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11.30.08

1st Sunday in Advent

SERMON SERIES: FACES AT THE MANGER

PART 1: MARY AND JOSEPH

ISAIAH 7:10-14; MATTHEW 1:18-25

• The Focal Point of Christmas
• Glitz and Glitter
• The holiday lights are gleaming in homes, businesses and along Main Street in Anytown USA
• The familiar melodies of Christmas music waft through the air
• Christmas trees over-laden with ornaments are popping up everywhere, and that “jolly old elf” named Santa Claus can be seen on virtually every street corner and in every store across this land
• There’s no escaping the fact that Christmas is near
• The shopping frenzy is well under way as retailers compete for the big bucks that the holiday season brings their way
• In our post-modern, consumer-driven, grab-all-the-gusto-you-can-get culture, that seems to be what Christmas is all about
• Lights and decorations, parties and presents…and Santa Claus
• It’s about spending all you can spend and more than you can afford to spend, with the expectation that your generosity will be well returned by others
• It’s about running around in high gear at breakneck speed to the point of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion
• At this time of year when we remember that angels song of “Peace on earth, goodwill to all,” there is little peace to be found, and good will flies out the window as shoppers compete for department store bargains
• Is this really Christmas?
• So many of us know that we have lost sight of the focal point of Christmas—the birth of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world
• Nothing illustrates that more than the debate that rages over “political correctness”
• Can we say “Merry Christmas,” or must we say “Happy Holidays”?
• Is it a “Christmas tree” or a “Holiday tree”?
• And in order to be as politically correct as possible, the Nativity Scene is fast disappearing from many of our Christmas displays
• We are well on our way to transforming this “holy day” into a “hollow day,” a day which is empty and devoid of meaning
• The Nativity of Jesus
• For nearly 900 years, the Nativity Scene, or Crèche, has been the central focus of Christmas celebrations around the world
• While that scene is not 100% historically accurate because it depicts the Wise Men at the stable of Christ’s birth when they actually arrived much later, it is intended to draw our attention to the defining moment in human history—that moment when God came to live among us
• The Nativity Scene can be traced back to the 12th century
• It is said that St. Francis of Assisi was the first to create such a scene, using live people to portray all of the characters and real animals in a real barn
• The practice spread to Germany in the 1600s, where Nativity Sets began to be carved out of wood or other materials
• And they were brought to America in 1741 by the immigrants who settled in, of all places, Bethlehem, PA
• It is to this Nativity Scene we will look during this season of Advent to learn as much as we can about those who gathered there, to look into their faces and read their thoughts, so that we might better understand the miracle that occurred on that first Christmas night

