Sermon 12/19/04
Where's the Love? - Matthew 1:18-25
(view lectionary notes for this text)
We started with hope. Hope for the season of Advent, Hope that we could be touched in an unexpected way. Then we moved to Peace -the desire that the Prince of Peace would come and bring Justice to this world. Last week, the third Sunday of Advent, we talked about Joy, and our desire to be filled with God's Joy this season. Finally, we get to the fourth week of Advent. We'll celebrate Christmas before we gather next Sunday morning. It's the final week, the countdown is almost completed, and the waiting is almost over. We're gearing up for the final stretch - the open house, the caroling, the UMW party, the Christmas Eve Services. And finally, our texts have something to say about the birth of Jesus. After three weeks of texts that seemed only to connect to Advent through stretches of the imagination, today we have a text that brings us some background, from Joseph's perspective, to Jesus' birth. "Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way," we read. So, finally able to read about the birth of Jesus, finally getting to the story we've been waiting to celebrate - what is there to say about it?
The child is born. Joseph was told by an angel to stay wit Mary - the baby was God's, not another man's. Joseph did as he was told, and the baby Jesus was born. We know this story. We love this story. But are we challenged by this story? Does it change us each time we read it? For me, reading it this week, I found it to be the kind of text I tend to skim through quickly, thinking, 'oh, I know this one.' But I must remind myself that treating passages of scripture that way is always foolish, since I know how much even the smallest and most familiar passage can hold that I haven't seen before. So what is here for us to discover today that we haven't heard before, that doesn't sound like the story we already know?
Let's look at our passage. The text we read from Matthew is notable because here, it is really Joseph's story, not Jesus' or Mary's. Poor Mary, the mother of the Christ Child, hardly gets a mention from Matthew. This passage is about how Joseph handled everything that was happening to him. Joseph and Mary are engaged. But before their marriage, before they are living together, someone it is discovered that Mary is pregnant. We don't know how this information was known - we just knew that Joseph knew she was pregnant and knew that he was not the father of the child. Having a child outside of a marriage in those days wasn't just frowned upon. It was a criminal act, and it was punishable, punishable by death to one or both persons involved. Joseph, having made a covenant to wed Mary, could have brought charges of adultery against her, for which she would have faced death by stoning. But Joseph, a 'righteous man', chooses instead to quietly break off the covenant to be wed before it is too late. But, we read, "just as he had resolved to do this," a messenger from God appears to Joseph and tells him that the child Mary bears is from the Holy Spirit. The messenger tells him not to be afraid, but to wed Mary as planned. This child, the messenger says, is one who will save the people from their sins. Joseph did as the messenger commanded. We don't hear of any arguments he put forward, or hard time he gave Mary, or questions he wanted answered. He wed Mary as promised, and she bore a child, and they named him Jesus.
Today's candle is the candle of love. How is love exhibited in this passage? We can see love in God's giving of the Christ-child to the world. We can see love in Mary when we read in Luke about how she pondered over everything quietly in her heart. We can see love when the Magi travel great distances to give gifts to this baby for whom they've been searching. But where is the love in this story? It should come as no surprise that we can find love woven all through this text, even if we have to look at it more carefully, more thoroughly, to find it. The scriptures are nothing if not about love, God's love woven through human history. So where's the love?
