Nothing Will Be Impossible
“Nothing Will Be Impossible” by Pastor Rosanna McFadden
Good morning! This is, as I am sure you know, this is the last Sunday before Christmas, and as advertised I want to focus on a virgin named Mary, and especially her child, who will be named Jesus. Before I do that, I want to say just a few words about sermon-writing. I don’t know about others in the room who have written sermons on a regular basis, but for me the strategy which works the best is to have done a lot of background reading, to have had a week or at least several days to think ahead about what I want to say, and to have a stretch of uninterrupted time to put my thoughts together in an elegant way. In the absence of these conditions, a tight deadline works, too. Sometimes though, especially when I am paying attention, I am given the gift of inspiration. Although I believe that inspiration comes from the Holy Spirit, it often comes through another person’s words — in writing, in speaking, and even in music.
I knew that I wanted this morning’s message to be about Incarnation — God in flesh, a baby which was both human and divine, and the wonder and enormity of that gift. That is the focus of this sermon because I believe that is the reason for Christmas; Jesus’ birth is the promise which we have been waiting for and preparing for. But how to present that in a way which will be meaningful and even get us to understand it in a different way? So I owe a debt of gratitude to Laura Stone and her writing for the Sing Gloria! Advent devotionals. It is not just the words which I will quote which was significant for me, but the concepts she opened up for me in her reflections. I know some of you have been inspired by her writing as well. I want to acknowledge the debt I have to her devotion “Made in human likeness,” on Monday, December 16.
Our text for this morning is from Luke chapter 1, as is the Magnificat, which we considered last week. This equally famous passage also has its own name, The Annunciation, because it features and angel with a message which was spoken, or announced. Lots of visual artists and musicians have imagined the angel Gabriel and especially the young woman to whom Gabriel spoke. She lived in a Galilean town called Nazareth, and was young — presumably, because she was unmarried, but engaged. After the standard “Do not be afraid” opening, this angel tells Mary that she has found favor with God and she will conceive a son who will be called the Son of the Most High and he will have the throne of his ancestor David and his kingdom will never end. And Mary immediately spots the weak point of this plan: she is a virgin, and can’t conceive anyone on her own. The angel says — without a lot of anatomical detail–No problem, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so your child will be holy. For nothing will be impossible with God. And incredibly, Mary gives her consent to this plan; on the spot. This amazing, and not very specific, passage has given rise to all kinds of tradition, theology, doctrine, debate and controversy.
How could Jesus be both human and divine? The church has debated about this for a looong time. If you want to wade into some crazy church history, look up the Council of Nicaea, which happened in the year 325. A big topic of this ecumenical gathering was getting the 200 or so bishops to come to agreement and make a statement about the divinity of Jesus. There was a teacher named Arius who was preaching that Jesus was not really divine. Arius had gotten so much traction with this teaching that it was a heresy with its own name: and followers, Arians. Legend has it that this so infuriated the Bishop of Hippo from N Africa, that he strode across the council chamber and slapped Arius across the face. This likely didn’t happen, but it is a little different take on St. Nicholas, Bishop of Hippo, who would be later known in the Western world as Santa Claus. Maybe he wasn’t jolly all the time.
Some of the language which came out of the council of Nicaea and the ensuing Nicene Creed may seem pedantic and antiquated, but it still crops up in some interesting ways. On Christmas Eve when we sing “O Come All Ye Faithful,” pay attention to verse 2, and the words Son of the Father, begotten not created . . . that is straight outta Nicaea. Creating takes one Creator, it takes two to begat something, and in Jeus’ case, that was a divine Father and a human mother.
So what’s the big deal about Jesus being both human and divine? Here’s the theological meat of Incarnation: it’s about how Jesus is like us but not like us. Laura Stone said this in such a lovely way I am going to quote her words :
The God of the universe knows what it’s like to have a body: this fleshy, curvy, frail, resilient, finely calibrated, intricately beautiful reality that so shapes our human understanding of life. This is the core of disability theology — God intended bodies: Jesus attended to bodies, even contended with and extended to others his own body. Bodies have limits, pains, needs, excretions. Jesus chose to take all of that on. Bodies also have senses, strengths, intakes, pleasures. Jesus chose to take all of that on.[1]
God knows, bodies aren’t perfect. All bodies have different levels of ability and function, but they all need maintenance and care, and crucially, they all wear down and give out. Mortality is not a bug of the system, it is a feature of being human., at least it has been ever since the first humans made some choices with long-reaching consequences. It is incredible, and absolutely crucial to Christianity that Jesus chose to live in a human body — one which, like every other human body, could be tortured and killed. If we take away Jesus’ humanity, we have pulled the rug out from under our own salvation. If Jesus’ death on the cross was not a ‘real’ death, but just God play-acting (there’s a heresy for that, too) than the truths we claim are not true at all.
Let me tell you something you already know — or if you don’t, I pray that you will. Every baby is a miracle. Every baby deserves to be heralded as such — maybe not by angel choruses and foreign kings, but by parents and extended family who commit to provide care and safety and a place where that baby can be nurtured and grow. Babies, children, even adults sometimes demonstrate characteristics of both their father and their mother in ways which can be charming, baffling, or even upsetting. Even babies whose parents are not known to them can make us shake our heads and ask, “Where did they learn THAT?” Babies’ physical, social and emotional development is amazing, and only partly understood, despite lots and lots of study. Jesus was like that and not like that. We know what it is like to be human, but we will never fully comprehend Jesus’ divinity. We don’t have to comprehend before we can believe and worship; we know that Jesus being the Son of the Most High God made him unique and special, even if we don’t fully understand how that happened or how Jesus embodied the characteristics of the Most High. Knowing that the God of the universe knows what’s it’s like to have a body should fill us with wonder and joy.
What I know for sure is that Jesus being human is the best thing that has happened to humanity. Genesis tells us that humans bear the image of God, Christmas tells us that God chose to bear the image of humanity — not because humanity was an upgrade in terms of form or function, but because God loved us so much that God chose to experience life as we experience it: imperfect, painful, playful, joyful. All the good stuff we get to experience as humans — pleasure, friendship, gratitude, love, it all comes with the price tag of decay and mortality. Jesus chose to take all that on. That kind of love is not only the compassion of identifying with or suffering with, it love so divine that it actually took on human form and became human.
I can guarantee that some of you will do this over Christmas, but even if your last name is not Harney or Zerbe, you are still invited to ponder the mystery and the miracle of a new baby, and the pain and pride and potential which God has placed in every human being. As we celebrate the birth of a baby who confounded our categories, challenged our expectations, and changed the world, we remember our own humanity, and that God loved us so much that on Christmas day, salvation was born.
May we be filled with wonder and joy at all the God has done, and who Jesus is. Amen.
[1] Laura Stone, Sing Gloria! Brethren Press 2024 December 16.