Sermon: When Love Arrives – Fourth Sunday of Advent (Matthew 1:18-25)
We begin this morning with a brief Christmas story. A young boy came home from Sunday school, and he rushed to his parents in tears. They asked him what was wrong. He said that the children had just been assigned their parts for that year’s Christmas pageant. His parents were excited for him and asked what part he got. “I’m going to be Joseph,” he told them. “But that’s an important part. That’s baby Jesus’s father. What’s the matter with Joseph” “I know” the boy replied, “I wanted a speaking part.”
Now, you may not realize it, but this is a valid concern. Joseph is a prominent character in the stories of Jesus’s early life. He is his earthly father, after all. However, that little boy is right. Joseph doesn’t have any lines. Joseph is not quoted in the Bible. Mary is given much to say, particularly in the Gospel of Luke. As mentioned last week she even gets her own song, The Magnificat. But Joseph? Well, he doesn’t have a lot to say for himself. Go around the traditional nativity scene, everyone there has something to say, except for Joseph. The Wise Men speak. The Shepherds speak, beckoning one another to go to Bethlehem and see. Even characters who were not present near the manger have more to say than Joseph. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth speaks, and her husband Zechariah speaks. That is after Zechariah spends most of that chapter unable to speak because he did not believe the angel that told him about his wife’s pregnancy. Even the villain of the story, King Herod, has plenty to say. Joseph remains silent.
Joseph is maybe the model for the “strong silent type.” He fits in with that caricature of the father figure who is present for their family, who cares for their family but doesn’t say much. They may even seem distant and disconnected from their family. We know Joseph is there, but we don’t worry too much about him. When we approach a nativity scene people may first look at the baby in the manger, but then focus shifts to Mary, the young mother, kneeling by her baby. We sympathize and have empathy for this mother, we may even be inspired by her story, by her faithfulness. Then there are the shepherds and their flock. We find hope in them, in the knowledge that God reached out to these men on the lowest rung of society to share the good news with them. Then we look at the Wise Men, usually the most colorful characters in the nativity scene, and we recognize their importance and the importance that this baby must have that these men would come seek him. Then there might be some cute animals there also, sheep, goats, cows, camels. Then there is Joseph. Just kind of there. Standing watch over this scene like a father would and should. Sometimes we risk forgetting about Joseph, and still, he doesn’t say anything. He doesn’t speak up for himself. “I’m part of this story too!”
Matthew does not forget about Joseph, though. In fact, much of the birth narrative in the Gospel of Matthew focuses on the character of Joseph and his actions. Matthew’s version is not necessarily a birth story, but an illustration of someone wrestling with doing the right thing. Caught between keeping to the letter of the law and what is expected of him in society, and on the other hand responding to God as a righteous person. Joseph is that person.
It’s true, he doesn’t speak, but he is active, and he is presented with choices to make. When we are introduced to Joseph, he has already made a choice. He has discovered that his fiancée is pregnant, and he knows the child isn’t his. So, he has decided to “quietly dismiss” Mary. The engagement is off, their relationship will be over, but he will not publicly shame or humiliate her, thus opening her up to the consequences of becoming pregnant. In those times the consequences for being pregnant outside of marriage could have included being stoned to death. Joseph has decided that he wants to spare Mary from that fate. What this tells us about Joseph is that he was someone who tried to do what he believed was the right thing, even if what he thought was right went against certain laws and traditions of the time. So, he hasn’t said anything, but right off the bat we know something about Joseph. We know how he lives out his “righteousness.” Even before the story begins, we are told that Joseph has made choices that prioritize love, care, and relationship.
The next choice Joseph must make comes when he is visited by the angel of the Lord. The angel comes to Joseph in a dream and reveals to him the truth about Mary’s situation. The child is from the Holy Spirit, and so Joseph should not be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Also, when he is born, the child should be called Jesus. Maybe it’s because it all happens in a dream, but Joseph, again, has nothing to say in response to the Angel. He simply wakes up and does what the angel commanded him. We are told that he even goes a step further and has no physical relationship with Mary until after the child is born, so no doubt is raised for the reader about what God is doing. Once again, Joseph makes a choice that responds to the Angel in a way that is loving, both in its faithfulness to God, and in it’s care for Mary and her unborn child.
In reading Matthew telling of the story, Joseph is not the only character that has little to say. Mary also does not speak. In fact, the birth story, only the Angel and the Narrator of this story speak. The action of this story is driven by divine initiative. So, Joseph does not speak but he responds to God’s commands. After all, Matthew is telling us this story, primarily, to tell us something about God.
