Maggie's Farm

Most sermons I hear are pretty good. Some are more on the intellectual, apologist side; some more spirit-soaked and uplifting. All good, but all mainly addressed to the converted. (In my view, to become a capital-C Christian one must become a convert regardless of how raised. Some term it "re-born," which is an ok term.)

Christianity is not about morals, at its core. For the Christ-curious, Walter Mead explains the meaning of Jesus' birth here in one of his Christmas posts which, in excellent sermon-style, combines apologetics with the revelatory:  Born of a WHAT??? The specifically Christian idea of the Virgin Birth is one of the most controversial and confusing theological concepts around, and a Yuletide blog which didn’t take on the topic wouldn’t be doing its job:

Jesus didn’t come because humans had somehow missed the point of moral teaching and needed to be set right on a few points and given some inspirational coaching.  He didn’t come to do TED talks. He came, the gospel writers believed, because history revealed the failure of the ‘moral approach’ to the problem of evil, and God decided that something more and something different needed to be done.

I recommend it especially to non-Christians and to the Christ-curious, but it refreshed my mind in a good way too.