First Reading Isaiah 7:10-17
10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11“Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven.” 12But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test.” 13And he said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. 15He shall eat curds and honey when he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. 16For before the boy knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land whose two kings you dread will be deserted. 17The Lord will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father’s house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah — the king of Assyria!”
Psalm Psalm 24
1The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world and all who dwell therein. 2For it is he who founded it upon the seas and made it firm upon the rivers of the deep. 3“Who can ascend the hill of the Lord? and who can stand in his holy place?” 4“Those who have clean hands and a pure heart, who have not pledged themselves to falsehood, nor sworn by what is a fraud. 5They shall receive a blessing from the Lord and a just reward from the God of their salvation.” 6Such is the generation of those who seek him, of those who seek your face, O God of Jacob. 7Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 8“Who is this King of glory?” “The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle.” 9Lift up your heads, O gates; lift them high, O everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. 10“Who is he, this King of glory?” “The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory.”
Second Reading Romans 1:1-7
1Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh 4and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ, 7To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel Matthew 1:18-25
18The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
Joseph, When Did You Know?
Well, we’re arrived; it’s the last Sunday before we celebrate our Lord’s birth and we’re just 3 short days from Christmas. I sincerely hope that this holiday season has been, for you and your loved ones, full of love, joy, hope and peace. I also hope that you’ve taken time out of your hectic schedules to reflect deeply on the promises of the Advent season; the forgiveness we receive through the cross, the gift of eternal life in Christ’s resurrection and the hope we have, as we prepare ourselves for the return of Jesus. I was thinking about all this the other day and it occurred to me, the church spends four weeks preparing for Christ’s return, but the first Christmas was a total surprise that sort of snuck up on everyone involved. And an even more interesting fact, is that this fourth Sunday of Advent is usually thought of as the Sunday of Peace. In a way, I find that a bit ironic.
Based on our gospel reading and on tradition, I’m certain it wasn’t a very peaceful time for at least one of the story’s leading figures, a humble and righteous man named Joseph. Pastor Michael Lindvall, an outstanding writer, tells a story which he calls simply “The Christmas Pageant.” It’s about a mythical little Church in the imaginary town of North Haven, Minnesota. One year, the young mothers of this little church surprised the congregation when they decided they wouldn’t do the annual Christmas pageant in the traditional way.
Alvina Johnson had directed the church Christmas pageant for forty-seven years. And in all that time, there had not been a single change to the script, which came, by the way, straight from the King James version of the Bible. For generations, the pageant narrator would read the story of Jesus’ birth from Luke chapter 2 in this way: “And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem; (because he was of the house and lineage of David) to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child.”
The first step the women took in revamping the Christmas pageant was to expand the number of angels and shepherds and animals in the script so that every child could have a part. We can appreciate why they did that. All the children need to be involved. For me, the annual children’s Christmas program here at Bethel is one of the highlights of the Christmas season. However, on the morning of the pageant, the mothers decided to make one more change—it’s one that caused, let’s say, a tad bit of excitement.
They decided to take the script for the pageant not from the King James Version, but from the Good News translation of the Bible so the young kids would understand it better. So, there was no more quaint and beautiful language about Mary “being great with child.” As Mary and Joseph walked up the aisle of the church, the narrator read the words of the Christmas story from Luke 2, from the Good News translation, which reads: “Joseph went to register with Mary who was promised in marriage to him. She was pregnant.” At these words, the little boy playing Joseph stopped dead in his tracks, looked at Mary and said, “Pregnant? What do you mean, pregnant?” The congregation burst into laughter. For the first time in 47 years, everyone in the church knew exactly what Joseph must have been feeling when he first heard the news of Mary’s pregnancy.
But there’s something that’s always puzzled me about our Bible passage this morning. It’s a question I would have liked to have asked Joseph? “Joseph, when did you know? When did the angel tell you that Mary was expecting and that the child you were to name Jesus wasn’t your child?” There’s a popular song written and performed by Mark Lowery called Mary Did Your Know? It’s one of my all-time Christmas favorites. Scholars tell us that Luke tells the story of Jesus’ conception and birth from Mary’s perspective, the basis for Mark’s song, while Matthew tells the Christmas story from Joseph’s perspective. Since this is Year A of our lectionary cycle, our gospel lesson is taken from Matthew, thus we hear of Jesus’ conception and birth from Joseph’s point of view.
