4th Sunday of Advent, 12/23/2007

Sermon on Matthew 1:18-25, by Samuel D. Zumwalt

18Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 20But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet:
23 "Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel" (which means, God with us). 24When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, 25but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

PREPARE!

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. All you have wanted is to love Mary and to be loved by her. You have dreamed of the day when you would go with your friends to take her into your home for the wedding feast and then into your arms as your one and only beloved. You have imagined the joyous week of feasting following your wedding day and, God willing, soon your very own child on its way. You have dreamed of your own house filled with children, teaching them to love God and neighbor, teaching them how to be faithful and responsible children of God.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Perhaps after years of eyeing Mary from afar and knowing her to be a pious young woman, beautiful inside and out, and hoping against hope that she would be yours, the joyous day came when Mary and you began a year-long engagement. You were never allowed to be alone with her. It was just not safe or acceptable practice. Proper boundaries were kept. Virginity until your wedding day was expected and protected by the Jewish culture. You see one another each day, and your dreams and longings grow stronger. But, then, Mary tells you that she will go to see her cousin, Elizabeth, who is pregnant. Is it just nerves or is there something troubling Mary as she tells you she is going away for a few months to help her cousin?

Put yourself in Joseph's place. You count the days until Mary comes home. You send word to her as often as you can, and you look forward to hearing from Mary, too. At last, she is coming home, and Mary sends word that she needs to talk with you right away. You get butterflies in your stomach. There is a knot there. What could be on her mind? What is troubling her? Is there some deep and dreadful secret to be revealed?

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Your joy at being reunited with your beloved suddenly turns to fear and even disgust. Mary, your precious Mary, sweet, pious Mary is pregnant. You can see it despite her garments. You can see it in her face and eyes. Those eyes look so vulnerable and pleading. You are smitten each time you look at those eyes, and now you want to hate your heart for filling up with love despite all your best instincts to grab a stone and throw it at her.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. What a fool you feel that you have been! All that waiting, planning, and dreaming for nothing! How could you have been so taken in by this girl? You know that you have not been with her in a way that was forbidden. Clearly some other man has taken advantage of her vulnerability. Some other man has led her astray. Some other man has put a wedge between your heart and hers. There will be no wedding now. There will be no child with Mary. Perhaps you will never marry. How could you trust again?

Put yourself in Joseph's place. She tells you fantasies and seems to believe the words herself. She cannot be that good an actress. She is too young, too naïve, too (how ironic!) pious to lie that well. Your love wants to turn to hate. Part of you wants to follow the letter of the Law and have her stoned as an adulterer. Part of you wants to see her dead along with the man that destroyed your dreams. Who is he? Where is he? Part of you wants to make him hurt. Part of you wants to make him pay big-time!

Put yourself in Joseph's place. You have always been a strong believer. You have led a much disciplined life of worship, prayer, study, and service. You have been taught to want to do the right thing. And it has become to you almost second nature. You are no fool. You know how it is between men and women. And yet you know and love Mary, and even now, you do not want to see her hurt even if you know you must break the engagement, at the very least, quietly. It is not permitted by Law to make yourself unclean with an adulteress bride.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. As a good man, you know what it's like to put yourself in Mary's place. Your mother has taught you how to treasure a woman and to treat her with understanding and to regard her as a gift from God's gracious hand. Your father has taught you how the Lord God in His goodness made both the man and the woman in His image and made them to be partners and, miracle of miracles, to be co-creators with Him. That is what is so hard now. Everything you have believed and hoped and dreamed has been called into question all by this woman who hardly is more than a girl. Lord God, have mercy. It is all too much. You just crawl into your bed and pull the covers over your head and drop off to sleep muttering your prayers.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. What uneasy dreams must come as your brain tries to make sense of the senseless, as it tries to make intelligible the unimaginable! How like your namesake Israel's son Joseph you have become - trying to make sense of dreams (contrast Genesis 37 and 41)! As a Pharisee, you believe in angels, although you have never seen one. Now like Joseph's father Jacob you see and hear an angel in your sleep (Genesis 28). It is the angel of the LORD who greets you with the words you most need to hear: "Do not be afraid!"

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Isn't that finally it? Your anger is about both your hurt and your fear. You hurt at Mary's betrayal. You hurt at the humiliation. You are afraid of what others will think of you and afraid of your own wrath and afraid that you can never trust any mortal ever again - especially a woman!