• Focus on the Holy Family
• Looking at the Face of Mary
• Mary and Joseph are two of the central figures in the drama of that first Christmas night
• In the Nativity Scene, Mary is kneeling at the side of the manger that cradles her newborn Son, while Joseph stands, staunch and strong, at her side
• But we have to wonder what it was like for them to be thrust onto center stage of the drama of human history
• What must it have been like to be the earthly parents of the holy Son of God?
• How much did they know, really? 
• What role would they play in God’s plan of salvation?
• Mary must have been very young when she received the news from the heavenly visitor that she was chosen to be the mother of the Son of God
• Women—young girls, really—reached marriageable age in their early teen years, making Mary as young as 13 or 14 when Gabriel came to visit
• Her fiancé, Joseph, was a much older man, twenty or more years her senior, as was the custom of their day, and her marriage to him was arranged by her parents, as was also the custom
• The law decreed that a man and a woman were officially a couple at the beginning of the betrothal, about a year before the actual wedding occurred
• From that point on, they were legally bound to each other and must remain faithful to each other even though they could not come together in a physical union
• The only way for a betrothal to end was by death or divorce
• So, we have a pregnant, unwed teenager who not only had to face the scorn of family and neighbors, but who also faced the very real possibility of being stoned to death as an adulteress
• The only thing she had to cling to was the promise made by God
• It could only be faith in the love and grace of God that would bring her through this ordeal
• Faith must have been the reason why she was chosen, for the angel said to her, “You have found favor with God.”
• And it could only be faith—a deep, abiding and committed trust in God—that enabled her to accept her role and say, “May it be to me as you have said.”
• She, no doubt, knew the prophecy, “A virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him ‘Immanuel,’” but we have no way of knowing if she truly understood what all that meant
• But the time came and her child was born—God’s child
• And as we peer into the face of Mary we see the face of love—love for her newborn babe, love for her husband Joseph, and love for God
• But the eyes often reveal what’s hidden in the deeper recesses of the heart, so perhaps, too, we see fear—not fear for herself but for her child, not really knowing yet what it meant for him to be the Son of God
• With that mixture of love and fear, we also see faith
• Despite all that is unknown, she believed and she trusted
• Perhaps her faith in the face of fear is where Jesus learned his faith—a faith that enabled him to echo the words of his mother so long ago—“Not my will but yours be done.”
• Looking at the Face of Joseph
• How difficult it must have been for Joseph to be the stepfather of the Son of God
• Stepfather—father of one who is not your own flesh and blood
• It’s not always easy to love someone else’s child
• But this is a role that Joseph took on willingly and performed well
• He, too, had a heavenly visitor who told of God’s plan
• As a devout man, his faith enabled him to believe and to trust, and immediately upon waking from his dream, he took Mary as his wife, in accordance with the will of God
• While we hear little about Joseph in the gospel narratives, his role in the life of Jesus was significant
• It is only here in the birth stories and in the visit to the temple when Jesus was twelve that we catch any glimpse of Joseph in the life of Jesus, indicating that Joseph probably died before Jesus’ teaching ministry began
• Yet, there are three primary contributions Joseph made in Jesus’ life
• First of all, Joseph had the privilege of giving Jesus his name
• That name was given to Joseph by the angel, but it was Joseph who gave the name to Jesus, and that naming is significant
• Names were more than handles by which one is called as they are in our culture
• In those days, names had meaning; they often identified the purpose for which a child is born
• The name Jesus means “God is salvation,” and coupled with the name given by the prophet Isaiah, Jesus’ full purpose is revealed
• Jesus is “God with us to bring salvation”
• It was the responsibility of the father to name the child
• By giving Jesus his name, Joseph officially adopted this child as his own
• Through that adoption, Jesus received the full rights as the firstborn son of Joseph
• He officially became part of Joseph’s family line, a line which Matthew traces back through King David to Abraham
• Through the act of naming and making him part of the family, Jesus was made a descendant of David and a true son of Israel
• This lineage is important since God’s promise was that the Messiah would come from the family of David
• Joseph’s second contribution to the life of Jesus was that he was Jesus’ protector
• His willingness to take Mary as his wife spared both Mary and Jesus from death by stoning
• It was Joseph who carefully led the donkey to Bethlehem that carried his wife and unborn child, and who found them lodging in the stable
• It was to Joseph that God revealed Herod’s plot to slaughter the infants in Bethlehem, and it was he who took them to Egypt to find safety
• And it was Joseph who, upon their return from Egypt, settled them in Nazareth and provided a modest but comfortable life for them through his trade as a carpenter
• Had it not been for Joseph, the infant Jesus may never have lived to fulfill God’s plan for him
• The third thing Joseph provided for Jesus was fatherly love
• It was from the hands of Joseph that Jesus learned the trade of a carpenter
• But it was from the heart of Joseph that Jesus learned of the love between father and son
• Through their relationship, Jesus certainly must have learned what the love of God is like, a love he would need to depend upon each and every day of his life
• Jesus’ relationship with both Joseph and Mary equipped him to live his life in obedience to God
• As we look in the Nativity Scene, we must see strength and determination on the face of Joseph, for only a strong, determined man could do what he had to do
• In his heart there must have been doubts and fears, just as there was for Mary, but his faith gave him the courage to persevere
• And his love—for Mary and for God—enabled him to love a child who was not his own
• Mary and Joseph demonstrate for us the difference that faith in God makes in the lives of human beings
• From them we can learn the power of faith in the face of adversity, and the joy that comes when we make it to the other side
• They were simple people who triumphed over adversity through a strength greater than their own
• They experienced both the ecstasy and the agony of love as they contemplated the life their child would live and as they understood the purpose for which he was born
• Yet, they saw themselves and their child as part of the bigger picture of God’s plan, and did all they could to help Jesus fulfill his mission
• As we gaze into the face of Mary and Joseph, may we find there the faith and strength to carry us through the trying and troubling times of our life, a love for God that knows no limits,  and the trust in God that enables us to say and mean “Your will be done”