Today perhaps we don't find this story as shocking - a man finds his fiancée pregnant, and he knows that he is not the father. So he wants to remedy the situation by quietly divorcing her, something that was necessary even to break an engagement. In today's world, such a thing might still be disliked or looked down on, but it certainly is not something punishable by death. But in Joseph's day, it was a matter of life and death. Children and lineage and family lines and sons being born - this was important, critical stuff, issues that meant survival and success. Joseph had the facts in front of him - Mary was pregnant and he was not the father. He dreamed of God's messenger telling him it would be alright. But if I took everything I dreamed at face value, I'd be in big trouble. But Joseph seems satisfied that he has heard God speaking to him, and he knows what he must do. He must risk it. No doubt he loved Mary already - he must risk trusting her and trusting God even though he felt betrayed and confused. He must risk believing what the visions of his dreams told him - that this baby would be the Messiah. He must risk the ridicule he would face when others would inevitably get wind of what was happening. So much that he must do. And for what? Our gospels rarely speak of Joseph after this. He is not the parent that Jesus relates to, the father he depends on - Jesus calls God his Abba - Daddy. Mary plays a bigger role in Jesus' ministry and life, at least. But Joseph disappears from the scene. Such a big risk, and no seeming rewards, no benefits for himself, no glory, fame only in Church Christmas pageants. Why would he do it? For love of Mary? No - he loved Mary, but he would have divorced her if he could. But he couldn't, because of love for God, and God's love for him. God's love seems to make us do the craziest things sometimes. Only with God's love woven through this story does Joseph's behavior make any sense. That's Joseph's love story.
But what is our love story here? We can admire Joseph - could we have done what he did? We can remember his story, his part, his dreams that come to bear on the birth of the Christ. But what about us? What's our love story? Joseph had to believe the angel's message: his betrothed was going to give birth to a child who would fulfill the prophecy of God-with-us, a child who would save people from sin. His Mary would bear that child. That is what Joseph had to believe. But believing that is not so hard for us - we have all the facts, we can look back on the story and see what Jesus became. It requires of us knowledge, faith, understanding - but maybe not love, to see what Joseph couldn't hardly imagine. But today, Christmas 2004 - where's the love? Maybe Christ came in the manger in Bethlehem 2000 years ago. But that was then. This is now. We don't have a manger. We find it hard to identify God's messengers. We're nowhere near Bethlehem. We remember. We look back. But this year - where will Christ be born this year?
I am reminded of a song by Colin Raye, a country singer - yes, I used to listen to country! It's called "What if Jesus Came Back Like That." It goes like this:
He came to town on an old freight train, jumped off in the pouring rain, Everybody says he's insane, just a low-down no-account hobo. Made his home 'neath the county bridge, the city folk say "hey that's not his!" They signed a petition, they're gonna get rid of that low-down no account white trash. What if Jesus came back like that, on an old freight train in a hobo hat, Would we let him in or turn our backs? What if Jesus came back like that? She was born into drug abuse, couldn't help what her mama used, It's not like she got to choose, now she's laying there all alone. Got a monkey on her back, the nurses say they never saw a smile like that, doctors say she might stand a chance if somebody'd take her home. What if Jesus came back like that, two months early, Hooked on crack, Would we let him in or turn our backs? What if Jesus came back like that, what if Jesus came back like that? Nobody said that life is fair, we all got a cross to bear, When it gets a little hard to care, Just think about him hanging there... He came to town on a cold dark night, a single star his only light, The little baby born that silent night, A manger for a bed. What if Jesus comes back like that, Will he cry when he sees where our hearts are at, Will he let us in or turn his back, What if Jesus comes back like that, what if Jesus comes back like that?
This song reminds us that Jesus can come back in such an unexpected way - that Christ can be born anew into our midst in a way that we are as unlikely to recognize as Joseph was. Maybe we wouldn't get worked up about a pregnancy like Mary's - but we've still got plenty of things we do get upset over. Can we, like Joseph, be filled with enough love to see Christ no matter where he arrives this year? Do we have enough love to see the Christ that is born in each of us - in you and me, and in the person whose Christmas meal is provided by a food basket? And in the person whose skin is a different color than our own? And in the person whose lifestyle we don't like? And in the person who is a different political party than our own? And in the person richer than we are? And in the person we never get along with? This year, Christ is dwelling in them, and in you, and in me. Joseph loved enough to open his heart to the possibility that God was working in a strange new way. This Christmas we hope for Christ. We seek the peace of Christ. We rejoice in Christ. Let us also love for Christ, and to Christ, and in Christ. Amen.