Matthew 1:18-25

"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." We hear that and we say "Yea, the virgin birth." Which makes sense to us. After all God was Jesus' father, not Joseph. We have already heard the story of the angel Gabriel telling Mary she would bear the Messiah. We know that John the Baptist, still in his mother's womb, will announce Jesus' arrival by jumping. We know that angels will announce his birth to shepherds and that wise men from the east following a star will come seeking him.

But Joseph knew none of that and Matthew is telling us the story from Joseph's point of view. Guys, imagine that you are engaged to a girl and you find out that she is pregnant and you know for a fact that you cannot be the father. What would you think? Add to this, we are told that Joseph was a righteous man. If Mary had been unfaithful to him then there was more at stake than his trust of her and their relationship. As a religious man he knew that adultery was a sin against God. It was a violation of God's design that a man should leave his mother and a woman her home and they shall become one flesh.

We modern people often think of adultery as a sin against just the relationship. But in ancient Judaism it was a capital offence punishable by stoning to death. It was sin against God and the community. Technically under Roman rule the Jews did not have the authority to execute someone. But if some unwed adulteress was stoned out in some rural town they would probably look the other way.

Joseph had a dilemma. Does he expose her sin publically and see her possibly executed? As her accuser he would have to cast the first stone according to the laws of Moses. Should he marry her and ignore her violation of his trust and God's law? Then people would whisper that he was really the father and not man enough to admit his sin and his reputation and standing in the community will be ruined. What to do about Mary?

It only takes Matthew a few verses to state and resolve the dilemma. But in reality it probably took longer than a few minutes. Just as Joseph has decided to divorce Mary quietly, God intervenes. An angel appears to Joseph in a dream. And the angel tells Joseph what is going on. Mary has not been unfaithful to him. He child is a miracle of God. He will save God's people from their sins.

Matthew adds that this is fulfillment of a prophesy from Isaiah. "The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel." So Joseph did as he was told and took Mary as his wife.

But was it really that easy. I know if I had dreamt like that I would have wondered if I ate too much spicy food the night before. Perhaps the Holy Spirit gave Joseph a gift of assurance in the message? But at some point Joseph simply had to trust God that this strange turn of events was really God's will. What to do about Mary? Trust God.

You know some contemporary Christians are faced with a similar dilemma. The virgin birth poses not so much an ethical but a logical dilemma. The prospect of a woman giving birth while a virgin seems to defy the laws of nature. Do they simply put their intelligence aside and ignore it? Or do they deny this miracle that has been so important to the Christian faith down through the centuries. I have known some Christians who just kept silent when we get to the phrase "born of a virgin" in the Creeds.

Perhaps God will appear to us in a dream and tell us not to worry about it. But even then do we believe the dream or vision. You can always explain away the voice of God as a hallucination or a dream.

What did Joseph do? He trusted. He trusted God that this child was not the son of some other man. But that he was the Son of God. He trusted that it really was an angel in that dream who told him that this child was part of God's plan to save them. What to do about Mary and the Virgin Birth? Just trust God.

You know life often confronts us with dilemmas. Life takes strange and tragic turns. And we are not quite sure what to do. Our hearts tell us one thing and our heads tell us another. The experts say "yes" while our mentors say "no." Tradition says one thing but the best modern research says another.

Sometimes even people of faith differ on what is the right path to deal with life's dilemmas. Genuine people of faith often differ on the right response to issues like war and capital punishment and equal rights and abortion and divorce. Just listening to God's people does not solve the dilemmas. And what about the little daily dilemmas of life?

Living life is a constant dilemma. What do we do about life? The answer is the same. Trust God. You may not see a vision of God high and lifted up like Isaiah did. You may not see a burning bush like Moses did. You may not be visited by an angel like Mary and Joseph. Or you may. Just trust God.

Joseph trusted God. And we know the rest of the story. Joseph took Mary as his wife. Jesus was born in Bethlehem. But not everybody trusted God. Sure a few shepherd and wise men and a couple of devout people looked past their doubts to worship Jesus.

Jesus grew up and sometime between his 12th year and 30th year Joseph died. But Jesus taught and healed and performed miracles. Many believed in him but many did not. He was rejected and killed. But his death was not in vain. He died as a sacrifice for our sins. And then he rose again as proof of the eternal life he had won for us on the cross.

Does all that seem incredible and hard to believe? So I guess for us the question really is: "What to do about Jesus?" The answer is still the same: Trust God! Will you follow Joseph's example and trust God? Will you trust that God sent Jesus as his son born of a virgin to save the world? Will you trust Jesus to forgive your sins and give you eternal and abundant life?

