Isaiah 2: 1-5
Psalm 122
Romans 13: 11-14
Matthew 24: 36-44

Central Westside United Church is housed in an imposing building on a busy street-corner in Owen Sound, Ontario. They have one of those signs which can be changed weekly to display church information including the title of the upcoming sermon, or other current event. The minister tells me that this past week the sign read: November 28, Advent 1, Communion, Sword Not Required.

“Sword not required!”

Who would bring a sword to church anyway?

Who even owns a sword these days?

I gather from the minister that the janitor deliberately forgot to indicate that the last phrase was, as you have likely guessed, the “sermon title”. It was one of those titles designed to make people scratch their heads and wonder what the minister had been taking when he dreamed that one up! You may have wondered the same thing when you read my sermon title.

The closest I have ever been to a working blacksmith shop was at one of several historic sites across the country. Until I was in Junior High School we had a little building on the corner of a fork in the road near our house. It was a great place to play as it had a partial loft and lots of hay. I remember being told that many years before it had been a blacksmith shop. Local farmers would bring horses to be shod or have farm equipment made or repaired. I doubt the shop ever made a sword, let alone turned one into a plowshare.

Isaiah is writing in a time when war and invasion was imminent. War had been a part of their small nation’s life since it began with the invasion of Jericho. King David’s Kingdom had been enlarged and solidified by war, but now the nation had split in two and mighty Babylon was on the warpath. Isaiah knew what lay ahead.

I’m sure that, if Isaiah were writing this passage today he’d be talking about bombs, guns and knives and not swords and spears. It’s not too difficult to make the transition though. In short, the implements of war are turned into implements whereby the people are fed and the nation can grow and prosper. Somewhere in the back of my mind I recall a tv show which depicted an artist who turns guns into art as a statement against violence.

In ancient times swords and spears were the implements of war, while plows and pruning hooks were implements of agriculture. One of the most precarious things to be doing in a time of war is to try and grow food. The fields were outside of the protective walls behind which people most often lived. Being ‘out in the fields’ made one vulnerable to attack and the crops were always vulnerable to the enemy through threat of theft or destruction. Yet, an assured supply of food is essential to the survival of any nation.

In wartime, almost everything is sacrificed for ‘the war effort’. Those of you who are old enough to remember the Second World War will remember rationing. Each person could only buy so much of this or that, no matter how much money they had. The farmers who could grow their own food were much better off than their city cousins in that regard. Country folks had all the meat and eggs and butter they were able to produce but even in the country the way had a way of taking over one’s life and outlook, even though the war is taking place far away.

Of course, this passage from Isaiah is a familiar one which we have all heard before. The image to which I have been referring, that of beating swords into plowshares, is the one which givesthe peace organization, “Project Plowshares” its name.

I am sure that many people regard the sentiment of the passage as unrealistic, if not downright dangerous. I believe that it was equally unrealistic and just as dangerous in Isaiah’s day and age. Yet, we begin the church year with this image and this hope. We begin our church year, not just with ‘the way things are’, but with a vision of the way ‘things could be’. It is a vision of reversal, and of inverted expectations. It is a vision of the One whose coming we await, as the sovereign of the whole world. You see, in the season of Advent we are not just waiting for baby Jesus; though we ARE doing that. In the season of Advent, we are not just waiting for a rebirth of faith within our own hearts; though that IS part of it. In the season of Advent we also wait for, and focus on God’s vision for creation; a creation marked by peace and unity. It is a creation that is not limited by the reality of war, violence, injustice, poverty, mistrust, and an excessive nationalism that causes conflict but a world enveloped by peace, love and justice.

We begin Advent with the hope of peace. We begin Advent in the hope of a world in which swords, or the implements of war, will not be required anymore.

Yet, just as the job of a blacksmith is a skilled profession and is hard, hot and backbreaking work, so too is the work of peacemaking. Peace involves more than the absence of war, and a sword does not transform itself by merely being unused. Making peace, as well as all other aspects of discipleship, involves conscious decisions and conscious actions against hate and violence.

There was once a Jewish family who moved to the city of Billings, Montana. All was well until Hanukkah came around. As is common in Jewish households, the family placed a menorah, a candlestick with 7 candles, in their window. That evening their window was broken and anti-Semitic graffiti painted on their house. The next evening several neighbours, who were Christians put menorahs in their windows and by the end of the week the whole street were displaying them. That weekend the local newspaper printed a picture of a menorah so that everyone in town could put a menorah in their window. It was a peaceful response of solidarity to the violence that brought community and peace. A story told by Bronwyn Yocum on the PRCL-L preaching list our of Louisville Kentucky

During the Second World War the German occupying forces required all Jewish people to wear yellow stars which was supposed to mark and degrade them. However, some Christians who were appalled at the treatment that their Jewish friends and neighbours were receiving, also wore yellow stars as a sign of peaceful protest. It was a courageous thing to do in a very dangerous and uncertain time.

But, haven’t we been here before? Why haven’t we achieved peace on earth, after all the years of hoping for it and working for it? I can’t really answer that question, except to reiterate what it is that Isaiah has to proclaim. These verses are not so much a “prediction”, as they are an “affirmation”, a conviction that history will reach its goal. The goal, the reign of God will result in a radical transformation of existing conditions. The people will move from nationalism and conflict to unity and peace. The future though is God’s and it is not for us to bring in this new age. All on our own. While the work is primarily God’s, our task is to allow the Gospel to transform our hearts and lives. Our task is to transform weapons and agricultural tools and to turn away from war, both literally and figuratively. This is the message in every age respond to the good news and to participate, as of it has already been fulfilled.

In this season leading up to Christmas we are made much more aware of the homeless and those who don’t have enough food or enough heat. We begin to see the familiar Salvation Army “kettles” outside of store and mall entrances. We are asked to think of others less fortunate as we go about the Christmas shopping for our own family and friends. It seems easier, in this season of good will, to be generous, and organizations such as the Salvation Army depend on the generosity of the season for their year round ministry. Yet I continue to wonder why Christmas change cannot last ALL year.

That’s our call: to make Christ’s love and generosity and Spirit reign in our lives all year. To live so that peace making is not just what we do, but who we are. We are called to live in and out of an expectation that kindles hope.

International peace and and ned to poverty and injustice may not come, even if we visualize it and hope for it and work for it. Wishing and praying for it will not necessarily make it happen but it certainly will not come unless we imagine it, unless we believe and articulate the vision that God wills the end of all those things that make creation less than it can be. Our call is not to success but to faithfulness and this is one area of faithfulness where we most need to remember this principle. Let us live in faithfulness and love, trusting in God as the one who has the power to take our efforts and transform not only our hearts and lives but also the world itself. Let us await the Christ with hope, trust, expectation and daring faithfulness. Lets get out our hammer and anvil and work up a sweat as we work to live God’s vision. Amen.

Isaiah 11: 1-10
Psalm 72: 1-7, 18-19
Romans 15: 4-13

Matthew 3: 1-12

Truro, Nova Scotia was once known for its stately elm trees gracing many of its streets. The realization that Dutch Elm Disease had begun to affect Truro’s trees, put an end to all of that as any diseased tree had to be cut down., but when the need to remove those diseased trees became unavoidable a plan for a new venture was put in place. It was decided that the stumps could be transformed into sculptures, to add life and beauty to the community and to honour its past, present and future. The first was done by a New Brunswick artist and is a likeness of Sir. Adams Archibald, Truro’s own “Father of Confederation”.

The first time I saw the sculptures it wasn’t too hard to figure out what had been done with the missing trees. At last count, three artists have completed 27 tree sculptures. One of the sculptures depicts a graduate from teacher’s college with a student, one is a sculpture of 2 eagles sitting atop a tree and another is a native RCMP officer. Each of them relates to the life and heritage of that town, now known as the ‘tree sculpture capital’.

The prophet Isaiah was speaking to a nation on the verge of collapse and undergirding his message of doom and gloom is a message of “trust in God” and of “hope for the future”. He proclaimed that the power of God could bring life from death and hope from despair and hopelessness. Many theories have been advanced as to the identity of this “shoot from the stump of Jesse”. It seems quite clear to me that Isaiah was not intending to refer to an event hundreds of years into the future, in other words the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, but rather to a much more immediate action of God to save the people. However, these verses have long been interpreted to apply to God’s saving action in Jesus of Nazareth. Indeed, Isaiah’s proclamation can refer to the continued actions of a God who was determined to show the people the way and to save them from their own sin.

In today’s passage from the gospel we hear John the Baptizer making a connection between this passage and the imminent arrival of the preacher, teacher and baptizer named Jesus.

Now John, son of Elizabeth and Zachariah, was certainly an interesting character! I don’t think he read very many books on winning friends and influencing people. He certainly wouldn’t make a very good ‘after dinner speaker’. You know what to expect at such a thing: the speaker, usually someone from ‘away’, will compliment the cook, thank the organizing committee and say some kind words about the hosts, the sites visited and the experience in general. A funny story will be thrown in to put the crowd in a good mood before the topic at hand is addressed. It’s generally what is expected, and it’s what is polite and proper.

John does not pull any punches. He had very little to say that was “nice and polite”. If the people expected that his words would be easy to hear and give them something to get them though the week ahead, they would have been disappointed. He left them with something to think about, alright, but it was a very uncomfortable legacy. It has been said, that the task of the preacher is to “comfort the afflicted” and to “afflict the comfortable”. John was certainly into afflicting the comfortable. In today’s passage we get the feeling that his harsh words are aimed at the scribes and pharisees. They were the clergy and religious leaders of the day; the stereotype example of those who felt that they “had it made”. Not all pharisees and scribes were deserving of John’s harsh criticism, of course, and we must always remember that the gospels give a one-sided and often biassed account of the Jewish leaders. We must always move from the “world of the text” to our world, from John’s words to “them” to John’s words to “us”.

As I see it, John is addressing those among the crowd who have come to hear him out of mere curiosity. He speaks to those who have no intention of buying his product. He addresses the ones who have come to pick holes in his theology. He saves his harshest words for those whose lives are “all show and no substance”.

John is not a “once man freak show” in a carnival. He has no time to waste. His ministry is serious business. He asks the people the rhetorical question: Why have you come? Why? Are you here to satisfy your curiosity? Are you here because your friends have brought you? Are you here because you have nothing better to do? Are you here because it’s what you always do on a Tuesday afternoon?

In his sermon as we have it reported in this gospel, he comes right to the point! He calls the people to repentance. This call is issued to rich and poor, scribe and pharisee and to men and women alike. His call to repentance is in the imperative mood and with it comes an urgency that cannot really be rivalled. Repent! Repent! The time is short. Repent!

What is repentance? Well, it is NOT feeling ‘sorry’ for what one has done wrong? It is not ‘feeling bad’. I am told that the Greek word that is placed on John’s lips in the original Greek New Testament is the same as the one used today by soap box evangelists in Greece, ìåôáíïéÝôÝ. It is a command and means, literally: “turn around”! To repent then, is deciding to change or live in a new way, and then actually going IN A NEW DIRECTION. Repentance is serious business and is not something to be entered into lightly.

John’s message was simple and directed at each and every person there that day. John’s question of us is exactly the same: Why are you here today? John’s message to us is exactly the same: Repent!

As we advance toward Christmas Day we are called to reflect on what Christmas really means and what the birth of the Christ child really means. There has been so much commercialization of Christmas that it is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. So many people who observe no religion at all in their lives 50 weeks of the year, celebrate some version of Christmas, that it is hard to know what is proper and appropriate for us as God’s people.

Christmas is not just about “warm feelings of goodwill to all and peace on earth”. Of course there is nothing wrong with such good feelings, but as God’s people our commitment must go farther than warm feelings and good ideas. Our lives must at least attempt to put our beliefs into action.

The secular world focuses on January 1 as the time of new beginnings, of resolutions to begin again and to change this or that! There is nothing wrong with ‘New Year’s Resolutions’, but as God’s people we begin our year with the expectation of the birth of the Christ and we PREPARE for this birth by seeking to live in a new way.

Are we here to set our bearings for this journey of faith? Are we hear to check our road maps for the journey ahead? Are we here to set the direction for our journey of repentance?

Christmas is the celebration of a fulfilment of God’s age old promises to save the people. Christmas is a continuation of the actions of this great and Gracious God, to save the people. At its heart, Christmas celebrates ‘Emmanuel’, God with us. We celebrate the ‘light of the world’ just as we in the northern hemisphere are experiencing the world at its darkest and the nights at their longest and coldest. As the light fades away, the Child of Bethlehem comes to proclaim the return of the light. Into the cold and darkness of the longest nights of the year comes God’s saving action, God’s light that drives away despair and brings hope. But it’s not just a hope for longer and warmer days it’s a hope for the world, a hope for humanity.

Why have we come here? For a warm and cozy feeling, or for a glimpse of this light that shines in the darkness in such a way that the darkness cannot overcome it. Have we come to merely glimpse this light or to seek to carry it with us each and every day? _________________________________

Baptism Ending 2 infant baptisms happening today

I believe that this is best done within the context of the community of faith, and not as a kind of solitary journey. The one mark and sign of belonging to that community and being committed to that community of faith has been the sign of baptism. Grace and Jessica have been brought here because their parents want to make a statement about how their children will be raised. They has been brought here to celebrate the love and grace of a God that has been with them since their very beginning. They have been brought here because their parents want to present them to this community so that we can mark them with the sign of Christ and incorporate them formally into our fellowship.

The parents will make promises to raise their daughters in the love and grace of God and in the way of Jesus of Nazareth and commit themselves to that. BUT WEE TOO make promises. We too have a ministry to these newest of members and to all children and essentially to one anther. We are the body of Christ supporting one another and encouraging one another in faith and witness as we all seek to follow God’s call to us in Jesus of Nazareth.

Baptism tells the world that we march to the beat of a different drummer. Baptism tells the world that we have something else to live for, something other than money and power and prestige and material possessions. Baptism tells the world that we are a people who live Christ’s love and live on behalf of other people, not just for ourselves. Looking out for number one may be the way to get ahead, but it is not the way of Christ. We follow One who would not sacrifice his integrity to save his own life; he showed that the truth of his faith had been buried under mounds of tradition and had become distorted.

Are we here to commit ourselves anew to this journey? Let us turn around and seek to go in the way of Jesus of Nazareth.

Let us repent and prepare for the holy birth. Amen.

Communion ending. Communion is celebrated in the church that did not have a service last week. The church with the baptisms had communion last week. Next week the other congregation that had communion last week will have a baptism! The fourth church is closed for the winter!!!!

So we prepare for the birth of this child by hearing the passages of hope and by following, by God’s grace, the command to repent, to turn around. Even though many of us have been Christian for our entire lives and most of us were born into the faith we still need this seasonal reminder. Repentance is not only for non-believers. John is preaching to the leaders of the people as well as the common folk. There are some who believe that conversion, or the decision of faith, happens only once but I think we are closer to the mark if we see it as one theologian described it, “the gradual bending of the human will to the will of God”.

It’s the series of small, everyday decisions, where we choose to go this way and not that way, where we choose to do this and not that, where we choose this kind of lifestyle over that one, which makes up repentance and the journey of faith.

It’s a life long process.

So we are asked the question: Why have we come here today?

Let us gather as God’s people, around the family table. Let us gather to and wine for the journey; the foods of faith. Let us gather as forgiven people. Let us gather as a people on a journey of continual growth and change as we seek to follow the one who came after John, Jesus of Nazareth.

Amen!

Isaiah 35: 1-10
Luke 1: 47-55
James 5: 7-10
Matthew 11: 2-11

Jesus of Nazareth, just who are you? Are you the One who is to come or shall we wait for another? Are you the One to fulfil our hopes? Are you the Messiah, the one who is supposed to put this nation back on the world map as a nation of power and greatness? Or, shall we continue to wait for someone else? Give me an answer, Jesus.

There is a story told of a shoemaker who had a dream and in that dream an angel told him that he would be visited by the Christ child that Christmas Eve. He was so excited that he could hardly wait to get started. He cleaned his small home. He swept it so many times that he almost started to wear down the floor.

He sat down and thought for a long time about the gift he would give to the Holy Child. He decided that a pair of soft leather baby boots lined with lamb’s wool would be the most appropriate. He went out and bought the softest leather he could find and the whitest lambskin and he made the most beautiful pair of child’s boots he had ever made.

Then he went out and bought the choicest piece of beef and took his best vegetables from his cellar and on the morning of Christmas eve he made the most savoury pot of beef stew one could imagine.

He washed up and put on his best suit and he sat in his chair by the fire to await the Christ Child. He waited and he waited. There was a knock at the door but it was not the Christ Child who greeted him; it was a group of carollers who wanted to sing for him. He listened politely, but impatiently; finally they moved on and he went back to waiting. As he waited it grew darker and darker. He lit his lamp and sat down again and waited some more. Finally, near midnight, just as he was about to fall asleep, he heard a faint knock at the door. He opened it in great anticipation. He was surprised and disappointed to find, not the Christ Child, but rather a poor woman carrying a small and poorly dressed baby.

“Please kind sir, my son and I are on a long journey, and it is very cold, may we come in and warm ourselves by your fire?”

The man’s heart went out to them and he invited them in, albeit a bit reluctantly. Soon she had taken off her shabby coat and the child began to chatter in the way that only babies can.

The man looked at his clock and then at the pot of stew on the back of the stove and almost before he could help himself he asked, “Have you eaten? Would you like some stew”.

“You are very kind sir” said the woman, “We have travelled a long way and have not eaten for many hours.”

So the man ladled out a big pot of stew for the mother and the woman ate the stew and then sat by the fire feeding her baby and enjoying the heat and the warmth. Then, when the woman thanked the man again for his kindness and began to get ready to leave, he noticed hat the child’s feet were bare and still looked very cold. He looked at the clock. By now it was already well past midnight. The angel in the dream had been wrong; the Christ Child was not coming to HIS house that year. He might as well give the boots to someone who could use them. He looked at the boots he had so lovingly made for the Christ Child and he got up, picked up the boots and took them over to the mother. She smiled as he put them on the baby’s feet. They fit perfectly. Then, gradually, but unmistakably, the mother and child began to shine; to glow with some kind of inner light. The man realized then that he had been entertaining the Holy Child all along.

There are many folk tales that tell the same basic truth; we find the Holy when we act in ways of kindness and generosity and service. We find the Christ when we follow in the way of God as taught and modelled by Jesus of Nazareth.

In today’s gospel lesson we read of the time when the disciples of John the Baptizer had come to Jesus to ask him about his identity. It could be that John had doubts about Jesus. Perhaps he was not the kind of guy he had been expecting after all. After all, Jesus did not take charge, recruit an army and incite the people to a religious revolt against the Roman government. He wasn’t interested in that. Perhaps, thought John, Jesus wasn’t THE ONE after all.

As God’s people we are called to make a decision about the way of Jesus and whether or not this way holds the age old hopes of the world. We are called to decide if the way of this Jesus is the way to true and abundant life. We are called to decide it it is the way of salvation and presents a way of hope and life for the world. Once we have made that decision we are to live it into being.

John the Baptizer was not a follower of Jesus as far as we know. He was what some churches would call a “seeker”. In many ways the “seekers” of our day and age come to us asking John’s question: “Does your Jesus have any message of hope for this world?” Just as Jesus answered the question by asking the people what they ‘saw’, we answer by our actions.

The question for us is: What do they see? Do they see a community that is more concerned with image and maintaining the status quo or do they see a group of people seeking to be faithful to the call of the gospel? Do they see people afraid to enter into new ventures or do they see a people willing to step forward in faith as they try and determine the call of the gospel? Do they see a people who trusts in the God of the gospel or a people who really only pay lip service to the claims of faith.

What do they see?

I believe that the journey of faith is best undertaken within the context of the community of faith, and not as a kind of solitary journey. We ask and receive answers to these questions within the context of the community. The traditional mark and sign of belonging to that community and being committed to that community of faith has been the sign of baptism. Trueman has been brought here because his parents want to make a statement about how their child will be raised. They made the same statement about Harrison. Trueman has been brought here to celebrate the love and grace of a God that has been with him since his very beginning. He has been brought here because his parents want to present them to this community so that we can mark him with the sign of Christ and incorporate him formally into our fellowship.

The parents will make promises to raise their son in the love and grace of God and in the way of Jesus of Nazareth and commit themselves to that.

BUT AS A COMMUNITY OF FAITH, WE TOO make promises. We too have a ministry to this newest member, to all children and, to one anther. We are the body of Christ supporting one another and encouraging one another in faith and witness as we all seek to follow God’s call to us in Jesus of Nazareth.

Baptism tells the world that we march to the beat of a different drummer. Baptism tells the world that we have something else to live for, something other than money and power and prestige and material possessions. Baptism tells the world that we are a people who live Christ’s love and live on behalf of other people, not just for ourselves. Looking out for number one may be the way to get ahead, but it is not the way of Christ. We follow One who would not sacrifice his integrity to save his own life; he showed that the truth of his faith had been buried under mounds of tradition and had become distorted.

I believe that it was this way of being in the world that Jesus was trying to have the disciples of John see, and take back to their leader. The age old promises of God are very real, but Jesus showed them lived out in a very new way.

Are we here to commit ourselves anew to this journey? Let us open our eyes and seek the Christ. As we seek let us go in the way of Jesus of Nazareth.

As we seek we are, in fact, preparing for the Holy Birth. God will come to us. Emmanuel.

Amen.

Isaiah 7: 10-16
Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19
Romans 1: 1-7
Matthew 1: 18-25

Once upon a time a little girl was asked what her favourite part of the Bible was. The answer surprised the questioner when she replied, “I love the begats”.

At the beginning of Chapter 1 of Matthew are those verses we all know of, but few, if any of us, were required to memorize - thank goodness! In over 40 years of going to church, I can only recall hearing the entire chapter read in a worship service ONCE! Using the phraseology from the King James Version, it goes like this: Abraham begat Isaac and Isaac begat Jacob and Jacob begat Judah and his brothers, and so it goes for 3 sets of 14 generations each until it comes to a Jacob who became the father of Joseph who married Mary, the mother of Jesus.

So there they are, in three sub-lists, the names of 42 people, well known ones and the long-forgotten; the faithful ones and the not so faithful, all carrying on the family name, all moving the story of God’s salvation forward as the story moved from one generation to the next. What could be a more ordinary beginning than this. Most of us could go back a few years and place our families in that same kind of context. Beth is the daughter of Charlotte who was the daughter of Frank who was the son of Mary, the daughter of John, the son of James, the son of James, the son of James, the son of Stewart Robert, the son of Robert, the son of Mary, the daughter of John, the son of James, the son of James, the son of James, the son of Christopher who died in 1619. I could trace other strands of my tree but can’t get back on most of them farther than the 1800's.

Matthew begins with a very ordinary kind of thing: a genealogy. The way Matthew tells it, the birth of Jesus was the most ordinary thing in the world. However, as we delve deeper, the way Matthew tells it, the birth of Jesus was the most extraordinary thing that God had ever done.

Into the ordinary and every day story of people having children and those children having their own children and so on, comes the story of Mary, her fiancé Joseph, and baby Jesus. You see, astute readers will notice that right from the beginning, this ordinary story has a very extraordinary ring about it.

Mary wasn’t the first woman to be faced with a pregnancy before marriage. Joseph wasn’t the first man to have received such news. BUT this isn’t an every day pregnancy; according to the angel at least.

At the beginning of this story we meet a man named Joseph. He’s once of the unsung heroes of the faith. We will never know how much the Christian church really owes him. His name was Joseph, Joseph of Nazareth. When we meet him, he’s engaged to Mary, a young woman from the same town, Nazareth. Many people have suspected that he was ten or more years older than his wife, Mary, but that cannot be known for certain. It seems likely that he died before Mary’s son, Jesus, began his ministry of preaching the Good News of God, because the latter parts of the Gospel story mention him only by name; he is never present in the stories.

What do we know about this man? We are told that he was a carpenter, the son of a man named Jacob. As a carpenter he would have worked in wood or stone, likely building everything and anything that needed building. Our passage for today also tells us that he was a righteous man. We could easily let this little factoid slip past us, but I believe that it is of great importance in understanding who Joseph was and what made him tick. In that time and place “being righteous” meant some very specific things; a particular way of living. A truly righteous man would be one who followed the laws of God as outlined in the Torah. His attitude to the law was also important. A righteous man would see this kind of ‘law abiding’ behaviour as a freely accepted obligation, certainly not a grudging burden. He would do the right thing because he wanted to do the right thing. He would want to do the right thing because it was the right thing to do, not because he was afraid of God’s disfavour or punishment. A truly righteous man would live a life of personal purity and of justice toward others. He would be on guard against any form of idolatry and would make sure to keep the Sabbath and the various religious festivals. Participating in the required sacrifices at the Jerusalem temple would have been part of his life, even though it was expensive and time consuming to do so, and even though many others had given it up as a relic of the past.

To be called a “righteous man” was a high compliment. For Joseph, it turned out to be his biggest dilemma.

Dilemma? How could it be a dilemma? What is wrong with doing the right thing? What is wrong with seeking to be righteousness? What is wrong with naturally and genuinely seeking to avoid sin, for good reasons?

Of course there is nothing WRONG with it, but ironically, it placed Joseph in a very deep quandary. You see, from Joseph’s point of view, and from the perspective of the ‘law of God’, he had done everything the right way. He had his life all planned. He was engaged to Mary. They would marry and then have children. That’s what they both wanted. If it was God’s will, he would have a son who would learn the trade of carpentry and who would carry on the family name. Joseph would teach him the ways of God and the traditions of the people of Israel. He would have a son he could be proud of, and who would look after him, in his old age; a son whom people would look at and exclaim, “That’s Joseph’s boy.” What more could a righteous man want?

However, Joseph’s dreams and hopes were to be shattered by the news that his Mary was expecting. We are not told how Joseph found out that Mary was expecting; perhaps she herself told him. He knew the child was not his. He also knew that he could not go through with the marriage and that was final. Yet, whether out of righteousness, or out of abiding love, he resolved to have a private divorce. Even in his hurt and his feelings of being betrayed, he wanted to spare Mary any unnecessary pain and humiliation. His actions would also save her life.

First, we need to know a few things about marriage customs of that day and age. Marriages were often arranged by the parents when the partes were quite young. At the appropriate time the two young people would agree to the arrangement and become officially engaged, or betrothed. Betrothal was a legally binding stage of marriage and could only be broken by divorce, for cause!

In Joseph’s case, grounds would be, of course, adultery. Back then, adultery was basically a property crime; a crime against her husband-to-be. He knew the child was not his and he would have made the same assumptions that we all would make: if it wasn’t his, it had to be someone else’s.

There were 2 ways for a man to divorce his wife. One was to put the woman on trial and bring public charges of adultery. At the very least, this would have caused public shame and humiliation and many men, in this situation, would have had to demand the death penalty, as a matter of honour. The other option open to Joseph was to write out a divorce document and present it to her in the presence of 2 men who would act as witnesses. She would not be in danger of being put to death. Of course the local gossips would have a field day when her situation became evident, but her life would be spared.

You see, if they married his reputation as a ‘righteous man’ would be destroyed because people would assume this child born too soon was his.

Yet, the story tells us, he was not content with this decision, even though he knew it to be the right one. Perhaps he lost many nights’ sleep. Perhaps he wondered why this had happened to him. As he tried to sort out his jumbled up thoughts he had a very strange dream. God was determined that this plan would work; it had been in the works a long time, and now was the time! As the gospel writer tells us, an angel came to Joseph in a dram and reassured him that, even thought this looked all wrong, this was indeed God’s plan.

When he woke up he knew that he did have the strength to marry Mary. He knew he could be a good father to this child. He knew that he could give him a good home. He could teach him the trade of carpentry. He loved Mary, he would be good to her and her child. In time, they could have other children.

Joseph knew that God was always with his faithful people, he just had to trust. That was, of course, no small order. He had to trust that the God of his ancestors was acting in very unique ways. He had to trust that he could stand down the tongue wagging and the ridicule and the snickers. He had to trust that he was an important part of God’s plan; the plan to save his people. Joseph didn’t have to abandon his principles; he had to expand them to include the new and the daring actions of faithfulness that were being asked of him.

That for me is the message of Joseph. Being open to that which is NOT traditional; being willing to see that God sometimes acts in new and even disturbing ways. The message of Joseph is to call us to be willing to stand with him in the new and the extraordinary and be able to say that God is with us, in this time and place and in this new and surprising way.

Ann Weems, author and poet, writes in a poem in her book, Kneeling in Bethlehem :

Who put Joseph in the back of the stable/
Who dressed him in brown, put a staff in his hand,
      and told him to stand in the back of the creche,
      background for the magnificent light of the Madonna?

God-chosen, this man Joseph was faithful
      in spite of the gossip in Nazareth,
      in spite of the danger from Herod.
This man, Joseph, listened to angels
      and it was he who named the Child
      Emmanuel.
Is this a man to be stuck for centuries
      in the back of the stable?
Actually, Joseph probably stood in the doorway
      guarding the mother and child
      or greeting shepherds and kings.
When he wasn't in the doorway,
      he was probably urging Mary to get some rest,
      gently covering her with his cloak,
      assuring her that he would watch the Child.
-20-

Actually, he probably picked the Child up in his arms
      and walked him in the night,
      patting him lovingly
      until he closed his eyes.

This Christmas, let us give thanks to God
      for this man of incredible faith
      into whose care God placed the Christ Child.
As a gesture of gratitude,
      let's put Joseph in the front of the stable
   where he can guard and greet
      and cast an occasional glance
          at this Child
              who brought us life.