Sermon - What if ...??

Sermon Preached at Holy Communion Evening Sunday 20th December St. Columba's Parish Church

Matthew 1 Joseph's Dream

Let us Pray – Heavenly Father, take my words, our thoughts and our hearts this evening and by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit help us to understand more fully your Word. We ask this through the name of Jesus Christ – Amen.

Well I wonder how you are doing in your preparations for Christmas – are you sorted? Are the decorations and cards up? When are you collecting your turkey? … In the curatage The Christmas Tree went up on Saturday! And the gifts … well they are getting sorted as we speak.

This evenings Gospel reading is familiar if not even second nature to many if not all of us here. If I were to pick someone and ask them to tell me the story of Jesus Birth I am sure they would able to without too much difficulty. Mary and Joseph, angels, shepherds, wise men, Herod, inn keepers. Little donkey?, shinning stars

We are still in Advent, still looking at the preparations which were made for the first Christmas. As we look at this reading this evening let us come to it with fresh eyes and see the scandal in God's plan. And look at the what if's in the story

We firstly need to understand Mary and Joseph's Relationship – they were engaged (betrothed) which unlike today did have legal and moral status – you couldn't simply throw off an engagement ring in the way that happens in so many soap operas today. It was an agreement between families and no doubt everyone in the vacinity knew Mary and Joseph and were happy for them. Two upstanding teenagers … sure they'd be very happy for them both … a perfect little family

Then Joseph's life is completely turned upside down Mary is expecting a Child … a CHILD, How could she do that to him? Why would she do that to him? Who is the father?

Public disgrace … not only for Joseph but for Mary and their families … Mary's life would be ruined perhaps even in danger.

First what if … Joseph is within his rights to publicly disgrace her, drag her through the courts which could eventually have ended in Mary's stoning … she was an adulteress wasn't she??

But we do see that Joseph took another line … he decided to do the divorce quietly to minimize the disgrace. But before that God intervened as he did on numerous occasions before … in a dream letting Joseph in on the plan that was unfolding and allowed Joseph to be a part of the plan.

In the dream the are certain points to note –
Firstly it is Jospeh who is of the David's Line (from where the Messiah is to come!)
Then the Holy Spirit who has conceived the Child,
Then it is up to Joseph to name him Jesus meaning “God Saves”- which was a common name Yeshua which is the name Joshua
but the reasoning is not like the others – a hope for what God will do but it is an expression of what this child will do. As John would say the Word became Flesh

Our Second what if … What if Joseph woke from his sleep and either just forgot about the dream or wrote it off as simply his own brain activity going wild in the face of the trauma he was going through? -

But what we do see is that Joseph remained faithful to the vision he had, to the instruction he received from God and did all that was asked with him.

The two what-if's identify two possible areas of vulnerability in God's Plan, but also the part human beings had in the bringing about of God's purposes, later in the plan we see God using Joseph to protect the new baby from Herod's soldiers.

As we look towards Christmas – there are no doubt skeptics about these events – a few weeks ago I was over on a Sunday afternoon in Speakers Corner in Hyde Park where people step up and speak about whatever takes their fancy. There is usually a good few street preachers trying to defend themselves from hecklers who love to argue about anything and everything. Thankfully in St. Columba's we do not have too many hecklers in our congregation, but I have no doubt that questions do indeed rise about stories.

When we look at the scandal of the Christmas story, from within Mary and Joseph's relationship we also should ask the question about God and the scandal this brings for Him.

He has stepped down to have a relationship with us –
the creator becomes the created
In Jesus – we get in one Fully God and Fully Human which is the mystery of the incarnation itself
the sinless one in the sinful world – how does that work … I don't know
It can only be described as grace – freely lovingly, given.

A couple of other what-ifs
What if Jesus was just born as any other human being … no conception by Holy Spirit....
Then we get into very dodgy ground - where do we get his divinity from? … he is just the same as the rest of us he has no power over sin, nature, death ...

What if Jesus had just floated down … no birth … Jesus is God no problem but he is not human, no understanding of human nature, and ultimately has ramifications with the atoning sacrifice on the cross.

But only a fully human and fully God- virgin Birth Jesus– makes sense - everything else rests on these facts.

We have just proclaimed our faith in the words of the Nicene creed which was very much borne out of the need to produce a clear statement of beliefs about the person of Christ counteracting heretics who were leading people astray with ideas such as the denial of either the humanity or the divinity of Jesus

Lee Strobel, A Masters Graduate of Law from Yale and award-winning legal editor of the Chicago Tribune was a hardline atheist, set about writing a book when his wife became a Christian, his books A case for have become very good reads for anyone asking difficult questions about the Christian faith. Whilst I was reading one of the interviews he had with a theologian I was struck by the simplicity of the answer that was given. Book Case For Faith - p60

Strobel – OK, Dr Craig, you are an intelligent and educated individual, tell me how can a modern, rational person still believe in babies being born from virgins, people walking on water and bodies rising from tombs

Craig smiled – It's funny you should ask specifically about the virgin birth because it was a major stumbling block to me becoming a Christian. I thought it was totally absurd”



When the Christian message was first shared with me as a teenager I already had studied biology. I knew for the virgin birth to be true, a Y chromosome had to be created out of nothing in Mary's ovum, because Mary didn't possess the genetic material to produce a male child. To me this was utterly fantastic. It just didnt make sense.

Strobel then probed a bit – other skeptics have problems with it too... how did you proceed ?

Craig thought for a moment “Well I sort of put that issue aside and became a Christian anyway, even though I didn't really believe in the virgin birth. But then, after becoming a Christian, it occured to me that if I really do believe in a God who created the universe then for him to create a Y chromosome would be child's play. … the interview continued


In conclusion, there are many what ifs, many discussions that can be had, but at some stage we must move to faith, of trusting the word of God, of saying God you are in control, of saying thank you for sending your son, thank you for the promise you give us – that you are immanuel – God with us and that you are Jesus – the embodient of God Saves.

Yes God made himself vulnerable, he sent his son as a baby to human parents who would bring him up as their own then eventually that boy would become a man and then die on a cross and then rise again.

This Christmas time let us Remember what it is all about – not about the perfect Christmas Dinner, of all the business parties, the best presents in the tidiest house but rather the simple message of God coming amongst his people that first Christmas day.

Let us pray