VEILED IN FLESH JMB
Matthew 1-teezp 1:—& !6, Is-av BSPC
December 18, 1983 Cols, OH

Most religion seems to end_up_as_an effort to deliver

us from, or at least deny, our humanity .\| Sometimes it is
puerta ET ———9 Say
carried off in the most sophisticated theological jargon
arnt what seem bh “Be

imaginable,Afor the very best of reasons. \ But somehow it

cdslacketutied ~ Se
. . : : : Fs rave® ;
comes out sounding as if our humanity is so flawed, so sinful, de?
ay (eee ep ———) a,
. . . Ta or er WS o
something or someone has to deliver us from it~¢ e expres-
| emai I eg [ey =]

sions of this elemental religious impulse range all _ the
anciowt
way from the monastic conclusion that a life of self-denial

Ay wskwue, aidan Gerke) oe ue Wt ss ent
is morally superior, that celibacy? i~@=sapeee=thew=senvetrey , .) — a

ex jes © _ Seeee Puritan position that joviality is suspicious: feemmeme Ov) stxvelity ,
Sei gccwhipiss— Aes en defined, you ue r, .

Puritan#as one who is afraid that someone,

Tt Ginds Curttut SxPressim FA

(P
somewhere is having too much fun \¢ oe the relentless tendency
anaimeaiiiiiting the Fils The tad roves Ty Cda
abr popular religion fo) cus the action elsewhere, % —
— oes
a] L]

enormously popular religious life insurance called pie

. \Alisia seems “we be Fee the
in the sky by and by." )@ we of Avr wey__tut gore wore Da
owls Fron Wa wre, ae vlraucea

at appaled.or é.

and te pleseat Lasdh ©
In this context, Christians are always at a disadvantage

Pesan iit
as soon as they have to think about their basic claim -
hi,
that Jesus of Nazareth, God's full disclosure, was a human
| rd
being. | If our humanity is so flawed, after all, how_could
—_—_— a ty

it possibly be the setting for Incarnation, for the @n-flesh-

ing of God? I|tose incarnation talk focuses on the incredible

mystery of deity becoming human. | But at Christmas, at least,

the tilt is in the other direction entirely.| The real shocker

tie % Seana)

is not that God could do it, but that our_humanity was once

the vehicle for God's revelation - and perhaps still is.
The marvelous and wildly improbabl@ dimension of a Christian
———————e fede ad ee

Christmas is in what it says about our humanity, whtctr=®#as

been=—se~_netrekeesiy bhessed by Gabe Christmas radically
affirms the world - not as the place where all the evil
— ey
lies, but the place God so loves he sent his son to live
tnd — tah
in ic. \\ christmas radically affirms our humanity, not as :
onset — ——— “ie be pavee condition

a condition from which we must be delivered” but as chet qed Guilty
: — and r

pay *God chose to demonstrate his holy love.\| Christmas pro- gugugh

“hat

foundly embraces human life.

7

Matthew understood that, it appears, before anyone

else.\ Mark, who wrote first, begins with John the Baptist

—

and the man Jesus meeting at the Jordan River.\ The Gospel

ee ae

according to John begins magnificently, profound1y,.. pprresa;
phiecathy: |'"In the beginning was the word and the word was
with God and the word was God...and the Word was made fleshe"s|

thirty-year-o1d-—Jesus..

Matthew begins in a way very few preachers chose for
Se

SS
oF ee ——s

a text, with that most human, most mundane of all Awe

a family picture album, a family tree, home movies. \.'"'The

— — ethics:

book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David,

a

the Son of Abraham...Abraham was the father of Isaac, and

Le aan Eieioenl ray
Isaac the father of Jacob;"} that long and curious list of
pees vine. erent,

)
beggts in the older translations , which set generations of

en | Ct eal aina een eel

. ' . - VW = a4
youngsters to snickering, thinking about all that "begatting

...an odd list of people,some of whom are mentioned nowhere
——— ra —_—— aiiianied Ce i es

else in the Bibs, through David the King right up to the

i

greatgrandparents and the grandparents, and|'Joseph, husband
jon = fa

—

of Mary, of whom Jesus was born."
m ess.

————,,

Matthew, it appears, wants there to be no doubt that

| nl en |
ee

this is a very human story. \\ The family album is not full

. : ee OS
of mystics, contemplatives, Pere, but full blooded men

and women, some of whom awe rascals, cheats, liars, murderers,
eri - -_ iad ~ ,

a prostitute or two and David the King, who the author reminds

us, (was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah" }- ~<he-
Usteh—Pevit-arranged— to Tave--kti-bed . It is a very human

—

list. \\ Matthew wants no doubt about the full humanity of

_—— — eee. —_—

Jesus of Nazareth.

