[Machine transcription]
Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God, our Father, from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Brothers and sisters, looking at Paul’s letter to the Galatians for the text today, please
be seated.
And kind of actually, I’m only looking at three words from Paul’s reading today.
There are some parts of the Bible that seem to be a little more difficult to prepare a
sermon on, and it can be even more difficult when the preacher focuses on just one verse
and some consider it sermon suicide to choose just three words but that’s what
I’m doing from that Paul’s letter the words born of woman only three words but
they say so much now this reading is often read during the Christmas season
reminding us that Jesus was indeed born of woman their words about Jesus’s
virgin birth and about his mother Mary but but these three words also tell us
that God became truly human in Jesus and they’re not words only about how
Jesus was born and to whom he was born but they’re words about who Jesus is and
what he did now in the time of Jesus being born of woman wasn’t a
a particularly good title.
Most of the time then,
people were identified by their father
and his family.
Back then, being a woman, in fact,
wasn’t really looked on with much favor.
In the time of Jesus,
women were regarded as second-class citizens,
if citizens at all.
They had no political power
and little or no influence on society. There was even a separate place for
worship for them in the Jewish temple and Jewish men had a prayer that went
like this, I thank you God that I am not a Gentile or a woman. Just saying. Even the New
To English words, gune, just doesn’t sound all that flattering. Guys, I don’t
suggest using it, all right? Negative romance points here, you know. Gune, come
here. No, don’t do that. Being born a woman in Jesus’s time was not a great
title. Back in 1995, pop singer Joan Osborne, she had a hit song that was
called one of us that asked this question in the lyrics what if God was
one of us just a slob like one of us now I doubt that song was meant to be
complimentary of God or Christianity but it does pose an interesting question
what it would be like if God was a human being well that idea of God being a
human being isn’t completely well received even today being born of a
A woman isn’t a great title today either.
To some religious groups,
the idea of God becoming a human,
it’s unthinkable and even detestable.
The idea of God lowering Himself,
humbling Himself in such a way to become human
and allowing His perfect and righteous character
to be put into human flesh is just terrible.
They asked the question,
why would God want to do that?
Why would God want to be born of woman?
Why would God want to be around us?
Why would God want to be a slob like us?
The question kind of echoes what Mary said
when the angel told her that she was with child.
she asked, how can this be? Well, we might ask the same question because we know
what we’re like. We’re not only are we slobs, we’re sinful ones. We’re born of
woman, yet we were conceived in sin. We’ve all done things that could question why
God would want to be around us. Why a righteous, holy, perfect God would want to
be around sinful human beings. But what’s unthinkable and even detestable to some
is a wonderful thing for followers of Jesus. Long before Jesus was born, God
made a promise to Moses that said, I will put my dwelling place among you and I
I will not despise you.
I will walk among you and be your God,
and you will be my people.”
Indicating that, yes,
I’m going to put my dwelling in you.
I’m going to be with you.
I’m going to be around you.
I will be your God.
You will be my people.
And this is what Jesus has done.
And it’s who He is.
Jesus fulfilled that promise
and all the promises of the Old Testament
of God sending someone into this world to do this and Jesus has done that in
fact one of the names for Jesus is Emmanuel which means God with us and
Jesus is with us in heavenly ways but also in human ways and to us this is a
wonderful thing. Why would God want to be born a woman? Why would God want to be
around us and be a slob like one of us? Well God would answer it this way, even
though you rebel against me and disobey me and sin against me and others, I still
want to be with you. I still want to have an active and living relationship with
you I still want to forgive you even though you’re a sinful slob I still love
you and I was born and I died for you why was Jesus born of woman so that he
could become truly human and so that he could truly die the child Jesus was was
born of woman, he was born to die. He became flesh and blood so that he could
suffer what we’re supposed to. Jesus comes into our world in flesh and blood
to pay the penalty that we’re supposed to. See in the reading it said Jesus was
born of woman, born under the law. He came here in this world subject to the same
law that we are of God but he keeps it perfectly and in doing so he takes the
power punishment for our breaking the law and dies the death that we should
die and it gets even better because what was born of woman Jesus’s body and blood
his flesh and blood it didn’t stay that way it didn’t remain dead because why
was Jesus born of woman so that he could die yes and also rise from the dead
Jesus was born not just to die but to live physically defeating death and
giving us the benefit of that giving us victory over death giving giving us
eternal life we say Jesus was born of woman this is all wrapped into that that
he came in flesh and blood to die for us and to rise again.
It’s a wonderful thing for followers of Jesus that God would come to be with us.
There’s a story of a little girl who was in the hospital.
She was really sick and in a lot of pain and her mother was trying to comfort her and she
said to her,
Honey, remember God is with you.
And the girl said,
Yeah, I know that, Mama.
I know.
But I’m so glad that you’re here. I want someone with me who has skin on that’s what Jesus is
God with skin on
To come into our world
born of woman
To become one of us to care for and comfort us in person
Doing that in his death in his resurrection
but we still experience the benefits of His flesh and blood body today.
We really can’t explain it, but in Holy Communion,
when we come up here to the rail, we reach out our hands
and receive and experience Christ’s woman-born body and blood
in a very special way.
as we hear the words this is my body this is my blood given and shed for you
for the forgiveness of your sins this is the the visible gospel this is God
coming to us in Christ body and blood born of woman born to die and to rise
again right here for us. The Lord’s Supper is truly God with us and in us. In the Christian
faith, there’s a lot of aspects of it that are important to know, but a very simple
yet very important thing to know is it’s just a very simple thing that God has come to be
with us. In Jesus, God invaded our world and became one of us in Jesus. Jesus
lived with us, he suffered like us, and he died for us so that he could take us to
be with him in his heavenly kingdom. And this is what makes Christianity
different than any other religious worldview ever is just picture an arrow
pointing down God coming to be with us God coming in flesh and blood born of
woman born in Jesus for us and then turning that arrow up pointing so that
he could take us to be with him.
This is a simple yet very profound aspect of Christianity that is so different and so
unique and such good news.
We have the opportunity, I hope you do anyway, to tell other people about that.
I know how it can be when people ask us about our faith or about Christianity, we kind of
freeze up and our mind goes blank sometimes.
But just think very simply, if people ask you about your faith, hey, my God came to be
with me and with you he came here like one of us like slobs like us to forgive
us simple things to talk about Jesus in a simple way that of what what he’s
really done for you again to some people it’s it’s it seems unthinkable and
detestable that God would become a human being and Christians answer no it’s a
It’s a wonderful thing that God would do this out of love for us.
So the question that Ms. Osborne asked,
you know, what if God was one of us?
We answered that, okay, we’ve been there and done that.
We have that.
God has been one of us.
Or better yet, we can say,
Jesus has been here and done that for us.
Jesus is here, and still doing that for us,
still forgiving our sins,
still granting us love and mercy,
and all of that for us.
And it’s wonderful for us.
Not an unthinkable or detestable thing.
It’s wonderful.
That no matter how much we’re slobs,
God still wants to be with us.
And in Jesus, He is.
He was willing to be born of a woman to be like us to die for us and to save us
So wonderful. It’s a couple of little one-line quips that kind of helped tie this together here that maybe you’ll be able to remember
God
participated in humanity
So humans could participate in divinity and God became a child so we could be children of God and
Jesus was born of woman
so that we could be born again so it’s good to be reminded that Jesus was
indeed born of woman it’s good to hear those three words today as much as at
Christmas amen now may the peace of God which passes all
understanding keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus amen
