December 18, 2022 — Advent 4A

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son, and he named him Jesus.” Matthew 1:18-25

“Matthew paints a picture of the utter normalcy of the holy family. Which means, of course, he tells us about the complexity, the confusion, and the frailty that attended this family, just like every other family. Indeed, there is nothing exceptional about this couple or birth … except that God works through it to save to draw near to us in love, grace, and salvation.  This (is an) extraordinary story and promise:  God comes through ordinary, mixed-up people in order to save ordinary, mixed-up people, and that God comes through a birth like all the millions of other births in the world to promise us freedom from sin, fear, and death and rebirth as the children of God. It’s an odd story, for sure, but one that deserves telling.”  (David Lose, dear working preacher website, December 17, 2013, Matthew’s Version of the Incarnation)

What are the problems encountered by Joseph when faced with a fiancé who is pregnant?  Well, first, he automatically deduces that Mary must have been with another man, otherwise she would not be pregnant.  I mean, there are no supernatural conceptions, right?  He now must face the very real idea that maybe Mary doesn’t love him, but instead loves someone else.  Second, maybe this other man loves the idea of having a baby, loves this baby, thus clouding the picture even more.  The issues facing Joseph, this seemingly more and more complex puzzle, almost sounds like a Morey Povich show.  But instead of going on a crazy TV show hoping for advice from a pop-culture quack, Joseph, this righteous man, with a lifetime of faithfulness, needs to hear from G-d if his decision is the right one.

After wrestling with this very difficult and delicate issue – after finally coming to a conclusion that he loved Mary too much to publicly disgrace her – Joseph determines to divorce her quietly.  Then, finally, the Lord speaks, through an angel, who interrupts his sleep.  And now, a new picture begins to emerge.  As I said before, G-d is taking the puzzle pieces and mixing them up.  G-d’s silence doesn’t always mean that G-d is not paying attention.   Sometimes, in the silence of our relationship with G-d, God is beginning to work something new, and wonderful.  We just need to be open to G-d working in new and different ways in our lives – and sometimes that means the pieces coming together in ways we never would have expected.

Pastor Dave