Advent 4A - "Christmas' Unsung Hero"

 

Saint Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, is the patron saint of children, fathers, travelers, immigrants, Mexico, Canada, Belgium, and according to the Encyclopedia Britannica even entered into the world of politics when in, “1955 Pope Pius XII established the Feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 as a counter-celebration to the communists’ May Day.”1

It seems to me, if I read his story correctly, he also could have been the patron saint of sleepless nights. In that way he was most like us. 

 

I can’t think of anybody with a conscious, who has not experienced that moment when our lives have been in a turmoil and we have found ourselves wide awake in the middle of the night with our thoughts, and maybe even our hearts, racing.

  

Suddenly the room is too hot and the blankets too heavy as one thing after another races through our heads.  We wonder what we are going to do about this or that.  We stew in amazement over why someone who we thought liked us suddenly is treating us so poorly.  Conversely, we beat ourselves up over something we said or did to someone we love.  

The problem with waking up in the middle of the night is that there isn’t much we can do about whatever it is that is keeping up awake.  Most problems are not solved at 3 A.M. in the morning.  

Unless we get out of bed and fire up our computers, we can’t take back the mean word or the hasty text or email right there and then and it probably wouldn’t matter if we did because the aggrieved party, with a clear conscious, is probably sound asleep. 

We can adjust the thermostat and rearrange the blankets.  We may get up and read a book or watch some television, but we soon discover that it is not within our power to make the world right in the middle of the night.

Besides myself, other preachers I know have admitted to waking up at night with an absolute genius idea for a sermon and writing it down only to discover the next morning when they look at what they wrote that it is absolutely illegible and the brilliant idea is completely gone from their memory.  

That is why, of all the characters in the Christmas story, I think I relate best to Joseph.  He is our patron saint in the middle of our sleepless nights.  

And he has a lot to be sleepless about for he has some huge, and I do mean huge, decisions to make.  So he lies there, wide awake, wondering what should he do about Mary?  He lies there, wide awake, wondering what he should do with his judgmental neighbors.  He lies there, wide awake, wondering what he should do about the rest of his life.  He has got a lot to toss-and-turn about.

We all know what was keeping him up was his engagement to Mary.

This was not an engagement in the way we think of them.  While he may have noticed her across a crowded room he didn’t ask her out.  If he asked anybody at all it would have been her father.

There would have no romantic dinners enjoyed at a candlelit table with fine wine and an excellent meal.  This would be more like his father and her father getting together over their desks and hammering out an agreement and then taking it to the rabbi to be certified.  Think of it more like a corporate merger. 

And because the community was small and everybody was into everybody else’s business all of Joseph’s and Mary’s relatives, neighbors, and friends, would have known about the engagement and had a huge celebration to mark the occasion.

But something happened between that celebration and the moment we find Joseph lying there in his bed, big dumb eyed, wondering and worrying about what Mary had told him.

Neither Matthew nor Luke give us any indication of what it was like in the moments when Mary told Joseph that she was with child.  We have no indication of the fear and worry she must have felt.  We have no indication anywhere how he reacted to the bombshell that had just exploded at his feet.

What we do know is that Joseph was a righteous man.  In fact, Joseph was more than righteous and that was exactly what was causing his sleepless night.

William Willimon says if Mary is “blessed among women,” Joseph is “embarrassed among men.” 

He’s disappointed, humiliated, crushed, angry. What now? A contract has been violated, a law has been broken, and there can be very serious consequences, including, sometimes, stoning. Matthew says Joseph is a righteous man and apparently cares {enough} about Mary that he decides against a public announcement. Instead, he decides to divorce her quietly, go back to the rabbi and undo the betrothal contract. Let the world say what it wants; let everybody assume that he is the father of the child Mary is going to have. I never realized before how good that decision was, how Joseph decided to assume for himself Mary’s burden and public shame.2

There! It is settled!  He’ll take the blame and live with the consequences. Now that this matter resolved he could go back to sleep and get some well needed rest.  