The story of the birth itself, as presented by Matthew

rence,

reflects the same determined effort to celebrate the humanness

= — —h ae

of it all, not ee nide.itfre pulls us in again to a very

seine. tl

Se —_—

human saga with one finely crafted sentence. |. "When his
mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came

together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit;

and her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to

were

put her to shame, resolved to diveree her quietly." | That's
a

a sentence literally crammed with bumanness:\ complex cultural
[enim

marriage customs, | regional variations in the customs, | reli-
eee, Ce ed =,

gious rules,) and deeply human emotions; l@wet and passion
on — eT

and jealousy, and humiliation, and fairness, and courage,

and faith. | You have to read chapters in the commentaries
F mmimecea — eee

to get a handle on that verse.
*
Bleti pauw ard feanm a bt «bi Thy Aw whan cnyliily

"Betrothed"” refers to a step in the three stage, Jewish

matrimonial procedure of the day. | The first step was a

formal exchange of consent before witnesses between a man

and a young girl's family. \ The young woman ordinarily would
“i at

be 12 or 13 years old.\ The step is called betrothal, but
Creer, ——————

sometimes it is called marriage. \ Stage two is a period lau
of waiting - a year or so.\ In some places the bride and ™ 4
—_———— sh, —

groom could be together once, intimately, during that time. Poye\™
a ie > — Fae

-

Stage three is the taking of Wer
—_———s hel .
the bride to the groom's family home .[\ ‘Martiage") can refer

to the beginning of the proces - or the end. \| Betrothal

means the first step. \ During step two, the waitin eriod, whic ley

an \winve

Mary is pregnant. (nm more strict tt she could be tried,
dyesw’ Woo” Ke is Sai i Whewss
he wah punished for adultery. \ Joseph is fkus there _is no question

pee _— ee mae é anu a
Gives what he must do. \ Fike scandal jidd be awful. \ Bee Hle doesn't

. 1 fea ana arene meminciii,
, want the shame of public accusation and so it will be a

errr

quick and quiet divorce.
Fe saan saminda ol

Ceptricucee by @scetit monk svi
-5- tA isl@ton_, Tr Wyt5u' 2 < bor "a

mT
mys fice ( crince Mul merle’, veh
Matthew means for us to know from the \outset that the API

; , os an uitrd

incarnation was not a flash of mystical visio ut y
bare fere ———

human story:| that,it doesn't require religious sophistication

aoe atin Ly > a
to understand; \\ that it doesn't require moral perfection

———

to be appreciated. \\ Tt is a story about people like people

we know: \ people like us. \re is a story about this humanity,

eeu Se — <p

this flesh, this person - the object of God's saving love.
a I AM Ao

That's why it is so good.

I borrowed the title Veiled in the Flesh from the late

J. Harry Cotton, former Senior Minister of this church,

————,

ere
who preached a series of wesrmapens “eetdere that title in 1969

se

when he was serving as interim pastor.\ Dr. Cotton, of course,

Charles Wedey | ian
borrowed the phrase from the—-eearol’ -\"'Hark, the Herald Angels
Sa coment

sing." The sermons are good: \ there is a sense of distilla-

| ——

tion about them: \ a long and effective ministry now focusing

a

on the essentials.\ The humanity of Christ is always the
iin ————2

theological issue, Harry Cotton wrote.\\ And for us, people

trying to be faithful, the life issue is something he called

#4 — _—

aa Christian Humanism, a generation before Jerry Falwell

fe ee
ey

and his friends on the far right appropriated and despoiled
ee il

the word and the concept .\\ Any Gospel worth our attention dite
=the world AO tae CMe
must begin with who we are: must tak ur humanity very Sat
seriously: \ must incorporate our human life: | our relation-
all

.

ships, our hopes and fears, our needs, our joys, our hurts,

our birthing and loving and our dying. |

OV SL
ee ik
0
Y V ZN f
GUA re
ak

last MM wfesene
OB pe: an ’
pom .\EE -

—_—
———_—_

—_——

[)/F5u .
eee Nyyan oS
; i You Aut
wes cruci tied '
in chick
Ay

Cotton was reminded of the scholarly observation that

the first Christian heresy was a denial of Jesus' humanity.

He only seemed human, it was said \ Thus, he didnanltt hur

get angry hungry, tired, lusty God forbid! 4

h . i 7 It is a
—

comfortable heresy, very civilized actually.| It _ solves

a lot of problems and absolves us from the dele ies was

dises wales &
of dealing with our OO an Tr a It Se—e tidy

eee Dies} Lud os

. ] 1-4 coe oe =} 3 = cy - 5
to~deliver us from our humanness and~-to locate “the ae#iogs

somewhere elsev>» a

Of course it also deprives Christianity of part of

what God apparently had in mind in sending Jesus Christ

fete say

in the first place; [namely to reconcile us with our humanity:

a

to grace our hun humanness by becoming one of us so that we

arene nineteenth erect nine

can be who we are ve are fully. Eighteenth century British poeet,
artist-and-mystie-—wWilli id plainly:

"All Bibles and

sacred sie have been the cause of
the following /errors: that body energy is evil; and
soul thoughA is good: that God will punish eternally

for following his SnREEA ER”

. wird |
fd fru’ ae a SMM Geer fh wl (CSS

veal ¥- Hreeclun |

What we celebrate this week is the very essence of

all Judeo/Christian religion: that God has come to us:
[al

become one of us: . \ graced all human life and therefore our
ree

—_ at

human life with pm divine life. \\ What we celebrate aie Ys

[ni
is not our deliverance from this world of the flesh fond
Voter ——
God's blessing of the world and thew=ébesh with the life
of his gon. What we celebrate is God becoming particular,
specific, identifiable, touchable, vulnerable, God's humanity ,

Karl Barth once cailed the Christmas Gospel.

