities, while valid interpretations of Jonah’s potential motives are largely arguments from silence.  There is no proof in the text for either position.

The only thing the text gives us for certain is that Jonah was convinced it would succeed.  It’s possible that his belief was based upon arrogance or vanity.  It’s also possible he was convinced that with God’s assistance anything was possible.  The text really doesn’t give us good window into Jonah’s thinking on this apart from that.

What is certain is that he was so unwilling to participate in the implementation that he fled for Tarsus aboard a boat.  And as a result he found an immutable truth about God in the process.  God gets what God wants.  If God wants a prophet in Nineveh, God doesn’t allow that individual to flee the calling at the appointed time.  When the time is right, there is nothing that can keep anyone from their appointment with God’s plan for their lives.  So our reluctant prophet ends up in Nineveh right on time to fulfill God’s plan for his life.  That by its very definition is activism on God’s part.

The story of Jonah is but one example of God’s activism.  There are many more.  From the angel in Balaam’s path to the story of Esther and beyond, they all prove the same point.  They all bear witness to a God that is either unable or unwilling to sit on the sidelines as the events of history unfold.  They speak to us even today that God’s will is unchangeable and immutable.  They inform us as to the character of the divine creature that spoke the world into existence.

And they should give us pause in our moments of rebellion against this God.  We should remember that the God of Genesis 1:1 who commanded the sun into existence by simply saying that it would be ‘good’ if it did, is the one with which  we’re toying.  We should remember the story of Jonah as we ponder our answers to God’s call on our lives.  It should force us to ask, does God have a great fish in waiting for me to deal with my stiff necked and stubborn nature?  And is God ready to consume me whole when I foolishly tell him to go get bent?

The consistent witness of this activist God should alter how we relate to him.  It should impose a certain amount of fear mixed with reverence and a dash of awe when we consider God.  If God wanted to he could give us an ‘offer we can’t refuse’ or cause us to awake with a horse’s head in our bed to get the point across.  God is however so much more resolved and determined when it comes to his will than a mafia lord.  Also if we give criminal thugs deference to avoid drawing their interest in us; how much more deference should we give Almighty God?   

 We should remember that the God that flooded the world in Noah’s time still exists.  We should be mindful that the God that destroyed Sodom for its manifest lack still resides at the center of our world.  It should give us pause that the God that thwarted the plans of the builders of the tower of Babel still remains committed to doing that very thing even today.  His nature is immutable and without a glint or glimmer of change in it.  If God wants something to happen or change, you can take it to the bank that it will.  God’s word doesn’t return void.  God always gets what God wants! 

This simple truth should change the very core of who we are.  It should force us to our knees in repentance.  It should fundamentally alter who we are and how we relate to the divine in our lives.  We shouldn’t tarry or dither when it comes to the essential nature of God’s call on our lives.  It should us force us to action.  It should put our feet in motion.  So let us begin.