Put yourself in Joseph's place. The angel of the LORD says: "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." You are from David's family, and you know that the angel is telling you to claim the child as your own legal son so that he will be known, too, as a Son of David. And yet you wrestle in your sleep with such a wonderfully strange fantasy. A child conceived not in the usual way but by the Holy Spirit! Such knowledge is too wonderful for you! A child being knit together in his mother's womb and not just any child but God's own Son!

Put yourself in Joseph's place. The angel of the LORD declares: "She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Yeshua (Jesus), for he will save his people from their sins." It is all too much even for a dream. And you wake and you are soaking wet and you feel that like Jacob of old, Joseph's father, you have wrestled God all night long (Genesis 32)!

Put yourself in Joseph's place. If you do as the angel of the LORD tells you, the child will be your legal child, a Son of David. And, oh this is too much, the Child will be the fulfillment of God's promise to your ancestor King David, that someone from his family would rule over God's people forever (2 Samuel 7). You will raise God's Son as your own son, and you will take into your heart and your home the Mother of God. It is all too much to imagine! It is all too much to take in!

Put yourself in Joseph's place. All you can do is take that leap of faith if you are to obey this dream that God has given you. But then, perhaps, part of you wonders if dreams are not simply wish-fulfillment, the brain seeking to give the happy ending you wanted in the first place. What if there is no God? What if there is no promise to David? What if there is no reason to have children much less to raise another man's child as your own? What if there is no such thing as love? What if it is all just the strange hormonal dance to insure that the best genes get passed along? So what then do love and fidelity and respect and responsibility and godliness and piety mean after all? Why be good?

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Sometimes you just have to say to your runaway brain: "Stop it! Shut up! I'm not listening anymore!" If you are Joseph, a lifetime of spiritual discipline taught by godly parents has to kick in. Train up a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). Joseph has had good training, and he has been taught to listen not to the ungodly dreams of human conceit but to the Word of God that comes from outside himself. Joseph has been taught to listen and obey the good and gracious will of God.

Put yourself in Joseph's place: "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife...." Against all reasonable doubts, Joseph took Mary into his heart and his home. He claimed the child as his own legal child, a Son of David. And Joseph named him Yeshua, Joshua, Jesus. And Joseph raised the child as he had been raised in awe and praise and wonder and love of the LORD GOD, Jesus' heavenly Abba!

So...put yourself in Joseph's place. Do not be afraid to receive God's Son Jesus into your heart and into your home. Prepare a place for Him to enter daily into the fullness of your life. Prepare a place for Him by confessing your sins to your Father in heaven. Prepare a place for Him by meditating upon God's Word and calling upon Him in prayer, praise, and thanksgiving. Prepare a place for Him by hastening to the services of God's House and gladly hearing and learning God's Holy Word. Prepare a place for Him by teaching those you love to know Him and to learn from Him. Prepare a place for Him by seeing Him in the eyes of those you love and in the eyes of those in need, for He says: "I was hungry and you fed me, naked and you clothed me, a stranger and you welcomed me, sick and in prison and you visited me" (Matthew 25).

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Hoping against hope, he prepared a place in his heart, his home, his calendar, and his wallet...first for the Lord Jesus' pregnant mother and then for the Holy Child Himself.

Put yourself in Joseph's place. Despite all fears and doubts, today if you are not yet baptized, pray: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of David, I want to die to my own selfishness. I want You to live in me and me in You. As I prepare to celebrate Your holy birth, come make a place in my heart, my home, and my life and never ever leave me. I want to be baptized. Make me Yours and grant me grace to claim You as mine!"

Put yourself in Joseph's place. In obedience to His call to follow, make room for Christ to enter into your life. Today as you come with empty uplifted hands to the Lord's table, pray: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God and Son of David, I do not understand how you limited yourself to enter into Mary's womb and to be born a child like me but without sin. I cannot fathom how You could give Your life away on the cross to take away my sins while we were yet sinners. I cannot grasp with my mind how You can fulfill Your promise to be present for me and for all Your people today in a tiny bit of bread and wine. But, O Lamb of God, I come to you knowing that you will come to me and forgive my sins and fill me with the power of Your endless life. Come, Lord Jesus!"

In the name of the Father, and of the +Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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Samuel D. Zumwalt
St. Matthew?s Evangelical Lutheran Church
Wilmington, North Carolina USA
E-Mail: szumwalt@bellsouth.net

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