Scripture:
The well-known Messianic prophecy from Isaiah which I am about to read is really about divine signs of salvation in the midst of times of siege. King Ahaz is hold up in Jerusalem, which is about to be taken by a coalition army from the north. His troops are eating their last rations before starvation sets in. In the midst of this war-weary, starving world, the prophet Isaiah proclaims that a young woman will give birth, and the child will be called God with us. We who take this prophecy as a Christmas message can learn yet again that no matter how difficult our situation may seem, God is born to us. I read from the 7th chapter of Isaiah, verses 10-16:

Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, [11] Ask a sign of the LORD your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. [12] But Ahaz said, I will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. [13] Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? [14] Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. [15] He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good. [16] For before the child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in dread will be deserted.

How does the Christmas story appear from Joseph's view? No journey from Nazareth, no rejection at the inn. Only dreams which inspire obedience. Like King Ahaz, Joseph also faces difficult circumstances. Yet in the midst of Joseph's conundrum, God enters in. Hear the Good News as proclaimed by Matthew in chap. 1, verses 18-25:

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.

SERMON:

Advent is a season which tempts the preacher with an array of themes. It also presents us with some of the most interesting characters in scripture. My sermon this morning lifts up one of the least developed figures in the New Testamen t. It is called "Joseph's Choices."

Looking at all the advertisers in the paper, adorned with Christmas colors and comments, I found myself edging toward the unfamiliar posture of cynicism. Is it that the good news of the birth of Christ is so overwhelmingly attractive that it has drawn our entire society into its whirl? Religionists, atheists, and everyone in between make their pilgrimages to mall after mall, searching for the perfect gift: teetering between the warmth of giving driven by love and the emptiness of conjuring presents to fulfill expectations. This is our national ritual. And it's so powerful that people of all faiths get caught up in it.

As many of you know, I'm not a big fan of our culture's attempts to have religion on its terms. What troubles me is the way in which society invariably strips from religion its depth of symbol and meaning, preferring a much simpler message. Christmas is reduced to giving and receiving. The real meaning goes a little deeper.

I'm reminded of an article from the Boston Globe (1) a few years ago about Emmanuel Episcopal Church on Newbury Street. Emmanuel is well known for what it calls its musical ministry: each Sunday, the choir and orchestra perform an entire Bach cantata. In 1977, Emmanuel became the first institution in America to complete the Bach cycle. The new rector, it seems, while having nothing against the music and its role in worship, believes that there is more to worship than Bach. And so he found himself to be in trouble -- and the trouble was not a quiet matter, having received prominent attention in the Globe. In a comment that typified the dispute (and illustrates the point I'm making) one of his parishioners complained to the reporter that because of Father Kuhn, Emmanuel was becoming too much like a church!

In a similar vein, C.S. Lewis writes to a friend how his brother overheard a woman on a bus mutter, as the bus went by a church with a crib out front: "Oh Lord! They bring religion into everything. Look -- they're dragging it even into Christmas now!"(2)

We need to acknowledge that because we live in this culture, our understanding and experience of Christmas will at least in part be shaped by these forces. But we who are willing to claim the name of Christ as our own should be willing to rediscover a more original source for our understanding of the meaning of Christmas.

Perhaps this is not as easy as it sounds. Let's have a look at Joseph. Joseph and Mary were engaged. In those days, to be engaged was to be legally committed to one another -- the same as marriage is today. The only difference is that during the period of engagement, the couple would live apart until the man had accumulated a dowry of appropriate size, and then the man could take the woman to his home, and the husband and wife could live together.

Into this peaceful and ordinary circumstance, the Holy Spirit intrudes. God does the unexpected. Mary is found to be pregnant. In Matthew's Gospel, the focus turns to Joseph. He has three choices:

First: Joseph can accept Mary. However, this would invite the reproach of the town for marrying an adulteress, or for fornicating in advance of engagement.

Second: Joseph can expose Mary. Under Jewish law, this would have meant that she would be stoned or strangled. But since they now lived under Roman authority, instead, Mary would be subjected to such shame and repudiation that she would wish she were dead.(3)

Third: Joseph's final option is to quietly put an end to their legal relationship by divorcing her. Unquestionably, of the three choices, this represents the high road.

Notice that this is not a Win--Win, or even a Win--Lose decision. This is a Lose--Lose--Lose decision. It is easy to imagine the emotional exhaustion Joseph faced. Finally, he resolves to divorce Mary quietly, and falls asleep.

Once again, God does the unexpected. In a dream, an angel comes to Joseph and provides him with a rather extraordinary birth announcement:

This child in Mary's belly is to be called "God with us."

He was miraculously conceived by the Holy Spirit.

His name is divinely ordained: Joseph is to name him Jesus, which in Hebrew is Joshua, which comes from the same root as "save" and "salvation."

And like his namesake Joshua, this child's vocation is to save. But whereas Joshua saved the Israelites from their enemies, Jesus will save us all from our sins.

When Joseph awoke from his encounter with the angel, he obeyed what he had been told. Although it is not recorded, surely he was ridiculed and mocked. But his resolve was rooted in his faith. It now became clear to him that his life would never be the same. He had been drawn into a set of circumstances, a circle of characters, whose lives were governed by divine intervention. All he had ever wanted was to live his life with Mary, the one he loved, and to have a family; to raise his children and continue his work. Now he was getting much more than he had bargained for. He had become a central figure in the divine drama of salvation. As a faithful Jew, nothing could thrill him more than the coming of the Messiah. But to be cast as Jesus' foster father . . . that was a bit much!

