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[This sermon is also available in MS Word format]
From birth to death (Hebrews 4:14-16)
Rollins Chapel
October 7, 2004
Richard R. Crocker, Ph.D., Chaplain
Continuing in our series on the Apostles' Creed: I believe in God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord; and today:
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead and buried.
The creed describes the life of Jesus in these six claims:
conceived by the Holy Ghost
born of the Virgin Mary
suffered under Pontius Pilate
was crucified
dead
and buried.
If we pay attention only to the verbs here, notice that five out of the six verbs apply to us all; all of us were conceived, all of us were born, all of us suffer. All of us die, and all of us are, in a sense, buried. The only item in the list that does not apply to all of us - but does, sadly, to many - is crucified.
It is ironic that this list of attributes has been used in the church mainly to make Jesus distinctive from us. Conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary - these assertions are thought to establish Jesus' uniqueness or divinity - his differentness from us. But the major temptation in the church, always, has not been to deny Jesus' divinity, but to deny his humanity. The greatest and most persistent heresies in the church have been to make Jesus a God, so different from us as not to be human.
I want to assert, today, in this sermon, that it is important for us to fully affirm Jesus' humanity, and that the creed helps us to do this. The important thing for all of us who are attracted to Jesus is that he is like us, so that we can identify with him, and also that he be more than we are, so that he can save us. The creed affirms both. In our culture, many people think of Jesus as just another guy. But historically, and in much of the church, the greater danger has been to treat Jesus as categorically different, divine; one who requires intermediaries to approach.
So how does the creed make Jesus like us? In talking about his birth and his death. Unlike superman, he did not descend from the planet Kryton, nor can he fly; rather, he was conceived and born, a human being. But wait you say; he was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a virgin. Ok, let's talk about that. Do you ever think about your own conception - how it occurred? Well, you know from high school biology how the sperm and egg united, but what you do not know - and what no one can know, is how or why on that one occasion that one particular sperm reached that egg. You could have been one of a million different people. But you are you. One way to speak of that mystery is to talk about the Holy Spirit. I believe that my three sons, for example, were all conceived by the Holy Spirit. And I am neither naïve nor delusional.
But you say, you're cheating. That makes everybody conceived by the Holy Spirit. That's not what the creed means. It is trying to say that Jesus was special. I concede the point. And I concede that "born of the Virgin Mary" makes Jesus even more special - even though virgin births were not unknown in the Roman world. Yes, the creed was trying to say that Jesus was special. And I would agree. He is special. God is made known to me, uniquely, in Jesus Christ. I affirm that. And I believe that's what the doctrine of the Virgin birth means. But does it mean that Jesus had divine DNA? I don't know about that. I don't know what it would mean.
Many people in the modern age have had trouble affirming the Virgin birth of Jesus. Some people seem to make it the central point of Christian faith. That it is not. If it were central, it would have been mentioned in the gospel of Mark and John, and in the letters of Paul. It isn't. So let's just say that it is a doctrine intended to teach Jesus' specialness. Do I deny that it could happen? No I don't. It could happen. Do I think it is something that every Christian must affirm? Well, as I said, there have been some notable Christians who didn't see fit to mention it. Being born of a woman is the scandal for a God in the ancient world. The fact that the woman was a virgin only makes it slightly less scandalous.
Now just a very brief excursus: if we believe that the Holy Spirit is involved in every conception, what must we think of abortion? People on both sides seem so certain. Some argue vehemently that abortion is murder - the taking of an innocent life that is fully human from conception. Others argue just as vehemently that it is a medical procedure just as morally neutral as having a tooth removed. I am reluctant to speak on this subject at all, because I do not know. I do not believe anyone can know. We simply do not know when a human being becomes a human being. But this I can affirm: every conception is holy - no matter what. And when pregnancies are ended, there is grief. Always. No matter what. The grief is for the death of something holy. I think everyone knows that - everyone who has experienced an abortion, and everyone who has not. Those of us who see conception as guided by the Holy Spirit will always treat the act of conception as holy. And we will end any pregnancy with reluctance and grief.
Yet we know, as human beings, we will die. Some of us will die at an old age. some at a young. Everyone will die. While we are not all crucified - executed, as Jesus was, every death can seem like an execution. So it is helpful, comforting, even essential or crucial that the one who is to be our Savior must die - not just die, but die in a way that is the worst that the world can do. Only such a one has the power to redeem death. And, whatever you may think about abortion, the death of Jesus, to be powerful enough to redeem us, must be powerful enough to redeem every possible life - even those never born, or those born and lost in infancy, or children who starve in Darfur, or who are killed in war, or who die from disease - to those young people like yourselves who die from drugs and violence and war. Crucifixions all, in a sense.
Now I know that I have pushed hard on the theme that the creed establishes our identity with Jesus - just as the scripture lesson says: he was one who was in all ways tempted, or tried, just as we are. Yet without sin, without failure.
Someone who is unlike us can not help us. Someone who is just like us cannot redeem us. Jesus is both. But of the two - like us and unlike us - which is more important? I would say like us. And that's the truth that usually gets lost.
Sermon © 2004 Richard R. Crocker. All rights reserved.
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