The name of the father, and of the son, and of the holy spirit. Amen. Here we are just hours removed from Christmas, and the church is giving us this story of John the Baptist. Why? Why?
Because the church is trying to tell us as vividly, as dramatically as it can, that the birth of Jesus Christ was totally extraordinary. Because John's was. Now, no matter there's no question about the authenticity of these texts. There's no question about that. Now, the and here we have we have Elizabeth, An old woman who was known to be sterile through her whole life.
Her husband advanced in years, and lo and behold, she has a baby. And Zachariah was one of the leading men in the temple, offering prayers. He was not not just some unknown person in the community. And this whole business was known, then he struck down. He loses the power of speech.
And now at the at this very important festival of the circumcision of the child, here's something else extraordinary happens. Everything about John is extraordinary. The church is trying to tell us. He is only the precursor of Jesus Christ. Elizabeth is the cousin of Mary.
And remember Mary, when she goes through this phenomenon, whatever it was of the annunciation, as I pointed out, the motives of credibility there are immensely strong. So take this in the context, and you're not remember that you're not dealing with more than about sixty or seventy years in in time. The church is trying to to to stabilize, to reinforce, to put more of a foundation under our faith in Jesus Christ. Who is he? No question that he was.
That is beyond dispute today, despite biblical scholarship of the last century. Arnac and Co. Last night, this is this is I think in my in my experience, this is completely odd round. I heard, I think it was a replay, I don't know, but it was Leah Nine Price singing in the Kennedy Center, and this particular number she's completely alone. Completely alone.
Leah Pine Price. She she's not accompanied by any musical instrument whatsoever. The only thing you see is Leotine Price. Maybe you saw it last night or heard it. But it's seeing and hearing in this case.
She sang a Negro spiritual called, we don't know who you are. Referring to the Christ child. We don't know who you are. And the way she sang that, it was extremely moving speaking for myself. Now, we don't know in a very real sense who Jesus Christ was.
Which one of us can comprehend this single statement that God became man? That's the God became man. Three little old set of words. Is there anybody on God's earth can say, I comprehend that? It's impossible.
Utterly impossible. All that the church has done down in the centuries to ask the question, we do not know who you are. All the church has done is to try to keep us keep us on the path of truth, Not the complete truth, but they keep us from going down into the wells of error. So that in the course of about a hundred and fifty years, through the through the four councils of Nicaea, and Ephesus, Constantinople, and Chalcedon, from about 03/25 to about three hundred and fifty some. The church did four things.
First of all, it told us that baby born of Mary was God, divine. Second, that the baby born of Mary is human completely. Third, that the baby born of Mary had two natures, completely human and completely divine. And then the fourth thing, that it was one person. That's the council of Chalcedon.
One person. Now, this we know. Now, I know this is a Greek that these are Greek philosophical terms, nature and person hypothesis. And I know that. But if we're if we're human beings, if we use language, we have to use words.
What the church has done is to try to keep us straight. Now these councils were all in the in in the East. They were all in Greek. They were almost They were all by by Greek patriarchs. But the point is, the church was speaking.
The church isn't isn't originally out of Rome, you know. The church isn't originally Latin, you know. We often forget that. We've eliminated that good old Kiri Elesen, which reminded us of our inheritance. But the point I'm making is, Leonide Price was speaking a tremendous truth.
We don't know who you are. The way she sang that, she gave you could tell she was putting her soul into that. At the same time saying, I'm completely overwhelmed by thinking that you're God, this baby born of a of a some unknown girl coming down from the northern countries, couldn't even get into an inn. I don't we don't know who you are. The same time back in that, we're all bending our knees and saying, my Lord and my God.
These are the things we put together. Now whether you want to talk in these philosophical or theological terms of person and nature, hypothesis, fine. But we've got to hold this thing together. Remember, gnosticism didn't die in the fifth century AD. Just keep this in your mind.
There's plenty of it around today. There are plenty of people who will tell you it doesn't make any difference whether Christ was divine or not. It makes no difference our conception of of the psychology of Christ. But they say these this is all these are all just words. We know he was a good man.
Folks, as CS Lewis says, if there's one thing you cannot say about Jesus Christ is that he was only a good man. That's impossible. Read the New Testament and look at that and ask if you if he's only a man, you want him as your next door neighbor? Just read it. It's all you have to do.
So the church these days is going overboard to try to reassure us that our faith is based on solid ground. Solid ground. As solid as it can be. And that we have a savior. Now, this is the point.
It's perfect past tense. All this talk about looking forward to the birth of Christ, that's all figurative. I mean, if you're talking about celebrating the birthday of the Lord, he has had his birthday. He's had it. All that's left for us to do is to make contact.
We can throw the switch in either direction, off or on. In the name of the father, the son, the holy spirit. Amen.