Now by way of setting, in those days, arranged marriages were the norm. In childhood, an agreement was reached and when the time came, they became engaged. This betrothal process normally lasted one year at which time the dowry would be paid and the woman, possibly as young as 14, would go to live with her future in-laws. It was during this betrothal period that the wedding preparations and future life arrangements were made and finalized. It’s also a time when everyone in the town would have considered Joseph and Mary to be husband and wife, even though they didn’t live together, nor had they consummated the marriage. It also needs to be noted that the betrothal could only be broken by a divorce decree. It was considered that serious.
After the one year of betrothal, the marriage ceremony would take place and the husband and wife would officially live together. Obviously, it was sometime during the betrothal period, that God visited both Mary and then Joseph; Mary via an angel and Joseph in a dream. In this dream, an angel of the Lord came to Joseph and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins.”
The theme song from the musical Rent is titled Seasons of Love. The song tries to capture the essence of how quickly a year goes by, and how important it is to live every moment with love. The opening lyrics go like this: Five hundred twenty-five thousand/ Six hundred minutes. Five hundred twenty-five thousand/Moments so dear. Five hundred twenty-five thousand/Six hundred minutes. How do you measure, measure a year? In daylights, in sunsets/In midnights, in cups of coffee. In inches, in miles/In laughter, in strife? Five hundred twenty-five thousand/Six hundred minutes/How do you measure a year in the life?
When you stop and think about it, five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes—is the time of a standard betrothal. And depending on when Mary became pregnant, at least Three Hundred Ninety-Four thousand two hundred minutes or nine months could have been the length of time that Joseph and Mary had to put up with the gossip and contempt and questions from their family and neighbors? Everyone would have naturally assumed they had not consummated their marriage, yet Mary was found to be pregnant.
The normal conclusion that everyone would have come to, she’s an adulterer. The solution according to Jewish law at the time, stoning her to death! Let that sink in minute. This, and their own reputations, were very real fears Joseph and Mary had to deal with when they were chosen by God. That’s one reason why we don’t simply celebrate Christmas as a single day in the life of the church. We celebrate a whole season of Advent, which means coming. Advent is about looking at the big picture: Jesus’ incarnation, His life, His passion, His death and resurrection and His return. So, when you stop and think about it, in reality, we should name it the season of Waiting.
We should call it the season of waiting because we’re waiting and trusting in the fulfillment of God’s promises and faithfulness, even when it’s hard. We wait, even when it doesn’t seem to make sense. It was undoubtedly hard for Joseph to make sense of it all. All things considered, how then can we call this last Sunday in Advent the Sunday of Peace?
For one, we call this a Sunday of peace because it’s a reminder that knowing God’s character and knowing God’s faithfulness allows us to have peace in any circumstance. Joseph’s story is a great example of this. Matthew records: “This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream…’ “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel’ (which means God with us). Joseph did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
It’s evident that Joseph loved Mary and trusted not only God but Mary as well. Our faith in God, even under unusual or difficult circumstances, is the only source of real peace. A woman and her husband were preparing for their daughter’s wedding. The day before the wedding, the church held a mission conference. When the woman and her husband came by to decorate the church, they found that the mission organizer had forgotten to take the mission banner off the pulpit. They thought the motto on the banner was a good message for a wedding as well; it read, “Worth the Risk.”
When Joseph originally heard the news of Mary’s pregnancy, he was going to very discreetly arrange for a divorce. He could have had her stoned for adultery—a very public, humiliating and painful death. It would have brought shame on her whole family. But he was a kind and merciful man. The fact that he even considered this divorce option tells us that he was unsure that marriage to Mary was worth the risk . . . until the angel of the Lord came to him. This brings up a second question I would have loved to have asked the angel: Why did the angel of the Lord wait until after Joseph had considered his options? Why did God make Joseph wait before He told him who Jesus’ real father was?
Maybe the answer lies in the fact that it’s in the waiting rooms of life that we discover what we really believe about God. How do we react to our times of waiting? Do we get angry, scared, cynical, self-pitying? Or, do we focus on who God is and look for ways that God could be working in our situation? How do we use our times of waiting? Do we complain or try to work out all the various options? How do we react?
