The Annunciation Luke 1:26-38

It is an important article of the Christian Faith that Jesus is at the same time God and man,  Divine and Human.  Our three ecumenical creeds confess this exact thing and we say we believe it to be true every time we confess any one of them  

“I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary.”  (The Second Article to the Apostle’s Creed)

“For us men and for our salvation [he] came down from heaven and was incarnate by the virgin Mary and was made man…” (The Nicene Creed)

“He is God, begotten from the substance of that Father from before all ages, and he is man, born from the substance of his mother in this age, perfect God and perfect man, composed of a rational soul and human flesh.” (The Athanasian Creed)

The foundation for this article of Faith is revealed here in our text, in the birth narrative of Luke.  Gabriel the Angel was sent from the presence of God to bring a message to a young girl named Mary.  “Greetings O favored one, the Lord is with you…  You will conceive in your womb and bear a Son and you shall call his name Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.  And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.  He will reign over the house of Jacob and of his kingdom there will be no end.”

It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it?  Something as wonderful as this!  We are Christian people who believe in the Almighty God who fills all things and who has made all things, who has the power to create things too wonderful for us to understand with only a word, who stands above all power and might and every earthly authority, and yet…  somehow… he condescended… he lowered himself to be like one of us.  This is one of the most important articles of our faith.  God in the flesh come to save sinners.  To understand this is to understand salvation, atonement, it explains how one man’s sacrifice can be sufficient to save an entire race of people from sin, but it also helps us to comprehend God’s profound love and mercy and faithfulness to us and to his promise.  It is this article of faith that makes a Christian into a Christian.  It is why the Christian faith is all about the Christ.  To take this away, Christianity is all about you and it becomes no different from any other religion.

All this being the case, should we be surprised that Satan works so hard to undermine this doctrine.  Is it any wonder that this doctrine is the one that Satan attacks so vehemently, so that it makes Christianity an object of scorn and ridicule and even anger.   

·         Our Nicene Creed was written against a sect that spintered off from Christianity – a group called the Arians, founded by Arius – who were teaching that Christ was not one with the Father but that he was less than God. (It was Arius who was attacked by St Nicholas in the marketplace by the way, for those of you who read the Slappy Holiday article in your email.)

·         It is this doctrine that makes Christianity so offensive to Islam.  We believe that God came down to be like us, to assume our nature into his own.  In their mind God would never humiliate himself like this – it offends them.  And so to convert to Christianity from Islam is punishable by death.  It is why the Iranian pastor was on trial as was reported in the news a month or two ago.

·         Likewise with Judaism.  In spite of the fact that we share half our bible with the Jews, they cannot accept that Jesus, a man, is the one they call Yahweh. They reject Jesus as Lord and so they reject Christianity.

·         These days most people will classify Mormonism as a Christian, but it is not.  It is a heretical sect.  The reason?  They cannot accept this doctrine.  They cannot accept Jesus as the one true God, one with the Father and the Spirit.  

·         Of course Atheists and agnostics deny Christ all together.  Some will go so far as to question whether or not he ever existed at all; most will claim this doctrine is a Christ myth, popular among lots of ancient religions, that the founders of Christianity simply just borrowed an old and worn out myth from someplace else to make their new religion more familiar, more palatable to the pagans they were trying to attract.

The fact of the matter is that this doctrine is and has been under attack from the devil from the early days of the church.  Was Jesus who he said he was?  Was he God in the flesh born of the virgin Mary?  Satan has the minds and hearts of unbelievers firmly in his grip and he has turned their hearts to offense when Christians begin to speak of Jesus the God who became a man.

It is easy for us to talk about how other people reject Jesus, how other religions and sects deny Christ.  We would like to think that we get it right.  That we understand.  That we believe what is true.  After all, we confess those three creeds.  We say we believe them.  And that is true.  They are our faith, the sum and substance of it.  But, if we were completely honest with ourselves, we would admit that there is something about this doctrine that we don’t quite like either.  Something about it that offends us as well.  Some part of it that we just would rather do without. 

You see, the thing that this doctrine really drives home is just how lost and incapable we truly are.  It reveals to us just how powerless we are.  We don’t want to believe that.  We don’t want to believe that there is nothing we have to offer, no part of our faith that we participate in, no aspect of our salvation where we don’t have a say.  This doctrine teaches us that all of those things are true. 

