LUKE 1:39-45 – In which we look at Jesus Christ and life, heretic grannies and Tasmanian bishops, Israel/Gaza, blessing people, abortion, meaning, the mother of God, joy, faith, Hebrew rap – and our question of the week – why did God become man? Preached at Scots Kirk, Newcastle…on 26th Nov 2023
Also available as audio only on the ASK podcast here
“How much terrible torture this thirst for faith has cost me and cost me even now, which is all the stronger in my soul the more arguments I can find against it. And yet, God sends me sometimes instants when I am completely calm; At those instants I love and I feel loved by others, and it is at these instants that I have shaped for myself a Credo where everything is clear and sacred for me. This credo is very simple, here it is: to believe that nothing is more beautiful, profound, sympathetic, reasonable, manly, and more perfect than Christ; And I tell myself with a jealous love no not only that there is nothing but that there cannot be anything.” Dostoevsky.
“he was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenters shop until he was 30. Then for three years he was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He was only 33 when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. He was turned over to his enemies and went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross between two thieves. While he was dying his executioners gambled for his garments, the only property had on earth. When he was dead, he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one solitary life”
“I have been often and most earnestly requested by many, both personally and by letter, that I would hand down in writing the proofs of a certain doctrine of our faith, which I am accustomed to give to inquirers; for they say that these proofs gratify them, and are considered sufficient. This they ask, not for the sake of attaining to faith by means of reason, but that they may be gladdened by understanding and meditating on those things which they believe; and that, as far as possible, they may be always ready to convince any one who demands of them a reason of that hope which is in us. In the incarnation of God there is no lowering of the Deity; but the nature of man we believe to be exalted………Anselm
“For I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but I believe in order to understand. For this also I believe-that unless I believe I shall not understand.” Anselm
Alexander, Cæsar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon sheer force. Jesus Christ alone founded His empire upon love; and at this hour millions of men will die for Him. In every other existence but that of Christ how many imperfections!
From the first day to the last He is the same; majestic and simple; infinitely firm and infinitely gentle. He proposes to our faith a series of mysteries and commands with authority that we should believe them, giving no other reason than those tremendous words, ‘I am God.’”Napoleon
How did Christ being the Son of God, become man?
Christ, the Son of God, became man, by assuming a real human body and soul, being conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and born of her, yet without sin.
The Sunday Catechism 22 – How did Christ, being God, become man?
LWL Sermon 3 – A Troubled Teenager – Luke 1:26-38