First Sunday of Advent
November 30, 2008
 
 
  Fourth Sunday of Advent
December 21, 2008
 

First Sunday After Christmas
December 28, 2008
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  Instructions for Advent Monologues
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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December 14, 2008—Third Sunday of Advent

Lectionary Texts: Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11; Psalm 126; 1 Thessalonians 5:16-24; John 1:6-8, 19-28

Sermon Text: Matthew 1

Joseph: Ordinary Man, Extraordinary God

My brother and his wife had a baby boy recently. Little Emmet joined his older sister Eleanor who is two years old. Now, Eleanor is quite a little chickadee! She has a strong personality, and is stubborn and smart. Everyone was a little nervous about how she would handle this new baby in the house. She has surprised everyone by wanting to be Emmet’s mama. She has his pacifiers in a Tupperware container that she carries around. She calls them “mouths” and asks if “Baby brother Emmet needs a mouth.” She constantly asks if she can take the baby for her mom and tries to help with everything. She is a good big sister. But she is still a two-year-old. As you know a two-year-old is a precarious little person no matter what the circumstances. You never know when a two-year-old is going to fall off the cliff of craziness and melt down over the littlest thing! That happened last Sunday when everyone went out to dinner after church.

Ellie was going to sit in a booster seat between two girls from the church and the baby, in his car seat, was going to be put on one of those restaurant high chairs. Now, for some reason when Ellie saw her daddy with that chair she began to insist on sitting in. Even though she hates high chairs and fights tooth and nail not to get into one, that day the high chair was hers. She protested and then she screamed and then she cried and then she melted down so badly that her parents gave in and let her sit in the high chair. The moment her little bottom hit the seat of that chair she stopped crying and said with a satisfied and sneaky look on her face, “I got it, it’s mine.”

“I got it, it’s mine.” That is the mindset of a two-year-old. That is how they operate. “Mine” is a favorite word, “no” a close second. They push, they test, they want to control everything. “I got it, it’s mine” belongs in the phraseology of every two-year-old. But in reality, those are words aren’t just from two-year-olds. Those words rule our culture. It isn’t just toddlers that operate that way, everyone does. At work, “I got it, it’s mine.” In our families, “I got it, it’s mine.” At school, at the store, in the parking lot, “I got it, it’s mine.” We live in a world that is dominated by what we have, what we can gain, and what my rights get me.

Joseph could have lived with the “I got it, it’s mine” mindset if he wanted. Men, if you had been alive during the time all of this was taking place you would have had so many rights you wouldn’t know what to do with them all. A woman, on the other hand, was mere property--bought and sold, given and received. Because that was the case, Joseph had every right to abuse and harm Mary--every right in the world to have her stoned, every right to be angry and he had every right to shame her. She was engaged to him and here she ends up pregnant! He had the right to do with her whatever he wanted to do.

But Joseph took the high road. We all know that. Joseph first was going to divorce Mary--not publicly, but privately, quietly. He was a real gentleman it seems. It was his right to do whatever he wanted; he chose to be kind despite the shame and hurt. That is maturity. That is honor.

It didn’t end there. Even though Joseph was hurt by what had happened, even though he planned to quietly divorce Mary, he hadn’t completely shut out the voice of God. If he had, he never would have paid attention to the dream. He never would have heard the voice of God through the angel telling him that all was well. He never would have obeyed. But he did. Joseph still married Mary, Joseph named the baby Jesus, Joseph raised the Son of God.

What an incredible man. What a man of honor and courage. What a man of values and priorities. This Joseph, he was a great man. Let’s find out more about him together, shall we? Let’s look in our Bibles and read what he had to say, what he did, how he lived his life. I wanted to know Mary and I was able to know her, to know that beautiful spirit, that “May it be to me as you have said” attitude. We got to know her last week, let’s get to know Joseph.

Let me see here, what does the Bible say about Joseph? Matthew is the place to start. Let’s go there. Okay, we start with the genealogy--remember they are important! These names are not mere lists, they point us to something and we see that Jesus was born from the line of David, God’s great King. Let’s see here: “Eleazar had Matthan,

Matthan had Jacob,
Jacob had Joseph, Mary’s husband,
the Mary who gave birth to Jesus,
the Jesus who was called Christ.

There is it--his name, his family tree. We know some of Joseph’s history. But Joseph hasn’t said anything yet. Let’s keep looking. Here what is this?

