The Fourth Sunday of Advent is such a blessing in the lectionary, as we get to celebrate Mary.
The young (VERY young) woman who uses her agency to say yes to God:
Except, as this account from Matthew reminds us, pregnancy is never a one-person thing.
Matthew gives us a LOT of details… but not about Mary - she gets one sentence: "Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with a child by the Holy Spirit."
Joseph, however, gets the spotlight today.
And: rightly so. Let’s consider this man!
"Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”
There’s a LOT happening in that one sentence.
Firstly, we hear that Joseph is already Mary's husband. Their engagement legally bound them; while biblical custom celebrated a blessing of the marriage when they began living together. Today we celebrate the legal and blessing of marriage at one time, after the engagement.
So Mary and Joseph are married, but have never lived together – they’ve probably never even been alone together.
The marriage has not been consummated, and yet Mary reveals that she is with child.
Awkward, to say the least.
And Joseph now has to choose how to respond.
And Joseph wants to do things the right way - following God's law and societal custom.
With a basic understanding of how pregnancy happens, Joseph knows that he has grounds for a divorce.
But – what is the right way to go about this?
By social custom, he’s within his bounds to publicly shame her, announcing that she is pregnant and not by him.
But this has ramifications – and they’re harsh.
Mary’s father will be shamed; he will be shunned in the community. He could be fired for being dishonest, seen as “unemployable;” he won't be allowed to buy things at market, he may be refused at worship. The whole family will suffer. At best, they will have to move away, in shame.
Mary herself – well, the letter of the law could have her stoned to death, or physically disowned and cast out (and at best turned to a life of prostitution).
This is NOT what Joseph, a caring man, wants to do; even though it lies within his rights.
So he decides to do the compassionate thing: to dismiss her quietly.
However, despite this kindness, Joseph will now need to provide some other explanation about the dismissal… and hope that no one discovers the truth - or else he will be shunned, rejected by the community, publicly mocked. Business would be slow, friends would be few. He'd probably have to move.
Joseph finds himself stuck, between a rock and a hard place.
He is brooding over this decision.
And while he doesn’t quite believe Mary; he chooses compassion.
…and immediately he has a dream.
Not an overnight weird braindump; because Joseph didn't go to sleep.
What Joseph experienced, the Greek tells us, was actually a vision, or a trance.
It's a state of being, not something that comes out of the subconscious. It's the same type of 'dream' that we hear about all through the scriptures when we hear that the Lord is coming in a dream.
Because when the Lord has something to say to us, we're going to hear it. One way or another, we're going to hear it. And if we completely refuse to hear it when we're alert and going about our daily work and prayer, then God will send a messenger to us in a dream. There's a long history of this in the Bible.
And today, God has something to say to Joseph. And it starts with that classic introductory line from the messenger: "Do Not Be Afraid" - words that always seem to precede some seriously challenging message. It's not so much a "do not be afraid that I'm here" as a "when things get really crazy, just remember that this is part of God's plan, and try not to be too afraid to continue in your ministry."
It's here that Joseph gets clear direction to take Mary as his wife.
To celebrate the union with family and friends; to make a home with her. Celebrate a life with her. Show her the ultimate in compassion and kindness.
And to love that child, teach him all you know, let him learn from your compassionate self how to best be in this world.
Also, congratulations, it's a boy! By the way, name him Jesus, for he will save people from their sins.
Now, for those of us with the luxury of hearing this message after the fact, it sounds pretty good. Nice. Pleasant almost. But for Joseph, this is shocking. Life-changing. Because for Joseph, this leads him to a spiritual awakening.
Joseph is a man who knows his scriptures. So he recognises the weight of these words from the messenger.
Conceived a son by the Holy Spirit - that meant no other man. Which means his lovely Mary has not been unfaithful to him - rather she has been so faithful to God that she is now the theotokos - the God-bearer - a woman of such hope and conviction that she would be willing to risk her life, her status, her family - for the love of God.
The naming of the child – the name wasn’t entirely unusual, but to be told by a messenger of God about your child - before it was born - this was unusual. And also comes from a long scriptural tradition - like Samson and John, for example. The foretelling of men who had great ministries to fulfill.
And, the promise of salvation - fulfilling the scriptures, putting into action the prophesy of Isaiah, the hope beyond hope that had been promised for generations. This was too good to be true; how on earth could Joseph - this God-fearing and righteous man - refuse to be part of this, especially when God is calling him so directly.
Thus, Joseph wakes up. Not from his comfy bed - from his comfy complacence.
This is a spiritual awakening! God has spoken to HIM! calling him to a very specific ministry, a very specific task. Joseph’s life will never be the same.
A spiritual awakening is becoming aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives in such a way that EVERYTHING looks different. Everything IS different. Because our eyes have been opened, our sleep has been cast off, and our actions will reflect that.
When we have been awakened to our ministry, we will not be able to ignore it. When we have opened ourselves to the living Spirit of God in and around us, we will never be satisfied with "the status quo" anymore.
And this is what we celebrate in Advent, these last days before Christmas.
The opening up of ordinary people to do extraordinary things, by the grace of God.
God chose Mary, and as difficult as it was, Mary awoke to her role in God's world, bearing the Son of Man. And thank God for that.
God chose Joseph, and as awkward as that was, Joseph awoke to his role as earthly father to Jesus, teaching him the compassionate way to be human in God's world. And thank God for that.
And God chooses US. As inconvenient as that may be sometimes, we are called to discern how we are being called to continue the story of God's grace and love, active and alive, in and amongst us all.
So my prayer for us this week is that we may all WAKE UP to the reality that we are being involved in God's world, to engage with God's world, to minister in God's world. May we be spiritually awakened, may we be not afraid, may we delight that things can never be the same, once we have accepted Emmanuel - God IS with us - now and forevermore.
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