Scripture: Isaiah
7:10-16, Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25
This
Sunday, along with the first three Advent candles of hope, peace, and joy, we
light the fourth Advent candle of love.
And at this time of year, the word “love” brings us feelings of warm
fuzzies – taking the little ones to see Santa at the Rec Center or the mall,
going with a loved one to the Christmas Village downtown, looking at the stalls
with their exotic wares, some hand-crafted, perhaps walking around downtown
Philly or Old City or any number of Philadelphia neighborhoods to see the
Christmas lights. This year, my former
congregation, Old First, has a Christmas creche without live animals. Two years ago, there was chaos when Stormy
the Cow wandered away from Old First’s Christmas creche – twice – the first
time ending up on I95 and the second time in a parking garage. Two years later, KYW 1060 still mentions the
cow on I95 in their ads for their “traffic on the twos” segments. After that fiasco, Old First ended their
40-year live animal creche tradition – though there will be a live Mary and
Joseph and baby Jesus on Christmas Eve.
It’s a time for eggnog – my friend Clinton called me midweek from the
Rockview State Correctional Institute to wish me a Merry Christmas and told me
to drink some eggnog for him, since he won’t be having any on the inside. As I tell people sometimes, I have friends in
high places, friends in low places, and friends in strange places. And so while I’m not a big eggnog drinker,
perhaps I’ll raise a cup of eggnog for my friend Clinton.
As
we light the fourth Advent candle, this Sunday we read Matthew’s rather brief
account of the birth of Jesus, which focused on Joseph. Last week we talked about Mary, but today,
Joseph gets his moment in the spotlight.
In our Gospel reading,
Joseph models the costly love that God gives us, and that God asks from us for
others.
Matthew’s Gospel begins with a genealogy
– Joseph’s genealogy, to be exact. And
for us, genealogies are booooooooh – riiiiing.
So and so begat so and so begat so and so…….zzzzzzzzzzzz. All those old names – who could possibly remember
them all, let alone care about them. But
for people in Biblical times, your genealogy told you where you came from and
who you were….sort of like people in our time who trace their genealogies – a
few of whom come my way to see if I can tell them anything about their
ancestors in our cemetery – or who send saliva samples to 23andme to have their
DNA traced. Joseph’s genealogy has
famous names – Abraham, the patriarch of the Jewish people, of course, and also
the royal blood of Kings David and Solomon.
In the genealogy, Matthew also mentions four women, four female
ancestors of King David – very unusual in a genealogy – Tamar, who pretended to
be a prostitute to bear children to Judah, Rahab, who was a prostitute and who
gave shelter to Israelite spies scouting the city of Jericho – and was married
into the Davidic line, Ruth the Moabite widow who married King David’s
great-grandfather Boaz, and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah whom David took as his
wife and who gave birth to Solomon. All four of these women acted
unconventionally, even scandalously, in continuing King David’s line. By prefacing Joseph’s story with this genealogy,
with its hints of scandal, Matthew seems to be preparing his readers for the
unconventional and even scandalous story of Mary and Joseph and the child
Jesus.
And then we come to today’s Gospel reading
where we meet Mary and Joseph. In the customs of the time, with the guidance of
their parents, the bride and groom would enter a marriage contract. When the
contract was signed, on paper, they were married, but the marriage would not
have been consummated until some time later, perhaps years later. The groom
would come to claim his bride, the marriage would be consummated, and a feast
would ensue. And in that culture, the
bride’s virginity prior to the consummation of the marriage was of paramount importance. In our Gospel reading, Mary and Joseph would
have signed a marriage contract, but the marriage would not have been
consummated. We learn that Joseph’s fiancé
Mary is pregnant, and while Joseph initially did not know the child is from the
Holy Spirit, he did know one thing: the kid wasn’t his. While we’re told that
Joseph is a decent man – a stand-up guy – in terms of going ahead with the
wedding, this baby was a deal-breaker. As Joseph initially understood his
situation, he had two options, both bad. He could make a stink, create a public
scandal, even have Mary stoned to death for adultery, if he wanted to push that
option to its limit. Or he could quietly break things off with Mary… if anyone
asked why, he could just tell them, “things just didn’t work out between us.” The marriage contract would be annulled, and
that would leave Joseph free to go on with his life and marry someone else –
though Mary as an unwed mother would be in a very precarious position at best,
as she would not be seen as a desirable marriage partner, and a woman alone
would likely live in poverty. The Holy Spirit gave Joseph another option: marry
Mary and raise her child as his own. And this is the option Joseph chose.
