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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
“The Only-begotten Son of God was born of Mary, so you can be born of God.” From eternity, as we sang in today’s Psalm and heard in the Epistle Reading (Psalm 2; Hebrews 1:1‑12), God the Father begat His only Son. In time, as we heard in the Gospel Reading, that same Son “became flesh”, was born of the Virgin Mary (Matthew 1:16; Luke 1:35). So, now, as the Gospel Reading also said, you can be born of God (John 1:13). Each of those three “events”, if you will, is an important part of the mystery and miracle of God’s gift for us that we celebrate at Christmas. Let us take each one of the three in turn.
First, from eternity God the Father begat His only Son. Talk about a mystery! The one substance of the Triune God never existed without all three persons of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yet, God the Father speaks as if there was a “day” when He begat the Son, but they have always been in that same continuing, permanent, eternal relationship (confer Scaer, CLD VI:23). We call human families “families” after their relationship (Ephesians 3:14), but earthly families ultimately are a poor reflection of their relationship, which we can hardly begin to understand. The Son is the only One Who has a relationship of being begotten in that way by the Father—not the angels, as we heard in the Epistle Reading, not us, as we will hear, and not even the Holy Spirit, Who we say proceeds from at least the Father. The Athanasian Creed, which we confess at least on Trinity Sunday, rightly speaks of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity in this way: that the Father is not made nor created nor begotten by anyone, that the Son is neither made nor created but begotten of the Father alone, and that the Holy Spirit is of the Father and the Son, neither made nor created nor begotten but proceeding. The Father and Son’s relationship is unique; it is the only one of its kind. So, not surprisingly, in today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. John twice refers to the Son as “the only Son”. In so referring to the Son, St. John uses a Greek word, μονογενὴς, which the older Bible versions that many of us learned by memory (KJV, ASV, NASB) translated as “only begotten”. Bible scholars today tend to agree that the word more-properly refers to His “kind”, not His being begotten. Yet, the word μονογενὴς went from the original Greek of the Nicene Creed into the Latin, German, and eventually English versions of the Nicene Creed, which we confessed this morning and confess in the Divine Services during all the festival seasons and on all the other festival days, as “only begotten”. That “only-begotten” Son of God, we confess, was begotten of His Father before all worlds, was begotten not made, and, for us and for our salvation, came down from heaven. And, that leads us to the second of our three “events”, if you will.
So, first was that, from eternity, God the Father begat His only Son. Second is that, in time, that same Son was born of the Virgin Mary. The Gospel Reading simply says that the Word, the eternal Son of God, became flesh. Over time the three ecumenical creeds, based solidly on Holy Scripture, had to confess in greater detail: for example, the Nicene Creed, confesses that He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary and made man. The Athanasian Creed confesses that He is God, begotten from the substance of the Father before all ages, and man, born from the substance of His mother in this age. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism Explanation to the Second Article of the Apostles’ Creed similarly confesses Jesus Christ as true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the virgin Mary. Mystery and miracle! The unchanging God assumes a human nature without changing! Not all three Blessed Persons but the Second Person alone is personally united with the human nature. We think we know how human procreation works, but this is not ordinary human procreation! The Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and the power of the Most High overshadowed her; therefore, the Child born was called holy, the Son of God (Luke 1:35; confer Matthew 1:20). And, so Mary’s Son was later revealed to be the Son of God in word and deed; we might especially think of the Father’s voice from heaven at both the Baptism of our Lord and the Transfiguration of our Lord, calling Him His beloved Son, a term closely connected to “one and only” (or “only begotten”) (for example, Matthew 3:17; 17:5).
