What's the Story of Christ's Birth Mean?

The Gift God Gave

Christmas Day

Collect: Almighty God, who hast given us thine only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

Have you ever known someone whose purpose in life was to turn lighthearted occasions into serious ones? Maybe it’s a birthday party. People are eating cake, laughing, and singing “Happy Birthday!” Then this person comes into the room, asks all to be quiet and give him their attention. He then offers a five minute prayer about the miracle of birth, the need to number our days, and the responsibility to live serious lives. The celebration is over.

We might be tempted to feel that way about Thomas Cranmer’s  Collect for today. Christmas is a day of joy and cheer. Yet there is not a heavier, more serious collect in the Prayer Book than the Collect for Christmas Day. However, the purpose of the Collect is not to take away from our glad annual remembrance of Christ’s birth but to deepen our understanding and appreciation of what his birth means. It calls our attention to two profound truths - the truth of Christ’s incarnation and the truth of the Christian’s regeneration.

1. The Incarnation of Christ

The first truth is the truth of the incarnation, or the enfleshment of Christ.

1.1 The Story. The story of Christ’s birth is so familiar most of us could tell it without reviewing it.

Mary, a young teenage girl was engaged to a carpenter named Joseph. An angel appeared to her and told her she would have a son. This greatly perplexed Mary as she could not understand how she, a virgin, could have a child. However, the angel assured her that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and by his power she would conceive a son. When he was born, she should name him Jesus.  

Joseph, a righteous man, was deeply concerned when he discovered Mary was pregnant. He was preparing to legally end the engagement when an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife for the child conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit. Joseph also was told to give the baby boy the name Jesus for he would save his people from their sins. Joseph and Mary married, though they did not have marital relations till after the baby’s birth.

Near Mary’s due, the government decreed a census should be taken and each man should return to his ancestral home to register. Joseph and Mary traveled from their home in Nazareth down to Bethlehem, a trip of about 90 miles that took somewhere between 4 and 10 days. In Bethlehem they found lodging in a stable. There Mary gave birth to her son.

That night in the fields nearby there were shepherds caring for their sheep. An angel appeared to them and announced that in Bethlehem a Savior had been born for them. When the angels left the shepherds quickly went to Bethlehem to see the child. After they had seen the baby they returned to the fields praising God for all they had seen and heard.

Sometime later a group of Magi from the east arrived in Bethlehem. When they found Jesus, Mary, and Joseph in a house, they went in, worshiped Jesus as King, and presented him with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

(Or, in the interest of time: We all know the story of the Virgin Mary, and her fiance, Joseph. Of the angel who told them to name their son Jesus. Of their journey of 90 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem to register for a census. Of the birth of Mary’s baby in a stable in Bethlehem. Of the angel who announced to shepherds that a Savior born and the angelic host who sang, “Glory to God in the highest!” Of the Magi who were guided by a star to Bethlehem where they found and worshiped the Child.)

1.2. The Meaning. The story we know, but by itself the story is just a story. We have to ask, “What does it mean? What is the significance? What is God doing in this story?” This is where the profound theology of the Collect enriches our understanding:

“Almighty God, who hast given us thine only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin.”  

• God has a Son. He has many adopted sons and daughters, but only one begotten Son. When we say Christ is the only begotten Son, we do not mean that there was a time when the Father existed and the Son did not or that the Father brought forth the Son at some point in eternity past. We mean that like a natural son, he has the same nature as the Father. We read this morning from Hebrews 1: “He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power” (1:3). We read from St. John this morning that in the beginning there was One John calls the Word, who already existed when time began; he was with God the Father in a close relationship yet was distinct from God the Father; but that does not mean he was less than God, for John tells us that he was God. There could be no stronger affirmation that the Son of God is himself God. Making sense of the Christmas story begins with the only begotten Son of God.

• God gave his only begotten Son to us. What is the most valuable thing you have? For most of us that would not be something like a job or house. It’s a person, perhaps a spouse of child. To whom would you give this most valuable person? You and I probably would say, “No one - I would not give to anyone the person I love most.” You would surely not give someone you love to an enemy who hates you, and most certainly not to someone who would mistreat and abuse the person you love. But God loves and so God gave. “God so loved the world he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). What God values most - the Son with whom he shares perfect love and harmony - he gave to us sinners who inhabit this sinful world.

• God gave this Son to take our nature upon him by being born of the Virgin Mary. He did not stop being God, but he became one with us in our human nature, fully human in every way except for sin. St. John tells us that “the Word became flesh” - the Word, who is himself fully God, became flesh, became fully human.

• The human nature he took to himself was the weak and mortal human nature we have because of the curse of sin on human nature. The writer of Hebrews shows us how far Christ went in identifying with us:

Since therefore the (we) children (we whom he came to save) share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil...Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted (2:14-18).

Christ became one with us in our human nature so that he

could redeem our human nature. He shared our nature so that he could obey the commands of God’s law for us and provide us with a righteousness acceptable to God, which we receive by faith. He shared in our human nature so that he could assume responsibility for our sins and suffer the penalty for our sins. The result is that by faith in him, we are forgiven and reconciled with God.

The Collect calls us on Christmas to remember the story and understand its significance. The Son of God became incarnate by the Virgin Mary to save us from sin, death, and judgment.

2. The Regeneration of Believers

The Collect goes on to focuses on our regeneration and our becoming the children of God:

Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by

adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy

      Spirit…

We who are Christians have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit. This is the beginning of our spiritual life and is marked and sealed by baptism. We were generated, or conceived and born, once by our natural parents. But there is another generation - a re-generation or a second birth by  which we become the children of God. St. Paul wrote of this second birth:

But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, (Titus 3:4-6)

We are saved by God’s initiative and mercy not by the good things we do. Just as the Holy Spirit came upon Mary so that a child was generated within her, so the Holy Spirit comes to us and regenerates and renews us so that new life in Jesus Christ begins.

Not only are we regenerated and renewed but we also become the children of God. We read from St. John’s Gospel about the connection between the miraculous new birth and our becoming children of God:

... to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

Why did they believe in his name so that God gave them the right to be his children? St. John explains:

…(they) were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God (John 1:11-13).

Christians, like everyone else, have experienced an ordinary natural birth. But we have also experienced a second supernatural birth, have believed in the name of Jesus Christ, and are now children of God.

But the Christian life is more than saying, “I’ve been born again, believed in Jesus, and become a child of God so all that I need has already happened.” No, if we are born again and the children of God by adoption and grace, then we earnestly desire that the new life and faith that have begun in us will continue and grow all our lives. So we pray with the Collect that we may be “continually renewed by the Holy Spirit.” As we come to Christ’s Table on this Christmas morning to commune with him, let us pray that the Holy Spirit who has begun a good work in us will continue to renew us day by day so long as we live until at last we are made like Christ in his now perfect humanity, and enjoy the life that is eternal.