Well, I guess that is the real question. What will you do about Jesus?

Matthew 1:18-25

When I was a kid one of the things we enjoyed doing at Christmas was setting up the nativity set. The figurines seemed to embody what Christmas was all about and the nativity set was a meaningful part of the Christmas decorating. Of course at the center was the baby Jesus dressed in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger just like the Bible said. There was Mary, dressed in ethereal blue, always kneeling at the manger. Then there were the shepherds usually with their sheep. And the wise men, wearing crowns and fine robes sometimes riding a camel, eternally bringing their gifts to the baby. There was also an angel who watched over all the people and animals.

But somewhere lost in all that was Joseph. Usually dressed in a plain brown or tan robe, sometimes mistaken for a shepherd. Often pushed aside to make way for the shepherds who had just seen angels. Or for the wise men who had followed the star. One year we almost for got to put Joseph out. We had positioned each of the figurines of the nativity set and were ready to put the box back in the attic when someone realized Joseph was still wrapped up in tissue paper in the bottom of the box.

It is true that Joseph is often overlooked in our retelling of the Christmas story. But he is not lost in the Bible. Matthew tells the story of Jesus' birth from Joseph's perspective. Joseph was a man of faith who submitted to God's will just as Mary was a woman of faith who did the same. So let's not lose Joseph this Christmas. Let's give him a place of prominence in our mental nativity sets. Join me today in finding Joseph.

Who was Joseph? First we have to separate what the Bible tells us from what tradition has added to the story. For instance one church tradition says that Joseph was a middle aged widower. He had been married before and had several children from that marriage. But the Bible says nothing about him having been married or a widower. For all we know he could have been a young man about the same age as Mary.

The first thing the Bible does tell us about Joseph is that he was engaged to Mary. She was promised to him. This engagement promise was as binding as a marriage vow. So when she was found to be with child it must have been devastating. It seemed obvious to Joseph that Mary had cheated on him and they had not even been formally married.

The second thing the Bible tells us about Joseph is that he was a righteous man. He believed in and truly worshipped God. His faith was in the Almighty. And that meant that he tried to follow God's laws. God's laws were clear that adulterers were to be stoned. And Mary had been seemingly caught committing adultery.

This is where the third thing the Bible tells us comes into play. It says, "Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly." Most people think that his unwillingness to expose her because he was a righteous man. But the righteous uphold the law of God. If Mary had committed adultery her offence was not just against Joseph it was against God and the righteous were to make sure that the law was fulfilled. So a righteous man would turn her in to the authorities and make sure justice was done, which is this case would probably end in a stoning.

However Joseph chose to keep things quiet. I like the way the Good News Translation words it, "Joseph was a man who always did what was right, but he did not want to disgrace Mary publicly." Joseph put aside his own feelings of hurt to take care of matters in a way that would not end with Mary being disgraced and maybe executed. He was taking a great personal risk. People might think that he was the father. I mean people would think "If she had committed adultery would he have spared her and her child?" People would talk and say that Joseph had acted unrighteously to Mary and now look at the mess he got her into.

Yes Joseph was a righteous man and he also acted mercifully to Mary. In a way he embodied the righteousness of God in a way that is refreshing. He was righteous but he was also mercy and gracious. He chose to spare Mary at great expense and risk to himself. After what had happened to Mary what decent family would betroth their daughter to Joseph? But that is the way God acts toward us. Even though we sin against him he is merciful to us.

The fourth thing that the Bible tells us about Joseph is that he listened to God. It says that an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and told him that the Baby that Mary carried was from the Holy Spirit. Now you noticed I said that the important thing was that Joseph listened to God not that God spoke to Joseph. That's me because God speaks to people all the time. God is speaking to us right now. The important thing here is that Joseph listened to what God said and believed it.

I don't know about you but if it were me I probably would not have believed. I mean an angel in a dream? If I had had that dream I wouldn't have believed it. I would have woken up and said, "Well that is the last time I eat quesadillas before going to bed."

But as unbelievable as it was Joseph knew it was God who sent the angel. He believed that God was fulfilling prophesy. He believed that this was all about bringing Emanuel God with is. And Joseph willingly participated in this plan. He had free will be could have said "God count me out." But he didn't. He did as the angel said and took Mary as his wife and became the foster father of the Son of God.

I hope you have found Joseph today. I hope you have found him to be a righteous man. A man who followed God's laws. But also a man who followed God's example of mercy and grace. I hope you have found him to be a man who listened to God and followed God's directions. And I hope that Joseph has a more prominent place in your mental nativity set.