We were so lost and so unable to find God he had to come find us.  I used to watch the Star Trek series, and if you have ever seen any of those programs, it would happen that the Enterprise would send an away team to some remote planet.  The team would get lost or captured or injured and a rescue party would need to beam down to save them.  That’s how we are, lost and captured and injured.  We don’t want to think of it that way.

We are so weak that he had to come to us, make himself like us so that he could do for us and in our place all those things that we were supposed to do but have just miserably failed to do. 

We are so completely self-absorbed that it is necessary for him to do all the work in our salvation and our spiritual lives, even after conversion, even after we have become Christians and are believers. 

That’s what this doctrine teaches us.  We don’t like it so we try to deny it.  There is a part of us that fights against it.  Here are some ways that it happens:

It has become popular these days in many Christian circles to emphasize relationships and emotions and feelings.  There are worship services that are designed to be very emotionally stirring – with music that pumps you up and then slows you down and pumps you up and slows you down.  The goal is to simply stir up your emotions because these emotions have been confused with the stirring of the Spirit.  These Christians, sadly hope that this method will bring them up, and get them close to God.  You see how this works: instead of seeing God who comes down to us we have to go up to God and if we use the right music and methods we can do it.

Or sometimes Christians feel that God is far away from them, that he has left or that they have left him and so they panic.  They wonder, what do I need to do to get back to God?  Christian bookstore are filled with titles that are supposed to help you do just that.  Here’s are a few best sellers with excerpts from their descriptions: 

Not a Fan: Becoming a Completely Committed Follower of Jesus

If Jesus were to sit down with you right now and have a DTR (Define the Relationship) conversation, how would you respond? Are you truly his follower or just a fan-or perhaps someone who doesn't even care about the difference? Not a Fan invites you to make Jesus not merely the object of your admiration, but the very center of your life. Through biblical teaching, anecdotes, and humor, Kyle Idleman explores what it means to truly be a follower of Christ.

One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You Are
Ann Voskamp

Discover a way of seeing that opens your eyes to everyday amazing grace, a way of living that is fully alive, and a way of experiencing the constant presence of God that will bring you deep and lasting joy.

Now I haven’t read the books and I don’t know the perspective of the author, but the descriptioin puts all the work on you – are you just “a fan” of Jesus or are you fully committed?  Do you have that correct way of seeing?  Are you fully alive? Do you fully experience the constant presence of God?  If you buy these books and follow these steps then you will be.

You see, here is the issue.  Let’s be honest about ourselves: are you fully committed?  Am I? No.  Do you fully and completely follow Jesus? Do you do spend every moment of every day considering his will for you?  Is he the center of your life?  No.  He isn’t. we haven’t.  We don’t.  

Or what about the presence of God?  Do you fully experience God?  Do you live in his presence?  Have you found his complete joy?  Do you wish you did? Have you tried?  Have you felt like you have gotten close at times but then failed?  That is the human story!  That is why we need this doctrine.  That is why it is so important and so wonderful that Jesus has come to us. 

You see, God didn’t wait for us to become fully committed to him before he was fully committed to us.  Instead he jumped in to our skin with both feet, knowing that he would be confronted with a lack of commitment and even rejection, and that this rejection would lead to his own suffering and death. 

Likewise, He didn’t wait for us to seek his presence before so that you and I could be with him where he is before his throne, instead he brought his presence, his gracious and merciful and loving presence to us, hiding it under the flesh and blood of Jesus.  Hiding it in the womb of a virgin. 

He does the same for us today.  He knows our lackluster commitment so He send his spirit in his word to come to us.  He hides that word in our hearts so that we believe it and know it to be true and are saved by it.  He knows that we will not seek his presence and if we did we wouldn’t find it and if we found it we couldn’t tolerate it so he hides it in simple bread and wine, in preaching, in proclaiming his forgiveness.  It’s God’s work.  It’s God action.  God makes it happen.  God keeps it happening.  God sent his messenger to Mary. God send his messengers to you.

The angel came to Mary and shared a remarkable message, but before he even got there he called her by her name and told her she had found favor with God.  God has done that same thing to you.  He has called you by your name.  You have found favor with him.

Amen.