Year A
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presbyterian minister T. Denise Anderson writes that in today’s passage from Isaiah\u2026 God tells King Ahaz to ask for a sign\u2026 Ahaz rules the southern kingdom of Judah\u2026 which includes Jerusalem\u2026 King Pekah of the northern kingdom of Israel\u2026 has allied himself with the neighboring\u2026 but non-Israelite kingdom of Aram\u2026 to attack Jerusalem\u2026 because Ahaz refused to join forces with King Pekah to attack Assyria\u2026 Ahaz and all of Jerusalem are shaken\u2026 but God reassures Ahaz that this plot against Jerusalem will not prevail\u2026 Ahaz however\u2026 is not convinced\u2026 ] ask for a sign\u2026 God says\u2026 as deep as Sheol\u2026 or as high as heaven\u2026 so that God’s promise can be memorialized\u2026 Ahaz refuses\u2026 he must remember what Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:16\u2026 Do not put the LORD your God to the test\u2026 as you tested him at Massah<\/em>\u2026 which was a grumbling against God about water and food in the wilderness\u2026 and Isaiah basically says\u2026 Look\u2026 if you’re going to weary God by NOT asking for a sign\u2026 God’s going to give you one anyhow\u2026 and here it is\u2026 and it’s a sign of hope and new life\u2026 the young woman is with child\u2026 and shall bear a son\u2026 and shall name him Immanuel<\/em>\u2026 which means God is with us\u2026 and before this child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good\u2026 the land which your two enemies inhabit\u2026 will be deserted\u2026 but the King missed the point of God\u2019s offer\u2026 Ahaz does not test God by accepting God\u2019s offer\u2026 instead God is testing Ahaz\u2026 and when Ahaz refuses\u2026 he refuses to trust in the living God who is speaking to him\u2026 it was scandalous\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n God speaks to us through prophets\u2026 but God also speaks to us through dreams and our interpretation of them\u2026 and through other circumstances and how we meet them with grace and mercy\u2026 we all know about the Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt\u2026 who interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams\u2026 and as a result\u2026 rose to power over all of Egypt\u2026 and because God spoke through Joseph\u2026 he was able to provide for his father and brothers when a famine came\u2026 his brothers feared retaliation\u2026 but Joseph said\u2026 Do not be distressed\u2026 or angry with yourselves\u2026 for God sent me before you to preserve your lives<\/em>\u2026 grace and mercy\u2026 and Joseph and his eleven brothers became the twelve tribes of Israel\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary was found to be with child\u2026 Joseph would have have been within his legal rights to dismiss her and expose her to public humiliation\u2026 because even though they were only betrothed\u2026 it was no different than if they\u2019d been married and Mary committed adultery\u2026 there was scandal because their betrothal was a legal contract\u2026 and Joseph knew the law from Deuteronomy 22 which said that\u2026 If there is a young woman\u2026 a virgin engaged to be married\u2026 and a man lies with her\u2026 you shall bring both of them to the gate of the town and stone them to death<\/em>… ancient inheritance laws helped ensure that a man’s property\u2026 and name\u2026 would go only to his rightful heirs\u2026 and the death of a young woman insured that there’d be no fraudulent heirs\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n But Joseph trusted God\u2026 who spoke to him through an angel\u2026 ] he became as receptive to God\u2019s dream\u2026 as Mary had been to the Holy Spirit\u2026 he emptied himself of his own dreams\u2026 and gave up much\u2026 he gave up his legal rights to lord his Mosaic-law rights over Mary\u2026 and send her away\u2026 gave up consummating their marriage until the child was born\u2026 gave up his paternal right to choose the child’s name\u2026 ] he let go of his own dreams\u2026 in favor of the dream that had overshadowed him\u2026 Joseph the carpenter\u2026 was a righteous man\u2026 and he became a paternal womb who would protect Mary and this holy child\u2026 he extended forgiveness to what looked like sin\u2026 he built a response of love in a world of law\u2026 ] because to fulfill the law\u2026 you must sometimes go beyond it\u2026 and as Australian minister Michael Frost said\u2026 when male pastors call on us to recover something called biblical manhood\u2026 I suspect they’re not thinking of the silent\u2026 loyal Joseph\u2026 submitting himself humbly to his wife\u2019s God-given calling<\/em>\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s Advent 7\u2026 we\u2019re on the cusp of Emmanuel\u2026 of God with us\u2026 and now\u2026 as many of us have already done some Christmas decorating\u2026 we can hardly avoid looking ahead to the Incarnation\u2026 it\u2019s a fitting acknowledgement of Joseph\u2019s receptivity to dreams\u2026 as we also consider what it