——

The hints are there early. Hans Kung wrote: "From
the first to the last ‘page of the Bible there is talk not

only about God

“but constantly to and” with God, praising

and complajsfing, begging and prosésting..." (On Being a

p. 304)

Christi

i

The best minds we have produced have struggled with

ways to say it so the rest of us would understand.| Sometimes
ferfberk #7 7
the theology of the classroom does it. | Peter —tupieins7= Yate

Dimindey Sctoot for instance :

"The arn A God, who macs all things that are

made, Himself f esare a creature - a creature. in His
; a a
own creation -. revealing in a/ ‘finite 4 fan natite the
has evbe“s A heh
God no one. has ev seen.' ee Yale Divitfity School

Symposium or Creation)

y

And sometimes it is the nuances and symbols of drama.
—_—

There is an incandescent moment in "The Elephant _Man" when

the fashionable Mrs. Kenwick reaches out to and clasps the

ts ¢ fourth & ff mene

ee ag deformed hand o of Merrick. That's what God mypwd
a ey ————

did ee—that we “are—repuieizes - buteathet=-Ged, in_ love,
a net

ees ae -exactly-ee=we=are .

-fovcls Lk CW Opec Exacth, Ag Un aA

Professor Hawkins observes, wi "for one who believes

/) in the mystery of -the wo ynadé eles, the pro ound] an
Sv

is prectysty ives plage whéfe. hie creature encountérs / the

where God “nee}s/ us, us, _sichodsh agflatty

without being recognized or even believe in. (ops eit.)

semi f learn, the soda, cf ta lg el,

And sometimes, — incarnation is expressed and celebrated
atic ———— = [ae ——

‘ketineraphtcerikiye, at just those times and places when

we are most accutely aware of our own _bunanness”|Wesbtret

and —deeth+——at—stckness;-—at—tobust;—tusty Tite, in grief
and...ineestaey- A good friend told me that Jesus' humanity

creator - the plac

—
Coucepé
evolved from intelletual Sooetuck to healing power when,

for the first time in her life, she had to endure relentless,

eS

overpowering, post-surgical pain, and the crucifix on the
of AWB Te -

wall spoke of a Lord who knew what that was about.
ened

Vat Yn edges of \R, We exlremibes where Ww oor

WWWX) Our a\twusas Wah = Wid 64 5at iv ~ el af
duord, - wr pasta | \ ak artic \huess @ud ab

\ ole. de iicdaldiewnas ks slushy | pobust bed a at 5
Vs rick Orn ae XL Wt 4 4 vcseor.

In her reflections on he

own life Madeleine L'Engle

has a great deal to teach about e life of all of us, and

—

the life of the spirit.\ She is an uné@mbarrassed and unapolo-

NR rn nr

the following, at

getic parent and grandparent. \ 1 rea

the sea shore, while pondering that personal. miracle of

————— a

miracles - one's own children. L'Engle wrote: \'"There is

no more beautiful witness to the word made flesh than a
DR aetna

baby's naked body. | I remember with sensory clarity sitting

ee

with one of my babies on my lap and running my hand over

the incredibly pure smoothness of the bare back and thinking

———————
nn ane

that any mother (father/parent?) holding her (a) child thus,

—— -—

must have at least an echo of what it is like to be Mary,

Hee ae |

VAs
that in touching the particular created fleshy of
rt
our child,\ we are touching the incarnation." | (Circle of

Quiet, p. 243)

The goodness of Christmas, communicated ~»-t=sbpbteve
eee

@ even to those who are not believers, is that the world ,

Oe HOR » is affirmed because it was also a home for

God's son. \\ The goodness, which gets itself communicated

—_—

——s

in all sorts of ways, is that our institutions;| our homes,

=— ee -
our parenting, our mothering and fathering and brothering
and sistering 7 are blessed by reason of God's own_son having
“cnc a

been born and loved and nurtured in them)\, The goodness,

deme ee,

———

is contageous aad

wif ffm

infegzctious is that our relationships, those vulnerably
rteh. Atrerd Ay Rep of pe poreenes os ae elriaepim
human efforts to touch one another and be with one another
meee
- are blessed and graced with healing possibility because

God's Christ - entered them, enjoyed them.
——- = ge

The goodness of this week is that it is about God veiled
ee °

in the flesh, with the accent on the flesh,‘ our_life, our

—

humanity, so-~toved—by—Ged. The goodness is the wonderful

ee, iam

humanness of it all, from Matthew's marvelous family album

to that most human_event of all, cradled _in_ simple word$,

nar, alurar, ;
yet words we knowwinstinctively ar us - "Now the
a? gee —_—o
birth of Jesus Christ took place 4 way..."