The birth of Jesus took place like this. His mother, Mary, was engaged to be married to Joseph. Before they came to the marriage bed, Joseph discovered she was pregnant. (It was by the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t know that.) Joseph, chagrined but noble, determined to take care of things quietly so Mary would not be disgraced.
While he was trying to figure a way out, he had a dream. God’s angel spoke in the dream: “Joseph, son of David, don’t hesitate to get married. Mary’s pregnancy is Spirit-conceived. God’s Holy Spirit has made her pregnant. She will bring a son to birth, and when she does, you, Joseph, will name him Jesus--‘God saves’--because he will save his people from their sins.” This would bring the prophet’s embryonic sermon to full term:

Watch for this--a virgin will get pregnant and bear a son; They will name him Emmanuel (Hebrew for “God is with us”).

Then Joseph woke up. He did exactly what God’s angel commanded in the dream: He married Mary. But he did not consummate the marriage until she had the baby. He named the baby Jesus.

Okay, but we already knew all of that. Joseph still hasn’t said anything. Certainly there is more. (Flipping through the pages of the Bible.) After that part we read about the magi from the east, more dreams, of the family leaving to exile in Egypt, and then returning. Joseph doesn’t say anything. Let’s go to Luke 2 and see what we find. Mary and Joseph take Jesus to the Temple to be circumcised. Later Jesus gets separated from the family and there is confusion between Mary and Joseph--Joseph doesn’t say anything.

And now (flip through the pages) there is no more. Joseph doesn’t say anything. Last week we could read the words that Mary said and we even cut many of her “lines” to hear the most important. But this week we can’t find any words of the man who raised Jesus. This good man, this honorable man, this man who was asked to undertake this great task and instead of asserting his rights chose instead to follow God’s crazy plan! Why don’t we get to hear the words he spoke? I feel cheated! I want to hear a great speech, some great wisdom, some thought to take away from the mouth of Joseph.

He certainly deserves to say something. He certainly had a right to speak and to have his words cherished, passed down. Joseph has the right to be heard and yet his voice is strangely silent. Or is it?

When Jesus, a 33 year old man, gathered His disciples in the upper room on the night He was betrayed he spoke a blessing on His disciples. The bible tells us that He took the bread and broke it and said a blessing. He took the cup and said a blessing. Jesus would have learned that blessing as a child while He sat at His family’s table. The words He spoke that night were the same words that Joseph spoke every day as Jesus was growing up. Joseph can be heard in the words of Jesus.

Jesus would have called Joseph, Abba, which is the word you or I might use to say daddy, or papa. That was what Jewish boys and girls called their dads--it is family talk, loving talk. When Jesus wrestled in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was to be arrested, as He prayed, as He begged His heavenly Father to take the cup from Him He cried out something very strange: Abba Father, not my will but your will be done. That is what you should call your earthly father but no one used it to talk about the heavenly Father before. Jesus was the first to use that name for God. How could He have used that name so lovingly, so intimately, the name He would have called Joseph if Joseph hadn’t been a good father to Him? His intimate relationship with His heavenly Father mirrored the intimate relationship He must have had with His earthy daddy. Joseph can be heard in the words of Jesus.

And I wonder how many of the stories that Jesus told He had heard Joseph tell. I wonder what pieces of furniture they made together in the carpenter’s shed where Jesus’ hands followed the movements of Joseph’s hands. I wonder what they talked about late into the night, or on the road, or around the dinner table. I would have loved to hear what Joseph had to say. But I think we have. Joseph can be heard in the words and the life of Jesus.

Paul writes that Jesus did not consider equality with God as something to be grasped but emptied himself and taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. What an amazing Savior. He didn’t consider His rights first, didn’t cling to what He could gain, what He should have, who He should be, how others should think of Him.

It sounds an awful lot like someone else I know. Someone else who didn’t say, “I got it, it’s mine.” But instead lived a life that said, “I will follow your will and your way, O God.” No, we don’t read his words. There are no beautiful songs or thought provoking stories that begin, “And Joseph said.” But there is one powerful thing--a Son. A Son, who although He was fully God, was also fully man. A Son, who needed a father to guide Him, to point Him in the right direction. Jesus needed Joseph.

And we need more people like Joseph in this world. Not the honorable Joseph who was going to do the right thing by kindly and quietly divorcing Mary. No, we need the Joseph who had the dream and chose to obey. Those who don’t worry about what other people think, those who are less concerned about themselves and more concerned about others, dads who take the time to listen, to love, to train, moms who are patient and understanding and willing, people who are willing to go where God calls. There may be no quotes in a book somewhere that you or I have made. No newspapers may write about us, no interviews on TV, no awards or accolades may be done in our name--but I would like to think that, like Joseph, it doesn’t matter. I am walking with Jesus. Just like we can catch glimmers of who Joseph was in the man that Jesus grew up to be, people should be able to catch glimmers of who Jesus is in the parents, the spouses, the children, the students, the friends that we are.

Let’s get to know Joseph a little better this morning.

The Third Sunday of Advent

Joseph’s Monologue

Joseph: I’ll tell you that when Mary came to me to tell me that she was pregnant it was like a dark cloud came over me. I had been preparing for our marriage. The time was right. I loved Mary and her family was pleased with me. It was a match made in heaven. It was a time that was full of light, hopefulness, and joy as we looked into the future together. But that news, that story that she told me. What was I to do with that? I know she was afraid of what I might do when she saw my eyes. I know that the darkness I was feeling was visible in my eyes. I didn’t say much then and there. I just listened and then told her I had a lot to think about.

I really did have a lot to think about. What a story! An angel? But she told it with such passion. The Holy Spirit was the one who made her pregnant? The look of awe and wonder on her face as she said it made me almost believe it. But how could I? No one else would believe it. Everyone else would laugh about her foolishness. I didn’t know if I should be angry or sad or both. The cloud of darkness and uncertainty descended on me and I was very low in those days.

I knew that the Law would allow me to have her publicly humiliated and even stoned, if I desired. The thought did come to my mind. She had betrayed me. She had misled me. She had ruined my plans for the future. My name was going to be dishonored and I would be mocked. I didn’t want any of that. But that anger subsided in me because I loved Mary. She had been like a light to me, brought me such hopefulness. I couldn’t harm her. Even though we were not officially married we were betrothed, which in our culture was a binding contract. The only way for me to break that was to divorce her and I decided to do just that, quietly, so as not to draw attention to what would soon be obvious anyway. No one would be able to miss Mary’s bulging belly in a few months anyway. Quietly I would divorce and quietly I would retreat into the darkness of my despair.

As I laid down at night I couldn’t help thinking about all I had lost, all that had been stolen from me. One night while I was sleeping something strange happened to me. I had my plan in mind, I knew what I was going to do, but then this dream. This dream wouldn’t let me go. In my dream an angel appeared to me and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a Son and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

I couldn’t believe it. Was this just a dream that I had concocted on my own because of the darkness of my circumstances, because I wanted a way out, because I loved Mary? What was this all about? I woke up but I didn’t open my eyes yet because I wasn’t sure what to think. I had this overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort. I wanted this dream to be true. I wanted that light, that joy I had to be real again. I slowly opened my eyes and it was as though the room was full of light. I squinted into the brightness and I knew that the dream hadn’t been my own design but was of God. I knew I had no other choice but to do what the angel in the dream had told me to do.
I wasn’t going to divorce Mary. I wasn’t going to hide in the darkness of my pain. I was stepping into the light that God had shone on me and I would do what He was calling me to do. I didn’t care what it might cost me in reputation. I didn’t care what others might say. I only cared that the cloud of darkness was lifted. A light was dawning on the earth and I was going to be a part of it, however I could, I was going to be a part of that light.

Joseph’s Character sings: Joseph’s Lullaby

The Third Sunday of Advent--Candle Lighting and Nativity Set Up

Reader 1: Today we place Joseph, the father of Jesus, into the Nativity scene.

Reader 2: We thank God that Joseph didn’t allow his pride to get in the way of God’s plan.

Reader 3: We thank God that Joseph didn’t allow his pain to overcome him in anger.

Reader 1: We thank God that Joseph didn’t let the darkness of his sadness cover up the Light God wanted to shine in the world.

Reader 2: May we all, like Joseph, fix our eyes on God and not on our own selfish desires.

Reader 3: May we all, like Joseph, in the midst of our pain turn our eyes to God and not inward.

Reader 1: May we all, like Joseph, let the Light of Christ shine on us for the glory of God.

Reader 2: Today we place Joseph, the father of Jesus, into the Nativity scene. (The Nativity Helper places the figurine of Joseph in the Nativity.)

Reader 3: Today we light the third candle of the Advent wreath as a symbol of the Light of Christ in us. (The Candle Lighter lights the first, second, and third candle of the Advent Wreath.)

Congregational Singing: Shine on Us