Incarnation
A sermon by the Rev Daniel Charles Davis for the
Unitarian Universalist Church, West Lafayette, IN
Dec 24, 2010
Christmas is a holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus. It is the most popular of Christian holidays.
One could argue that Easter is of more important holy day. The resurrection is considered essential for the Christian concept of salvation. Rising from the dead is a miracle that supposedly proves his divinity. His birth itself is common and humble; it is not unique. All of us have been born.
Sure there are miracles surrounding the birth: the immaculate conception, the angels visiting the shepherds, the star leading the magi. But the birth itself was common, lowly, ordinary. None have us been resurrected from death to everlasting life, but each one of us has experienced birth. We do not remember it, but it is a fact of life.
That is why Christmas is easier to celebrate than Easter. It is easier to believe in birth and the promise of life than it is to believe in death and the promise of life.
The Gospel of Matthew tells the story of wise men visiting Jesus. The Gospel of Luke speaks of shepherds. The Gospel of Matthew emphasizes great men falling down and worshiping the baby Jesus.
The theme of humility is echoed in the preaching of Jesus. Matthew reports him saying “Blessed are the poor in spirit” in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5). The Gospel of Luke has angels bringing tidings of joy to the poor shepherds. Luke reports that Jesus made a sermon on the plain saying, “Blessed are the poor” (Luke 6).
Both Luke and Matthew tell birth stories to convey that Jesus was the son of God. Matthew recalls the Hebrew prophet Isaiah and gives Jesus the name Emmanuel, which means God with Us (Matt 1:23). Luke has the angel tell Mary, “that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” Matthew has the son of God preach from on high to humble the mighty. Luke reports that the son of God “came down with them and stood on the plain” (Luke 6:17) to bring blessings to the poor.
Matthew and Luke preach incarnation, that Jesus was actually born of the Holy Spirit, but for different reasons. The Gospel of Mark has no birth Story, but he talks of Jesus becoming the Son of God. It does not take place at Birth, but at Baptism. “And just as he was coming out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit of the lord descending like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven saying you are my Son.” (Mark 1:10-11)
This theory of the incarnation is known as adoptionism. Jesus was not born of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit descended upon him. Adoptionism was declared heretical by the Nicene Creed of 325 which declared that Jesus was begotten of the Father.
The Gospel of John has another take on the incarnation. He does include the baptism story like the other three gospels. But instead of beginning with a birth story like Matthew and Luke, John begins with a theological prologue. “In the Beginning was the word And the word was with God, and the word was God….. And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
So basically you have 4 gospels with three opinions on the divinity of Jesus. John says that Jesus was divine from the beginning of time before he became human. Matthew and Luke say he became divine at conception. Mark says he became divine at baptism.
John also introduces the concept of the Word, or Logos in the Greek. “The Logos was with God and the Logos was God. And the Logos was made flesh and dwelt among us.”
What is Logos? It means more than word. It is the reasoning behind a word. We get the English word ‘logic’ from the Greek ‘logos.’ It is study and understanding. As a suffix, it is attached to our areas of study. Zoo-logy is the study of life. Astro-logy is the study of constellations. Anthropo-logy, the study of humanity. Theo-logy is the study of God. Logos is an all encompassing search for truth and meaning.
John had a more esoteric concept of God than Matthew Mark and Luke. The first three gospels have an anthromorphic Father God that impregnates a virgin or adopts a grown man. The fourth gospel conceives a god that transcends the human form. God is not a person but the meaning behind a word.
John has Jesus preaching the word. “If you continue in my word you are disciples indeed.” (John 8:31) Let us listen to this with different translations of logos. “If you continue in my logic you are disciples indeed.” “If you continue in my understanding you are disciples indeed.”
In the tenth chapter of John, the Jews are portrayed as wanting to stone Jesus because he claimed he was God. Jesus responds by referring to Psalm 82:6 which reads, “Ye are gods and all of you are sons of the Most High.” The Jesus said, 5If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken.” Jesus is transforming the notion of God. It is not a supreme person, but a logos, a way of understanding that all can participate in. According to John, when Jesus knew he was going to die, he prayed for his disciples, 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us. (John 17).
The word or logos is an understanding that is ultimate and therefore God. Many in this modern age have difficulty imagining God as a father with a long white beard, someone who we beg for favors. This concept of God resembles the childish fantasy of Santa Claus. But if Logos is indeed one with God, we are freed from the tribal gods of old. God is not Zeus making love with virgin. God is not Thor throwing down lightning. God is not Kali riding on a tiger destroying evil with vengeance. God is not a super human or a perfect person to worship. God as logos becomes ultimate understanding, something both priests and scientists can seek. All are capable of seeking ultimate understanding.
Believing in logic, reason and research, may actually be believing in Logos. Whenever we live by our best understanding, we are the word become flesh.
The divinity of Jesus in the book of John is different that the divinity claimed by the other gospels. In Matthew and Luke it is very patriarchal & kingly. Jesus is the blood descendant of the Father God. In Mark he is adopted by the ultimate authority. In John Jesus is divine because he makes the Logos or concept of God real. He participates in ultimate understanding and invites others to do the same, to be one with him as he is one with the Father.
It is this universal sense of divinity that the Unitarian Ralph Waldo Emerson echoed when he wrote.
Jesus Christ belonged to the true race of prophets. He saw with open eye the mystery of the soul. Drawn by its severe harmony, ravished with its beauty, he lived in it, and had his being there. Alone in all history, he estimated the greatness of man. One man was true to what is in you and me. He saw that God incarnates himself in man, and evermore goes forth anew to take possession of his world. He said, in this jubilee of sublime emotion, `I am divine. Through me, God acts; through me, speaks. Would you see God, see me; or, see thee, when thou also thinkest as I now think.' (Divinity School address, 1838)
In Emerson’s mind Jesus was unique not because he was God, but that Jesus was the first human to realize it. Divinity, holiness, and ultimate understanding is available to all who seek it.
The word became flesh and dwelt among us. Logic came down. Reason resounded. When John has Jesus saying “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6), Jesus is not saying worship only me. Rather he is saying be like me. Be one with the logic of the universe. Make it real
And what is more real than a baby born into poverty. It happens every night and every morning and afternoon all over this world. As we remember the baby in the manger, let us also remember the strangers who share this planet. Let us look for the divine in each of them. Let us live the divine that is in each of us.
In the name of Jesus, the Human, Amen.