is\u2026 that we are receptive to\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Last week\u2026 Jesus directed the Baptist’s disciples to look at what Jesus was doing\u2026 not at what he was feeling\u2026 and although Joseph could have followed the law\u2026 could have followed his feelings\u2026 he wasn’t led by how he felt\u2026 he chose grace\u2026 and acted honorably\u2026 he saw past all the differences that could have become major stumbling blocks\u2026 and acted with unity\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scripture is full of stories about dysfunctional families\u2026 ordinary people whose lives didn’t go the way they wanted\u2026 or expected\u2026 and who were re-directed\u2026 or helped\u2026 or saved by God\u2026 we believe God’s got a finger in the pot when things are going smoothly\u2026 but we can wonder where God is when things get a little out of kilter\u2026 and that’s when God can get our attention\u2026 those times make for the best stories\u2026 and though we sometimes turn the spotlight on ourselves to highlight our successes\u2026 we often turn them away too when we don’t want to draw attention to our failures\u2026 we’re all part of one human family\u2026 and as I’ve said before\u2026 the divisions between us are lies\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But we live with division\u2026 and there are many who can’t be with their family of origin this year\u2026 and who form their own families of choice\u2026 immigrants\u2026 those fleeing from war\u2026 Americans living in other countries\u2026 foreign exchange students living with American host families\u2026 and often\u2026 it’s not in spite of\u2026 but because of\u2026 these new configurations that we grow closer to God\u2026 and scripture proclaims that we have been destined for adoption into God’s family\u2026 that we have received a spirit of adoption\u2026 and in Joseph’s wonderful and paradoxical adoption of this child\u2026 who has then adopted us\u2026 we find more riches than any earthly treasure\u2026 we find that our ordinary expectations are not big enough to hold God’s dreams\u2026 that we can be open to God’s startling revelation\u2026 we find that God is with us\u2026 and that there is more grace in God\u2026 than sin in us\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In some ways\u2026 we are all Ahaz\u2026 unwilling to be tested\u2026 or we are waiting for our willingness to be like Joseph\u2019s\u2026 not to be evaluated against laws written on tablets\u2026 but against love written on hearts of flesh\u2026 and while we don’t know how Joseph and Mary came to be betrothed\u2026 I wonder if it was because of his love for her\u2026 and that dream\u2026 that he refused to shine a spotlight on what many would have mistakenly considered her shame\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so in less than a week\u2026 some of our waiting will be over\u2026 and we\u2019ll gather to celebrate that flow of love\u2026 we may wait for a white Christmas\u2026 or to find out what\u2019s in the box with the white paper and the blue bow\u2026 if we’re fortunate enough to have such\u2026 but what we most deeply wait for\u2026 what our souls long for\u2026 what no earthly thing or circumstance can satisfy\u2026 but what we may glimpse in moments of transcendence\u2026 and know as real and worthwhile\u2026 are for God\u2019s dreams to pervade\u2026 and find expression in our lives\u2026 so we can heal each other and creation\u2026 and that would certainly exceed all of our Advent expectations\u2026 and make all the waiting\u2026 truly worthwhile\u2026 a woman will bear a son\u2026 and shall name him Immanuel\u2026 which means God with us\u2026 and Mary doesn’t just bear the incarnate Christ-child\u2026 she bears new life\u2026 and hope itself\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year A Isaiah 7:10-16 Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 Presbyterian minister T. Denise Anderson writes that in today’s passage from Isaiah\u2026 God tells King Ahaz to ask for a sign\u2026 Ahaz rules the southern kingdom of Judah\u2026 which includes Jerusalem\u2026 King Pekah of the northern kingdom of Israel\u2026 has allied himself with the neighboring\u2026 but non-Israelite kingdom of Aram\u2026 to attack Jerusalem\u2026 because Ahaz refused to join forces with King Pekah to attack Assyria\u2026 Ahaz and all of Jerusalem are shaken\u2026 but God reassures Ahaz that this plot against Jerusalem will not prevail\u2026 Ahaz however\u2026 is not convinced\u2026 ] ask for a sign\u2026 God says\u2026 as deep as Sheol\u2026 or as high as heaven\u2026 so that God’s promise can be memorialized\u2026 Ahaz refuses\u2026 he must remember what Moses said in Deuteronomy 6:16\u2026 Do not put the LORD your God to the test\u2026 as you tested him at Massah\u2026 which was a grumbling against God about water and food in the wilderness\u2026 and Isaiah basically says\u2026 Look\u2026 if you’re going to weary God by NOT asking for a sign\u2026 God’s going to give you one anyhow\u2026 and here it