“You are Mary: You carry Jesus inside of you. You are Joseph: You are open and ready for what God makes possible.”
Grace to you and peace from God, who comes to us in peace. AMEN.
This past Thursday…[Ms. Lidia’s reading of Micah at the Preschool Family Christmas Chapel service: “There is hope! Live with hope you people of Bethlehem!”]
Ms. Lidia is Mary: She carries Jesus inside of her. She is Joseph: she is open and ready for what God makes possible. In the midst of so much pain and hardship—parents of preschool children know about that, others too: those mourning, the lonely, the sick, the lost, the depressed, the confused, the frightened all know. So to stand up in the face of all that, and proclaim as she did with such passion, joy and life (her inflection burned into my memory) that “there is hope, live with hope you people of Bethlehem” strikes me as an embodiment of this idea: that you too are Mary, you carry the spark of the divine inside of you. You are Joseph, you remain open and ready for what God makes possible.
Joseph was a good man. Our gospel text today says that he was a righteous man. If you can stomach the first 17 verses of Matthew you will see that he is a very Jewish man. And yet he doesn’t do what the Bible tells him to do. He has the courage to part ways with Scripture, to break the law, which says he should take part in stoning his pregnant fiancé. Sounds like an obvious moment for you and for me to take scripture seriously but not literally, but it wasn’t so easy for Joseph. He was terrified, I’m sure. There were pressures all around him. Chaos and confusion. What would you say—particularly those of you who work with teenagers and young adults--what would you say if a young man came into your office, dropped his head in his hands and said, “I’m engaged to be married, but my girlfriend is pregnant, and I know it’s not mine”? You probably wouldn’t say, let’s take her out back and do what the Bible says…but you might very well advise him to proceed with caution, and think through very seriously with him the option of ending this relationship. As a pastor, I would pray with him for clarity. [pause]
You know, it’s funny how Advent starts with a message, “WAKE UP” and ends with the image (even made the cover of the bulletin!) of sleep. Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, asleep! Both are so important for us as Jesus-followers, as Christians – both waking and sleeping.
One prayer we might say for the young man whose girlfriend is pregnant is that he might…simply…get some good rest in the midst of all the chaos swirling. That’s a good prayer for all of us this busy week. (You are Joseph, remember.) “Get some good rest,” even if that means during the night, when we normally sleep. May your sleep be deep and restore you. [pause]
I never knew it until I was about 10. We were on vacation all sharing the same motel room, somewhere in Alabama off I-10, on our way to Disney World, my 2 brothers and my 2 parents, and when everything finally got quiet at about 10:30, and the lights went out, I heard Mom and Dad softly saying a prayer in unison: We give you thanks heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ your dear Son, that you have graciously protected me today. I ask you to forgive me all my sins, where I have done wrong, and graciously protect me tonight. Into your hands I commend myself, my body, my soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel be with me, so that the wicked foe may have no power over me. AMEN. I later learned that this is Luther’s “Prayer at the End of the Day.” And that they say if every night, just as Luther once taught. My parents and my grandparents have said this every night of their marriage, even over the phone when they are apart.
I wonder if Joseph said a prayer something like this before he fell asleep that great night.
For God’s holy angel was in fact over him, Matthew tells us. God’s holy angel spoke to him those words that we all long to hear: “DO NOT BE AFRAID.”
Could our Good News, our Gospel message this week actually be that God calls us to sleep, so that we might get away from all the distractions of our daily lives, and hear the angel’s words that God is longing to share with this whole world? “DO NOT BE AFRAID.”
As we hear those worlds in the daytime they may sound like nothing more than a great but ancient mantra of Bible times (41+ in OT, 22 in NT). But God is offering us, for we are Joseph, the words “do not be afraid” to become part of our being, part of our fabric, part of our DNA. And sometimes it doesn’t get “into our bones” until we get to sleep, calming our bodies so that God can sink in. Some dreams change us forever.
And, when we go to sleep, as Joseph did, as we do, we allow God to be God. When we’re awake, we’re active, in charge, perhaps even unable and unwilling to let God interfere. But sleep is the openness to God’s handiwork in the world in our hearts. We completely surrender our potential and allow God to be God. We are Joseph. “Into your hands I commend myself, my body, my soul and all that is mine.” Luther prays the scripture, Jesus’ final words become ours too.
“We are Joseph: We are open and ready for what God makes possible. [pause] We are Mary: We carry Jesus inside of us.” Advent is not about waiting for Jesus to come, as if he’s not here already. Advent is both a mediation on and a celebration of his arrival – which has happened already (as we remember the sacred stories of his birth), which is happening right now—for we are cleansed with Holy Spirit water, we are stuffed with Jesus in this meal, and we are rolled up in the pages of scripture, and which will happen, when he comes again to judge the world in righteousness. Do not be afraid, this day, this night, this crazy week, this life Josephs, for, Mary’s, even while you wait, you carry Jesus with you, in you, and you will forevermore. AMEN.
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