Christmas Sermon #1

BELIEVE Matthew 1:18-25 Advent 4A December 19, 2010
Joseph could hardly believe it……when he heard the news that Mary was expecting a child. He could hardly believe his ears. Here he was, a man who had finally reached the point in life where he was established in his job, he had a home, and he was ready to marry a wife. Mary, he thought, was a beautiful and sensible young woman. Their families had arranged this marriage, but Joseph was happy with the arrangements. Everything seemed to be going his way. And now this. He had believed that she was the right one for him. He had believed that this was going to be one of the happiest years of his life. He had believed that their future together was bright. And in a moment all his dreams were shattered.
There is nothing written in scripture about Joseph’s inner struggles as he reacted to the situation, but they must have been turbulent. Joseph is described as a righteous man. His subsequent actions reveal him to be a compassionate man. How was he going to do the right thing in this situation with compassion and kindness. He was not one of those self-righteous men who immediately tries to follow the law no matter what the consequences and no matter who gets hurt in the process. He was not one of those proud men who would have reacted out of his wounded pride and maybe even lashed out in anger. He was righteous and compassionate, so he tried to do the right thing in a kind and gentle way. And the right thing, in that 1st century society, was to break off the engagement, painful as that might be, and public as that might be, given the way that society worked. His family would have expected him to do it. Other men of the town would have expected him to do it. The Bible commentator Keeler wrote about this passage, “[in this situation] Mediterranean society viewed with contempt the weakness of a man who let his love for his wife outweigh his appropriate honor in repudiating her." The judge in Nazareth would have immediately nullified the betrothal contract between their two families. It would be an open and shut case.
But just imagine what must have been going through Joseph’s mind. The sleepless nights. The dreams. The confusion. Many people in such situations wonder if God is still on their side. When the world seems to fall apart around you – for whatever reason – it can be hard to believe that God is still watching over you the way the Bible says he is.
Where is God when people we love and trust disappoint us so much? Where is God when someone we had planned a future with suddenly passes away? Where is God when we have tried our very best to raise our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, as Ephesians 6 says to do, and they wonder off? Where is God, Joseph might have wondered, when I am faced with this situation?
The answer came to Joseph in the middle of the night. At that darkest moment, when Joseph was working up the courage to make public what he had resolved to do, an angel appeared to him in a dream and told him not to be afraid to embrace Mary as his wife, to welcome the child that was growing within her, and to face the future with courage and conviction. Where is God in this situation? God is with us. The angel might just as well as said to Joseph “This is not what you planned, and this might not be what you wanted, but God is with you working out his plan and what he wants. Just believe.”
What I am imagining is not that Joseph’s belief in God the creator of the universe was shaken. He did not become an atheist. He believed there was an all powerful God out there. What was shaken was his belief that this God was involved in his humble little life in far off Nazareth. What the angel in Joseph’s dream came to tell him was that God was involved in his personal life and that God did care for him.
In this respect, Joseph was like pretty much like everyone else. Big questions about the creation of the universe or about things that happened two thousand years ago are not nearly so important to most of us as the question of whether God knows each of us as individuals and is there to help us in our personal struggles. When Joseph had questions like that, he was reassured that God had not abandoned him nor forgotten him, but was doing something very special in his life.
“Do not be afraid” the angel had said to Joseph. “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” Do not be afraid of what other people might think and say. Do not be afraid of how you will react to the child that is to be born. Do not be afraid of tomorrow. Just believe that God is with us and always will be.
Herman Gockel, one of the early Lutheran Hour preachers, tells the story of a Christmas Eve in 1906, when Lars Erickson and his family faced a cheerless holiday. Lars was in poor health and out of work. He had reached the point where he didn't care if Christmas ever came or not. Depressed and irritable, he made poor company for his wife, Anna, and his five-year-old daughter, Greta. As they sat around their coal stove on that cold December evening, little Greta was humming carols and busily at work with her scissors, cardboard, and paste, constructing a crude little manger set.
"How do you like it Daddy?" she asked. "Fine," he said in a disinterested tone. "Daddy!" she said with disappointment, and with a wisdom of which she herself was not aware, "You didn't look at my manger set. If you want to see the Christ child, you'll have to get down on your knees."
Don’t let the problems of this world, as real as they are, rob you of the joy of this Christmas. Don’t let your personal situation cause you to doubt that God is with us, because he is with us even when things don’t seem to be going our way.
This Christmas Eve many a church will ring with the stirring notes of the solo “O Holy Night” which says in the chorus “Fall on your knees! O hear the angel voices….” Those angel voices are telling us that God is with us as Jesus comes into our hearts and into our lives. Do not be afraid. Only believe.