December 2

My Name is Joseph

December 2, 2007 Rev. Dr. Christopher Carlson

This morning I want to do something a little bit different. I want to tell you the Christmas story from the prospective of a particular person. This person is Joseph. So I am going to do a story from the first person asking you to suspend belief for a minute and pretend that I am Joseph telling you about his experience. It is kind of like what I do on Christmas Eve and become a character for you, and this particular Christmas Eve I am going to tell you the story from the prospective of the Innkeeper. Next week, it may sound a little strange, but I am going to tell you the story from the prospective of Mary, but I promise not to dress up.

From Matthew, chapter 1, the familiar story that we all know, beginning at verse 18:

(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.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God!

Would you pray with me?

Father we thank you for this story we know so well. We are familiar with it, maybe a little too familiar. Help us to hear it again from a different prospective that we may see the wonder and the glory and the beauty of it in your power and your love for us. We pray Lord that you would use this word that we hear to prepare our hearts for the communion that we will partake of in just a few minutes. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

My name is Joseph, the husband of Mary and the father, or step-father, of Jesus, if you will. Like my father before me I was a carpenter. My father began to teach me at a very early age this trade. In my early teens I became his apprentice; and by the time I was twenty years old, I was ready to go into business for myself and to raise a family of my own, and that meant finding a wife. There were many girls available in Nazareth, though some were not keen on marrying a lowly carpenter; but when I met Mary, I knew that she was the one. Mary seems beautiful to me, not so much outwardly, though she was a very beautiful woman. Hers was an inwardly beauty, a beauty of goodness and purity and maturity beyond her years. For me this inner loveliness far outweighed the beauty one looked for on the outside. She was different from all the other girls, especially with her commitment to God. Unlike so many others, she took her faith very seriously. She wanted to serve God in whatever she did and she adamantly believed that God had a purpose for her. When I met her and began to know the kind of person she was I knew she was the one. I felt her father gave me a great gift when he said I could marry her. So we became betrothed and that meant a period of waiting for about a year and where she lived in her father’s house. In the eyes of the law we were married but not fully so. We eagerly waited the day when the marriage ceremony would take place. But then one day Mary seemed distant and preoccupied and I asked her what was wrong and she wouldn’t tell me. She only said that she needed to go and visit her cousin, Elizabeth. I asked her why. I felt like I deserved to know, I was her husband; but she wouldn’t tell me. She only said that she had to go. I was troubled. When she left I became more troubled. Why did she go? What was she hiding? Was there another? Why could she not tell me the reason she left?

Finally after three months she returned with news, the news that Elizabeth, in her old age, had given birth to a son and his name was John. She told of the wonderful time she’d had with them and how Elizabeth and her had talked and talked and talked; but I could still tell something was on her mind. Finally she said to me, “Joseph I have something I must tell you and it is very hard. Before I left for Elizabeth’s a messenger of the Lord, an angel, came and appeared to me. This angel said that I would have a child who would be the Lord’s Messiah, the Holy One for whom we have waited and waited. And Joseph, the angel said something else, that I would have this child through a miracle of God, and I would have a child even though I am a virgin. It is true, Joseph. I am pregnant.”

“What? Of all the bizarre, cock-eyed, crazy, wicked stories I have ever heard! Women, how do you expect me to believe this? First you tell me that the Lord has chosen you to bear the Messiah. And if that is not arrogant enough, you tell me you are pregnant and still a virgin. Who’s ever heard of that? I knew you were acting strange and now I know why. There’s someone else, isn’t there?”

“Joseph, I don’t blame you for not believing me. I’m not sure I would believe me either. You know I wouldn’t lie to you. I don’t understand why the Lord is chosen me. I only know that what the angel has said has come true; but there is something else to think about Joseph, if the Lord has chosen me to be the mother of the Messiah, I believe he has chosen you to be the Father. Think about it.”

