Advent 4

Preparation

         Please begin by reading Matthew 1:18-25 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Joseph's Dream

    Joseph must have been a person worth knowing. After all, God chose him for an extraordinary role. He was privileged to be an intimate witness to events of cosmic significance. As one writer describes the drama, "at a particular time, in a particular place, in a particular way, in the life of a particular person, God intervened in history in order to accomplish the salvation of humanity."

    There are clues to Joseph's character in this vignette from Matthew. It appears that Mary's pregnancy was a shock to him. So much so that he decided to terminate their engagement. Apart from his own feelings, pregnancy before marriage—something not easily hidden in the small agricultural village of Nazareth—was a far greater social stigma in those days than our own. Even so, Joseph demonstrates a love and tenderness for Mary that transcended his own feelings; seeking to protect her and shield her reputation.

    Joseph was also a person of deep faith. Despite his initial misunderstanding, he was open to receive God's message, to accept it, and to act on it. Here was a good man, living a simple life in a quiet corner of the world until God turned his life upside down.

    Mary's life was turned upside down too. It must have seemed to her a mixed blessing at times. Simeon warned her while Jesus was still an infant that a sword would someday pierce her soul (Luke 2:35). She would live to see her child reviled and executed.

    Biblical silence about Joseph suggests that he did not live to see how the drama played out. Neither Joseph nor Mary would live to personally see the way in which Jesus' life would eventually change the entire world.

    Somehow, when God breaks into our lives it never looks quite like we imagined. As with the lives of Joseph and Mary, the process can be wrenching—tearing us out of the lives we have planned for ourselves in ways that can leave painful edges. Sometimes we are privileged to have a glimpse of what God is doing. Sometimes our part in God's reign unfolds in ways we never know at a distance time and place.

    It is ultimately about faith. Our part is to be open to the dream, to be as faithful as we can, and trust that the end of the story is in God's hands. It will all unfold in time as it should.  As it was with that simple couple from a small, back-water village long ago, our faithfulness can change the world in ways we may never know.

    Follow the dream God brings your way this holy season.

revclay

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Matthew 1:18-25

    Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: 

    "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."  When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.   [NRSV]