Title: Yes, Virginia, Mary really was a virgin

In a poll of young adults, last week—which reminded me of the concerns of our Town Hall meeting—responders were asked if they still practiced the religion in which their parents reared them. The largest group, forty percent, said that they did not, and that they no longer think of themselves as religious, but do consider themselves spiritual.

This is all the rage, for a person to call himself spiritual. These spiritual folks say that religion is full of rules and rituals, and rules and rituals are dead things, and the people who practice them prove they are dead because, it is clearly seen, the people who belong to traditional churches are a bunch of judgmental, unreasonable, closed-minded hypocrites.

When I hear this, I think, "That describes everyone on earth, both the religious and the so-called ‘spiritual’." But, what these spiritual people have in mind is that religion gets bogged down when it is formalized by churches and their rules and rituals. Religion, they say, shouldn’t follow laws and order, but should fit the individual believer. Religion, they say, isn’t based on facts, it’s based on faith. Thus, it is better to be spiritual—everyone believe and practice his faith based on what he likes and thinks is important.

What do you think? Is it better to be spiritual than religious? Is your religion a thing strictly of faith, or is it based on a set of facts? Are rules and rituals bad things, or are they good?

Let’s start there, as we begin to make our way to the virgin birth of our Savior. Is there anything in life that is not based on a set of rules? Take mathematics. Can you do addition by multiplication and correctly determine how many stocking-stuffers you need to buy? When reading a map, if you turn left where you were supposed to go south, will you wind up going over the river and through the woods to the correct grandmother’s house? When making those delicious frosted sugar cookies for your Christmas party, will you be happy with them if you substitute coffee creamer for the flour and frost them with pizza sauce?

As it is with rules, so it is with facts. Can you keep going to work and get paid after you’ve been laid off, simply by believing that you still have a job? Can you deny the increasing pain in your stomach which is actually a cancerous tumor, and remain healthy? Do you want to be booking a Carribean honeymoon with the girl of your dreams, who not only would say no to your proposal, but won’t even say yes to a first date?

Is your faith based on rules and facts, or on a bunch of lies and however you want to practice and believe it? Should anyone’s faith, religion, or spirituality, be based on personal opinion?

Let’s knock down that flimsy house of cards. To be religious is to be spiritual. Don’t let folks, who give one the impression that they have cornered the market on truth by not being locked into a set of truths, like biblical Christianity. Being spiritual, by definition, means being religious. And, as for being of the Christian religion, it means basing your faith, not on opinions, but on facts. And, it is important that these things are factual because, as with doing math, following a map, or making a recipe, you want to wind up with the right ingredients so that your life adds up to the right destination.

What better time of year than Christmas to have this discussion, because the birth of our Savior sure sounds like it could be a fable. But, this is no "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Saves Frosty the Snowman from Ebenezer Scrooge" story; it’s a fact, it’s based on a real event, and it fulfills a promise.

The Lord had made a promise, that the offspring of Eve would crush Satan. Thus, the Savior had to be a human being. The Lord had made a promise, that the Savior would be born of a virgin: "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son . . ." But, the Savior couldn’t be an ordinary human being, because regular people are sinners. The father of the Savior could not be a human father—do you hear what I’m saying? I’m stating a fact, a law, a rule, not an opinion, nor a belief, and not my personal faith—the father of the Savior could not be a human father, or the child would be born with Original Sin. And, he would wind up being just like you and me: judgmental, unreasonable, closed-minded hypocrites.

It’s a fact, God had to take charge. It was His promise that He would. He set into motion real events in order to secure your salvation.

The angel Gabriel really visited the young girl, Mary, and announced that she would be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, and would conceive the Son of God. Mary really was a virgin, betrothed to a man named Joseph, meaning they had not yet consummated their union.

It was important that Mary be a virgin so that you would have confidence that her Son could not have been Joseph’s. Your Lord wants you to have certainty, not questions, and base your faith on facts, so He gives you a host of facts. So, His Word tells you how Joseph came to forget about divorcing Mary, and why Jesus was given that name, because Jesus means the Lord saves—and that’s a fact regarding the very reason He was born—and that the birth of God’s Son fulfills a promise and presents another fact: that He is Immanuel, which means God with us, and this tells us everything about Jesus’ purpose and our Creator’s attitude about all of us judgmental, unreasonable, closed-minded hypocrites, who need saving.

See, religion is not based on faith. Faith is based on facts. What good is it to have faith in something that’s not true? If you think that’s a good idea, I have some pizza sauce-frosted coffee creamer cookies for you.

Your faith is based on facts: real events that really happened in real people on this real earth, all for your real forgiveness, life, and salvation. The Son of God really was born of the virgin Mary, so that He could be born without the stain of Original Sin, so that He could be a worthy payment for the sin of the world. And, He really was named Jesus, to indicate the reason for His birth: the Lord would save sinners through Jesus.

Jesus really is Immanuel—God with us—in every way that is good, and it’s all based on facts. He gives the power of the Holy Spirit in the proclamation of His Gospel and, by the Gospel, you have faith in Christ and are forgiven all your sins. Jesus places the Holy Spirit into hearts in the Sacrament of Baptism, by which you, His people, truly are spiritual—meaning that Jesus has washed you with faith to believe the facts of His salvation. And, by the Spirit living in you, you trust Jesus’ promise of His presence in the bread and wine of His Communion, where you really eat and drink the same body and blood in which your Savior, Jesus, was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried, and in which He was raised from the dead and ascended to heaven.

Just a bunch of fanciful fables? If so, you might as well stop being religious and jump on the spiritual bandwagon.

Nope, it’s all true. And, the facts about Jesus Christ and His salvation for you lays the foundation for the rules of Christianity, which determines our rituals—things like repentance, and worship, the professing the creeds, and administering the Gospel and Sacraments.

You, dear Christians, are spiritual because the spirit of Jesus Christ lives in you. You practice the true religion of Jesus Christ. In this religion, you have the facts of salvation.

Often, the facts of salvation are hard: damnation for unbelievers, repentance and sorrow over sin, treat others as well as you want them to treat you. But, even more often, the facts of salvation are magical and wonderful, the very things which will dazzle you on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day—the Christmas carols that you will sing about the angels and the shepherds, the little town of Bethlehem, the manger, and the virgin mother Mary delivering God’s Son, Jesus: your Lord’s gift to you. Amen.