But most of all I hope that you have discovered that Joseph was an integral part of God's plan to bring Emanuel God with us into the world. It is true that Mary is the one who gave birth to Emmanuel. But it was Joseph who nurtured and protected Emmanuel.

Like Joseph we should allow ourselves to be used as instruments of bringing God's presence into our world. We should seek to be righteous, merciful and gracious. Like him we should listen to and heed God's word. And like Joseph we should nurture the presence of God with us. That way the world shall know Emmanuel - God is with us!

"The birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit; Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly." Can you imagine the turmoil that Joseph was going through to come to that decision; the heart and soul wrenching pondering it took to finally decide to divorce Mary? Let's try to imagine it:

"A-men. I know what you are thinking. 'Joseph, what kind of prayer was that?' But how can I pray at a time like this? When I made the agreement with Mary's father to marry her I was so excited.
"Mary was a good young woman from a good family. She would be a wonderful mother for my children and a good wife, or so I thought. It didn't bother me when she went off unannounced to visit her old Aunt Elizabeth. You know how young women can be. But when she came back three months later! Everyone could see her sin. Then I understood why she ran off so quickly
"You can't imagine the pain when I confronted her. I said 'Mary how could you do this to your family, to me, to the Holy One?' And you know what she said? She said it was the Lord's baby and it was conceived by the Holy Spirit. She told some story of an angel telling her this and that her Aunt was expecting too. I expected her to plead for mercy and forgiveness to say that she had made a mistake. But how dare she bring the Holy One in and claim he was the cause of all this!
"The Laws of Moses are clear about what is supposed to be done with women like her. They are to be taken out and stoned, and as the accuser I would be the one to throw the first stone. But when I looked into her eyes, even with all she has done to me, I could not imagine being able to throw that first stone.
"What if we took her out to be stoned in front of the whole community and then I could not throw that first stone? You know what people would say then! "Aha! Now we know who the father is. He can do that but he can't commit murder to cover his sin. Such a pretty wife he could not keep his hands off her until the wedding night. Now we know what kind of man Joseph is!"
"Even after all she has done to me I have to admit I still love Mary. What is a righteous man to do? Just suck it up and go stone her! No, I know what the Law of Moses says, but I can't do it.
"I will write her a bill of divorce first thing in the morning. I will do it quietly. There has been enough pain. Let Mary live with what she has done. Maybe the father will come forward and take care of her."

Joseph was a righteous man, and righteous people follow God's Word. They do what the Bible tells them to. The Bible was clear in Joseph's day that adulterers were to be stoned. Who was he to second guess the Almighty?

But Joseph just could not bring himself to do that to Mary. So he wrestled with what to do. Was it really God's will to kill her like that? His head told him one thing, but his heart told him another.

Like Joseph we wrestle with God's will for our lives. What does God call us to do? How do we balance justice and mercy? What is God's plan for my future for my career? Who should I befriend or date or marry or associate with? Which path should I take in life?

Joseph wrestled with what to do, but he had an angel to help him! Sure he pondered whether to execute Mary or to put her away quietly. He followed his heart and decided to put her away quietly. Then an angel told him he had all his fact wrong. Mary's baby was conceived by the Holy Spirit and he would be a Savior, the Messiah. And that he should take Mary as his wife and be the Divinely appointed foster father of God's Son!

Well, well, God certainly made it easy for Joseph, didn't he? But what about us? As we ponder what if right and what is wrong on issued of national defense, abortion, capital punishment, career choices, family care, etc�. You know when I was a young person wrestling with whether to study for the ministry or computer programming, I wish an Angel had come to me in my dream and told me everything. It would have saved me a lot of time and trouble!

But what if God did that for us? What if an angel came to you in your dream and said, "Go to Afghanistan and be a missionary." What would we do? I would probably wake up and say, "Now that was a weird dream." Would an angel visitation in a dream really clear anything up for us?

Well, it did for Joseph. An angel in a dream was exactly what He needed to know God's will. But what about us? Maybe we are meant to wrestle with these questions. God let Joseph wrestle, and right before he did the wrong thing God straightened him out.

We have to wrestle with these questions. That is our role in life. To seek out God's will for the direction of our lives. But we don't wrestle alone. God is with us.

That is what Christmas is all about! God came to be with us. God came to wrestle along side us. You want easy answers to life's questions you go somewhere else. But if you want the right answers, God's answers, you stick with God. Wrestle with life's hard questions. But know that God is wresting right there with you! The birth of God's Son is our sign of that living presence! And Joseph is a testimony to God's care for us when we are wresting.