It was a
life-giving option for Mary and for Jesus, but a costly option for Joseph. He
would be raising a child not his own, not even getting to choose the child’s
name. Luke’s gospel then tells us of his
journey to Bethlehem, in response to the decree of Caesar Augustus for a census
and taxation, with his very pregnant wife, and Mary’s giving birth in the
stable because there was no room in the inn.
Matthew’s gospel then tells us about Joseph’s continued costly love that
left him and Mary and the child in Egypt for a time as refugees from the
murderous intentions of Herod. We
remember the story of Jesus in the Temple with the elders, when Mary and Joseph
had to return to Jerusalem to hunt high and low for Jesus. Even after he was back home, his neighbors
would whisper behind his back about Jesus’ parentage from that day forward…..and
we hear no more of Joseph after Jesus
began his ministry. Joseph’s obedience to God and love for Mary
and the baby imposed one burden after another on Joseph. And Joseph had no way to know who Jesus would
become or how important it was that he care for Jesus. No choirs were singing carols for Joseph as
he provided for Mary and the child. And
yet, Joseph was faithful. Indeed, such
was the love Joseph showered on Jesus, that Jesus taught his followers to look
on God as “Father”.
Dorothy Day,
founder of the Catholic Worker movement, often quoted Dostoyevsky’s The
Brothers Karamazov in saying that “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing
compared to love in dreams.” Dorothy Day’s words reflect her experience as she
acted in love toward New York City’s homeless and helpless. Joseph’s love for Jesus brought harshness and
dread into Joseph’s life. It was a
fully-committed love – at every turn, despite every burden and obstacle, Joseph
was all in on providing and protecting Mary and the child. We were told early in Matthew’s gospel that
Joseph was a stand-up guy, and Joseph stood up for Mary and the child at every
turn.
Dorothy Day said
that “Love in action is a harsh and dreadful thing compared to love in dreams.”
Mary’s story in Luke’s gospel may leave
us with an example of faithfulness that’s hard to connect to – but I think we
can connect to Joseph’s story. Being
committed in our relationships, loving when it’s difficult, being there for
others when we’d prefer to be anywhere else.
Think of the things we do for those we love, our spouse and our children
- changing diapers, cleaning up vomit, visiting in the hospital, watching our
loved ones cry themselves dry and scream themselves hoarse, and still being
there for them - and being brave in standing up for them and protecting them
from harm. None of these things, none of
these things are fun or enjoyable – but we do them from love. In doing these things, we walk in the path of
Joseph, whose example shaped Jesus’ view of God as Father. And beyond our own family circle, there’s the
wider circle of the church, the family of God’s people, the family of faith, and
beyond that our neighbors, those others for whom Christ also died. The challenge of discipleship is taking those
things we do for our family, and being willing to do the same for
strangers. Obeying God’s command to love
neighbor as self will have us talking to people we’d prefer to ignore, going
places we’d prefer to avoid, doing things that are difficult if not painful…and
thanking God for the privilege to be God’s hands and feet.
Hope, peace, joy, and love – these are the
Advent candles we light. These are the
candles that light our path to the manger, as we prepare for the coming of
Christ in our hearts, our lives, our world.
I’ll close these words from African American
pastor, theologian, and mystic Howard Thurman.
I will light
candles this Christmas,
Candles of joy despite all the
sadness,
Candles of hope where despair
keeps watch,
Candles of courage for fears ever
present,
Candles of peace for
tempest-tossed days,
Candles of grace to ease heavy
burdens,
Candles of love to inspire all my
living,
Candles that will burn all year
long.
Amen.
