Advent
4: Matthew 1:18-25
Joseph was an honest hard working man.
He was like a lot of people, a lot of people who just want to be happy and
don’t want to step on the toes of others who are also seeking happiness. It
must have indeed all been very clear for Joseph in those days. He was engaged
in a good stable profession, and engaged to beautiful young women. Joseph would
have known that together they would never have been rich, but they would have a
stable, secure future. But then, something happened to Joseph. His world got
rocked and turned upside down when he found out that his young fiancé was
pregnant, and he knew that he wasn’t the father. This would have been a most
significant blow to Joseph’s sense of honour. His fiancé was pregnant, and
something had to be done. What evidently could not be done, was to proceed with
the marriage. This, in his mind, would have been a disgraceful option. Things
with Mary had to end. But despite the blow to his honour, Joseph was a
compassionate man. Another man under these circumstances would have acted
differently, would have had no problem exposing young Mary to public disgrace.
But Joseph was a righteous compassionate man who knew what the consequences
could mean for Mary—it could have meant a death sentence,. At the very least it
could have meant the permanent exclusion by family, friends, and members of the
community. Joseph opted for another course of action—a quiet dismissal. This
would be the easiest, and in his mind, the most compassionate solution. This
was the humane reaction, but it was also the very human reaction.
Joseph’s
human reaction was to take control of the situation so that his reputation
would not be tarnished and Mary would be secretly but compassionately excused.
But Joseph decided on a course of action
without knowing the full implications of what was happening. Joseph made his
decision without knowing what God’s greater plan was. Within Mary’s womb lived
the Saviour of humanity, the fullfilment of Abramaic covenant, the fulfillment
of messianic prophecy. God had taken on human flesh within Mary’s womb. God was
coming into the world through Mary to give the world the gift of eternal life.
The implications of Joseph’s decision was enormous. But he had resolved—rsolved
to have Mary quietly dismissed.
It
would take an act of divine intervention for Joseph the humble worker to change
his mind, and that moment came in a dream. In a dream Joseph was let in on the
secret. In a dream the truth was revealed to Joseph. And once he knew the truth
he could let go, he could forget about controlling the situation, and let God
be in charge. More than that he was no free to cherish the gift which God was
giving the world. And instead of
sending his fiancé away, young Jospeh would do everything in his power to
protect her. Once God spoke to Joseph in a dream, through the words of an
Angel, he knew that he had been gifted with the most precious gift possible, and
that God had a specific mission for Him. Joseph’s world was never the same
again.
This
is the last Sunday of Advent. We have lit the final purple candle. The next one
to be lit is the white one, which commemorates the nativity of our Lord,
celebrates God with us and God for us. Christmas is the day when we celebrate
that extraordinary, miraculous moment when God took on flesh and came into the
world. Even people who don’t go to church, don’t identify themselves as
Christians, will stop and think about,
and contemplate that moment.
But
how many will truly grasp the significance of that moment? How many will grasp
the truth that the God of the universe and all that has been is and will be
came into the world as an infant?
Or
how many good, honest, hard working people, will proceed through Christmas and the rest of the
year with a “business as usual”
approach? How many people will not see this extraordinary event in history for
what it was? How many people will carry on trying to control their own
destinies and trying to engineer their own road to salvation.
To
put it in bold terms, if Jesus Christ was and is God, our world can never be
the same. Once this truth has transformed our hearts, we cannot go back to
business as usual. Either Jesus
was and is who scripture claims
him to be, or he was and is not. Either you believe it or you don’t. And if you
do believe it. How can you possibly go back to business as usual? Joseph sure
couldn’t.
Yet,
the fact of the matter is that people who confess Christ, who believe in Jesus
as Lord, still go back to doing business as usual. And the reason for that is
that the spirit of rebellion and self-determination continues to operate in the
human heart. The true significance of the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ
can be lost on us, and it becomes ever so tempting to follow the ways of the
world, and prioritize so many other things above devotion to Jesus. And that
spirit of rebellion and self determination is a very powerful one, and it is
seducing people, and has seduced people into walking along the pathway of
disobedience.
We
all face that temptation. In fact every time we sin we have given into it.
Every time we sin we decide that we are the gods who write the rules and are in
charge of our own destinies.
And the common
misconception, which characterizes sin simply as acts of wrongdoing, only feeds
this deluded thinking. Sin is much deeper and more serious than that. To sin is
to follow the path of self-determination. It is to ultimately invest in
ourselves rather than God. But we are not God. We do not control our own
destinies. Yes we do have the power of decision. But we kid ourselves into
thinking this power greater than it is—that it is in fact divine power.. But
God will not be mocked. God will turn the world’s expectations on its
head. God did that two thousand
years ago. Right under the nose of a brutal, arrogant, king who revealed in his
own glory, God came into the world in a manger in the poorest part of the
kingdom. He defied expectation; he incurred the wrath of the authorities, and
would be crucified. But he was resurrected, resurrected so that we, too, might
be given eternal life and salvation.
This
too, defies, human expectation. Nothing could have prepared Joseph for his
confrontation with the Living Word of God. Like Joseph, over two thousand years
ago, we are also confronted by the Living Word, Jesus Christ. We are confronted and fed by that Life
giving Word. —The word that changes our world, the word which does something to
us, just as it did something to Joseph. We can never tire of hearing this Word,
of reading this word, of being immersed in this Word, because the temptation to
business as usual is ever present in this world. But remember this: the world
cannot give you what Jesus gives you. You cannot be the source of your own
salvation. There was a bumper sticker I saw a few years ago which summarizes
this truth. It said: “If God is your co-pilot you are in the wrong seat.”
In
today’s Old Testament lesson, we read about King Ahaz. He thought himself a
wise king who would solve Israel’s external problems through diplomacy—through
a treaty with the Assyrians. He refuses the help of God and invests solely in
his own answer. But this is the wrong answer, a false answer. Isaiah boldly
proclaims to Ahaz that the true answer is coming into the world as an infant,
and his name shall be Immanuel, which means “God With us”. The kings of which
Ahaz fears will be gone, but the Word of God will be present and active.
This
isn’t an easy time in the Christian Church in this part of the world, and
specifically in this city. Numbers are down, churches are closing. Worry can
easily overtake us. “How do we survive?” can become the dominant question on
our minds. But the further we move down the path of worry, the further we move
away from the truth which has been given us—the truth of salvation in Jesus
Christ. We must always remember that this is not our church. It is the church
of Jesus Christ. And the mission of the church is not to grow in the interest
of self-preservation. “How do we grow our church?” is the wrong question.
Obsession with church growth is the wrong path. Rather the question must be, “
How do we proclaim the Living truth of Immanuel, of God with us as effectively
as we possibly can? How do we do that as individuals and as a community?” You
see, we have been given all we need, we have been given Immanuel. God has given
us his solution to the problem and pains of our world and of our individual
lives. It is in Him who were called to trust and not in ourselves. We, as
Christians, are called to be His disciples. And to be a disciple of Christ
means giving up our self-defines agendas, either individual or corporate,
because business as usual cannot be the answer. The Evangelical Lutheran Church
in Canada is facing great changes, dealing with questions of structure and
renewal.
Within the
ELCIC there needs to be a renewed emphasis on discipleship and bold
proclamation. And this must happen
at the congregational level. But it boils down to an individual commitment—the
commitment to follow, as Joseph did, the narrow path. It boils down to following
Jesus in every aspect of our lives. It boils down to boldly proclaiming Him. It
boils down to cherishing this most precious gift, just as Joseph did, over two
thousand years ago. Now, may the peace which surpasses all understanding guard
your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.Amen.
