The Firstborn

Preached on 12-09-01

THE FIRSTBORN

A Christmas Sermon by the Rev. Patrick A. Rose

"And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths, and laid Him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn." (Lk. 2:7)

WHEN, AT CHRISTMAS TIME, WE REFLECT upon the story of the Lord's birth into the world, the truths contained within this story affect us more deeply, more profoundly, then we could ever imagine. Those things we think about, learn, and feel, as we read the story of Christmas, affect the way we think about the Lord Himself. And the way we think, and feel, about the Lord -- that is, our idea of the Lord -- enters into all else that we think and feel and do. Our idea of God, our idea of Him, is the first, and most universal, of all things within the human mind, for the reason that it is the very basis of that most fundamental of all relationships, the relationship between a human being and his God.

The Lord is to be above all other things within our minds. Our relationship to Him is to come before everything else. And this primacy of the Lord is represented, in the story of Christmas, by the fact that He came into the world as the firstborn son of Mary. "And she brought forth her firstborn Son, and wrapped Him in swaddling cloths" We might think that this is a minor detail -- something mentioned just in passing -- as if the Lord just happened to be Mary's firstborn son. Yet the fact that the Lord was Mary's firstborn was most profoundly significant.

THE VIRGIN BIRTH WAS A MIRACLE. It was the means by which God Himself descended, and from His own Divine soul formed a human body of flesh and bones by which He could be present with people here on earth. Nevertheless, in external appearance, this birth was not much different from any other birth. The Lord, as a baby, appeared like any other baby. And though wonderful things happened at the time of His Nativity, Mary and Joseph treated the Lord in much the same way as all Jewish parents treated their infants. Like all Jewish boys, He was circumcised on the eighth day. Then, on the fortieth day after His birth, when Mary came to the Temple to offer a sacrifice to mark the end of her period of purification from childbirth, the Lord, as a firstborn son, was then taken and presented at the Temple.

It was done as a matter of course -- it was the usual thing, for it was required by the law of Moses. Every firstborn son was to be presented in the Temple. Indeed, we might even wonder why it is mentioned at all. Yet though this presentation of a firstborn son in the Temple was done as a matter of course, in obedience to the law, it was by no means an insignificant episode. Indeed, when the Lord was presented in the Temple, the whole purpose of an ancient and holy custom was thereby fulfilled.

The presentation of the firstborn was an ancient ritual, based on the age-old recognition that a woman's first son belonged to the Lord alone. This recognition that the firstborn was the Lord's, was later incorporated into the law of Moses. In the Old Testament it was clearly stated that the firstborn, not only of men, but also of animals, and even of crops, were to be regarded as belonging to the Lord. The first of whatever the Israelites received, whether it was the first ears of corn from the field, the first flour they received from the threshing floor, the first of the wine they produced, the first wool shorn from their sheep, the first fruit picked from the orchards, the firstborn of domestic animals -- all of these things -- were all the Lord's. They were to be taken and presented to the Lord in various rituals of worship. The food they had grown was to be waved before the Lord, or brought in baskets, or baked into special holy cakes of bread. The firstborn of clean animals were to be sacrificed. And animals that were unclean, and so could not be sacrificed, were to be redeemed instead, that is, they were to be bought back from the Lord, for the price of five shekels.

Firstborn sons were also the Lord's. They were, in theory, the Lord's servants. Historically, though, the Levites were chosen by the Lord in place of the firstborn sons of Israel. The tribe of Levi thus became the Lord's and the Levites became the Lord's servants or priests. Because of this, when a woman gave birth to her firstborn son, this son did not have to enter the Lord's service. All that was required was that a sum of five shekels be given to the Lord, to redeem, or buy back, the child.

Now when the infant Lord was taken to be presented at the Temple, we would assume, even though it is not specifically stated, that Mary and Joseph paid this amount of five shekels to the Temple, in addition to their offering of two pigeons or two turtledoves for Mary's purification.

Now all this might sound, to our ears, excessively legalistic. And the religious laws of the Jews were indeed extremely complex. Nevertheless, these laws relating to the firstborn served to emphasize that those things which were first, whether they be crops, animals or human children, belonged to the Lord alone.

Why, though, was there this emphasis upon the firstborn? It was, in part, an act of thanksgiving. The offering of the firstborn to the Lord was, in a sense, a way of thanking the Lord, for what He had given. It involved more than this, though. The purpose of offering the firstborn to the Lord was to emphasize the truth that all life is from the Lord alone. It was a ritual which acknowledged that the life of all things, not simply of those born first, but also of those which followed, is a gift from the Lord alone. He it is who gave life to their crops, their animals, and to their children. The life of all things in the natural world comes from the Lord. And this was the truth that was acknowledged by this ritualistic redemption of the firstborn. Life is from the Lord alone.

This is true not only of natural life but of spiritual life as well. In the case of human beings, there is not only that natural life into which they are born, but there is also spiritual life into which they are to be reborn. Spiritual life also is from the Lord alone, and comes only as He draws close to a person's spirit. So it was that the firstborn came to represent also the Lord's spiritual presence. And because the Lord, in coming to earth, would draw closer to people's spirits, the firstborn came to represent the Lord in that Human He would assume by being born here on earth. In the highest sense, then, the firstborn represented the Divine Human of the Lord, and those Jewish rites having to do with the firstborn were thus a symbolic prophecy of that time when the Lord Himself would be born here on earth.

