Church of the Crossroads, Sermons

Church of the Crossroads
Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 18, 2005
Neal MacPherson

“WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE”

Luke 1:26-38

At Christmas, the Christian community celebrates the truth of the incarnation, that in the birth of Jesus, God became fully human and lived among us, as one of us. Jesus is therefore called Emmanuel, God-with-us.

The incarnation is a cornerstone of Christian faith. It not only professes that God has become one of us. It also professes that the fully human Jesus is one with whom we can identify. Like us, he was born. Like us, he was baptized. Like us, he knew temptation. Like us, he experienced both God’s presence in his life and also God’s absence. Jesus is God’s representative and also our representative. In him, God and humankind meet.

This whole notion of the incarnation has always been very important to me. Somehow, I need to see a human face of God, for how else will I come to know what God is like? For me, that human face of God is Jesus. For me, I need look no further than Jesus in order to find out what God is like. The human Jesus, once he leaves his infancy and childhood behind, turns out to be loving and compassionate, yet intolerant of greed and oppression, a defender of the poor and the weak, and a presence to those in need. Now I know. This, then, is also what God is also like.

Unless Jesus is fully human, I cannot relate to him in quite the same way. Nor can I discover God in him in quite the same way. This is why I have also been troubled by the whole idea of the virgin birth, that Jesus was conceived without benefit of a human father. For if this is true, how can he be fully human for us? Our humanity is impossible were it not for our earthly mothers and fathers. If Jesus did not have a human father, how can he be fully human?

Thanks to the recommendation of Renate Rose, someone has come to my rescue. Her name is Jane Schaberg, a former nun who became a New Testament scholar. Schaberg has written a brilliant exploration of the birth narratives through the lens of a second century writing known as Proto James. Proto James is one of those books that never made it into the canon. It was written for a specific purpose, and that purpose was to establish the doctrine of the virgin birth. Because of this little book, the virgin birth became ingrained in the Christian imagination and became established in Christian theology.

Briefly (perhaps some time we can read and study it together) Proto James establishes the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus by creating a story that establishes not only his virgin birth but also the virgin birth of Mary herself. She herself is born without benefit of male sperm. She is kept pure and holy until she conceives Jesus through the agency of the Holy Spirit.

But why this elaborate story, this defense of the virgin birth that we find in Proto James? Why did the author of this little book feel compelled to establish the idea of the virgin births of both Mary and Jesus? The answer: Proto James was written to dispel a widely held tradition that Jesus was conceived illegitimately. Schaberg is not the only New Testament scholar to find evidence of this, not in any newly discovered writings, but in the Gospels of Luke and Matthew themselves. Many scholars now hold that both Luke and Matthew reflect and develop the tradition that Jesus was an illegitimate child.

For one thing, both Gospels, the only ones to include birth narratives, agree that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. Both agree that the conception of Jesus took place while his mother Mary was in the first stage of the marriage process, her betrothal to Joseph, during which time she and Joseph did not have intercourse. Given that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, the idea of the virgin birth seems to turn on the interpretation of the words spoken by the angel Gabriel to Mary in response to her confusion. After all, she says, he is a virgin, not yet married. Gabriel says,

Traditionally, these words have been interpreted to mean that it is by the Holy Spirit that Mary will conceive the child. Yet, these words can also mean simply that the Holy Spirit will accompany and protect Mary through her journey and experience. Mary may well have ended up conceiving the child by a man other than Joseph. In that case, Jesus was conceived illegitimately, and an illegitimate child became the Savior of the World. Impossible? Maybe. But with God, nothing is impossible. Nothing, including the fact that Mary’s cousin Elizabeth has conceived a child in her old age. Nothing, including the possibility that an illegitimate child can become the Savior of the world. A far-fetched interpretation? Perhaps. Perhaps not. That’s the beauty of the interpretation of scripture. There are many, many possibilities. That is why we never tire of scripture. There is never just one, correct way of reading scripture.

Now, for me, and perhaps for you, the interpretation suggested by Jane Shaberg would make Jesus truly human, one of us. That is important, for the whole truth of the Incarnation rests upon the idea that God entered life and history afresh in the human Jesus, who is Emmanuel, God-with-us.

Not only that, but Jane Shaberg’s interpretation also restores Mary to us, as a woman who is just as Luke depicts her – a strong, questioning woman, a woman who is not content to be a doormat, a woman who has a prophetic spirit, who dares to sing in her Magnificat:

Back to Proto James. The author of this little book that shaped the Church’s imagination chose not to include the Magnificat in his story. It was far too strong a song for his taste. And here, we can only draw the conclusion that the early Church fathers, being male and in charge, did not appreciate a Mary who was bold, strong, and prophetic. It suited them to have Mary envisioned as the meek and mild woman, the pure virgin that she eventually became in the Church’s imagination.

But that is not who Mary is for me, and perhaps for you. For us, she may well be that incredible woman we find in the Advent Carol we are about to sing. Mary, woman of the promise; Mary, song of holy wisdom; Mary, morning star of justice; Mary, model of compassion; Mary, woman of the gospel. The whole idea of the virgin birth is absent in the hymn.

Perhaps, though, all of this makes no difference. After all, the story is filled with metaphor and poetry. What difference does it make whether or not there was a virgin birth, or whether Jesus was conceived illegitimately? These are historical questions, after all. I, for one, however, cannot dismiss the historical questions. With those who have been involved in the Jesus Seminar, I believe that the historical questions matter. The Jesus of history matters. He matters because the human Jesus, the human being who was born, the human being who knew the joys and sorrows of life as we know them, the human being who lived and breathed and hungered and felt pain, in other words, the Jesus of history, has been neglected in favor of the Christ of glory. The Christ of glory has often been honored in Christian faith and theology at the expense of the human Jesus, the Jesus of history. Yet, without the historical Jesus, there would be no Christ of glory.

Martin Luther once said that we should regard the infant Jesus as we would our own babies. This is how a number of the women who belong to an organization called Gabriela in the Philippines regard Jesus. These women, who have been caught up in the sex trade and who themselves have had illegitimate children, regard the infant Jesus as they do their own children. They also regard Mary as they do themselves. For them, the story of the Annunciation, our story for today, is the most important story in the entire Bible.

Our celebration of Christmas, with its truth of the Incarnation, gives us the human Mary once again, and also the human Jesus once again, the baby, hungering for his mother’s milk; the baby, placed in a feeding trough for animals because there was no room in the inn; the baby, perhaps born illegitimately in the absence of a named biological father, – this is the child we acknowledge as our savior and savior of the world. Truly, with God nothing is impossible. All praise and thanks be to God.

Amen.

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