To believe that Joseph and Mary are the biological parents of Jesus eliminates the need of having to believe in the miraculous conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, however, it creates more problems than it solves. To deny the virgin birth completely destroys the integrity of the passage. Mary’s pregnancy is held in tension with Elizabeth’s. To deny the possibility of Mary conceiving through the power of the Holy Spirit is also to deny the work of God in allowing Elizabeth to become pregnant in her old age and barrenness. “They had no children because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years.” —Luke 1:7  While we are at it, Sarah must also have been mistaken about her barrenness and age when she miraculously conceived Isaac. For that matter, Rachel and Hannah must have also gotten it wrong. To deny that God could act miraculously in Mary is to destroy the credibility of God being able to act miraculously in the lives of so many women who impossibly gave birth to a son in the Bible. In other words, to accept the premise that God can’t do miracles is to do violence to the authority of Scripture. The whole point of the first chapter of Luke is to help us understand that, “Nothing is impossible with God.”

The Anglican Church is a credal church. The creeds are part of our liturgies and inform our beliefs. We believe that just as the Spirit inspired the authors of Scripture, we also believe that God inspired the mind of the Church as it gathered in council and in the formation of the early creeds. The Nicene Creed is explicit: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God… of one being with the Father… For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate from the Holy Spirit and Virgin Mary, and was made man.” If Joseph is the biological father of Jesus, then how could Jesus be God from God? If Jesus is not God, then how could he be sinless? If he was not the perfect sinless lamb of God, then how could our sins be atoned for? To deny the virgin birth is not just to deny the Scriptures and the creeds, but to gut Christianity and make us foolish followers of a nice man albeit a crazy one who said that “no one gets to the Father except through me.”

Our new catechism is built upon the truths of the Apostle’s Creed. It addresses this issue in teaching #56, “Was Mary the only biological parent of Jesus? Yes, While still a virgin, Mary submitted to the will of God and bore the Son of God. Therefore, she is held in high honor. However, in obedience to God, Joseph took Mary as his wife and raised Jesus as his son.” Teaching #57 explains the implications of this miracle, “What is the relationship between Jesus’ divine and human natures? At the moment of Jesus’ conception, the divine nature of the one eternal Person of the Son was united to our human nature. Therefore, Jesus is fully and truly both divine and human, but without sin.”

Some churches may indeed have given up on the virgin birth. Our church still believes that a virgin conceived and gave birth to a son named Jesus. I find it fascinating that the constant Christmas theme of the secular world is that the miracle of Christmas requires belief. There is hardly a Christmas film that does not hold this at its core. But the miracle of Christmas is not belief in a man dressed in red coming down a chimney, rather it is about God dressed in swaddling cloths coming down from heaven. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only- begotten son, so that those who believed in him might not perish but have everlasting life.” That is the real Christmas miracle, that God loved us that much. Nothing is impossible with God.

Merry Christmas,