THIS EMMANUEL
Is. 7:10-16; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
Rev. Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
A snippet of the conversation between Gabriel & Mary, recorded in Luke’s Gospel:
Mary, “How can this be? I’ve not had sex.”
Gabriel, “Your question is too deep for me. It’s the Spirit’s doing…”
Mary, “Okay. (Pause) But who is going to tell Joseph?”
The backdrop for Joseph’s dream cycle. He loved Mary and he was a righteous man, obedient to Torah. Deuteronomy’s Law says a young woman found to not be a virgin on the marriage bed, shall be stoned, ‘to remove the evil from their midst’. He would not go that far, but he was resolved to send Mary away, to keep his own record clean. Then he goes to sleep.
It is as wild as the Holy Spirit causing a pregnancy. Joseph is confronted by an angel who speaks a command: “Do not be afraid. Mary’s baby is holy and you will name him Jesus, ‘God saves.’ Isaiah predicted it - Emmanuel - God is with us. Joseph wakes with a start, shakes his head, and says out loud, ‘okay. Here we go. I gotta talk to Mary.’ This Emmanuel
We are witness to two miracles here: Mary believed the angel. Joseph did too. Their faith is a great gift from the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t make their lives any easier - you can imagine the counting going on; when did they get married? How many months pregnant is she?, hmmmm. Yet, Joseph does a more righteous thing - he respects Mary’s bodily integrity and refrains from sexual relations. When the baby comes, he names Him Jesus, in essence, adopts Jesus as his own, the David line complete.
It is quite a scandal, for Joseph carries the lineage of King David, the first 17 verses of Matthew portray the bloodline. Yet, conception was outside the control of humans, its completion in the hands of the Holy Spirit and the angels. This is a radical break with the old, a new genesis, a new creation is born. It requires a release of our imaginations from our one dimensional frame whereby truth is reduced to fact and reality measured in production and consumption. Matthew does not declare Jesus has one human parent and one divine - the creation of a demi-god, like ancient mythologies. Our Christian tradition says in Christ, full divinity AND full humanity is pleased to dwell. It is not a clear DNA test, rather an expressive way to name what we cannot actually understand. Our confessional claim ‘one person in two natures, complete in His deity and complete in His humanity” signifies the eternal presence of Jesus with the Father and the Spirit, ‘begat’ is the term.
This Emmanuel
For unto us a child is born, a Savior given, we sing more easily than we can fully explain. For it involves this fundamental question of trust - sure, God came to ancient Israel to claim a people of His own choosing. In their rebellion, He judged but did not give up on humanity. In truth, God became human, assumed our humanity, to raise us up through salvation in Christ. Redemption is wrought through the very human process of a life lived, unjustly condemned to death, buried and then alive again. We fall on our knees at the manger as we gaze upon this baby who brings such light, such freedom, such mercy. Shalom, wholeness, is our great gift, even if it takes a lifetime to fully see grace’s miracle.
The question before us today is this:
Can we trust this miracle? Do we trust God, who blows up all our categories, arrives through a birth canal, with Mary lying on straw, heaving and pushing, Joseph wide eyed, holding her hand, animals sigh.
The work of the Holy Spirit gets Jesus born into our flesh. This God Above Us comes down. He came down and touched our ground and made us holy. He does not remain aloof, separate, too high for flesh. Through the particularity of this baby in the womb, in the womb! of this Virgin Mary in this moment in time, God condescends to be born just like us. The arc of salvation history is fixed on earth as it is in heaven. We say it in The Apostles' Creed, that ancient first systematic writing of the Christian faith: "I believe in Jesus Christ...who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary..." Fully human, fully divine. Into this world, this climate changed forever earth falling apart, this warring madness, this over-sexed, violent, hate-filled, degrading place for minorities of all kinds, this Savior baby comes. God came down in Jesus to save us from ourselves. Our own practices of sin and meanness, of intellectual arrogance, superiority, self-righteous prigs that we often are. To redeem demonic systems that keep poor people poor and rich people only richer; that play favorites based on skin color or gender: workers denied real wages so shareholders get the most, on and on.
Christmas reveals our fallenness. This Emmanuel.
Jesus does not wear a disguise as He walks around Palestine pretending to be human. Nor is he only like a god. The Christian claim is this: Jesus, sweet little baby Jesus, is the God himself who saves us. He is this rare person whose name says who he is and what he does: "God-Saves", Hebrew "Yeshua" translated Joshua, or the more simple Jesus. You could say "You shall call his name Savior because he will save."
So: who is he saving and from what? His own people. He is saving us from our sins. He is not so worried about other peoples' sin. He is worried about ours. Are you convicted of your own sin? Do you need a Savior? Or are you pretty good on your own? This is what it comes down to--a recognition of our own fallenness. Our inability to reconcile who we want to be with who we really are. It is to save us from our own imperialism, colonizing, demonizing the other. This little baby Savior turns his heat on his very own-- It is us, the church, his own people, his ethnic group called Christians, who he comes to save. It is this way of holding up the mirror for our gaze: deep self-criticism which makes us dreadfully uncomfortable.
Yet the good news of the gospel: in Jesus Christ we are forgiven, must be brought to the fore. Following in his way is no great revolution or liberation. It is a rather simple truth, a warranty to act out our devotion. To choose mercy. We have experienced mercy, so we will offer mercy. We have experienced forgiveness so we will be forgiving. We get to have our own virgin birth as it were, through this miracle called faith, so its not so crazy to believe in another one, is it? Many of us here have deep intellectual questions about these miracles. But I want you to know this: your existential salvation is secure in this Savior baby. This Emmanuel.
The With Us God is ultimately the comfort we seek. Heaven came down and has never left again. Into the flesh and blood of our own lives, the Holy Spirit wiggles Her way to the core of our being when we say, Yes, I need a Savior. We need saving. The world needs saving. Let us not be embarrassed by our need. If the God of the Universe condescends to be born a baby to lift us up, surely we can simply be humble and grateful. Look at Joseph.
He acts his faith, his name could be righteous. He sacrifices his power as a man in a patriarchal world. He invites his pregnant by someone else fiancee to be his spouse and welcomes her home. He adopts the baby Savior. He includes Jesus in the royal line of King David by claiming him as his own son. The scandal of particularity is complete. For unto us a child is born, a son is given, God with us. This Emmanuel. Amen