Joseph and Mary: both pioneers. They were the first ones to receive the Christmas message. Joseph could have chosen to laugh at the message of the angel, confident that his culture was right, and that the Messiah would come as a triumphant warrior to conquer the Roman occupiers. But instead, he accepted God's message.

Joseph could have chosen to preserve his own reputation when he learned that Mary had become pregnant, and thus would have followed the practice of his culture. But instead, he obeyed the Angel's commands.

Joseph could have chosen to hold tight to his dreams which he saw being shattered right before his very eyes -- to try, through some desperate measure, to preserve his plans. But instead, he abandoned the only future he had known, and turned himself over to God.

In these ways we are given clues about what is asked of us if we seek to receive the Son of God at Christmas. We are asked to be open to the intrusion of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We are told that we should not hold on to nostalgic notions of holidays that might have been -- but that we should open ourselves to receive the saving, in-breaking energy of hope that will lead us to new horizons. And in these ways, we learn that our salvation shall come in a way which we do not expect, and that our culture does not lead us to expect.

The God who prepares Joseph and Mary to be parents -- the God who loves us enough to come and be with us, as one of us, so that we might all be saved -- this God of ours, if anything, is unconventional. And if we want to encounter our God -- like Mary and Joseph -- we shall have to extend ourselves beyond conventional boundaries, beyond the familiar routines we so love to repeat each holiday.

I want to share with you a Christmas story written by a recently divorced mother of three named Bonnie Smith-Yackel. In it -- as she describes how she got through the challenges of a failed marriage, a debilitating illness, and an empty bank account -- she shows the same open, trusting, creative spirit exhibited by Joseph in response to his news. She calls her story Gifts to Cherish.

Gifts to Cherish(4)


She knew that the last Christmas in the house where her three children had grown up was going to be very difficult, and she was sure it would be hard for the kids as well. Her divorce was final, and in the spring (when her youngest son turned eighteen) she would have to sell the house. She'd been too ill to work that year, so there was no money to buy presents for the kids. This troubled her greatly.

On Christmas Eve, the kids were scheduled to go to their father's house where they would get presents from him. They were then to come to her home where she would have nothing for them. She thought and thought about what she could do. Finally she hit on an idea. Why not give them things in the house that meant a lot to her and to them as a family? Since she was moving in the spring, this was an opportunity to go through the house and pick out items that had particular meaning for each child.

The first gift she thought of was for her daughter, and it was an easy choice. Her daughter loved her mom's rosebud necklace that once belonged to her grandmother; the beads of the necklace were actually made from rose petals. For her oldest son she chose a hand painted china cup and matching cake plate that he especially liked. Her younger son longed for his grandmother's collection of Indian head Pennies, and that seemed just right for him. She then chose one more gift for each: a desk from childhood, a 12 gauge shotgun, and a special pottery jar in which they'd kept school lunch money.

Although She was sure the kids would like what she chose for them, she wasn't yet satisfied. Something in the gift idea was missing. Not until Christmas Eve, when the kids were at their father's, did she come up with the idea that had been eluding her. Just giving them gifts was okay, but a treasure hunt would be so much more fun. She quickly hid the gifts, then wrote the clues needed to find them.
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When the kids arrived later that evening, she gave them their clues and the search was on. Her daughter's clue led her to the Christmas tree and the inside of an ornament where she found the rosebud necklace. Her older son's clue led him to the china cabinet. And this -- the only clue she remembered in its entirety -- led her younger son to a spider plant, hanging from the ceiling:

Later in life, with her children grown, she loved to visit them in their homes, and see the gifts which she turned over to them on that Christmas she had no money. It gave her great satisfaction to know that her children cherished these things that are part of their past and hers.

In a terrible year of emotional devastation and financial demise, Bonnie Smith-Yackel learned that she had everything she needed to assure those she loved how much she loved them.

A long time ago, in a non-descript year in which the Roman occupation of Palestine continued, a struggling carpenter's future was shattered when he learned that his betrothed was pregnant. Yet, in the midst of this wreckage, Joseph paid attention to God, and discovered that he was being given everything he needed to play a unique role in the divine drama of salvation.

Let us learn from these messengers. Amidst those parts of our lives that aren't what we would wish, let us abandon those wishes so that we can be open to the hope that we can receive when we pay attention to God. Every day, the extraordinary is breaking in on us. But it doesn't come with the flash of a new Nintendo laser gun. It comes in the most ordinary form -- like an ordinary baby, born as a refugee, with none but a foster father. Let us open our lives to these extraordinary moments, for in them lies our salvation. Amen.

Footnotes:
1. The Boston Globe, December 9, 1992; pp. 47, 51
2. C. S. Lewis, Letters to an American Lady, December 29, 1958, p. 80.
3. Bruce Vawter, Proclamation 3, Fortress Press; p. 33.
4. "Gifts to Cherish" by Bonnie Smith-Yackel, in Ron DelBene's Christmas Remembered, pp. 103f. The text as presented is edited to be read in the third person.