is\u2026 and it’s a sign of hope and new life\u2026 the young woman is with child\u2026 and shall bear a son\u2026 and shall name him Immanuel\u2026 which means God is with us\u2026 and before this child knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good\u2026 the land which your two enemies inhabit\u2026 will be deserted\u2026 but the King missed the point of God\u2019s offer\u2026 Ahaz does not test God by accepting God\u2019s offer\u2026 instead God is testing Ahaz\u2026 and when Ahaz refuses\u2026 he refuses to trust in the living God who is speaking to him\u2026 it was scandalous\u2026 God speaks to us through prophets\u2026 but God also speaks to us through dreams and our interpretation of them\u2026 and through other circumstances and how we meet them with grace and mercy\u2026 we all know about the Joseph who was sold into slavery in Egypt\u2026 who interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams\u2026 and as a result\u2026 rose to power over all of Egypt\u2026 and because God spoke through Joseph\u2026 he was able to provide for his father and brothers when a famine came\u2026 his brothers feared retaliation\u2026 but Joseph said\u2026 Do not be distressed\u2026 or angry with yourselves\u2026 for God sent me before you to preserve your lives\u2026 grace and mercy\u2026 and Joseph and his eleven brothers became the twelve tribes of Israel\u2026 Mary was found to be with child\u2026 Joseph would have have been within his legal rights to dismiss her and expose her to public humiliation\u2026 because even though they were only betrothed\u2026 it was no different than if they\u2019d been married and Mary committed adultery\u2026 there was scandal because their betrothal was a legal contract\u2026 and Joseph knew the law from Deuteronomy 22 which said that\u2026 If there is a young woman\u2026 a virgin engaged to be married\u2026 and a man lies with her\u2026 you shall bring both of them to the gate of the town and stone them to death… ancient inheritance laws helped ensure that a man’s property\u2026 and name\u2026 would go only to his rightful heirs\u2026 and the death of a young woman insured that there’d be no fraudulent heirs\u2026 But Joseph trusted God\u2026 who spoke to him through an angel\u2026 ] he became as receptive to God\u2019s dream\u2026 as Mary had been to the Holy Spirit\u2026 he emptied himself of his own dreams\u2026 and gave up much\u2026 he gave up his legal rights to lord his Mosaic-law rights over Mary\u2026 and send her away\u2026 gave up consummating their marriage until the child was born\u2026 gave up his paternal right to choose the child’s name\u2026 ] he let go of his own dreams\u2026 in favor of the dream that had overshadowed him\u2026 Joseph the carpenter\u2026 was a righteous man\u2026 and he became a paternal womb who would protect Mary and this holy child\u2026 he extended forgiveness to what looked like sin\u2026 he built a response of love in a world of law\u2026 ] because to fulfill the law\u2026 you must sometimes go beyond it\u2026 and as Australian minister Michael Frost said\u2026 when male pastors call on us to recover something called biblical manhood\u2026 I suspect they’re not thinking of the silent\u2026 loyal Joseph\u2026 submitting himself humbly to his wife\u2019s God-given calling\u2026 It\u2019s Advent 7\u2026 we\u2019re on the cusp of Emmanuel\u2026 of God with us\u2026 and now\u2026 as many of us have already done some Christmas decorating\u2026 we can hardly avoid looking ahead to the Incarnation\u2026 it\u2019s a fitting acknowledgement of Joseph\u2019s receptivity to dreams\u2026 as we also consider what it is\u2026 that we are receptive to\u2026 Last week\u2026 Jesus directed the Baptist’s disciples to look at what Jesus was doing\u2026 not at what he was feeling\u2026 and although Joseph could have followed the law\u2026 could have followed his feelings\u2026 he wasn’t led by how he felt\u2026 he chose grace\u2026 and acted honorably\u2026 he saw past all the differences that could have become major stumbling blocks\u2026 and acted with unity\u2026 Scripture is full of stories about dysfunctional families\u2026 ordinary people whose lives didn’t go the way they wanted\u2026 or expected\u2026 and who were re-directed\u2026 or helped\u2026 or saved by God\u2026 we believe God’s got a finger in the pot when things are going smoothly\u2026 but we can wonder where God is when things get a little out of kilter\u2026 and that’s when God can get our attention\u2026 those times make for the best stories\u2026 and though we sometimes turn the spotlight on ourselves to highlight our successes\u2026 we often turn them away too when we don’t want to draw attention to our failures\u2026 we’re all part of one human family\u2026 and as I’ve said before\u2026 the divisions between us are lies\u2026 But we live with division\u2026 and there are many who can’t be with their family of origin this year\u2026 and who form their own families of choice\u2026 immigrants\u2026 those fleeing from war\u2026 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