UnderCover Boss:

What if God became One of Us

Hebrews 2:14-18

† IHS †

May the grace, mercy and peace God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ has planned to be part of our lives become more and more the reality we live in, as we realize God became one of us…

What if God became one of us?

Whatever the reason they agree to give up their comfortable lives, their homes and their families, the end result is staggering.  CEO’s of everything from restaurants like Hooters to portable toilet suppliers; from hotel chains to retail stores and airport shuttles. They go on the show, and are changed by doing the basic things their people do every day.

At the end of the show, if you have never seen it, the boss calls them into the corporate office, for a little chat.  He’s given money to help them change their lives, scholarships, promotions, new roles. But the big change is in their lives, as they stay in simple hotels, and live like the rest of us.  The changes they can cause in their peoples lives are nothing compared to the changes they find in their own lives, in their own work.

In the television show “Undercover Boss” there are great lessons for us all to learn, as we realize we aren’t dealing with just numbers, but with real people that are around us.  People with real challenges, People that become important, as we realize our lives are impacted by so many different people, people whom we don’t really know.

I owe credit for today’s sermon title to Kay, who looked at my sub-title – and thought of the show. But can you imagine if the Boss came undercover, and lived life as part of your world, your work?

How would that change your life at the end of the day, when you are called into His office?

What would happen today, if God became one…of us?

Do we realize God knows what our life is like?

Some of you, the theologians and scholars in our midst, are probably thinking that God has.  Remember the baby in the manger, the miracles, the transfiguration and cross and grace and Resurrection?

Yes, I do… but I meant today.

What would happen if the person next to you tomorrow at Starbucks was Jesus?  Or the person you encounter about 10:00 at work or the nurse taking your blood pressure at the doctor’s office?

What would that be like? If that person was “the Boss”?

The real question behind this is one we need to seriously ask ourselves. Does God know what our lives are like, and more importantly, does He care?  Or are we just another piece in His puzzle, another number on a spreadsheet, some of us in the assets column, some in the liabilities?

Does God know each one of us, and does He care?

How we answer that question will determine a lot of things in our lives. Especially how we relate to each other, and well of course to Him.

God’s answer is seen in the reading from Hebrews 2 this morning

Reason #1 to Come – You can’t help if you aren’t here

We often hear, and talk about, the role Jesus has and had, in delivering us from the power of sin, about the grief and shame we know, because we fail to do the things we are supposed to do, and we can’t stop those things we do the negative and things we think and have anxiety about.  It is true, that Jesus came to take care of those things, to deliver us from guilt and shame and the anxiety that sin causes.

But the author of Hebrews looks at another aspect of Christ’s coming here, to deal with our fears and anxieties, including that of death.  Hear the words again, “¹⁴ Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. ¹⁵ Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

it is amazing in the show to see what the bosses learn, not about their job, but about their people. The things that handicap them, the things that could be done to make their lives easier.  When at the end of the show the Bosses help the people, the emotional level is so high, they realized the Boss is human too.

The apostle John said that Jesus, the logos of God, came and dwelt among us, and that they beheld His glory, A glory that shatters the darkness, a glory that is demonstrated in a love that took on death for us. A glorious love that shattered it power over us, and freed us from the fear and anxieties we have about it.

That’s what the cross does, it puts everything in perspective. It tells us Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man, has been here. He has come.

If that was all it would mean, for Him to come, there is much to rejoice in, but that isn’t all.

Reason #2 to Come – to run to our aid..

I want you to look at the last verse of that reading, where it says:

¹⁸ Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.

The word translated help, is a bit more powerful than that, though I don’t know any word that adequately would cover it.  It combines the concept of a scream or a yell – and an immediate run to give aid. That’s the word picture, Jesus, not looking perfectly groomed, but rushing headlong to our aid. 

Since He knows our lives, since He lives with us, since He is… here.

Unlike most of the undercover bosses, Jesus knows us completely..  He knows the ups and downs, and how to survive, for He lived and still lives in us. He didn’t come here to make a television show, or to make His company more profitable, or perfect.  He came into our lives to stay, to bring mercy, comfort and love and peace.

He is here, and He has promised that we will never ever be forsaken, that He will be with us to the end of the age.

Undercover Boss?  Not really, not at all.  He desires we reveal His presence to every person, so they can know for sure, that He has become one of us, even more, through His death on the cross,

God didn’t just come to be one of us, but God came to be one with us.

God has come, and dwells among us.

That’s what this is all about…this service, this church, our preschool.

Helping you realize His presence, in every moment of our lives…..

and knowing this, the peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.  AMEN!.