Advent 4 A – Mt. 1.21 “…you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
We are almost, almost there..almost to Christmas Eve but we still have just a little more Advent to go…this season of waiting, longing for the light, longing for God to come and make it right..
This morning in our reading from Matthew we hear about Joseph… husband of Mary, adoptive father of Jesus. It could easily be said of him that he is the hidden man of Christmas..
I’d like to start by talking a bit about his time. From there to point to three things to notice about him and then to try to bring this home for us… to see what God might have to say to us today in the 21st century through this passage.
First, Joseph’s world..Judea at that time was under Roman occupation as it had been for the past 60 years…around 6 or 7 BCE, the ever increasing need of Rome for money to finance its campaigns and public works led, in Judea, to enslavement, deportation, profound harshness, high taxation, and in 4 BCE, after an uprising, the crucifixion of over 2000 so called rebels ..The major crossroads and thoroughfares were marked by cross after cross. Part of the Roman strategy for ensuring conquered peoples stayed conquered was through taxation – systematically draining the country of its resources – and Romanization..in which they attempted to remove all of the old identity and substitute Roman identity.
How far they had fallen from the glorious times under King David .. they must have clung to the promises of Isaiah and the other prophets who pointed to a time a peace in which God would save his people… how long would they have to wait? Now remember there had been by the time of Joseph nearly five hundred years of silence – no word of the Lord from the prophets…and all that time, they waited for God to act…so when Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man, other translations say “just”, he is telling us that even in the darkness of 500 years of silence, even under the weight of Roman occupation, Joseph had kept the faith, he held to the promises and tried to live faithfully – and to honor the covenant God had made with Israel at Mt. Sinai. I marvel at his faithfulness – we are so impatient as a people we can barely stand to wait five minutes much less a lifetime for a hope which we may not see realized in our own time.
So, the first thing to notice about Joseph is this deft description of him from Matthew– he was righteous – that is, in right relationship with God, honoring God’s law, – not holier than thou which is the way we sometimes that term righteous… living by the covenant was everything to him…he lived as one who was just and embraced God’s promises… being very careful to observe God’s laws. Now, notice how in the next breath, Matthew tells us that Joseph, upon learning of Mary’s pregnancy and assuming adultery, was unwilling to expose her to public shame and planned to break their marriage contract quietly… he had every legal right to make a big public stink about it – in fact, the invoking of justice and punishment on Mary, would have been considered his obligation and responsibility to the community of the faithful. Instead, he chose mercy..and resolved to dismiss her quietly. This was an act of social courage..but more than that – it shows us - in Joseph’s character – the perfect balance between justice and mercy. Think about who else we see that in… think about Jesus with the woman taken in adultery,, let those who are without sin, cast the first stone.. we see the stamp of Joseph on Jesus. Think about how often we hear about Jesus and how he was grieved at the hardness of heart those who would use the law to skirt living out the loving kindness of God.
So, the first thing to notice about Joseph is how he holds in himself the balance honoring the law of God, that is, holding in balance justice, and mercy.
The second thing to notice about Joseph is this – he listens to his dreams…Matthew tells us that he listened to his dreams not just once but three times.. if you read on into Chapter 2. Do you listen to your dreams? Have you ever felt like God has spoken to you in a dream?
I heard a story this week about listening to dreams . This happened more than 20 years ago. A friend has a sense that she and her husband were supposed to adopt a child from China..her husband, a priest, was not very enthusiastic about the idea. He agreed to pray about it.. and woke her up one morning saying that he had had a dream..(she said , he never remembers his dreams).. the dream just gave him a passage in the bible – Samuel -Chapter 1 and 2. It’s the story of Hannah praying for a child. They read it but couldn’t understand what it was about. My friend prayed and asked God to help her understand the message and she heard this – there is a childless woman who is praying for a child, she will become pregnant, but will be unable to keep the child, and will give it to the priest – just like Hannah did with Samuel.
By this, they felt that they were supposed to move forward and began the long process of international adoption. They finally, after many delays, travelled to China and brought home their daughter …and her birthday was exactly forty weeks (Nine months- a full pregnancy) to the day of his dream. My friend and her husband listened to his dream…
So the second thing to notice about Joseph is that he listened to his dreams and was faithful to act on what he had been told…how about you?
The third thing to notice about Joseph is to consider how he responded to what surely seemed like a very unexpected move of God. Matthew tells us that “just when he had resolved to do this-“ that is , set her aside, the angel - the messenger of the Lord- appeared in his dream…How in the world, he must have wondered, could Mary be pregnant? The angel said this is of the Holy Spirit. He had to completely change his thinking, to do a 180, the real meaning of repentance, metanoia, – a transformation or change of mind…turning around your mind.. most of us stay locked into our own mindsets and become pretty immovable in our convictions – not Joseph…the angel said to him—don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife…sometimes, not always, sometimes our inability to change has roots in fear..in Joseph’s case, he had to have a lot of social courage to be willing to take on what must have looked in the public eye like a very bad situation…but he could do it because he was persuaded by his dream that God was moving… and the angel said… You are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins… and all of this is to fulfill a promise of God given through Isaiah which he would have known.. and this would have stirred hope in him that God was finally acting and coming to save his people..
So, the third thing to notice about Joseph is willingness to change in response to a move by God which probably seemed profoundly unexpected …how about you, could you do this?
So, three things : balancing law and mercy, listening to his dreams, and being willing to change his mind about how God is supposed to act.
Now, I want to try to bring this home a little more – the angel said to Joseph, “you are to name him Jesus for he will save his people from their sins.” Notice, the angel did not say, he’s going to get rid of the Romans.. but he will save his people from their sins. The mission was a lot bigger than just dealing with a political situation.. the mission was and is to free us – both individually and collectively - from our sins…and, to reconcile us with God.
At Advent, in this time of reflection, we have an opportunity to get a little clearer on what is separating us from God –If sin is missing the mark , if sin is where we fall short…… what sin do you need to be freed from? What is weighing so heavily on you? What sin do we as a people need to be freed from? St. Paul tells us that Jesus came so that we might know the glorious liberty of the children of God. Jesus’ mission to save is not limited to long ago but is present, active and powerfully at work here and now. He is speaking peace to us, speaking forgiveness and healing to us, speaking life to us. Can we hear it?
This week we will give thanks to God once again for the great love and mercy shown to us in the incarnation – that blessed event – but let’s don’t forget that even now He can enter every heart that invites him in...
And let’s remember blessed St. Joseph – and in our own lives seek to balance God’s law and God’s loving kindness, his mercy as he did, to listen to our dreams as he did, and to be willing to change our minds responding in faith to God’s future as he did..
And…May you be blessed and know God’s love and power to save anew today.
