Difference between revisions of "Sermon for December 3rd, 2023"

Latest revision as of 02:05, 3 December 2023

Matthew 1:18-25 (NT p. 1)

18 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. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 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. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 23 “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.” 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Bless This Mess: Joseph & Mary - Socially Messy

It was five days before Christmas, and Santa Claus was having a horrible day. By horrible, I mean his wife was sick with the flu, 23 elves were on strike; Dasher, Dancer, Donner and Blitzen had all gone missing, and nothing was getting done--so the entire operation was WAY behind schedule. Right about the time Santa was pulling his beard out by the fistfuls, someone started ringing his doorbell over and over again. Santa opened the door, with a loud and not-so-jolly "WHAT??" only to see... the tiniest angel standing next to a large Christmas tree. The angel asked Santa Claus "Where would you like me to put this tree?" Santa thought about it for a minute... And that is why we put an Angel on top of the Christmas tree.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent--the season where we prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus. Advent is supposed to be a season of calm, quiet introspection. And yet, it also happens to be the season of a thousand school performances, Christmas parties, church events, holiday travel plans, shopping for Christmas presents, entertaining in-laws and crazy uncles, eating more food and candy than a reasonable person should, trying to get the perfect family Christmas picture, so you can fool all the people on your Christmas card list into thinking that you have your act together and are not, in fact a completely exhausted mess by the time December 25th arrives. And then you have to clean up the wrapping paper, do the dishes, and take down all the decorations.

In many churches today, the pastor's sermon will likely be an attempt to get congregants to slow down this year, to resist over-scheduling and rampant materialism, so that we can embrace the true spirit of Christmas, so we can focus more on those quiet and precious moments with our families, spreading peace on earth and good will to all.

But we're not really going to do that, are we?

You see, I've preached that sermon many times...and it never really seems to work. Not even in my own family, or in my own personal approach to the season. So I'm going to take a very different approach this year. We're going to go with the flow. We're going to own the fact that Christmas is a chaotic, conflicted mess, and probably has been ever since the very first one.

If you actually read the story of the first Christmas in the Bible, you won't find a Silent Night, or a picture-perfect nativity scene with everyone serenely posed around the manger. The story is messy--socially, politically, environmentally. It's a story about people who did not have their acts together, people who were continually caught off guard, whose plans and backup plans all fell through.

But if you actually read the story (and we will, together) you will also see a certain blessedness in the messiness. You'll see how God works through the chaos and conflict, through stressed-out and imperfect people in order to make his perfect plans come to pass. And that, my friends, is tremendously good news for us, because it means that God is still capable of redeeming our own frantic and scattered attempts at celebrating Christmas, transforming them (and us) into something beautiful, joyful, and deeply meaningful.

We'll start with Joseph and Mary. It's an awkward story, to begin with. Most marriages in the Middle East, in the first century, were arranged marriages, and there's no reason to think that this one would have been otherwise. Mary was probably very young. Jewish girls were often married at the age of 13 or 14. And Joseph was probably much older, at least in his thirties--the age at which a Jewish man could legally provide for a family. There's a good chance that Mary and Joseph didn't know each other that well, if at all.

We read in verse 18 that "before they lived together, she was found to be with child." Matthew adds "from the Holy Spirit," but I can't really imagine that people looked at Mary and said, "Yeah, she must be pregnant from the Holy Spirit." I think Matthew is adding this in hindsight. Mary was just pregnant and no one knew who the father was. Joseph, at least, certainly knows it's not him, and so he plans on calling off the engagement. Even after an angel has appeared to both of them (Joseph in our scripture passage today, and Mary in the gospel of Luke) and explained the whole, miraculous deal, they both have to know that others are not likely to believe their story. They would both forever be surrounded by whispers, judgment, and disapproving glances. Awkward. Messy. Socially messy.

I have often wondered why God chose to send Jesus into the world in this way. If God is an all-powerful God of miracles, surely Jesus could have been poofed down to earth fully formed. Or if it was necessary for him to have a childhood, like us, then perhaps God could have poofed the baby right into the manger. Or, if it was possible for Jesus to be genetically related to Mary and still be God's son, why couldn't he be genetically related to Joseph, too...and still be God's son? Why did God choose such a socially messy path for three people he clearly loved?

I think the answer is precisely in the awkwardness. In the cruel whispers and rumors Jesus would have surely heard growing up in small-town Gallilee. Weirdo. Freak. Your family is messed up, Jesus. Your family is different.

Those same cruel whispers and rumors would later allow an adult Jesus to show profound compassion to the woman accused of adultery (something his own mother may have been accused of). Coming from an unconventional family himself, Jesus showed compassion to widows and lepers with no family; to a Roman centurion and his slave-child; to a Samaritan woman who had been married five times; to a newly married couple; to a single mother and her daughter, among many others.

Of course, Mary and Joseph are not the only unconventional ones in Jesus' family. If you go through the genealogy right above today's scripture reading, the first half of Matthew chapter 1, you'll find some familiar names--yes, some are kings and patriarchs, but also among those names are thieves, prostitutes, murderers, adulterers, and con-men. Jesus had an entire family tree full of social messiness. Most of us probably do, too.

I believe that God knows what he's doing. That he does amazing work through all kinds of people, all kinds of families, and all kinds of crazy situations. What the world sees as flawed, damaged, or strange, God sees as beautiful, purposeful, and precious. What society sees as a mess, God turns into a message.

So if your life feels like a mess this Advent and Christmas season, look for God's message within it. Look for God's blessing in the midst of the business; look for God's care in the midst of the chaos.

But most of all, recognize that your story is part of a larger story, an ancient tradition, an unconventional family of faith. A messy, imperfect, socially awkward family... called the church. May God bless this family, this mess, this story, and help each of us to take our place within its pages.