"A Good Joe" - Advent 4A

Saint Matthew 1:18-25

When you walk into a Roman Catholic church you will notice two smaller altars on either side of the main altar. 
 

The one, always on the left, is often highly decorated with flowers, and candles, and other ornaments.  That is dedicated to Mary.  Brides make mini pilgrimages to her during the wedding ceremony that she might bless the newlyweds with a happy home and the gift of children. 
 If the church is open there is usually someone praying in front of her statue.  She’s been known to make appearances in places like  Fatima or Medugorje to inspire the faithful.
 

On the right side of the high altar is another altar.  It usually is quite barren.  There are no flowers, no decorations, no pilgrims.  Sometimes the lights above are not even on.  This is the altar dedicated to Joseph.  I always get the feeling that it was placed there under some sense of obligation rather than dedication.  Clearly the placement and lack of decor say in a big bold way that while he may be very important to round out the story of salvation he clearly is a minor character.
 

We non-Roman Catholics have not served him any better.
 

One of my favorite United Methodist preachers Dr.  James Howell noted:

Joseph has always been relegated to the background of Christmas pageants, looking on, doing nothing much besides gazing, peering over Mary’s shoulders, hanging onto the donkey’s reins, his face solemn, looking a little bit sheepish, even foolish, while attention is focused on the real “stars” of the drama, Jesus and his mother Mary. No dramatic skills required to play Joseph. He’s just there.1

 If that is all we know, or think we know about Joseph we do him a grave disservice.

The first thing that gospel writer wants us to know about him is that he was “a righteous man.”  This is a high compliment in his culture.  It could be translated into modern language as “a man of principal.”  We don’t find many of those around anymore, especially in politics.
 

The problem for Joseph is that he tries to adhere to those principals. Unlike the leaders of our day he tries to follow the rules  which  in this case are very clear.
 

We may think that Joseph and Mary met somewhere, fell in love, and decided to get married.  We may think their relationship was the stuff of a Hallmark Christmas movie.  It was not. It was more of a legal transaction.

“In the first century, marriages were still arranged. Their families may have determined that Joseph and Mary would be married when they were still young children. When Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant, his "righteous" decision to divorce her is what the law and society expected him to do.”2
 

To make matters worse, because she was “with a child of an unknown father” the punishment for Mary would have been death by stoning.
 

So when Joseph went to bed on that fateful evening the questions that caused him to toss and turns were bigger than we could have ever imagined. 
 

Would he dishonor his family by marrying this woman who told him directly that the child was not  his?  Does he believe her story that not only that he was not the father but that nobody on earth was?  Should he really believe Mary when she tells him that the child she was carrying was of God, from God.  Should he believe her or just conclude that she was unstable and get on with the rest of his life?  He also goes to bed knowing that if he exposed her for being unfaithful to the marriage contract he would be condemning  her to death?
 

Einstein once said “God doesn’t play dice with the universe” but God is playing a high stakes game with our salvation at stake because, and don’t ever forget this men and woman, Joseph, like Mary, could have rejected God’s plan.  They could have rejected God’s plan outright.  They could have told the angel Gabriel to “take a hike and take his plan elsewhere” but they didn’t.
 

All because “an angel tells poor, confused Joseph that this scandalous situation is all part of God’s plan. Some plan.  Everyone in town must have been talking about the outrage of a young woman in a ‘family way,’ even though there had been, as yet, no marriage.”

 And don’t even think about the excuse she was trying to peddle on how she got pregnant in the first place!

 If Joseph goes along with God’s plan and Mary’s story there would be “nine months of awkward explanations, a village scandal – it was all very disconcerting to say the least.”3

Enter Gabriel, or I should say re-enter Gabriel because he has been back and forth, in and out of this story, trying to keep everything and everyone together, on the same page with God’s plan from the very beginning.  This time the overworked and probably by now frazzled angel appears in the middle of the night with yet another set of important messages.
 

The first is what angels have been telling humans from the beginning of time.  “Do not be afraid” Gabriel begins.  At this point, with his well-planned out, righteous life, crashing down around him Joseph has plenty to fear.  Gabriel continues, “do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”4
 

This, continued the angel, will fulfill the prophesy, ““The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means ‘God with us’).”5

 We aren’t told if Joseph tried to put up an argument or even asked for more information.  We do know that, unlike the others in the story -- Elizabeth, Zachariah, Mary – he doesn’t raise his voice in protest, wonder, or song.  He doesn’t even speak so much as a word.  We are only told that he silently, obediently, dutifully took Mary to be his wife and the child as his own and became responsible for him.

Thereby, just doing what he was told, stumbling along without knowing for sure where things were headed, Joseph the carpenter took his place in God’s story, wading through the confusion and the mess, being led by God into an uncertain future.  He just took his place in the story with no songs or speeches, stumbling along that road from Galilee to Bethlehem.6

So on this Sunday we have yet another image of what was going on before that first

Christmas.

It doesn’t feature the quiet, placid baby Jesus lying in a crib. Nor does it feature the adoring, serene Virgin Mary watching the babe in the manger. This Sunday, three days away from Christmas, we are greeted by the story of Joseph–silent Joseph bolting up in bed in the middle of the night, Joseph the carpenter having his life disrupted, pushed out on the stage of God’s grand pageant of redemption.7

 Maybe the next time we see a children’s Christmas pageant we’ll notice Joseph.

The fact that he’s just standing there is all we really need to know, all we really need to do. Confronted by the scandalous surprise of God becoming flesh, granting every good reason to flee for the exits and be the center of attention in our own dramas, maybe this Advent we can learn what it means just to stand nearby the manger, to look, to wait, to stay, to trust.8

And the next time you are in a Roman Catholic church you may want to join me in seeking out the statue of Joseph and saying a little prayer at his altar.  I never have any trouble getting near it and sometimes I even have to turn on the light to see him, but he too deserves a little prayer of thanks for the part he played in bringing Jesus into the world and paving the way for your redemption and mine.
 

This Christmas, it's high time we gave Joseph a little love too.  Don’t you think?

   

____________

1,  James C. Howell,  “Weekly Preaching: December 22, 2019 (Advent 4).” Weekly Preaching: December 22, 2019 (Advent 4). Ministry Matters™ | Christian Resources for Church Leaders, December 17, 2019. https://www.ministrymatters.com/preach/entry/9995/weekly-preaching-december-22-2019-advent-4.

2.  Brian  Stoffregen, “Matthew 1:18-25 4th Sunday of Advent - Year A.” 4 Advent A - Matthew 1.18-25. Crossmarks. Accessed December 21, 2019. http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt1x18.htm.

3,  William H. Willimon, “Disruption on Earth.” Pulpit Resource 38, no. 4 (n.d.): 49–52.

4.  St.  Matthew 1:20b.  (NIV) [NIV=The New International Version]

5.  St.  Matthew 1:23.  (NIV)

6.  William H. Willimon,  “Joseph and Us.” Pulpit Resource 35 (n.d.): 57–60.

7.  Willimon, William H. “Disrupted by Jesus.” Pulpit Resource 48, no. 4 (n.d.). https://www.ministrymatters.com/all/entry/9830/december-22-2019-disrupted-by-jesus.

8.  Howells, loc.  cit.