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James W. Cox, a leading authority on preaching and one of the most influential teachers in the field of homiletics, is a senior professor at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He has been the editor of The Minister's Manual since 1984.

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For more than seventy-five years The Minister's Manual has been the single most comprehensive resource for preaching and worship available. Filled with completely new material for 2003, this nondenominational guide is the best source for sermons, prayers, insights, and inspiration for all-from pastors and lay leaders to Sunday school teachers and choir directors. The large format allows the book to lay flat, making it easy to use.
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The Minister's Manual

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

SERMONS AND HOMILETIC AND WORSHIP AIDS FOR FIFTY-TWO SUNDAYS

SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2003 Lectionary Message

Topic: The Genius of Christianity

Text: John 1:(1-9) 10-18 Other Readings: Jer. 31:7-14; Ps. 147:12-20; Eph. 1:3-14

1. What is the genius or the essence that separates Christianity from other religions? Some would say it is love-that the God of the universe is love. They would be wrong-for many if not most religions teach that God is love and that people are to love one another. No, it is not love.

Some would say that it is that God is one-"radical monotheism" is how the theologians put it. That is not the genius of Christianity. Our mother religion, Judaism, and our aunt religion, Islam, both affirm God as one.

The same is true for joy, for peace, for living a life of sacrifice and commitment to God. When we study the eleven major religions, there are similarities in their emphases. Christianity differs from them in one key aspect, which is both its genius and its greatest scandal. The genius of Christianity is the Incarnation-that God came to Earth in the form of one Jesus of Nazareth. That the essence of divinity was "in-fleshed" in this human body, and only in this human body is a teaching that no other religion possesses. This belief is seen as incredible by some and impossible by others. However, with this belief Christianity rises or falls.

John's Gospel begins not with the manger but with this truth. He takes the central Greek concept-the Logos-and uses it to describe who Jesus Christ is. The scandal comes in the fourteenth verse: "The Word (Logos) became flesh and lived among us." With that one verse John established a radical separation between Christianity and all other religions. For most religions, the impossibility of the Incarnation precluded such nonsense. For others, incarnation happened repeatedly. The great Buddha was incarnated fifty-four times before he achieved nirvana. (That's nothing compared to the average eight and a half million times for most people!) Christianity said no to repeated incarnations. The Incarnation happened only once-in the person of Jesus the Christ, the unique Son of God.

Christianity has defended the Incarnation since its earliest days. Why? Let's face it: the Incarnation is not the easiest teaching to accept. Rather than defend its possibility, lets look at the implications for our lives in accepting the Incarnation.

II. This life matters. Other religions try to help us escape from this life, but not Christianity. Yes, this body will one day die and be left to decay-but this body is more than a shell. This body is who I am-my self-understanding is wrapped up in this body. Spirit and soul are inseparable from the body while on the Earth. This body matters. Ask any family member who has just lost a loved one if that body is only a shell. A mother whose fifteen-year-old daughter had been killed in an automobile accident screamed at her minister when he tried to tell her that the body was only a shell. "I'll let you know when that body becomes just a shell. Until then, that body is still my daughter."

Too often we encounter statements such as, "The purpose of life is to be saved so we can go to heaven when we die." This is so wrong. This life is holy, created by God and filled with value, purpose, and meaning. Eternal life is not some entity that begins when I die, but is purposeful life in the present. This life is what God is about. God created this life, created humankind in God's image-and said that it is good. Then God came to Earth in human form and once more said that this life is good.

Most religions of the world teach an escapism, that this life is only a phase and that the goal of life is to escape the flesh and be returned to the great spirit or soul of the universe. Christianity is a materialistic religion; it teaches that the divine has indwelled this life and therefore this life is of vital importance. Our living, our breathing, our laughing and crying, our joys and our sorrows, our ups and our downs-are all part of the stuff that is real life. Christianity teaches that what happens to us, how we live, how we treat one another, how we treat this planet and this universe are all sacred acts, because they deal with the sacred-this life. What we do, what we become, and how we live is sacred to God and should be sacred to us.

III. People matter. People matter because flesh was created in the image of God and was indwelled by the very being of God. People matter because the nature of God is love and relationship-a love and desire for relationship that brought Jesus to Earth. Relationships matter-they reflect the nature of God as relationship. Love matters-for the nature of God is love. People matter-for in them we express our love and live in relationship.

If people matter, then all people matter. Young people and old people, fat people and skinny people, people who are book smart and people who are street smart, athletically gifted people and athletically challenged people-all people matter. When God chose to identify with us, God came as the lowliest of the low: all people matter.

IV. Individuals matter. How does John put it? "To all who believed he gave the power to become the children of God." Christianity is social in that we do not live our faith absent from a community of faith. Christianity is personal in that each of us is required to make our own decision regarding Jesus the Christ.

If individuals matter, then each of us matters to God. A woman research technician on the staff of a certain hospital was asked by a surgeon to call on a young man who had undergone surgery that had caused him to lose all function below his chest. He was depressed and wished to die. In addition, he had developed severe gangrenous peritonitis, and the accompanying odor was horrendous. When the technician entered the room, the odor was so staggering that she gagged, backed out of the room, and ran into the doctor. "Have you seen my young man?" he asked. "I tried, but I couldn't breathe," she replied. The doctor grabbed her arm and firmly but gently guided her back to the room. "I know it smells bad, but there is a heartbroken and dying young man. Go to him and find the man inside that stink."

Is not the Incarnation God's definitive statement of identification and intimacy with God's creation, even when we stink? Life matters. People matter. Individuals matter.-Robert U. Ferguson Jr.

ILLUSTRATION

FAULTLESS. I heard the story of an old Italian artist who had lost some of his skill. One evening he sat discouraged before a painting he had just completed. He noticed that he had lost some of his touch. The canvas didn't burst with life as his previous work had once done. As he went to bed, his son heard him say, "I have failed, I have failed."

Later that evening, his son, also an artist, came to examine his father's work, and he, too, noticed that it did not reflect his father's usual work. Taking the palette and brush, he worked far into the night, adding a little touch here, a smudge there, a little color here, a bit of depth, a shadow or two, some highlights. The son worked until he knew that the work would fulfill his father's vision.

Morning came, and the father descended into the studio. He stood before the perfect canvas and in utter delight exclaimed, "Why, I have wrought better than I knew!"

We, too, like this painting, fall short of the Father's glory. Scripture tells...