{"id":4662,"date":"2024-12-23T13:01:19","date_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?p=4662"},"modified":"2024-12-23T13:04:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-23T13:04:00","slug":"sermon-12-22-2024-christian-imagery-marys-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?p=4662","title":{"rendered":"Sermon 12\/22\/2024: &#8220;Christian Imagery: Mary&#8217;s Christmas&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"168\" height=\"248\" src=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4085\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png 168w, https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image-102x150.png 102w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 168px) 100vw, 168px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Listen here: &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Ross-241222-Marys-Christmas.mp3\">Christian Imagery: Mary&#8217;s Christmas<\/a>&#8220;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Micah 5:2-5; Luke 1:39-45<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Mary was engaged, but not married. Nor had she and Joseph been fooling around, which means that she had not engaged in sex. This is important!<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mary was troubled by Gabriel\u2019s message that she would would bear a son who would be given the throne of \u201chis father David\u201d (Luke 1:32).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>David was long dead, and Mary didn\u2019t understand how David, who was long dead, would sire a son through her, especially since she was still a virgin, and engaged to Joseph. The idea troubled her.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The traditional understanding is that the birth of Jesus Christ was a miracle. God accomplished the impossible.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>And that\u2019s the point! We are not allowed to understand it because if we understood it, it would not be considered to be a miracle.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>We can only accept it by faith, or not.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Most Protestant Christians believe that God chose Mary to fulfill His purpose, but that Mary was a sinner like everyone else.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cFor all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God\u201d (Rom. 3:23).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>But the Roman Catholic Church teaches the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, that she was free from sin which makes her like Jesus.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jesus is the only mediator between God and man; so Mary becomes mediatrix.<br>Here\u2019s the problem with that: if Mary was free from sin then she was more like Jesus than like the rest of us.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>(This is just a teaser. If you want to know more, listen to the sermon.)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sunday morning messages are available on the website (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.stpaulsmarietta.org\/audio\">www.stpaulsmarietta.org\/audio<\/a>). Tell your friends.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The issue here is whether sin is a function of biology or of morality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7],"class_list":["post-4662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-worship-this-week","tag-worship-this-week"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/image.png","author_info":{"display_name":"Paross","author_link":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/?author=1"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4662"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4666,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4662\/revisions\/4666"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stpaulsmarietta.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}