Luke 1:26-38 and Matthew 1:18-25
“Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they
shall call him Emmanuel” which means God is with us. Matthew 1:23.
The Vicar of Dibley was checking out a prospective boyfriend.
She asked whether he was a regular church attendee and he replied that he was a
C and E kind of person. The vicar was getting very excited about his potential
and chipped in, “You mean C of E (Church of England)?” But the man replied “No,
Christmas and Easter”.
I always find preaching on Christmas day or Easter Sunday
more challenging than other Sundays because the congregation is made up of the
usual Sunday worshippers plus people who only came to church at Christmas or
Easter. The expectation for many preachers is that they will preach to the
unconverted rather than to the converted, to produce a message targeting a
wider audience than the faithful. On such occasions I have always sought to
speak meaningfully to everyone but the fear is that I could end up speaking to
no one. Who really knows why people turn up to church at Christmas? There are many
reasons. The story of the birth of Jesus is but one of the many stories that
make up the meaning of Christmas for people along with Santa Claus, giving, presents,
Christmas lights, food, snow, heat, alcohol, fights, loneliness etc.
This year I don’t have to worry about that as I am not
speaking on Christmas day or Christmas Eve. I don’t have to worry that my
message is making no sense to the C and Es (Christmas and Easters) so I am
going to talk about the virgin birth. How you may ask has that got anything to
do with our lives? I’m not sure that it does.
This is the fourth Sunday in Advent and the focus reading
for today is Luke 1:26-38 the story foretelling Jesus’ birth. An angel,
Gabriel, comes to visit a virgin who was engaged to a man called Joseph. The
virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel said to her, “Greetings favoured one, the
Lord is with you.” You will conceive in your womb and bear a son who will be
called the Son of the most high and his kingdom will have no end. Mary asked,
“How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel continued, “The Holy Spirit
will come upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you,
therefore the child to be born will be holy, he will be called the son of God.”
Mary responded, “Here I am, the servant of the Lord, let it be with me
according to your word.”
Matthew’s Gospel also tells the story of the foretelling of
the birth of Jesus. Matthew 1:18-25 - But before they lived together, she was
found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. An angel appeared to Joseph and said,
“Don’t be afraid to marry Mary for the child conceived in her is from the Holy
Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save
his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken
by the Lord through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a
son, and they shall call him Emmanuel,” which means God with us. The story says
that Joseph did as he was told and had no sexual relations with Mary until she
had born a son and he named him Jesus.
Luke and Matthew seem to want to emphasise the non sexual
origins of Jesus and the virginity of Mary whereas this is not important to
John or Mark in their Gospels. Why the fuss over the virginity of Mary? Were
these non-sexual origins written back into these Gospels for a reason by the
early church to perhaps to emphasise that Jesus was both human and divine, the
child of a male God and a female human - The male giver and the female
receiver. In a patriarchal church worshipping a male God, Mary has been held up
as the counter balance, a feminine heroine, a role model. Thus the rise of
Mariology in the Roman Catholic Church, to help find a place for women in the
church. Dogmatic tradition likes to emphasise the virgin birth. But it is not
Mary who is venerated but her virginity rendering her womb as just a vessel
rather than her as a willing collaborator. Where did the idea come from? From
Greek/Roman mythology? When we talk of Jesus being born of a virgin, are we
looking for a pure, sinless person? Are we saying that someone who has not had
sex is not sinful?
So what can we get from those readings that might help us in
the living of life today? It is hard to get one’s head around them. Does it
really matter whether or not we believe in the virgin birth of Jesus? What
difference does it make to who Jesus was and is? Does a virgin birth make Jesus more human or
more divine?
While both Luke and Matthew seem to stress the virginity of
Mary and the lack of sex in the conception of Jesus, Mark and John have no
interest in the birth of Jesus at all. Mark’s Gospel starts… The beginning of
the good news of Jesus Christ, the son of God and Mark begins with the
proclamation of John the Baptist. John’s Gospel starts… In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the
beginning with God. Paul doesn’t mention it in his letters. For Mark the
beginning occurs in the wilderness, for John the beginning is eternal. The Word
was always there. Jesus doesn’t begin with a sperm but has been there from all
time. In the birth of Jesus the Word is made flesh.
Born from the Spirit as well as born from Mary. But alongside
the emphasis on the virginal status of Mary both Luke and Matthew speak of the Holy
Spirit. Matthew says… she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit and a
second time says… the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. Luke says
the Holy Spirit will come upon you…
In John the virgin birth is not mentioned but birth from the
Spirit is. John 1 says that the Word born
as a child of God through the spirit gave power to others to become children of
God - children who were born not of flesh and blood but of God. John 3 speaks
about being born from above or being born again, a second time, a spiritual
birth. For John it is not Christ’s birth that is important but our being born
of God, being born from above.
So what can I say that may be helpful to both regular
attendees and C and Es?
1. Christmas is about giving – giving birth
Just as Mary was willing to collaborate with the Holy Spirit
in giving birth to Christ as the son of God, so our collaboration with the Holy
Spirit not only enables us to become children of God but also to be
collaborators with the Holy Spirit in the rebirth of the whole creation; collaborating
in giving birth to God’s life in the present world, in the present age, in the
present moment.
2. Christmas is about presents – being present - the present
of presence
The greatest present you can give anyone is your presence,
being present.
The greatest gift you can give the world is yourself,
wholly, fully, attentive.
Imagine giving everyone your full undivided attention.
Imagine listening to what the other was saying without formulating in one’s
mind what one’s answer or response was going to be. Imagine responding with
questions of interest and inquiry rather than answers.
In the Gospel stories I can imagine the sense of presence
that people felt by Jesus being present to them when they encountered him in
their lives.
Reflecting on the angel’s comforting words to Mary, ‘The
Lord is with you.’ Perhaps we could pray, ‘May I be with you. May my words, my
thoughts, my deeds be with you, now at this present moment and at the hour of
my (your) death.
(These thoughts drew heavily on Jurgen Moltmann’s book ‘The way
of Jesus Christ’ SCM Books)
