Scripture Lesson
From the Book of Psalms, Chapter 89:
11I will sing of your steadfast love, O Lord, for ever;
with my mouth I will proclaim your faithfulness to all generations.
2I declare that your steadfast love is established for ever;
your faithfulness is as firm as the heavens.
3You said, ‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one,
I have sworn to my servant David:
4“I will establish your descendants for ever,
and build your throne for all generations.” ’
Selah
18For our shield belongs to the Lord,
our king to the Holy One of Israel.
19Then you spoke in a vision to your faithful one, and said:
‘I have set the crown on one who is mighty,
I have exalted one chosen from the people.
20I have found my servant David;
with my holy oil I have anointed him;
21my hand shall always remain with him;
my arm also shall strengthen him.
22The enemy shall not outwit him,
the wicked shall not humble him.
23I will crush his foes before him
and strike down those who hate him.
24My faithfulness and steadfast love shall be with him;
and in my name his horn shall be exalted.
25I will set his hand on the sea
and his right hand on the rivers.
26He shall cry to me, “You are my Father,
my God, and the Rock of my salvation!”
From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 1:
18Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. 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. 19Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
"On Love"
A
Sermon Preached by
Mr. Steven Aucella
at
the First
Congregational Church of Stoughton
United
Church of Christ
There was a time in my life – a time that I call ‘the wilderness years’ – when I was between churches, marriages, and a new beginning. I didn’t really celebrate Christmas then, in the way that I do now. Back then, I focused on buying extravagant gifts for my mother, my sister, sister-in-law, father, brothers. Not many people on the list so I was able to get them cool stuff – good, handcrafted stuff – that they would never think of getting for themselves even if they could find it. I enjoyed it: the hunting and gathering; the presentation; the smiles and the love.
My apartment was pretty much empty of decoration except for the occasional mini-Christmas tree and a few ornaments. But I loved the season. It meant more to me than anything and yet I was not in church. I felt the birth of Jesus more than I expressed my joy about it. I actively avoided malls, televised Christmas ‘specials’, and anything that seemed to smell of commercialism rather than the ‘reason for the season’.
This made me a lonely person. I didn’t feel that my family could or would want to discuss God, Mary and Joseph, Jesus or the meaning of His birth. And yet I was not in church.
At the time, I was working in Cambridge, and this was back when you could go to any number of bookstores in Harvard Square and actually find the book you were looking for. Without knowing why, I bought Bibles, religious texts – you know the story. I even bought textbooks for classes I didn’t know I would some day have to take. Sadly, I gave away those books but I get to buy them all over again in a year or so.
So all of this was going on and I was blithely continuing to ignore what today I see as clear signals. Hindsight is 20-20. God was working in my life and I missed the signals. More accurately, I avoided the signals. Right up to the moment when I walked back into a church.
God has shown me nothing but love, despite my blindness.
Now here we are at the end of Advent and the beginning of winter.
Advent is entirely different from Christmas. Christmas is a big birthday party that celebrates an event from 2000 years ago. It’s great fun but it’s not yet.
As a church, we have waited and anticipated for four weeks now. We have rekindled the flames of hope, peace, joy, and love. We should be just about ready. But ready for what?
In amongst the piles of Christmas cards we receive every year, there’s usually at least one that shows a peaceful, waiting Bethlehem: a midnight clear; a silent night, a welcoming and ideal resting place for God. And it’s dark, with just one star overhead to lead the way. Do we have our own ideal resting place? We long for a deep, quiet place in which to reflect, pray, and welcome Jesus. But we’re busy people. Imagine you’re in a mall parking lot at night. The buildings are outlined against a sky we cannot see. There are no visible stars. There might be, but we can’t tell from the bright lights. Advent is noisy and full of distractions, which is completely opposite what we really desire. This is a reflective season for Christians. Something big is about to happen. God is coming to us, ready or not, whether we are in Bethlehem or lost in the parking lot. God is coming with love, a love we crave, a love to heal us and transform us.
Recently, I heard the term “God’s in-breaking into the world” as a way of explaining what is about to happen. Isn’t that a great word, “in-breaking”? When I hear it, I imagine the heavens ripping apart, a great flash of light, and then – the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem: God in the world. But I think it means more than even that. I believe that God’s in-breaking into the world involves all of us. Here in the fourth week of Advent, we are ready to open ourselves to God’s in-breaking into us.
Today’s psalm recalls the Davidic Covenant, God’s promise to David of an eternal dynasty, established in 2 Samuel, chapter 7. God promises David and Israel that the Messiah would come from the lineage of David and would establish a kingdom that would endure forever (2 Samuel 7:10-13). God places no conditions of obedience on the fulfillment of the covenant. The assurance of the promises made rests solely on God’s faithfulness and steadfast love, and does not depend at all on David or Israel’s obedience.
Joseph doesn’t get mentioned much in the Gospels. In fact, he’s only part of the story in Matthew, and he never says a word. He’s mentioned once in Luke but he has no role there. But everything hinges on him and on his reaction to the news of Mary’s pregnancy. With an economy of words so typical in the Bible, we learn everything we need to know about Joseph in today’s passage.
Mary and Joseph were engaged but not yet married. Still, in the first century, Joseph was considered to be Mary’s husband. She was a young woman, he was an older man but we don’t know how much older.
Joseph was also a righteous man. He walked with God and he knew and kept the law. And when he discovered that Mary was pregnant, Joseph proved to be a compassionate man as well. By law, and as a righteous man, he could have sent Mary away to a harsh punishment but he chose to dismiss her quietly and not expose her to public disgrace.
And then an angel appears to Joseph in a dream. What looks at first to be a moral outrage is in fact “a holy disruption,” as Theodore Wardlaw calls it. “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife,” the angel tells him, for this child is from the Holy Spirit. Interestingly, in the gospel of Luke, the angel Gabriel also tells Mary, “Do not be afraid” (Luke 1:30) when she learns how the Holy Spirit will come upon her.
At this point, Joseph becomes an example of true righteousness and faithful discipleship. He breaks through convention in order to respond to God’s command. At the risk of not a little social discomfort, Joseph “does the right thing” and he does it out of obedience to God and for his love for Mary.
Everything happening here fulfills prophecy. Nothing happens without God in this entire sequence of events. The promise of the Davidic covenant is fulfilled. The Messiah will come from the line of David. Joseph, Matthew tells us, is “a son of David”, and the first sixteen verses call the roll of that line, from Abraham all the way up to Joseph: Fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the time of the deportation to Babylon, and fourteen more generations to Joseph. Each of these generations speaks of “someone, the father of so-and-so”, except Joseph, who is called not “the father of Jesus”, but rather, “the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born.” Jesus, the Messiah. Joseph is the genealogical bridge to the House of David, and he bequeaths the family name to Jesus.
I have thought a lot about Advent this year, more so than I ever have. Earlier, I said that at this point in Advent, we should be just about ready, but ready for what? Advent, as you know, is a time for preparation, for reflection, for getting ourselves ready for a new beginning. I’m feeling ready, finally. I’m looking forward to God’s in-breaking into my heart.
Jesus, the One who is to come, will call us from our own worst errors and bad decisions, toward a fuller life with God and toward a righteousness that, we pray, approaches that of Joseph. Bernard of Clairveaux, a twelfth-century Cistercian monk, wrote that “The One who has no need of our goods not only comes to us, but comes for our sake.” God has sought after us from the beginning. God initiates. God calls. After a period of preparation, we respond, and return from our personal wilderness. Amen.
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