FOCUS: The meaning of the incarnation has been debated since the beginning of Christianity. Although often associated with Jesus alone, the notion of incarnation can be understood most fully when it also includes Jesus’ followers, called, like Jesus, to enflesh the Spirit in divinely human ways.
It Came Upon a Midnight Clear?
“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the SupremeWe really don’t know the what, where, or how of Jesus’ birth. Maybe April? That’s when Luke’s shepherds would likely have been out on the hillsides. Certainly not on December 25th – that’s the birthday of Mithra, patron god of the Roman Legions whose birthday was adopted by Christians some four hundred years
Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable
of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”
– Thomas Jefferson, 1823
later. For Luke, the family lived in Nazareth and traveled to Bethlehem where there was no room at the Inn. Shepherds and angels were in attendance. For Matthew, the family already lived in a house in Bethlehem. Herod, the wise men, and a wandering star played the big parts.
Our earliest witnesses to Jesus’ life, Paul and Mark, are evidently unaware of anything miraculous about his birth – in fact, Paul says just the opposite. As Paul introduced himself and his message to the Romans, he described Jesus as having been “made of the seed of David according to the flesh.” He mentions no virgin birth or any of the elements most people have come to associate with the Christmas story. To Paul’s mind, Jesus was only declared to be the “Son of God” by having been resurrected from the dead (Romans 1:3-4), a decidedly “adoptionist” – and according to later church councils, heretical – interpretation of the data.
The gospel of Mark skips all of Jesus’ evidently unremarkable early life and jumps straight to the beginning of his ministry – while John goes the other direction and places Jesus at the beginning of time, participating in the very act of Creation.
So what will it be?
We haven’t even begun to consider the multitude of other gospels that didn’t “make the cut” into the canon of scripture. Some were left out for theological reasons, some for political, but most were dropped when the church was trying to develop an identity and, in modern terms, “spin” the story of Jesus in the 3rd and 4th centuries. A dip into The Infancy Gospel of Thomas or The Infancy Gospel of James will net the reader strange and wonderful details of Jesus’ birth, most of which, while not the “official” story, have nonetheless taken root in our psyches through their representation in historic art, oral tradition – and Christmas cards!
To receive a complete copy of the text used for the session, please contact Pastor Marj at daytonfirstcong@gmail.com. It will be sent as an email attachment for your perusal as opposed to printing multiple pages, a stewardship practice. Because of copyright law, we are not able to make the materials available here. Another option would be to purchase a copy of Felten and Procter-Murphy's newly-released book, Living the Questions: The Wisdom of Progressive Christianity from your local bookseller.
Questions to be considered in light of the video and readings:
As the birth narratives in Matthew and Luke can’t possibly be historical, what is their purpose?
With whom does Jesus share the claim of miraculous birth? Why?
According to Levine, what is Matthew up to in his telling of the birth of Jesus?
According to Brueggemann, what is Luke up to in his telling of the birth of Jesus?
What are the implications of “doing Christology all over again?”
Spong describes at least five different Biblical explanations of how “God got into Jesus”: Paul, Mark, Matthew, Luke, and John. Explain.
How would re-imaging “God as the life power itself, the power of love itself” change our understanding of incarnation?
How does “Process thought” make sense of the incarnation?
What is “doing Christology from below?”
How does Athanasius’ thought fit in with the “continuum” suggested by Spong?
Explain Towne’s understanding of incarnation as “presence.”
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