| "In every crèche, every Christmas manger scene, the strong, silent figure is Joseph, standing tall and slightly off center-unnoticed, as our eyes focus in on the beautiful baby cradled in the arms of his radiant mother. But in Matthew's account of the events leading up to Jesus's birth, the account I've just read, Joseph is anything but overlooked. For although he speaks not a word, he's the focus of all action. The account of Jesus's birth in the Gospel of Luke is Mary's time to shine, but the account in the Gospel of Matthew is Joseph's. Perhaps you noticed that Matthew's description of the birth of Jesus is not the one we usually call to mind, come Christmas time. Indeed, Matthew describes the event of Jesus's birth in just one verse, and even there it's mentioned quite indirectly and offhandedly. The text says: "Joseph had no marital relations with Mary until she had borne a son; and [Joseph] named him Jesus." (1:25) That's it. Matthew narrates no journey, no inn, no stable, no manger, no animals, no shepherds. Jesus is just born-boom-and then he's given his name, presumably in accordance with Jewish custom, on the eighth day, at the time of his circumcision. Do you wonder as I do why the Gospel of Matthew is so indirect about the birth of Jesus? Well, we'll never know for sure, but Professor Thomas Long, of the Candler School of Theology in Atlanta, suggests this. When beginning students in science are studying an eclipse or some other solar event, they are told never to look at the sun directly, but only indirectly. Similarly, Matthew has us look at the solar flare that is the miraculous birth of Jesus only indirectly, as it is reflected in the actions of Joseph. Matthew shows us how this holy event transforms Joseph, and thereby offers Joseph as a model for our own response. So it is that the Gospel of Matthew invites each and every one of us during the season ahead to become "Joseph-like." And that's what's prompting me to explore with you today the question: "What is being 'Joseph-like' like?" Well, Matthew tells us that to be Joseph-like is, in the first place, to be righteous. Matthew means by that that to be Joseph-like is not only to recite God's commandments but also to practice them, not only to know God's will for humankind but also to fulfill it in such a way that justice is tempered by mercy. Now in the Jewish society of Joseph and Mary's day, betrothal was a matter arranged between a man and the father of the bride-to-be. And betrothal usually occurred when a woman was quite young-twelve or thirteen years of age. Another sign that many in our civilization hold life at its root to be meaningless is what Dr. Hall calls our "unlimited exploitation of the natural order." By that he means that we in the West seek to sustain a lifestyle of consumption that could not be maintained were all the world's citizens given equal access to Earth's natural resources. During the period of betrothal, this very young woman would ordinarily remain resident in the home of her parents, without any sexual consummation of her new relationship. However, if her fiancé should die during this time, she would be viewed by others as a widow, not as an eligible young maiden. And if during this time she should, heaven forbid, have a sexual affair with another man, her act would be viewed as adultery, not simple fornication. Now, as Matthew tells our story, while Joseph is betrothed to Mary and she is presumably still living in her parents' home, he discovers that she's pregnant-a moral crisis of the highest order. As a righteous man who knows God's commandments, Joseph's initial response is that he must divorce Mary. Yet, as a truly righteous man, in whom justice is tempered by mercy, he resolves to do so in a way that is not vindictive, in a way that will not cause Mary public humiliation. So, filled with sorrow, Joseph resolves to cancel the marriage contract quietly and to exact no other penalties. But then comes a dream. And through that dream, Matthew highlights a second and a third aspect of what it is to be Joseph-like. You see, to be Joseph-like is not only to be righteous; it is also to listen to dreams-startling, life-displacing, life-giving dreams-and then to risk taking those dreams seriously, choosing to live by them and into them. (James E. Dittes) Four times in the opening two chapters of Matthew, an angel instructs Joseph in a dream (1:20-21; 2:13; 2:19-20; 2:22a), and four times he both listens and then does something in obedient response (1:24-25; 2:14; 2:21; 2:22b-23). The first of these four dreams stands at the heart of today's lesson. In it, an angel tells Joseph that Mary's pregnancy, which at first seems a moral outrage, is in fact quite a holy disruption. For Mary's pregnancy is not the result of an adulterous affair but is rather a gift from God's Holy Spirit. The angel urges Joseph not to fear doing something contrary to the mores of his time and gives him a new commandment that askes him to fulfill a higher righteousness. "Take Mary as your wife," the angel tells him, "and give to the son she's about to bear the name Yeshu'a, Jesus, which means 'Salvation [is from] the Lord.'" For this child is to be the "Emmanuel" spoken of centuries earlier by the prophet Isaiah, the one of whom we heard in today's First Lesson, the one who is to be "God-with-Us." This one will do what only God can do-healing divided selves and reconciling persons estranged and alienated from God. Yes, being Joseph-like is not only about being righteous; it is also about being open to learn of the startling new things God is proposing to do and then about responding obediently to those things. Joseph learns that being righteous does not mean looking up behavior in a rule book and then following it automatically. Being righteous means wrestling with the complexities of life's problems, listening for the voice of God, and then being willing to do new things for the sake of God. Being righteous means joining with God to live out the heart of the law rather than its letter, in order all the better to do God's work. So the first fruit of Joseph's obedience to the startling dream sent to him by God is that he overcomes his initial reservations and takes his pregnant fiancée, Mary, to be his wife, receiving her from her parents' home and accepting her into his own. And the second fruit of Joseph's obedience to the startling dream is that he accepts Jesus as his own son and adopts him into his family lineage, as a descendant of David. In that time and place, it was the mother who ordinarily named a baby (cf. Luke 1:31), but here in Matthew it is Joseph who names Jesus thereby indicating that Joseph accepts this child as his own son. Joseph assents not only to the miracle of conception but also to the miracle of incorporating Jesus into Joseph's family, into the lineage of the house of David. So the miraculous event of Mary's pregnancy is completed by a second miraculous event, Joseph's adopting of Jesus into his own family. Through the story told in this morning's Second Lesson, Matthew tells us a great deal about Joseph and about what it is to be Joseph-like. To be Joseph-like is, first of all, to be righteous, to embody a justice tempered by mercy. Thus, to be Joseph-like is to receive the traditions of God's just and merciful words passed on to us from of old and to let those old words guide our lives-such just and merciful old words as " Fill the hungry with good things" and "Let the oppressed go free." And to be Joseph-like is, second of all, to be open to hearing new words that God sends us, words that are startling and life-displacing, yet also life-giving. In wrestling with the complexities of life's problems, we are to be open, like Joseph, to the contemporary voice of God that's offered to help us address many of the moral issues of our time, from whether to conduct stem cell research, an issue focused on in last Tuesday's Science section of The New York Times-from that to whether to acknowledge the beauty of the love within faithful, committed homosexual partnerships, an issue being discussed this year in the Presbyterian denomination and others. And having listened for the new words that God is sending us on issues like these, to be Joseph-like is, third of all, to risk taking these new words seriously by responding to them obediently. As Jesus says later in Matthew, "Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of God." (Matthew 7:21 alt.) So to be Joseph-like is to offer ourselves as effective instruments of divine power and purpose, as we move from acting upon our own understanding of righteousness to acting upon God's new words. Joseph is transformed at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel into a prototype of true righteousness and faithful discipleship, into one whose actions in response to God's new words place him at odds with the social mores of his time and lead many persons to disapprove of his "lenient" behavior toward Mary. We, too, in this season are to let ourselves be transformed in this way, as we are called upon to respond to the moral crises of our time, with justice tempered by mercy. Joseph-a poor carpenter, and a person of tremendous dignity, one who acts out of mercy in the cause of justice, one for whom actions speak louder than words, one who is willing to give God the last word, and one who proves quite capable of parenting his adopted son into paths of steady, daily obedience to God. By Joseph's own obedience to God and to God's evolving plans, he, along with Mary, affords Jesus the loving home Jesus needs to grow into his mission as Emmanuel, as God-with-Us. Parents have a strong influence on their children, and Matthew wants us to see that this was true of Joseph and Jesus. It should not surprise us that Matthew will go on to show us a Jesus who himself grows up to be Joseph-like, who himself grows up to be not only like his heavenly Father but also like his earthly father. Matthew will go on to show us a Jesus whose righteousness, like Joseph's, embodies justice tempered by mercy. Matthew will go on to show us a Jesus who, like Joseph, is wise enough and courageous enough to both hear and act upon the new things God wants to do through him. Matthew will go on to show us a Jesus whose righteousness, like Joseph's, embodies justice tempered by mercy. Amen |
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