Primarily, what Matthew wants to tell us about God is that God loves us, and that love was promised and foretold and eternal, and Jesus is the incarnation of that love. In order to do this, Matthew presents Jesus as somewhat inevitable. So, Matthew’s Gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus. Another reason to focus on Joseph in the birth narrative. Joseph adopts Jesus into this family line. Showing us that He descends from the line of David, going all the way back to Abraham. However, He is also born of a virgin birth, meaning Jesus is a gift from God. And all of this happened as the words of the ancient prophets foretold that it would. Even the name given to Jesus points to the inevitability of God’s love. His name, Jesus, meaning “God saves,” and he also goes by Emmanuel, meaning “God with us.” So, God’s love is inevitable and present with us right now, especially as we experience it in the story of Christ.
With something inevitable all that is left for us to do is decide how to respond. This is what is presented to Joseph. Something inevitable. So how will he deal with it? By continuing with the plan to separate from Mary, or will he take the risk and stand by her and marry her? Joseph chooses love. He chose love over money (after all, in those days marriage was primarily a financial arrangement between families), and he chose love over cultural norms, and he chose love over his own honor and reputation. He chose love, but he also chose faith, and trust in God and God’s hope for the world. Of course, when we choose love, we are choosing God. Which is a fair and understandable response to God’s gift of the Christ Child, because in the Incarnation God chose love for us.
As you might imagine from all this talk of love, and choosing love, this fourth Sunday in advent is the Sunday we light a candle for love. We celebrate the love that came into the world that night that Christ was born. We remember that the birth of that child was the supreme, inevitable act of love by God toward humanity. Sending God’s only son to live among us, to bring us hope, peace, joy, and love. All these things we have talked about during the previous seasons lead us to love, and love is integral to all of them.
Week One: Hope. Hope comes from a belief that things can and will get better, and such a belief does not grow inside us if we don’t love something or someone enough to hope for the best. We cannot have hope without love. We cannot have peace without love, either. If we are focused on feelings of fear or anger or hate, we will never be at peace. We cannot have joy without love. To find the joy in something we must be able love ourselves enough to believe we are worth a joyful experience, and we have to love someone or something else enough to allow it to be part of our joy. So, when we choose hope or peace or joy, we are choosing love. Choosing to let it in and let it change us. Which is what Mary and Joseph did for the whole world. They chose to love the Christ child, Jesus. They let that love in and it changed the world.
After bringing up Christmas movies the last couple weeks (or not, depending on your opinion of Die Hard), I was asked if I had a movie for this week’s sermon. I did not. Nothing was really jumping out at me as fitting in with this theme. After thinking about for a week, though, one did occur to me. It’s not a movie, but it’s another half-hour Christmas special. It’s called The Snowman. It’s a cartoon from the early ‘80s. You would probably recognize the song that’s featured in it, called “Walking in the Air.” The Snowman is about a young boy who builds a snowman, and then that night, the snowman comes to life. The boy brings the snowman inside the house, and they do all the human things, like watching television and trying on clothes and riding a motorcycle. The snowman flies the boy and himself, along with all the other snow people in town, up to the North Pole where they meet Santa and have a dance. So, why did I think of this cartoon in connection with this sermon? Because there is no talking in it. It is just animation and music telling the story. None of the characters speak. Yet, the actions of the boy and the snowman are loving responses to the other. Even including the rather sad ending. The boy creates the snowman, and when that snowman is given life. The boy responds by loving him, the snowman responds by loving the boy in return. This loving and caring relationship is expressed without anyone saying a word.
As for the boy from the story in the beginning, it’s too bad he won’t get any lines as Joseph. But, even if they gave Joseph lines in the Christmas Pageant, what would he say? What could Joseph say in response to God’s act of great love that hadn’t already been said, by the joy of his wife’s song, or the words of the Prophet, or the reverence of the Wise Men, the wonder of the shepherds, or the glory of the Heralding Angel? Maybe just this.
Imagine that night when Jesus was born. The shepherds have left, and the Wise Men are on their way but haven’t arrived yet. King Herod is still unaware that anything is out of the ordinary. Mary has finally been able to get to sleep, as she ponders things in her heart. Joseph is awake, sitting by the window looking up at that bright star shining in the sky. Just then, he hears the baby beginning to fuss and cry. Not wanting to wake Mary, Joseph rushes over to the manger and picks up baby Jesus. The crying gets louder, and at first, he feels anxious and scared. Unsure of what to do holding this baby, the son of God. As he looks at the baby, Joseph suddenly feels something welling up inside him. Not fear or uncertainty, but love. Great love for this crying baby in his arms. He looks at Jesus and knows exactly what to say now. “Shhhh, its okay. I’ve got you. I’m here.” The baby begins to settle, and they go back over to the window and look up at the stars together.
Amen.