{"id":8476,"date":"2022-12-06T05:16:56","date_gmt":"2022-12-06T12:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2022-12-10T05:34:38","modified_gmt":"2022-12-10T12:34:38","slug":"born-of-the-virgin-mary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8476","title":{"rendered":"
Born of the Virgin Mary<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is Mary Sunday. What do we say about Mary? In the Apostles\u2019 Creed we confess \u201cborn of the Virgin Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is part of the larger question: What is Christmas about? We say: \u201cLet\u2019s get back to a real Christmas.\u201d What has happened is that Christmas has become frantic with shopping. Where is Christmas? Or is it just \u201cXmas,\u201d and the \u201cX\u201d is the whatever, the unknown and you supply whatever is meaningful to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do we put Christ back into Christmas? How do we get back to real Christmas? To talk about this is to raise the question: \u201cAre you going to be a spoil sport? Don\u2019t spoil Christmas. This is a magical time of year.\u201d The reason that Christmas has become confused is our own fault. We have made it happen this way, and we have to face it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We feel we have to go along, as the saying goes: If you\u2019re going to get along, you have to go along. There are other winter celebrations about the coming of the light, and Christmas is one of those celebrations. In Hinduism there is a major festival called Diwali. In Judaism, it\u2019s Hanukkah. The ancient Romans had Saturnalia. The Druids had celebrations of the coming of the light. We still see this in southern England at Stonehenge. On the news we see stories about the coming of the winter solstice. Even though these festivals are far different from each other, we say: \u201cChristmas is about the coming of the light.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can see the confusion about Christmas in favorite Christmas movies. The number one favorite Christmas movie is \u201cA Christmas Story,\u201d about a boy and his hope for a Red Rider Rifle. Then there\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s a Wonderful Life,\u201d a story of someone doing good, and it has nothing to do with Christianity. The third is \u201cA Miracle on Thirty-Fourth Street,\u201d which is about Santa. And the fourth is \u201cCharlie Brown\u2019s Christmas\u201d about Charlie Brown, and the fifth is \u201cRudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer\u201d about Rudolf and Santa. There are others, to be sure, but these are often among the top Christmas movies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another problem is seeing Jesus as another super-hero. There\u2019s Batman, Superman, Santa-man. Jesus-man, and it\u2019s all about doing good and fighting evil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We see the same in Christmas decorations. There are trees, candles, lights. Today we have whole neighborhoods of light displays. It\u2019s about winter lights. And the same could be said about the special foods and drinks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We say to ourselves: \u201cWhat is the real Christmas? How can we get back to the real Christmas?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The culture doesn\u2019t help. The only real sin anymore is to be intolerant. After all, in 1984 the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that December 25th<\/sup> is a federal holiday, not associated with Christianity, but a holiday just as the first of January is a federal holiday, and Memorial Day and Labor Day are federal holidays. That December 25th<\/sup> has been declared a federal holiday and not about Christianity is a good thing because we are blessed in this country with the experiment of not establishing a religion but separating church and state. Many other countries have an established religion, and this causes real problems. Even though we have problems, the separation of church and state is a blessing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time: What is Christmas? We know that songs like \u201cJingle Bells,\u201d \u201cI\u2019m dreaming of a white Christmas,\u201d \u201cAll I want for Christmas is you,\u201d and the like have nothing to do with Christianity. That\u2019s not what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We say: \u201cWe\u2019re not going to cave into the pressure to greet people with \u2018Happy holidays.\u2019\u201d We\u2019ll say: \u201cMerry Christmas!\u201d And then we\u2019ve done something, taken a stand. We\u2019ve avoided buying into the idea that it\u2019s all about the spirit of Christmas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s why Mary is important. Mary is decisive. Not only do we point this out in the Creeds, but it is decisive because God did something, something that is both different and makes all the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we celebrate at this time that God came and was born as a baby in Bethlehem, it\u2019s not just a story or a charade God has created so that we have the idea of being together with hope, peace, unity, and giving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the contrary, when God comes, it\u2019s not only disruptive, like what happens when a new baby is brought home from the hospital, and everything changes. When God comes, everything changes in two radically new ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, there is the scandal<\/strong> that the Infinite, the One who made everything, with one word and in one second at one time, the Infinite One became one of us, became a baby boy around two thousand years ago in a country called Palestine. He probably had a hooked nose, brown eyes, and stood about 5\u2019 7\u201d tall. This explodes all our categories, all our thinking. It\u2019s a scandal<\/strong>, as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:22-23: \u201cFor Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a scandal<\/strong> (stumbling block) to Jews and folly to Greeks, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some protest: But we have the image of God, a spark of divinity within us. That is not in the Bible. When it talks about the image of God in Genesis 1:27, it goes on to say that the image is a task: \u201cBe fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.\u201d The Hebrew mind and the New Testament witness are absolutely against idolatry. There is no way that there is anything in us that could be divine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the Council of Ephesus in 431 A.D., a council of the whole church defined that Mary is the one who bore God. Not just his humanity but truly God. Not one-third of God because God is one. She is the God-bearer. That\u2019s why we affirm what she is. This is only the first half of the story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second half, the second scandal<\/strong>, is that the One who is holy took on sin and death. This is far beyond anything we can think. God saw that this was the problem. He dealt with it his way, summed up by Paul in 2 Cor 5:21: \u201cFor our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.\u201d We take his holiness and life; he takes our sin and death. As Luther wrote: The best business deal that ever was, the \u201chappy exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mel Gibson\u2019s movie, \u201dThe Passion of the Christ\u201d (2004), focused on the horror and the torture of the crucifixion. But all of that horror is trivial compared to holiness taking on sin and death. Pictures from the Middle Ages of Mary often portray her with the babe sitting in her lap. In his hand he is holding the globe, and on that globe is a cross, pointing to the scandal<\/strong> of Christ conquering sin and death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore we conclude with John 14:27. Jesus says: \u201cPeace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.\u201d (Phil 4:7) Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent<\/p>\n

This is Mary Sunday. What do we say about Mary? In the Apostles\u2019 Creed we confess \u201cborn of the Virgin Mary.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is part of the larger question: What is Christmas about? We say: \u201cLet\u2019s get back to a real Christmas.\u201d What has happened is that Christmas has become frantic with shopping. Where is Christmas? Or is it just \u201cXmas,\u201d and the \u201cX\u201d is the whatever, the unknown and you supply whatever is meaningful to you?<\/p>\n

How do we put Christ back into Christmas? How do we get back to real Christmas? To talk about this is to raise the question: \u201cAre you going to be a spoil sport? Don\u2019t spoil Christmas. This is a magical time of year.\u201d The reason that Christmas has become confused is our own fault. We have made it happen this way, and we have to face it.
\nSelect here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8476"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8484,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8476\/revisions\/8484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}