Love in Flesh and Bone: Exploring the Christmas Mystery

On the weekend of April 22 2012 the St. Annes Church website received thousands of visitors. That Sunday in the New York Times Magazine an article appeared about the Rev. Dr. Amy E. Richter competing in a physique competition. The strong reactions to the article got Richter and her husband and fellow clergyperson the Rev. Dr. Joseph Pagano thinking about the scandal of the Incarnation. The claim that God entered fully into our flesh-and-blood human existence makes some of us squeamish. And yet this shocking claim is at the heart of the good news that in Christ God is with us no matter what. There is nothing that can happen to us--no pain no humiliation no anguish--that can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. In sermons for the seasons of Advent Christmas and Epiphany Richter and Pagano proclaim the good news of the scandalous love of God in flesh and bone.