We do well to think of another “beloved” and “one and only” (or “only-begotten”) son: namely, Isaac (for example, Genesis 22:2). Under God’s testing, Isaac’s father Abraham by faith offered up Isaac as a sacrifice, with Abraham said to have considered that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead, which figuratively speaking, God did. (Hebrews 11:17-19.) As Abraham had prophesied, God provided a substitute lamb for the burnt offering, one caught in a thicket by his horns (Genesis 22:8, 13). By Divine‑inspiration, St. John throughout His Gospel account seems to recall Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac in presenting God the Father’s sacrifice of Jesus for us—caught as it were on a different tree—and calling us to repent and believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that by believing we might have life in His Name (John 20:31). God the Father loved not only His only Son but also loved the fallen world that deserved temporal and eternal death—He loved that fallen world by giving His only (or “only-begotten”) Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. The God-man Jesus Christ, as the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism Explanation of the Second Article continues, has redeemed us lost and condemned people, purchased and won us from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil; not with gold or silver but with His holy precious blood and with His innocent suffering and death. Behind that confession of the faith, is, among other passages, what the Divinely‑inspired St. Paul wrote to the Galatians: when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons (Galatians 4:4-5). And, that leads us to the third of our three “events”, if you will.
First was that, from eternity, God the Father begat His only Son. Second was that, in time, that same Son was born of the Virgin Mary. And, third is that now you can be born of God.
Today’s Gospel Reading said that, to those who believed in His Name, He gave the right to become children of God, children who were born, not of (arguably “human”) blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born of God. So, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s Small Catechism Explanation of the Third Article of the Apostle’s Creed rightly confesses that we cannot by our own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, or come to Him, but the Holy Spirit has called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the true faith. Mystery and miracle for us! All is Gospel Christmas gift! We who are originally born of flesh are flesh, but we also in Holy Baptism are reborn from above by water and the Spirit and so are Spirit, given the right to become children of God, and so able to see and enter the Kingdom of God (John 3:1-8). In dying on the cross, Jesus gave up that Spirit for His Church (John 19:30), and, in particular, He gave that Spirit to His disciples and their successors, pastors today, to forgive people in Holy Absolution and withhold forgiveness in excommunication (John 20:22-23). As we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Isaiah 52:7-10), we know that whoever the messenger is has beautiful feet because of the good news that he brings. And, in Holy Communion, Jesus gives with bread His flesh—and with wine His Blood—for the life of the world (John 6:51; confer Weinrich, 157). When we repent and believe, then God forgives us! God forgives us both through His Word read and preached to larger groups as this and through that same Word applied to individuals in Holy Baptism, Holy Absolution, and Holy Communion. We are not children of God exactly the same way that Jesus is, but we who repent and believe nevertheless are God’s children.
God’s begetting or creating us as His children can be said to create our own relationships. Like other followers of Jesus, such as Nathaniel (John 1:49), we confess Jesus to be the Son of God. We preach as St. Paul (Acts 13:33) and the author of Hebrews did in today’s Epistle Reading and elsewhere (Hebrews 5:5) that Jesus is begotten of the Father. Ourselves born of God, we at least try to not make a practice of sinning and to love our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:9-10). And, while we must confess that we do still sin, as we live each day in repentance and faith, God forgives our sin (1 John 1:8-10). In these and other ways we children of God suffer with Christ, being conformed to His cross‑shaped image, in order that we may also be glorified with Him (Romans 8:17, 29). Yet, even in, if not especially in, our suffering—in our struggles with sin, whatever our sin might be; in our loneliness, such as our missing absent loved ones, including those who have gone before us in the faith; in all the diverse darknesses of our individual lives—God’s grace is sufficient for us, His power is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9). Even this morning we are united in the Sacrament of the Altar with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven. His light shines, and the darkness cannot overcome it. The Good News of great joy that is for you comforts you and gives you peace.
Mystery and miracle of God’s gift for us that we celebrate at Christmas! From eternity, God the Father begat His only Son. In time, that same Son was born of the Virgin Mary. So, now you can be born of God. In short, “The Only-begotten Son of God was born of Mary, so you can be born of God.” And, so you are. Thanks be to God, this Christmas Day and always!
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +