St Margaret's Church Prestwich

Rev Helen preached this sermon on Wednesday 18 December. Here it is for you again:

There is something I often think about as we start to approach Christmas and talking about this over the years. The incarnation is quite a hard concept to really understand! When you really drill down into what it means and the implications of it. We talk about it all through the year but especially around advent and Christmas, just hearing the poem at the beginning of John’s gospel speaking about the nature of the incarnation and what the implications of it are for humanity. I’ve talked a bit about this before with the resurrection and I do think at times there is also a bit of this with the incarnation.

Just think about what we are trying to get someone to understand. You are telling them that Jesus, this little baby boy, he’s actually God although he was born of a human mother he’s God on earth and he’s at least half God. It is interesting I do think we take it for granted sometimes because we hear the story of Jesus birth so much with the angels, shepherds, wise men, we don’t really think about what it means and also (lets be fair) the implications of it for all of us. When we say that Jesus is the living incarnation of the word of God, he’s God.

You know when I really appreciate the difficulty the most is when you try and explain it to a child, and I felt this recently when I was trying to explain this to my eight year old niece and yes, she’s at that questioning age and by the end even I was confused and I thought I had a pretty good hold on it. I told her that Jesus is a man but he is also God on earth and this is sort of how the conversation went, brace yourselves,

“So Auntie Helen”

“Yes darling,”

“Mary is baby Jesus mummy but Joseph isn’t his daddy,”

“Sort of, the Holy Spirit played a part in it as well,”

“Jesus has brothers and sisters Auntie Helen,”

“Yes he does,”

“So were they from the Holy Spirit as well?”

“No darling they weren’t it was just Jesus who was extra special. Do you get it now,”

“Yes…Auntie Helen,”

“Yes darling,”

“Jesus is God on earth is that the same as God in heaven?”

“Yes,”

“So did God leave heaven for years to be on earth as Jesus? Who was looking after all the people in heaven?”

“No God was in heaven and on earth at the same time,”

“How? That’s not possible!”

“It is darling, it’s one God but in two parts one in heaven and one on earth. It’s the same person promise,”

“Not two people,”

“Definitely not it is one God in two places at the same time. In heaven and as baby Jesus”

“Ok, Auntie Helen it’s a bit confusing isn’t it,”

And I nearly said…

“To be honest I think even Jesus would be a confused if he was having this chat with you,”

But it is fair, she’s got a point, when you try and think of Jesus and who he really was it is interesting but it is a bit complicated. When you look at todays gospel when Joseph is being told that the baby Mary finds herself pregnant with is from God, he is God’s child and even dictating the name they should give him. This child is definitely from God and nothing to do with Joseph and this is made clear in the next verse, which isn’t included and it says ‘he took her as his wife,  but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son, and he named him Jesus.’. It’s really doubling down on it isn’t it. It almost feels like a case for the defence!

Let me ask you another question, does it really matter if we don’t fully understand the incarnation, but we are dazzled and amazed by it as we are by the resurrection. Ok if we get to tied down in the mechanics, are there are times when you have to do that and they make my head hurt a bit but what about the other aspects of it, the mystical and spiritual side of it. Who is Jesus through the lens of the incarnation? We’ll he is the word of God made flesh and the time when God came to be with humanity, not only to be with them and to understand them. When I am asked if God understands what it means to be human, I always point to Jesus and the hope he brought with him. Jesus was human, he grew up in a big family, he left home and started to preach and teach to people, he didn’t have a home and relied on the charity of others for food and a bed, he cared for the sick and the needy, he went to and spent time with those who were most in need, the authorities had him brutally tortured and executed for being a rebel, telling people to love each other. So God in human form really did go through and understand a lot of human life in those 32 – 38 ish years.

The incarnation is a difficult and interesting concept to really get your head round but do we have to completely understand the mechanics of it to feel and express it. I don’t think so because what we need to see is that message of hope, hope that Jesus brought when he was born. The hope of a better world in the future and that Jesus is the root to that. As it says it the reading from the Old Testament. He is the wise king who will rule, execute justice and righteous. He will be called The Lord of our righteousness and he will take people into a new world where they will be safe and secure. So let’s not get to worried about being able to explain the incarnation but talk about what Jesus brought and that is a hope for a better future and the way to that world that is to come. Amen