Fourth Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent (A)

December 22, 2019

Text: Matt. 1:18-25

            Joseph was a just man.  Just means righteous.  That means justified.  That is, Joseph is a man of faith, justified by faith alone.  Joseph believed God, believed in the coming Messiah, as all the Old Testament saints were justified and saved by faith in the One who was to come and save them from their sins.  Like Father Abraham before him, Joseph believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). 

            So that is the first point.  Joseph is a Christian.  And in this way, he is a model for us.  Mary is often held up as the great model of faith at Christmastime, and rightly so.  She also believed the Word of the LORD.  She received the news from the angel that she would bear the Son of God with a simple, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word” (Luke 1:38; ESV).  And more than once we are told that Mary treasured up the words and deeds surrounding the birth and life of her Son and Savior, as every Christian should do, pondering them in her heart (2:19).

            But that is the Christmas Gospel according to St. Luke.  St. Matthew holds up Joseph as the model of the Christian who remains faithful under the heavy cross of circumstances that are impossibly trying.  There is a reason we use Luke 2 for the Christmas pageant, and not Matthew 1.  Matthew’s story is less Hallmark, more National Lampoon’s.  For Matthew, Christmas is a sordid affair.  There are rumors and shame.  A teenage, un-wed mother who actually claims she’s still a virgin, and don’t worry, God is the Father.  Her betrothed, who is heartbroken and doesn’t know what to do next.  The Law of Moses says he should stone her to death (Deut. 22:23-24), but he doesn’t want to do that.  He’s a good guy, right?  By human standards at least.  And that is because of his faith in Christ.  He is not a vengeful man.  But he also loves her.  So…  Divorce her quietly.  That’s the best plan.  Yes, divorce, because betrothal in the Bible is legally binding and substantially the same as marriage, except that the bridegroom had not yet come to take his bride from her father’s house, and the marriage had not yet been consummated.  So another failed marriage at Christmas time.  Over all of this, there is fear.  That is why when the angel comes to Joseph in his troubled dreams, he must begin by saying, “do not fear.”  “Joseph, son of David,” heir to the throne of Israel, “do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 1:20).  “Conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary,” we confess it (Apostles’ Creed).  Two natures.  Divine and Human.  Son of Mary.  Son of God. 

            That is the mystery of the Incarnation, God’s coming in the flesh.  That is splendid enough, but that is not yet the whole of the Gospel.  The Gospel is the Name given by the angel:  Jesus: YHWH saves.  The LORD saves.  His very Name tells us who this Baby is and what He has come to do.  He is YHWH, the LORD.  And He has come to save His people from their sins.  And Immanuel: God with us.  This flesh and blood Baby is God come to make His home with us poor sinners.  In our sin!  In our weakness and death and misery.  In our mess of a life and our brokenness.  Do you get it?  There is a reason Christmas in your family is always so messed up.  It was messed up for the Holy Family, too.  And it is just for that reason, because the family is messed up, your family, my family, Adam and Eve’s family, you and I are so messed up, that Jesus came.  Advent.  Christmas.  Don’t you see that Christmas isn’t ruined by the brokenness of your life?  Christmas is the answer to the brokenness!  Jesus!  He comes!  Right into the midst of it.  Right into Joseph and Mary’s brokenness.  Right into yours.  To save you from your sins.

            And by the way, no, that’s not some kind of coming in your heart.  It’s a not a feeling.  It’s not an ambiguous “spirit of Christmas,” whatever that’s supposed to mean.  And while we’re at it, the true meaning of Christmas is not sharing or being grateful or giving generously, as wonderful as those things may be.  Those are all qualities we substitute for Jesus to justify ourselves.  Christmas is about God coming in flesh and blood.  Immanuel, God with us.  Christmas is about God coming in flesh and blood to save us from our sins.  Jesus, YHWH saves.  The Baby born of Mary is born to die.  For sinners.  In the place of sinners.  For you.  For the forgiveness of sins.  Christmas is all bound up in Good Friday and the cross.  God is born with flesh and blood to give that flesh into death and shed that blood as the sacrifice of atonement.  He is born to bury that body and blood in your tomb, and then, on the Third Day, to take it up again, risen and living.  Bodily. 

            And it is in that flesh and blood that He is with you, your Immanuel.  He isn’t with you spiritually, in a vague sort of way.  You know this.  I’ve told you so many times that when I say “I’m with you in spirit,” I’m telling you I’m not with you at all.  When the pastor says, “The Lord be with you,” when Jesus says He is with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20), He means it for real.  Substantially.  Bodily.  Where?  How?  You know it.  Under the bread and wine.  His true body.  His true blood.  Conceived by the Holy Spirit.  Born of the Virgin Mary.  The very same body that suffered under Pontius Pilate, crucified, dead and buried, that rose again on the Third Day.  That is what He feeds you.  Every Holy Communion is a celebration of Christmas.  And it’s not for the righteous who measure up to God’s Commandments, whose lives are not a mess, who don’t have real sins.  It is for sinners, and sinners only.  Jesus comes for sinners in their sins.  To save them from their sins.  To save you from your sins. 

            So do not fear.  Do not fear, Joseph, to take Mary as your wife.  She is bearing God’s Son, and you will raise Him as your own.  Incidentally, see how adoption and guardianship are held up as a high and holy work.  We could add fostering, and even mentoring of children.  This is the vocation of St. Joseph, Guardian of our Lord.  Do not fear to fulfill your calling, Joseph.  Though there will be much suffering… the gossip in the town and in the family, a stable and a manger because there is no room for them in the Inn, celibacy at least until Mary gave birth, a midnight escape to Egypt while Bethlehem’s sons are slain, poverty in backwater Nazareth, that fateful trip to Jerusalem with twelve-year-old Jesus who disappears to be about His Father’s business, in His Father’s House.  And, it appears, for Joseph, an early death.  After that pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he doesn’t appear again in the Gospels.  His work is complete.  He raised the little Lord Jesus.  Brought Him up in the fear and admonition of YHWH.  Taught Him.  Protected Him.  Provided for Him.  He was a good father, even if not THE Father.  Now Joseph’s rest is won.  He fought the good fight.  He ran the race.  Now there is laid up for Him the crown won, not by his own fighting and running, but by His precious Boy, Jesus.  Joseph was a just man.  Justified.  By faith alone.  That is why he was faith-ful in his God-giving vocations.

            And you… Do not fear to be faithful in your own callings from God.  Honor your father and your mother.  Be faithful to your spouse.  Do not divorce them, quietly or otherwise.  Be good parents.  Raise your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord.  Protect them.  Provide for them.  Do not exasperate them (Eph. 6:4).  Pray for your leaders.  Pay your taxes.  Pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ, for the Church and her mission, for your pastor and his family.  Give an offering.  Give to the poor.  Go to work.  Do your job.  Suffer the cross, whatever cross your Father lays upon you.  Don’t do it to justify yourself.  Do it because you are just.  Justified by faith alone.  In Jesus.  Because of Jesus, YHWH saves, Immanuel, God with us.  He justifies you by His coming and suffering and dying and rising.  Do not fear. 

            Now, when you know that and believe that, Advent has reached its goal.  St. John the Baptist has done his job.  You are prepared for the coming of the Lord.  You’re ready for Christmas.  Even if you have a little more shopping to do.  Even if you still have the cooking and cleaning and the prepping for guests.  Even if your family and your life is still a mess (well… it is).  Jesus comes.  Right into that.  For that.  For you.  It’s almost here.  It’s almost time.  Blessed Advent.  Now come and get a sneak-peek of Christmas at the altar.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.