Eli Wiesel is a Noble Prize winner, an author, and a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. In his book Night, Wiesel tells of witnessing the hanging of three men. They had been part of an underground resistance against the Nazis and had been captured. One of the three men was nothing but a boy. When they fell from the gallows that day, the two large men died almost instantly. But the boy, because of his light weight, suffered terribly as he slowly choked to death.

Through it all, a fellow prisoner, standing behind Eli Wiesel, kept asking out loud, "Where is God NOW? Where IS he?"

Now this was not a question about geography - about God's actual location. What the man was expressing was an unutterable frustration - a feeling that God had totally abandoned them. Why, here was a young man - just a boy - who had risked his life to save others. How could God let them torture him? How could God turn his back on a Jew, one of his own chosen people? Had God forgotten them? Where was God anyway?

And down through the ages, people have asked the same question. When faced with injustice and oppression, when going through hard times, when facing serious illnesses and coming to grips with tragic losses, people often ask, "Where is God now?" It's a cry of desperation from a broken heart. Its an expression of powerlessness in the face of evil and uncertainty.

This is an appropriate question to ask on this Sunday in particular. For the peaceful joy of our Christmas celebration is suddenly interrupted by a part of the Christmas story that we often neglect. We are all familiar with the story of the magi - the wise men from the East. How wonderful is their story of following a star until it comes to rest over Bethlehem. And how majestic the thought of them finding the Holy Family, and bowing before the baby Jesus, and offering them gifts of gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

But right on the heels of their story is another event that is tragic and disturbing. King Herod launches a plot to kill the baby Jesus. And to be sure he gets him, Herod orders the death of all the male children in Bethlehem, two years old and under.

And the Bible tells us that the hills of Bethlehem began to ring - not with the sounds of angel choirs - but with the agonizing mournful wailing of mothers and fathers and families whose babies were put to death.

Now, I realize that neither this story nor this question is what any of us want to pop up in the middle of our celebration of Christmas. We would much rather deck our halls with boughs of holly, and have ourselves a merry little Christmas, and sing fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la! We would rather Christmas be a time of families celebrating, and children going to sleep with sugar plums dancing in their heads, and the world being a place where all is calm and all is bright. And we have gotten pretty good over the years at making Christmas turn out that way.

But this is an aberration of Christmas.

You see, Mary was not the only mother who gave birth in those days in Bethlehem. Mary was not the only mom who held a baby in her arms, trying to protect it from the madness of King Herod. And Joseph was not the only father who desperately tried to find a way to escape the coming bloodbath. It was not at all a silent night, holy night when the people of Bethlehem cried out in agony for their innocent children.

And as those desperate people came face to face with evil circumstances far beyond their ability to either comprehend or control, surely they must have cried out in bewildered frustration, "Where is God NOW?"

And the only answer we are provided is this:

Where was God when the power of evil reached out and took hold of the babies of Bethlehem?

Why, God was right there....among them!

This is the incredible magnificence of Christmas! In the all-too-real darkness of life, a divine light shines!

Eli Weisel came to a similar understanding at Auschwitz. As the man behind him called out, Where IS he? Where is God NOW?", Wiesel found a great truth welling up in his heart and bursting upon his consciousness. Where is God now? He is HERE in the gallows! He is HERE in Auschwitz! He is HERE in the Holocaust!

God-with-us. Experiencing our pain. Suffering with the prisoners. Offering comfort, and strength, and love, and hope.

God was - and is - wherever people are suffering - wherever darkness descends upon peoples' lives.

This is the Christmas story.

And its such an important story for many of us to hear, for there are among our number today a sizeable group of people whose life circumstances keep them away from the merry-ness of Christmas. They are those whose own children are hurting. Those who are wrestling with cancer. Those whose lives have been diminished by the frailty of age. There are some who come to this holiday for the first time without their husband or wife. There are others who can't help it, but are locked within the valley of depression.

I want you to hear the sacred promise of Christmas today - God is WITH you!

Your outward circumstances may not be able to be changed, but God promises to be available to you as your inner reserve. Your life may not get any less confusing, but God promises to be present with you as your guide. You may be completely out of energy and wondering where you'll get the strength to go on, but God promises to lend you his strength and power. Every door in your life may slam shut, but God promises that he will be at work in your life, trying to cut a hole in the rooftop or even through a wall!

And how do we know this?

Because of Christmas.

And it transforms Christmas into a deeper experience than we would ever dare dream. Howard Thurman once described it like this:

This morning, I want to invite you to do two things. First of all, take God up on his promise that he is present with you. Begin to lean on God every day, and begin to trust his love for you. Not too long ago, I was talking with a person who has experienced a series of great challenges in his life over the past few years. Some are work-related. Others are family-related. And still others are health-related. Talk about having a full plate of life to deal with! This person told me that the greatest experience of his whole life has been discovering the presence and power of God within all the turmoil he faces. He says he starts every day with a time of meditation in which he reminds himself that the greatest truth of his life is that God loves him and wants to bring about good in his life. He reads a passage or two from Scripture, paying particular attention to the ones that describe what God is like in his relationships with people, and he tries to remind himself during the day that God is acting that way toward him. He is trying every day to identify and live out the godly values that are guaranteed to be lasting and life-building. And throughout the day, he listens for small hints of guidance and direction. He says that, in many ways, the boat of his life is still full of water and precariously close to going down. That hasn't changed. But what has changed is that now he knows someone is in the boat WITH him, and the one who is in the boat is the same one who calmed the sea and walked on water.

Where is the darkness in your life today? Will you look for the light that shines?

And second, dear friends, go and do the work of Christmas. Learn to identify and come alongside those with whom he is standing, and be the human face of Christ to them. Put your arms around the lonely ones, and be a Christ-like friend. And wherever there is weeping in life - whether in the little town of Bethlehem or over in Lenoir City - take the weepers in your arms and weep with them, and make present the compassion of Christ.

"Where IS God now?" the world wants to know.

Why, God is where he promised to be.

He is among us.