Heaven Meeting Earth in the Most Powerful Way

The Rev. Kathi Johnson

A Advent 4 – 18 December 2016

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

Our Redeemer Lutheran Church, Grand Prairie, Texas

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A few weeks ago, we finished a year of focusing on the Gospel of Luke in our cycle of readings that we use on Sunday mornings. On the first Sunday of Advent, we began a year of focusing on the Gospel of Matthew. Gospel readings from Mark, Luke, and John will show up from time to time, but for the next year, the bulk of our Gospel readings on Sundays will be from the Gospel of Matthew.

The Gospel of Luke is where we get many of our ideas about the first Christmas and the events leading up to it. Luke is where we hear the stories about John the Baptist’s parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, and the miraculous circumstances around Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Luke is where we hear about the angel, Gabriel, going to visit Mary to give her the Big News that will forever change her life. It is in Luke that we have what we now call the Song of Mary (or the Magnificat) and the Song of Zechariah (or the Benedictus).

Luke tells us the historical information about the registration of the people that caused Joseph and Mary to travel to Bethlehem. And finally, Luke paints the picture of the shepherds in the fields keeping watch over their flocks by night, suddenly serenaded by a chorus of angels, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven!”

It is in the Gospel of Matthew that we hear other parts of the story altogether, including today’s reading about Joseph, but also - the visit of the wise men (which we remember on Epiphany), the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt as they fear for Jesus’ life, the massacre of the Holy Innocents by King Herod, and, finally, the Holy Family’s return to Galilee, where Jesus would grow up. 

Today’s lesson from Matthew says that Joseph and Mary are “engaged” – which isn’t a proper translation because they were actually betrothed to one another. If we compare betrothal to our modern terms, it falls in between being engaged and being married. Betrothed couples were legally bound to one another. Remember that marriages then were almost always arranged by the families and they almost always were legal arrangements involving exchanges of property. To break off a betrothal required an actual divorce (unlike breaking off an engagement today).

So, Joseph finds out that this person to whom he is legally bound is now pregnant – and he knows that he is not the father of this child. If Mary has committed adultery (how else would she have gotten pregnant?), then Joseph has grounds to divorce her, and actually, he has grounds to have her killed, which was the punishment for adultery. But Matthew shares that Joseph is “unwilling to expose [Mary] to public disgrace.”

So Joseph decides to set Mary aside quietly, and for each of them to go on their separate ways. And the text says that just when he’s resolved on this plan of action, an angel appears to him in a dream to explain the situation that lies before him.

For this child is not any child. This child is conceived by the Holy Spirit, and his name is to be “Jesus” – which is a variant of “Yahweh saves.” This child will save humanity from our sinfulness. And then we hear that this child will be God with us – Emmanuel.

Can you imagine waking up from this dream?

And yet, after awakening from his sleep, Joseph does what the angel of the Lord has told him to do – he takes Mary as his wife.

Yet, the story of Jesus’ birth isn’t merely about how Joseph or Mary handled the interruption in their life’s plans, or about how we handle life’s interruptions, either. (Though, we can certainly find wisdom in studying the example of Joseph and Mary.) The story of Jesus’ birth is about the love of God coming to earth – born as a human, and growing up to show us the way of the Kingdom of God.

What is God’s kingdom like? The hymn, “Prepare the Royal Highway” describes it perfectly:

His is no earthly kingdom; it comes from heav’n above.

His rule is peace and freedom and justice, truth, and love.

The story of Jesus’ birth shows us that God’s ways are most certainly not our ways.

In Jesus, our hopes and our fears are met with God’s love and grace for us. It is Jesus who gives us our hope, and it is Jesus who draws us away from fear and into lives of love. Do we really think that God would send Jesus to be born simply so that we could have some nice carols to sing once a year? The birth of Jesus is heaven meeting earth in the most powerful way.

As we prepare to celebrate Christmas, let us also prepare our hearts to welcome Christ, the newborn king.

Amen.

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