Sermons

Dec 23 - The Rev. Christopher McLaren - Joseph

December 23, 2007 Advent 4 A
Title: Sweet Dreams
Text: Matthew 1:18-25

He is heart-sick this carpenter from Galilee. The devastating news of his teenage bride-to-be’s pregnancy is a crushing blow. How can this be? How can this be happening? He loves the young woman Mary he is about to wed but he cannot embrace this scandal. He will not be shamed by this young girl. He must “put her away” as the text says. To modern ears, Joseph’s response seems strange. But for his time Joseph is doing the “just” thing. He must annul the marriage out of his religious convictions, because Mary is apparently guilty of a capital offence, though she insists she is not. Her quiet words are strange, that she has been visited by an angel of the Lord, who told her of God’s plans for her, plans almost impossible to imagine. The sexual mores of the day are strictly enforced in this patriarchal society. But for Joseph this is not about anger it is about respect and honor. For Joseph breaking the marriage contract is the most painful and only thing he can think to do. The religious standards of his day did not allow him to forgive Mary and to move into their future together. No, Joseph must “put her away” in order to demonstrate that his love for God is greater than his love for Mary. In doing so Joseph is a kind and gracious man. His response is tempered by mercy and he resolves to do it quietly, not making a public spectacle of his pain, and protecting Mary from public disgrace.

But, God. Yes, but, God. God comes to Joseph in his fears, in his confusion, in his loss. Just as God comes to us in our fears, our confusion, our loss. Fear has an undeniable way of opening us up to God’s presence in our lives. Joseph had made his decision, he was resolved to remove himself from the whole mess, to run from his fears. But, his sleep is interrupted by the dream of God.

An Angel of the Lord, a messenger of the Holy One appears to Joseph. Even in his dream this Angel is a fearsome creature. And from the lips of the angel come words of comfort and challenge and strange advice. “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.”

This dream of God stirs up something so deep in Joseph that he does the craziest thing available to him. He believes God’s messenger. He marries Mary. He acts against his own religious convictions and the conventions of his day. He steps out in faith, overcoming his fear. He believes this crazy dream of God’s salvation. He allows God to speak to him, even in his dreams. Joseph reminds us that God is at work in us even when we are sleeping, unaware of his gracious presence.

Joseph embraces Mary as his wife and the child in her womb as his own. Joseph names this mysterious child Jesus, a name his family does not understand. It is not a family name. It doesn’t make sense. Why is this child called Jesus? The angel of the Lord makes it clear that this child in part of God’s saving plan, so his name is to be Jesus from the Hebrew Yeshua, related to the verb to save.

I’m somewhat partial to Joseph myself actually. Joseph and I share day. St. Joseph day March 19th is my birthday and so I feel a kind of kinship with him. One of my favorite images of Joseph comes from a Flemish painter named Robert Campin, in what is called the Merode Altarpiece. This painting completed around 1425 is now housed in the Cloisters Museum in New York. If you have never been there, it is well worth the trip. The Merode Altarpiece is a tripytych. The central and largest panel is of the Angel’s annunciation to Mary. Mary sits reading her prayerbook, (obviously an early Episcopalian) in a highly stylized room full of objects rendered in careful detail many of which are meant to symbolize Mary’s divine mission and purity, such as the vase of lilies nearby. Of note in the central panel is a tiny embryonic Christ carried on a cross which is shown flying through a window opening toward Mary. I can still hear my art history professor’s wonderful description of the scene when I first encountered the painting long ago. “And here we see the tiny embryonic Christ hurtling through time and space toward the star-struck lap of Mary.”

However, to the right of this main scene, in a smaller panel is a man at work in a small, rather dingy workshop. He is much older than Mary. He sits alone at his workbench. About a dozen identifiable carpenter’s tools surround him. The open window shows a typical scene in a small town at work. There is nothing particularly religious about the scene. No angel of the Lord, no candles, no holy books, just an old man hard at work in his shop. In the scene Joseph has made a mousetrap, symbolic of the theological tradition that Christ is bait set in the trap of the world to catch the Devil.

The man at work of course is Joseph the carpenter. He is quietly at work. He is oblivious to the fact that his world is about to be rocked. He does not know the news that Mary is receiving from the Angel Gabriel next door and that will soon be given to him. He does not know that he too will receive a divine messenger as he slumbers, the fears of his ruined reputation running around in his head.

Joseph really is quite ordinary. He is doing what he did on any other day. He is hard at work on an ordinary day, in an ordinary town, doing an ordinary job. But his life is about to change. He is about to become the father of “the one who will save his people from their sins.” He is about ready to change his mind and decide to support Mary in her awkward situation. He will find himself faithful to one he thought unfaithful and he we become the protector of Mary and her child, thwarting the plot of King Herod to destroy a would-be rival by fleeing with his family to Egypt.

The church has traditionally called Mary the “first disciple.” And this is appropriate as she was the first to be reached by the angel, the first to hear the commands of God, the first to say yes. Her response, “Let it be to me according to your will,” is a model of discipleship if ever there was to be one.

And yet, Joseph is rarely talked about as the second disciple. In fact only the gospel of Matthew speaks of Joseph in any detail. But Joseph was the second to get this glorious news of a savior, the news that God was moving toward humanity in a new way through a child born to them. Joseph was the second to say “yes.” Well, Joseph doesn’t actually say anything in the gospels, or nothing that we know of. But Joseph speaks with his actions. He believes the dream of God, forgives Mary and opens himself up to a savior. Joseph simply does what the Lord asks of him, without complaint.

Most of us can probably identify with Joseph fairly well. We are rather ordinary people. We live and work in some pretty ordinary places. We are rarely the first to get the news, when God is making some large plan. We try to mind our own business, make reasonable decisions, love our children, and keep our dental appointments. But, that will not keep God from intruding into our lives, speaking a word into the places where we are full of fear. Mary heard the word of the Lord and she sang for Joy. We might not be ready to start singing but at the same time when God’s dream, the dream of a savior steals into our dreams and thoughts, the least we can do is to say an ordinary yes if we dare to be like Joseph the second disciple.

But what is this dream of God. It is tempting to think the dream of God is something warm and fuzzy like the words I heard in my childhood, “God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.” Isn’t that nice. But dreams like that don’t always pass the smell test in the crucible of life. Consider Joseph, the dream of God for him was to forgive Mary, to risk his reputation, face his own deep fears, embrace scandal and put himself in harms way as the protector of Mary and her child. More than that Joseph was asked to believe that God was about to use he and Mary’s child in a most remarkable way. Joseph woke from his dream and did as the angel had told him. Joseph dares to act on the dream of God.

So what is the dream of God for you? I cannot tell you that, but like Joseph, it will more than likely take you out of your comfort zone. The dream of God will have you facing your fears, forgiving people close to you, risking respectability, protecting the vulnerable, believing the unbelievable and doing it all with a deep sense of Joy that you are a part of God’s saving purposes. Believing the dream of God is what makes us disciples. Being someone who is willing to follow the strange and unexpected movements of God in Jesus Christ wherever that takes you, even if people call you a dreamer, that is discipleship. If you are willing to allow God’s dream of healing a universe to become your dream, then you are like Joseph. If you can begin to act in small ways to make God’s dream a reality in whatever ordinary way is available to you, then you too are like Joseph the second disciple.

So let the dream of God take hold of you that Christ may be born anew in you. Let the words of the Christmas Carol O Little Town of Bethlehem lead you: The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.
Sweet dreams!