Fourth Sunday of Advent already! The sermon worked ok. I did delve a bit into the righteousness of Joseph. I had not focused on that in a sermon previously, but Joseph must dismiss Mary because he is a righteous man and should not abide by what would have been considered adultery. In fact, Joseph is already going a bit against what he should do by not making Mary's "adultery" public. t seems to me that the angel calling on Joseph not only tells Joseph that Mary has not committed "adultery," but is telling Joseph that righteousness is no longer tied to the law, but now is about listening to God and standing with Mary.
“Surprising People” December 18, 2022; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, Denton; Matthew 1: 18-25; Richard B. Culp
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. 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20But 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. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22All 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.’ 24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Introduction: We continue looking for surprises in the stories surrounding Christ’s birth.
this week we reflect on surprising people in two different ways - the surprising people we find in the story and the way God keeps surprising people.
Move 1: Surprising people
a. the two main characters in the stories leading up to Christ’s birth are Mary and Joseph
1. The Gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the perspective of Mary
2. the Gospel of Matthew tells the story of Jesus’ birth through the perspective of Joseph.
4. Mary and Joseph - we have come to revere and admire them.
5. We have seen so Christmas pageants with Mary in her blue and Joseph standing quietly by her side that they may not seem like surprising people.
6. But, stop and put them in their original context when God chose them. I suspect we will see them as surprising people.
b. Do you remember Midge?
1. Barbie’s best friend doll was introduced in the 1960s.
Through the years there was a Hawaii Midge; a California Beach girl Midge, a wedding day Midge, an African-American Midge
an early 2000 iteration of Midge was pregnant Midge. Part of the Happy Family series that included husband Alan, son Ryan, a talking house, swimming pool, neighborhood marker, and playground.
But this Midge ran into a few problems. Midge did not wear a wedding ring; she had a magnetic womb with a baby inside; and she was not sold in tandem with her husband.
Some customers revolted against a pregnant Barbie doll with no wedding ring and her husband not included in the same package.
The customer revolt led to Wal-Mart pulling all the Midge dolls off its shelves.
Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls eventually pulled Midge and repackaged her for sale with a wedding ring on and sold with a husband, and no longer pregnant, but with her three kids available for purchase as well.
(http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2002-12-24-pregnant-doll_x.htm Rev. Lauren Winner, an Episcopal priest, author, and blogger led me to these two illustrations/articles in her blog "Do You Remember Midge?" http://thq.wearesparkhouse.org/featured/advent4cgospel/; also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midge_(Barbie))
Surprise - the God who comes in Christ comes by way of Mary, who as a young, unmarried, pregnant girl would not have been able to sell her doll on store shelves.
c. Joseph
1. Ordinary. nothing special. Good guy.
2. You would not pick him out of the crowd.
3. no history of his exceptional behavior or family pedigree.
4. Surprise - God chooses him to walk this journey to Christ’s birth with Mary.
d. Consider all the characters we encounter in the birth story of Christ.
1. shepherds - nothing special about them, but surprise, they are part of Christ’s birth story.
2. Wise men - maybe they had some unique gifts that made them special, but they were non-believers. Surprise - they are part of Christ’s birth story. wise men
2. A pattern the Christ-child will continue when he grows up and engages in ministry.
3. How many times do we read about Christ healing someone, or teaching someone, or calling someone to follow and say to ourselves, “Now that’s a surprise. I wouldn’t have expected that person!”
e. . Paul’s letter to the Romans.
1. Long theological treatise that ends with Paul mentioning names of the people in the church.
2. 23 names. Ten of whom are women (a surprise for those of us who think Paul does not support the work of women in the church).
3. have you ever heard of any of those people?
4. Susan, our liturgist, did a terrific job of reading the passage from Romans. she emailed me yesterday and asked where she could find a resource that would tell her how to pronounce all the names correctly.
"I don't know," was my reply.
5. Do you recognize any of the names? Maybe Prisca and Aquilla from Acts.
6. the early church grows through people we have never heard of.
5. Jesus' birth and then Jesus' ministry are marked by surprising people being involved.
e. When you look at all those people, what do you see?
1. Perhaps in the hearing and telling of the story we see ourselves.
2. We look in the mirror - surprise, looking right back at you is someone God is calling.
Move 2: We also see in the birth stories God surprising people.
a. how do we know the people involved are surprised?
1. Because the first thing the people are told is “Do not be afraid!”
2. They cannot believe God has included them or called them or asked them to join in, so they are afraid.
3. Afraid of God saving the world? no. they were hoping for a Messiah.
2. Afraid because God is going to use them.
4. Afraid because God is calling them to step out in action. maybe even change.
b. We read how God surprises Joseph.
1. We are told Joseph is a righteous man.
2. We hear that and think, “oh Joseph was a nice guy.”
3. But we should be thinking about righteousness in the context of Jewish law.
4. what we are being told is that Joseph follows the rules.
Joseph is right before God.
Joseph does the right thing according to the law.
Being righteous means one day maybe he could be a leader in the synagogue or even a Pharisee.
5. Being righteous means doing the right thing according to the law when Mary gets pregnant.
he’s not the father, so he must leave her behind.
he will do it kindly, quietly, but firmly.
6. He must maintain his righteousness. He must make a statement about what is the right way to do things.
c. Surprise - God has other plans for Joseph.
1. Stay with Mary.
2. Give up his righteousness before the law to stand with Mary in the world.
c. Are you ready and willing for God to surprise you?
move 3: Why does God use surprising people and surprise people?
a. Clue - the name Joseph is told for the coming baby.
1. Emmanuel
2. “God with us.”
b. Emmanuel comes to reveal God’s greatest desire - God’s desire to be with us.
1. To be in the world.
2. To be in relationship with us.
3. God with us means God working with people and through people.
Conclusion: Surprise - God with us means God working with you and through you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment