Advent 4A
December 22, 2019
Matthew 1:18-25
INTRODUCTION
This fourth and last Sunday of Advent
in the year of Matthew is the Sunday of Emmanuel, God with us. We hear it first
in Isaiah, and then again in Matthew, when the evangelist will quote the very
same Isaiah text we’re about to hear to give validity to this strange pregnancy
that has just been discovered. So, here’s a little context for both Isaiah and
Matthew.
King Ahaz is one of many kings who
did not trust the Lord. In this text, he is fearfully anticipating an attack
from a foreign king, and rather than trusting God when God says that everything
is going to be fine, he seeks out help from an enemy nation, the Assyrians, to
fight back. Yet still, God promises a sign: a child born of a virgin whose name
will be Emmanuel.
Even though Ahaz doesn’t trust God
and heed this sign, that prophecy hangs in the air for several centuries… until
another virgin, this one named Mary, becomes pregnant with a child. Joseph
plans to “take care” of things, and just dismiss her quietly, so as not to draw
attention to it and cause as little damage to their respective reputations as
possible. To calm Joseph’s fears, an angel hearkens back to Isaiah’s prophecy,
as if to say, “You see? God makes good on God’s promises. Trust in God, Joseph,
not yourself.”
In both of these texts, the men
involved, Ahaz and Joseph, find themselves in tough places, where it would seem
much easier to trust their human means than to trust the crazy thing God is
doing. So as you listen, recall a time when you have been in such a spot, and
found it difficult to trust God, a time you maybe tried instead just to take
care of things yourself without consulting with God about it... Where and how
did God show up in those times? Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our
Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
King Ahaz of Judah is in a pretty
tough spot. You see, an enemy army is marching toward Judah and is ready to
attack, and Ahaz and his people are pretty terrified. But God is watching over
them – God sends Isaiah to bring a message of hope to Ahaz, assuring him that
the disaster he fears will not come to pass. Yay!
Ahaz doesn’t believe it. So, God
says, “Well ask for a sign, then – any sign! – and I will grant it to prove to
you that I mean it.” Ahaz feigns piety: “Oh Lord, I just couldn’t possibly do
that.” God sighs a deep, divine sigh, and says, “Fine, then. I’m gonna give you
a sign anyway, alright? You don’t believe what you hear? Maybe you’ll believe
what you see. A child will be born, whose name literally means, “God is with
you,” and by the time that child is two years old [that’s the agreed-upon age
of when kids know good from evil], by the time he is two, those kings coming
after you will no longer be an issue.”
Pretty sweet offer. But Ahaz still
doesn’t believe it, and still seeks aid from a foreign nation. Ahaz could not
or would not trust in God’s promise; instead, he reacts in fear. Consequently,
the kingdom is conquered by the very powers from whom Ahaz had sought help. His
lack of trust is what sowed the seeds for his own kingdom’s destruction.
To be honest, I can’t blame Ahaz. He
was afraid, and feared his kingdom would be demolished, and like we are all
prone to do, he trusted himself more than he trusted God. He turned to his own
devices, ideas that felt much more concrete than simply, “Trust, and God will
take care of it.” I get it. I can’t say for sure that I wouldn’t have done the
same thing… that I haven’t done the same thing sometimes, in the
situations I face in my own life.
Isaiah’s prophecy
lingers for the next 800 years or so, as Israel continues to long for that
child, that promise of Emmanuel. Many centuries later, another virgin
conceives, one named Mary, who is betrothed to a carpenter named Joseph. Have
you ever wondered how that conversation went? The one where Mary told Joseph
she was pregnant, and that it wasn’t his, and furthermore that the Father was
God… I suspect it didn’t go too well. Matthew doesn’t tell us much about
Joseph’s reaction, leaving us plenty of space to guess and imagine. But there
are some extrabiblical sources that give us a little more information. The
Infancy Gospel of James, allegedly written by Jesus’ half-brother, tells us
that when Joseph saw Mary’s swollen belly after she returned from visiting
Elizbeth, he threw himself on the ground, struck himself in the face, and wept
bitterly, crying out in anguish to God. What an image that is!
I think it is
worthwhile to dwell here for a moment, and not to gloss over Joseph’s reaction
too quickly, because it is a very real moment. So many depictions of the Holy
Family show a serene couple with haloes around their heads. But this in-between
place, when Joseph knows Mary is pregnant but has not yet heard from the angel
nor actually seen this kid, shows that being blessed by God is not always
idyllic. Making the right choice, the godly choice, the faithful choice, is
very often not the easiest or smoothest choice, and it may very well overturn
all the order and structure you previously enjoyed.
Like, here’s this man, Joseph, with
an impeccable reputation, an upstanding and righteous guy who has the respect
of his neighbors. And now, by no fault of his own, he is thrown into a scandal,
and all the doubt, shame, and controversy that goes along with it. He is called
into a mess he didn’t create, to protect a baby he did not sire, to love and care
for a woman with a messy story. I mean, we think families are complicated now –
the Holy Family is the epitome of a blended, unconventional family! Jesus is
born out of wedlock to a mommy and two daddies – it’s a mega scandal! And in a
culture in which reputation is everything, Joseph finds himself in a
humiliating spot that threatens the order that had structured his whole
existence. We must not take lightly Joseph’s role in this story!
Thank God for
that angel. I do wish I had more angelic input for the very tough decisions of
life, right? Yet even still, I don’t want to jump past Joseph’s decision to
stay with Mary. We so often laud Mary’s decision, and rightly so. Her
beautiful words, “Here I am, a servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according
to your will,” are a beacon of faith. The song she sings after that, the
Magnificat (a setting of which we will sing today in Canticle of the Turning)
is a revolutionary song for the ages! But I do so wish we had a song of Joseph,
a song that wrestled with his understanding of his role in this plan. Because
even with that angelic guidance and affirmation… Joseph’s decision to stay, and
leave behind everything he had imagined for his life, is truly remarkable.
Maybe some like
to read this story and picture Joseph as a righteous and faithful man who, once
he heard from the angel, never doubted again his role in all this, who always
trusted in God. But not me. I like to imagine Joseph a little more like Ahaz –
at first preferring to trust his own instincts rather than a sign from God –
because I can relate to that. I like to imagine that Joseph, unlike Ahaz, did
finally come to the right and faithful decision, but that he still grappled
with moments of doubt and wondering – because that, too, is something I can
relate to. I like to imagine Joseph sometimes even resenting the fact that
being blessed by God, as generations since have assumed of this Holy little
Family, doesn’t always look like getting everything you wanted or dreamed of;
indeed, sometimes it means giving something up – because that is something that
is real to me, too! Every time we say yes to God, it means saying no to
something else, even something else we may have loved.
Joseph shows us
this. Joseph shows us that being faithful does not mean sacrificing your
humanity, that being righteous does not mean being without doubt, and that
being blessed does not mean getting your heart’s desire, but sometimes means
giving up that desire.
Yes, Joseph
shows us this… and God shows us that even into this, God still comes. “He will
be called Emmanuel,” says the prophet to Ahaz, says the prophet to us still. He
will be God with us: God with us in our doubts, our resentments, our
frustrations that God’s will doesn’t match up with our own. God with us when
we’d really rather rely upon ourselves and our own ideas, rather than trust
God’s sometimes wacky plans. God with us when we are scared about what lies
ahead, when the journey looks long and rough, when we’re afraid of what people
might say, when our reputation is on the line. God with us when our plans for
our lives crumble.
My kids are at
an age right now where, even as they long to be independent, they also really
still like to know we are there – it makes them feel safe. And so they are
always asking, “Will you come with me (to the potty, to get my blankie, to the
kitchen for a snack)? Will you come with me?” For us parents, it gets pretty
tedious – sometimes we long for them to have more independence (“Just let me
eat my breakfast!”)! But not for God. God never tires of being with us,
whenever we know we need that presence, and even when we don’t know. That is
the promise we celebrate these last days of anticipation, and every day
thereafter: a virgin shall conceive a bear a child, and he will be called:
God-with-us.
Let us pray… O
come, o come, Emmanuel. Come and be with us. Help us to trust like Joseph, even
if we do not understand, and make us ever certain of your presence with us. In
the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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