The angels of heaven who were associated with the Israelites saw represented in their ritual presentation of the firstborn, the eternal truth that all life, both natural and spiritual, is from the Lord alone. And they were upheld by the hope, indeed the sure knowledge, that one day the Lord Himself would be born on earth, would draw close to the human race, and would make possible the birth of new spiritual life within the hearts and minds of men and women.

Let us never forget this truth: that though the Lord was born into the physical world, He did so that He might be born into -- draw closer to -- the world of the human spirit. He came to earth in order that He might come once again into the hearts and minds of those He loved, to give them new life -- the life of love and charity.

It is this birth of the Lord into the human mind that is, especially, represented in the law of the firstborn. When a person is born, he has life. But if he is ever to really live, ever to become truly human, then he must, eventually, be born again. The Lord must come to him, and he must receive from Him new spiritual life. Without the Lord, a person could never have the life of love and charity, any more than the firstborn of the Israelites could have been born without the Lord's giving them life.

It is so easy to forget this. Throughout history people have fallen, time and time again, into the error of believing that they can save themselves. They think they themselves are the source of spiritual life. They are like the men of Babel who thought that by building a tower tall enough, they might reach heaven all by themselves. Don't we too sometimes fall into this error? Don't we sometimes have the attitude that we by ourselves can prepare for heaven? And, so far as the appearance is concerned, we do seem to be our own saviors. After all, we are the ones who learn truths from the Word. We are the ones who are to live upright lives. We can so easily come to feel proud of this. We can so easily make the mistake of thinking that because of this, because of our beliefs and because of our conduct, we ourselves have somehow fashioned heaven, or at least the beginnings of heaven, within ourselves.

And yet the beginnings of heaven, the very first birth of something spiritual within the mind, is not merely a matter of knowledge; neither is it merely a matter of external conduct based upon this knowledge. The new spiritual man -- the reborn or regenerated man -- is a new love. It is love which makes a person to be what he is. Without a new love, without love of the Lord and good will towards the neighbor, there is nothing of heaven within us. It is so easy to forget this. The natural tendency is to rest smugly with what we know. It is so easy to make the mistake of thinking of knowledge as more important than love: to think that knowledge of the truth is the firstborn.

The fact is, though, that such knowledge does not, by itself, lead to love and to new spiritual life. In fact the Writings teach that what we know isn't even really truth at all until we have love from the Lord. Furthermore, even the knowledge we do have, could not have been learnt in the first place if it were not for the fact that deep within our minds the Lord has stored up remains of love and charity from the earliest periods of our life. There is, then, nothing at all of what is spiritual within us except love, and that truth which proceeds from love. States of love stored up by the Lord as remains are what give us the ability to learn knowledges of truth. And it is love, and love alone, which eventually transforms these knowledges into truths, into living principles. Therefore, though truth may seem to be more important than love and charity, it is love which is actually the first of spiritual life. And love is something which proceeds directly from the Lord alone. Love comes from the Lord's presence, indeed from our conjunction with Him, a conjunction which warms our hearts, a conjunction which fills our spirits with His love.

Since all love flows in immediately from the Lord, the Lord Himself is thus the beginning of all spiritual life, for this life -- the life of love -- comes from and looks to Him alone. This is why, in the inmost sense, it is the Lord alone who is the Firstborn. Indeed, we read of the Lord in the 89th Psalm: "I will make him My firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth" (Ps. 89:27). For this reason, the Lord, when He was born on earth, was, and had to be, a firstborn son. And when He, as a firstborn, was presented in the Temple, it marked the end and the fulfillment of this long symbolic tradition. For hundreds and hundreds of years the firstborn had been presented to the Lord as a representative of Him. Now, though, the Lord Himself had come. As the true and the only Firstborn, He was Himself presented in the Temple by Joseph and Mary.

What does this mean for us? It of course means many things. The doctrine concerning the Firstborn is profound and far-reaching in its ramifications. The deeper meanings of this doctrine can indeed be comprehended clearly only by the angels. And yet one of its most immediate applications is both simple and obvious.

We are celebrating the Lord's First Advent. We are celebrating His birth into the world. If this festival is to have any real and lasting meaning, we should pray that the Lord might be born -- might come -- into our minds as well, so that new human states might be born. There can be nothing really human born within us, unless first of all the Lord Himself is born. Without His Advent into the human mind, everything else is dead and lifeless. And if He is to be born, if He is to be present, then His presence must be in what is of love, in such things as innocence, mercy, charity, kindness and good-will. Without these gentle, warm states, nothing else has any real meaning. Of course we need to know the truth. The truth is absolutely necessary for the reception of true love within the mind. But unless love is received within this truth in our minds, the truth comes to nothing.

This is why we need the celebration of Christmas each year. We need it as a festival of love. We need to come to the Lord and ask that our love for Him might be renewed. We need to show our love for others as well, and so renew and strengthen the good amongst us. We need to taste, to enjoy, and to find peace in the warmth of Christmas, so that the Lord, who is present in the warmth of love, and who is within the bonds of charity, might be with us all, both now, and throughout this coming year.

Amen.