A child is born every minuet. A newborn child is a powerful symbol of hope and life. Children in general give us a sign that life goes on. Each one is a sign of hope and seemingly unlimited potential. When my grandfather Stevenson was in his 80's, he discovered that he could no longer keep us the small house he and my grandmother were living in. So they decided to move into a condominium were their would be no yard to mow. But he said he didn't want to move into a retirement community. He wanted to be able to look our the window and see children playing. To him those children were a sign that even though his life was nearing its end, life itself went on.

But as we have seen a newborn child can also be a powerful symbol of hopelessness and life denied. Etched in our collective memories are the children of Africa. Ethiopia and Somalia have shown us tiny children with frail pencil thin limbs and bloated stomachs. Lack of bread, malnutrition, and diseases robbing life. And suddenly the child, a symbol of hope, becomes an expression of hopelessness. The promise of new life becomes the tragedy of life denied.

Jesus was a child of hope and new life. The prophet said, "A child shall be born to the royal family and he will be a sign to the people that God is with us: Emmanuel!" By the time he is old enough to choose good and reject evil the kingdoms that threaten you will have fallen." Jesus was the ultimate fulfillment of that prophesy. When he chose good and rejected evil by deciding to die on the cross the kingdom of Satan fell. Even his name, Jesus, is Hebrew for "salvation."

Jesus' birth is a symbol of new life, but that new life was not easy to accept. The coming of Christ created a sticky situation for Mary and Joseph. Mary had been promised to Joseph. They were not yet wed, but their engagement was just as binding as a marriage in those days. Suddenly Mary was found to be with child. It seemed apparent to all that she had broken the contract. By all rights Joseph could divorce her and let her suffer the consequences of her actions.

This situation raises a specter for us. If Jesus had come today, things might have been quite different. There is the disturbing possibility that Joseph or his family may have pressured Mary into having an abortion. And humanity would have aborted the light of the world.

But just when Joseph had decided to put Mary away quietly an angel visited Joseph in a dream. And the angel said, "Take Mary as your wife for the child in her is of the Holy Spirit. This child's name shall be Salvation and he will save people from their sins." On the word of an angel in a dream Joseph took Mary to be his wife. He took a chance that the dream was a message from God and not just his imagination. What would people say? What if Mary had been unfaithful. If the dream was just a dream then whose child was this? Joseph took a chance to bring salvation to the world.

We need to explore Joseph's role in this a little closer. How did he know to trust the angel? You know the mind can play tricks on you. People have many strange dreams. Not every dream is a message from God. How did Joseph know that this dream was different from all the other dreams he had dreamt?

The angel in the dream gave no sign. The Angel didn't say, wake up and I will show you this. Or in the following days that will happen. There was no proof that this was an angel.

The only evidence was that this agreed with the promises of God. God had promised to send a Savior. God had promised to dwell among his people. Joseph must have thought it far fetched that God would be born as humans to do this. But Joseph took a chance. Joseph didn't marry Mary because he had iron clad proof that her child was of the Holy Spirit. What Joseph lacked in proof he made up for in faith and he trusted and took a chance on the promise and the hope that this child offered.

It was not easy for Joseph to accept God's salvation. In the same way it is not always easy for us either. How do we get the message? I don't know about you, but I haven't had any angelic visitations in a dream lately. God hasn't offered me any miraculous signs to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that this or that is the way to go. So much seems up in the air.

Too often we don't get the message and tragically we abort God's salvation for us. We fail to take our chances on God's promises. As a result we don't receive that fruits of those promises. We treat God's call to service as an unwanted child instead of as a sign of life and hope. And so we forfeit the light and hope that come with doing God's will.

Like Joseph we need to take a chance. God never, I repeat NEVER, offers us iron clad proof that his promises are true. If God did, there would be no room for faith. Faith is literally trust in something that cannot be proven. And ultimately God wants to teach us faith and trust. If we want God to lead us out of the darkness we must trust him to do the leading.

Jesus sought to be born in Bethlehem. But people had to cooperate. Mary had to agree to be a handmaiden, wet nurse and mother of God. She had to submit her body to drastic changes to give birth to the Savior. Joseph had to agree to father a child that was not his. It was God's son, not his; yet he had to agree to feed it, care for it, and love it.

Similarly Jesus seeks to be born or reborn in each of us. But we must cooperate. We must agree to respond to his calling. That calling may be: to love the unlovely, to teach Sunday School, to study your Bible, to take a stand on an unpopular issue, to feed the hungry. All God's callings come with the promise of salvation: freedom from injustice, from hunger, from isolation, from ignorance, from sin. But we must accept the call, to receive the promise. We must embrace the child, responsibilities and all, to receive the gift.

Don't abort the love of God this Christmas. The Psalmist declares, "Lift up your heads, O gates! Be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in." Open your hearts to the coming child King He brings new life and light. Let that light be born in you so it can shine on all.

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"The Christmas that Almost Wasn't" It sounds like the title to a holiday made for TV movie doesn't it? You can almost imagine what the plot would be like. Santa gets kidnapped or breaks a leg or there is a big storm or gets arrested, and it appears as if Christmas will not happen. Then the hero enters be it a nasally challenged reindeer, or Earnest, or a slick lawyer or whomever and saves Christmas.

But I'm not talking about some "Santa Clause" movie. I'm talking about the first Christmas. You know with Angels and Shepherds and Wise men and the baby Lord lying in a manger. The real Christmas story.

If you read Matthew carefully, it almost didn't happen! Several things could have gone awry and events would not have unfolded like they did. We are so used to the story that we don't notice it, but that's how it appears to be. Let me show you what I mean.

Matthew says that the birth of Jesus happened in this way: Mary and Joseph were engaged but were not yet married and they discovered that she was with child. Now we hear that and automatically think, "Aha! The virgin birth." But Joseph didn't see it that way! It says that he was a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace and planned to put her away quietly.

We hear that as one statement: "He was righteous and planned to put her away quietly." But it is really two. Joseph was righteous! The righteous know the law and the law says that adulterers should be stoned. It was not just to punish them but as a deterrent to the whole community. The Christmas story could have ended there before it began!

But even though Joseph was righteous, he did not what to disgrace her so he decided to put her away quietly. Now I don't know if there is a law in the Bible against aiding and abetting an adulterer. Even if there isn't Joseph was exposing himself to the wrath of his peers. What would they do to him if they discovered that he was preventing this criminal from coming to justice? But Joseph chose to take a chance and to send her away quietly to a place where others didn't know them and they could keep it all secret.

This really would have messed up Christmas. "And a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world was to be taxed and Joseph when to Bethlehem alone because he had sent Mary off to another region?" It just doesn't work. The prophets had foretold that in Bethlehem the Messiah would be born. And Mary and Jesus almost didn't get there for the prophecy to be fulfilled.

But it doesn't surprise me. After all the sign of Christmas almost didn't happen. You remember our reading from Isaiah. The one that Matthew quotes: that a virgin would bring forth a child. That prophecy almost didn't happen.

God sent Isaiah to go to the King and ask for a sign. God was going to save Israel from attack and wanted to demonstrate it to the King. God wanted to go on the record so that, when they were saved, people would acknowledge it. But the King refused to ask for a sign. He probably didn't what God to get the credit for their defeat.

But God sent a sign anyway. "Behold a young woman shall bear a child and you shall call him Immanuel or God with us." The Hebrew word that the Holy Spirit led the prophet to use means both "young woman" and "virgin." This was a prophesy of two events. A young woman, probably a princess in Isaiah's day would bear a child and it would live in wealth and by the time it was old enough to choose good or evil the kingdoms attacking Israel would fall. But it was also a prophecy that a virgin would bear a son whose would be called Emmanuel, God with us, and Mighty God.

The sign of the Messiah wouldn't have been given if it were left up to people. But God sent the sign anyway. In the same way Christmas wouldn't have happened if it were left up to people. So God took matters into his own hands. God sent an angel to talk to Joseph and explain things to him.

And the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream. It told Joseph that the baby Mary was carrying was from the Holy Spirit. And told him that this is what the prophet Isaiah had foretold. And Joseph took Mary as his wife and they went to Bethlehem and she bore a son. And angels and shepherds and Wise Men came to behold him.

But none of it would have happened if God had not intervened. Christmas wouldn't have happened. But that is what Christmas is all about! It's about God coming into the world to make things right.

"The Christmas that almost wasn't" But it was. It happened! Thanks be to God who intervened in this world to be God with us.

And God still does that. God still intervenes in people's lives to bring Love and Peace and his holy presence. Jesus is still "God with us."

It is my prayer for you, that God intervenes in your life this year. That the angels and shepherds and especially the baby Jesus come alive in your heart. I pray that God speaks to your heart and tells you that his son has come to bless you!

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