But just as soon as he made his choice; just as soon as his soul found enough peace to rest, here comes the angel. And the first words from the angel’s mouth: Don’t be afraid. Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid. Before even telling Joseph the entire awkward truth about Jesus and how he had been created in Mary, the angel first wanted to make sure that Joseph was not afraid.3

 Fear can make us do some things that are unwise.  Fear can cause us to act too quickly, and it can cause us not to react at all.  Fear can cause us to hurt people especially when we think what we are doing is right.  Fear can cause us to go our own way and not ask for help lest people think we are weak.  Perhaps, worse of all fear can cause us to fall back into our own ways of working out problems and dealing with others thinking that if it was good enough for then it must be good enough for now.

Fear could have stopped Joseph in his tracks and the whole plan of salvation could have gone out the window.  If Mary had said “no” and thrown the angel out of her house on his feathery wings or whatever things would have been radically different. If Joseph had chalked up his angelic visitor to one too many sleepless nights and a bad case of dyspepsia things would have been radically different. For one, we might have been gathering to celebrate some Druidic festival about the lengthening of days but we are not because on one sleepless night Joseph decided to listen to the “fear not” of an angel and live into its promises.

For God knew Joseph was being asked to step out into new territory. But God also knew Joseph was up for the task. 

That is why it somewhat saddens me that Joseph doesn’t play a bigger part in the Christmas story because, for all of us who have ever had a sleepless night, he is our patron saint. 

Again Dr. William Willimon has said “that while there is a lot of annunciation art, the angel and serene Mary, there is no art focused on Joseph’s dream. Joseph bolting upright in bed, in a cold sweat after being told his fiancée is pregnant, and not by him, and he should marry her anyway. They won’t tell you this Christmas story in Sunday school.”4

No, we’ll give into the temptation to put Joseph at the back of the stable when we stage our Christmas pageants or even set up out Christmas creche.   “In the pageants, he doesn’t get many or any lines. He just stands there, holding the donkey reins, gazing at mother and child.”5

“Who put him there?” asks poet Ann Weems:

Who put Joseph in the back of the stable?

Who dressed him in brown, put a staff in his hand,

and told him to stand at the back of the crèche,

background for the magnificent light of the Madonna?6

We may have done so in the past, but we won’t do so anymore.  Once we’ve read and understood the part he played in the birth of the Christ child, we know Joseph should be front and center because he is us in all of our sleepless nights.  

Joseph is there in all our worried days reminding us of who we are and who we could be.

A pastor I know was sent a picture of Joseph holding Jesus in his arms.  Joseph is wearing a t-shirt with these words on it.  “I’m not the stepdad. I’m the dad who stepped up.”

For all of us who have prayed for a quiet night and a peaceful rest, Joseph is our guy. And for all of us who have wondered in the middle of the night or fretted in middle of the day wondering “what in the world is going on?” Or, “what did I do to deserve this?”, Joseph is our guy. For all who have prayed for courage to step up and face whatever lies ahead, Joseph is our guy.

Both Mary and Joseph, through their lives and their witness, teach us about God and about who we are called to be in response to the angel’s middle of the night promises to fear not. 

People who find in those middle of the night “fear nots” the courage to step out in faith boldly believing that God’s love really will have the last word on all things, will find that Joseph is our guy.

The word’s “fear not”  to Joseph, will be a word that can lead us into fuller, more abundant, whole-hearted lives based on the birth of this baby, whom Joseph named Jesus; who grew up and led this world into its salvation, into its healing, into its own “be not afraid” way of being, and ultimately its peace.

Peace enough to finally, finally, go back to sleep.

________________

1. Saint Joseph | Biography, Holy Family, Tradition, Scripture, & Feast Day, 24AD, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Joseph.

2. John M. Buchanan, “Joseph.” Sermon preached at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. December 12, 2004.

3. Shannon J. Kershner, “A Meditation on Joseph.”  Sermon preached at the Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago. December 18, 2016.

4. William H. Willimon, “The Second Disciple.”  Sermon preached in the chapel of Duke University.  December 23, 2001.

5. James C. Howell, “What Can We Say December 21? Advent 4,” James Howell’s Weekly Preaching Notions, January 1, 2025, https://jameshowellsweeklypreachingnotions.blogspot.com/.

6. Ann Weems, “Getting to the Front of the Stable.” in Kneeling in Bethlehem (Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1993).