A man posted on the web the story of his first skydiving experience. The skydiving instructor told the students that when they reached a certain spot, he would motion to them to grab hold of a bar in the doorway of the plane. Then they were to roll out of the door, and then watch for his signal to let go of the bar and dive out into thin air. The skydiving instructor ended his instructions with these words: “Now when you grab on and roll out, I’m going to tap you on the helmet when it’s time to let go. And when I do, that’s not the time to start a conversation with me. I don’t want this to be like: ‘Who me?’ ‘Yes you.’ ‘Let go?’ ‘Yes!’ ‘Now?’ ‘Yes, now!’ “If you want to start a conversation with me, I will peel your fingers off the bar if I have to.” While you’re standing at the exit door is not the time to ask questions.
One of the inspiring things about the story of Joseph and Mary and their young son, is that when God gave them the news that Mary would give birth to the Messiah, neither one started a conversation with God. They just obeyed. They acted in faith. Which brings up an interesting aspect of the Christmas message: Acting in faith is really the message of Christmas.
It takes faith to declare to the world that a poor Jewish carpenter born over 2,000 years ago is Immanuel—God with us. It takes faith to say that Jesus came to save us from our sins and restore us to God. It takes faith to say that God’s plan for the salvation of the world only comes through Jesus Christ. It takes faith to say, “Jesus take control of my life and change whatever you need to change to make my life more pleasing to God.”
There was a young college student from a Buddhist family called Anne. Anne’s parents had raised her with two major priorities: loyalty to her family and academic success. So, when Anne became a Christian in college, her parents were very upset. As far as they were concerned, Christianity was a cult. And they thought Anne’s new faith would alienate her from the family and distract her from her studies. As Anne grew in her faith, the gulf between her and her parents widened. Finally, Anne’s parents kicked her out of the house.
Anne father told Anne, “You don’t have any parents. To you we are dead. You ungrateful daughter. You can just go!” Imagine how painful it was for her to dedicate her life to Jesus and lose her family. Some of Anne’s friends from her Christian fellowship group took her in. It took seven months before Anne’s parents would speak to her again. Fortunately, however, their attitude toward her has softened. Anne could have given in to their pressure and given up or hidden her faith for their sake, but she didn’t. As she says, “Jesus is worth fighting for. Even if I have to be disowned ten billion times, I will do it. I just want to cling to Jesus. He promised us a hundred times [as much blessing] if we have to leave our family.”
Charles Swindoll once wrote, “Courage is not limited to the battlefield or the Indianapolis 500 or bravely catching a thief in your house. The real tests of courage are much quieter. They are the inner tests, like remaining faithful when nobody’s looking, like enduring pain when the room is empty, like standing alone when you’re misunderstood.” Joseph knew that he would be standing alone.
Joseph knew he would be misunderstood. The men of his town would gossip. The women of his town would sneer. His family may very well turn against him and his new wife. But Joseph trusted the promises of God. And he knew it was worth the risk to follow God, even when it wasn’t easy.
At the start of World War II, the British government’s Ministry of Information created a set of three posters to keep up the morale of the British people as they faced a brutal war with Germany. Each poster bore the crown of King George VI and a simple message in white typeface against a solid color background. The first poster read: Your Courage, Your Cheerfulness, Your Resolution Will Bring Us Victory. The second poster read: Freedom Is In Peril. Defend It With All Your Might. These posters were plastered all over Great Britain as powerful reminders to the British people that they may not be able to control the circumstances around them, but they could choose how they responded. A third poster was also created by the Ministry of Information, but it was not released.
Most copies of it ended up destroyed after the war. But a few copies of it survived. This poster also has the crown of King George VI and white typeface on a solid color background. But its message read simply: Keep Calm and Carry On. Isn’t that what Joseph and Mary did when God told them that they would bring God’s Son into the world? And isn’t that a sign of their great faith and courage? That kind of faith and courage comes from trusting in God’s character and God’s promises. That kind of faith and courage comes from submitting to God’s will. In this season of waiting, I pray that all will find the peace of God that comes from trusting in Immanuel—God with us—in all things.
Amen
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