Joseph Just a Man
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Advent 4, Year A
December 22, 2013
Isaiah 7:10-16, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-25, Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my strength, and my redeemer.
I have known for some time that the preaching rota for Advent and Christmas had me assigned to preach today, the last Sunday of Advent. Being assigned to this Sunday has been a blessing.
I printed the lessons out in mid-November read them and put them on the shelf of my memory.
Being a person who is highly regimented in everything that I do, I stepped out of my box and went against everything I had been taught as a young Episcopalian…… I shopped for Christmas presents before Thanksgiving, I wrapped the gifts, I bought the Christmas cards and addressed them and then…… heaven help me, I did something my beloved and missed parents never allowed us to do….I decorated the house and put my Christmas tree up not three days before Christmas, but on the day after Thanksgiving.
I was intentional in performing these acts. I wanted to better focus this Advent on the coming of Christ and what that means to me.
Now you might say I gave in to the worlds of retail and finance which now begin celebrating Christmas around Halloween.
Most of us have these thoughts. Am I prepared? What haven’t I done? What can I get for the most difficult person on my Christmas list? Do I have the finances to support the purchases I want to make?
I removed all of this from consuming me. I was able to focus on the true meaning of Advent and Christmas.
For me there has been no worldly tension this Advent. My focus has been on the words of today’s Gospel. I was better able to reflect on why God Incarnate sent his Son into our world.
I was able to ignore the advertisements for the biggest sale of the year (How many of those are there) and oh no, I deleted email notices for the best deal without even reading them.
Many times during this Advent season, I read the lessons for today. I gave myself time to reflect. I gave myself time to ruminate. I gave myself time to hear what God was calling me to say. I asked myself, do I focus on the Holy birth, the lineage to David, the words of the prophet Isaiah, the angel who came to Joseph in a dream, or do I address the man Joseph and his response to God when the angel appeared to him.
Trinity Church has helped me to focus
The mission initiative discussions around how God may be calling us to further his mission this world, the thought provoking homilies and the response of the outreach team and healing prayer teams to focus on giving rather than receiving during this season of Advent allowed me to hear what God has called me to reflect on.
Most importantly, the response to giving from the community of Trinity Episcopal Church made my decision easy. The bountiful results from the collection of warm clothing, donations to the Trinity green bags for those in need of warm hats, mittens, and toiletries for those who have little, the food donations for A Place of Grace food pantry, the Christmas gifts for Covenant To Care, our Blue Christmas Service and yesterday’s service of healing and prayer for the remembrance of National Homeless Persons Memorial Day at Church By The Pond in Bushnell Park further awakened me to God’s call of healing and reconciliation in this world. And yet with all of our planning and the bountiful response there is more to do.
Let me read to you again a portion of the Gospel According to Matthew
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." 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.
We know little of Joseph. In doing research here is what we know about Joseph.
In the Gospels of both Matthew and Luke Joseph’s genealogy is traced back to King David
Joseph was a skilled tradesman in today’s terms he was a carpenter
Joseph is not quoted in the Bible yet there are three accounts of Joseph which are recorded in dreams.
The last time Joseph is mentioned in Bible accounts is in the temple when Jesus is twelve.
Nothing further is documented about Joseph.
He appears to be just a man with little known about him.
Yet God entrusted Joseph to be the father of Jesus in the flesh.
Today’s verses from Romans and Matthew tell us Joseph is the earthly father of Jesus.
The important fact is not who Joseph was, a carpenter, but what type of man Joseph was.
Joseph is described as a righteous man. His qualities are that of being sensitive to someone else’s (Mary’s) shame. He was betrothed to Mary. In biblical time this did not mean engaged but that a legal bond existed and could only be broken through divorce. Joseph could have divorced Mary with reason of adultery. Until the appearance of the angel in Joseph’s dream he planned to quietly dismiss Mary causing her little embarrassment.
But Joseph responded to the angel.
Joseph obeyed God in the face of humiliation and adversity.
In this sense Joseph was filled with integrity and godly character. Joseph offered love and mercy, even when he may have felt he was wronged.
For me this is what this Gospel speaks to;
Integrity, love, mercy and obedience to God in the face of humiliation.
Joseph was just a man, but he was a man of integrity, a man of good character a man of conviction.
We are just men and women, children of God.
In this day and age where self gratification ranks high, where do we place ourselves?
I believe that we individually and corporately are being asked to walk, like Joseph, in obedience to God. We may not be faced with humiliation or disgrace but we may be walking with someone who is facing these adversities. Perhaps at times we may be asked to walk and be with those who exist in a marginal world, demonstrating the love that God has for all of us.
A love that is so great that God sent his Son to us to be with us in a form that we could recognize, a meek child born in humble surroundings for the forgiveness of our sins
As the angel unexpectedly appeared to Joseph, we do not know when God will come to us or what he will ask of us. But we must be prepared.
Will our response be to turn away or will we respond, as Joseph did, humbly with integrity, love, and mercy in obedience to God?
My hope for the upcoming Christmas Season and beyond is that each of us may be awakened so that we may be the light in a darkened world for those who are lost, hurting, living on the margins of society, suffering or ill. May we respond with integrity, love, mercy and kindness as we continue our relationship with a loving and forgiving God.
In closing a portion of a prayer from Ted Loder in Guerillas of Grace
Let us pray.
O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born-
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love-
in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant us the sense of your timing.
Amen