The Conception of our Lord

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Here is one of the most beautiful pro-life sermons you will ever hear on the Incarnation of our Lord, by my faithful pastor, Rev. Roger B. James, of Zion-Marshall, MI. Please listen to all 15 wonderful minutes. I will also post a portion of the sermon text below which is of the most direct significance to the subject of this blog, contraception.

I'm sure I don't need to tell readers here how brave and faithful a pastor must be to preach and teach with such bold and unambiguous truth on the subject of contraception. Thanks be to God for all faithful pastors, and for Pastor Roger James particularly on this day.

All glory, honor, thanks and praise be to God for the incarnation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary so that He could live, suffer, die and rise again to grant us forgiveness, life, and salvation.

Sermon on the Incarnation, March 25, 2012 
Rev. Roger B. James
Zion Lutheran Church - Marshall, MI
zionmarshall.org

6 minutes and 45 seconds into the sermon, Pastor James continues as follows:

It seems that God goes out of His way to bring trouble on Mary. ...could not God have avoided all of this? Why, for goodness sake, did God not tell Joseph ahead of time? Or, why did God wait until after Mary was discovered pregnant to tell him that the child was of the Holy Spirit? Just think, God could have done it a different way I suppose. They could have gotten married publicly, but refrained from relations, and THEN the Holy Spirit could have come upon Mary, rather than exposing her to ridicule that would necessarily fall upon her. Why, for goodness sake, did God do it this way? Well, perhaps the only answer to that is precisely for GOODNESS sake, for all that God does is good.

However, we today might particularly give thanks that the Heavenly Father DID do it this way, for our NEED is grave. We live in a time in which conception and the life of the unborn is held in contempt. The gift of new human life is set forth as a personal choice, and rarely much more than the personal choice.

Now to be sure we have many personal choices in our lives - some insignificant, some fairly significant. But when we consider another human being to be a personal choice, then we have deviated from the mind of God. It is truly a personal choice, for instance, to carefully consider whether or not I can afford a new car at this time. But, frankly, it is vastly different when considering babies - eternal souls. At least the fact that the Son of God was conceived in the womb suggests that it is different. God became man, the smallest of the small, and by His incarnation He indicates the eternal significance of all people, including the smallest of the small. He proves by his conception that he desires the life of all.

(Pause)

I've been stewing over this question for some time. The question is, "When is it right to prevent life, even the existence of a new eternal soul?"

(Pregnant pause)

Again, "When is it right, or is it ever, to prevent the life of an eternal being created in the image of God who became man - the God who was conceived in the womb?"

Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, let it be to me according to your word."

God grant us the same faith!

How can we possibly find words to express the relief, and gratitude, and wonder, and delight that we have in our Lord Jesus Christ? Just think, with all of the foresight of His Godhead, the Son of God knew exactly what sort of person I would be. All my sins. All my inexcusable failings. Yet He did not prevent my conception in the womb. He did not cut off my life before my skin touched the air. And He did not snuff me out before Holy Baptism washed me. And you can each say much the same."

Sermon continues...

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