“Such a tale is way too fantastic. You must be an adulteress.” So I left her, just like that, thoughts coursing through my mind; and I found myself in front of the Rabbi, venting. “How could she do this to me? And who’s the man? Right now I feel like I could kill them both.” The Rabbi said, “Now Joseph,” as the Rabbi often did, “Don’t let evil thoughts poison your mind; that is what the adversary wants you to do. When we are wronged he wants us to think we should do wrong too. I know you feel it. It is such a strange tale she tells. It is so unlike her to tell such lies as she most certainly is doing.” “Yes, Rabbi, it is unlike her. I would have thought anybody else in the entire world would tell such a tale. You think she could be telling the truth?” “Well there is a passage in Isaiah that talks about a young woman, a virgin, who would bear a child and many think this is the Messiah, but it is certainly unlikely that it would be Mary. But perhaps, perhaps she is deluding herself because her family, her family is from the line of David, as is yours.” “Perhaps that’s true. It would explain much. I guess I have no choice but to divorce her; but you know, Rabbi, I still love her. I will not expose her publicly. I will divorce her quietly and be done with it.” I left him with an ache in my soul going deep within me. I went home and went to bed and slept fitfully and then something happened in the middle of the night. I became aware of a presence in my room, someone bright, shining, like the sun, standing at the foot of my bed. He said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will give him the name of Jesus, Savior, because he will save his people from their sins. All this has taken place to fulfill what the Lord has said through the prophet, that ‘the virgin will be with child, will give birth to a son and he will be named Emanuel, God with us.’” I woke all cold and clammy and very much afraid. So it was true – Mary pregnant by the Holy Spirit, but why her? It’s my life! It’s my wife! Why her? Why me? And what will people think? I can hear the tongues wagging now.

I rose early in the morning and went to find Mary. There was only one way to find out if this was true. When I found her, I asked her, “Mary, when the angel spoke to you, did he give a name to the child?” And she said, “Yes. He is to be called Jesus.” So it was true. I felt as if someone had knocked me in the stomach. “So he’s appeared to you too.” “Yes,” I said. “He appeared to me in a dream last night and when you said the name just now, it confirmed it. But I am more confused than ever. Why did he choose me? Why did he choose us? I am just an ordinary carpenter. God knows better than anyone else that I am not an example of virtue. I am not worthy.” “But how can you say that,” she asked, “Don’t you realize what it all means? I am going to be the mother of the Messiah, God’s holy King, and you will be his Father. Together we will live with him and teach him.” “I know that, but it bothers me. I know that’s selfish but I am an ordinary carpenter. That’s all I have ever wanted to be. Somehow in my ordinary life, I wanted to imitate God and make things, like He makes. I’ve wanted to have many sons and now it is all different. I feel like everything has been taken from me – my work, my wife, my children. I feel like I’ve been robbed of my very life.” “Joseph, our lives are not our own. You know that. At this point in time we are called to serve the Lord in this way and it will be hard. I need you to be here with me; but, don’t you see, it won’t end there. You’re a carpenter. You will always be a carpenter. That’s the beauty of it. The Lord has chosen us to do His will. He has chosen ordinary people just like you and me. Not only will you shape the wood you work with, you and I together will help shape the Son of God and so help him do his work when his time comes. Like your father before you, you will teach him to be a carpenter, a shaper and a builder and I will be your wife. We will have other children. The Lord will bless us with many children. The Lord has not taken our lives away. He has given them to us. It is God’s will for us. Let us surrender to it.”

As I heard these words, I realized the awesome thing the Lord was doing through us. God had chosen us to raise His Son, to be his parents, to love him. But my question was still not answered, why us? “I am so unworthy, Mary. How can He expect me to be a father of His Son?” She answered, “None of us is worthy, Joseph, though you are a better man than you think. The Lord does not choose us because we are worthy, but because it suits Him. It suits His purpose. Our task it not always to understand but it is to surrender and do our best. I know you Joseph. You will do your best. And through His grace, that will be enough.”

So it was, I became a participant in one of the greatest things that God has ever done. I changed that day. I realized that God had chosen me, along with Mary, to serve Him in a very profound way. I didn’t deserve it. Neither did I understand it, though it became more clear, later. But I knew my duty, to surrender, to surrender my life to the word of God that I’d heard, to take Mary as my wife, to love her and to help her carry out her part of the will of God. Afterward I would do my best to raise the Son of God, His Son, and doing this I would not forfeit my life, but I would fulfill it. I would not lose my life, but find it.

Here ends what might be the story of Joseph. When you do a story like this you take a lot of poetic license and you try to imagine what it might be like for a person and that is what good stories do, they place you there. What would it be like for Joseph? If you were Joseph or Mary, how would you feel? It wouldn’t have been easy. It would have been hard. Often God’s will is hard. God does not set us tasks which our simple but often require sacrifice. I am struck by the ordinariness of the story. Here was an ordinary man, a working man, chosen to do an amazing thing and an ordinary girl. He was no more than twenty. She was no more than fifteen. We should think about that. You don’t have to be old to do great things. You don’t have to be great to do great things. God chooses ordinary people do to extraordinary things. We might say to ourselves, “God would never choose me to do anything like that.” I suspect we wouldn’t be chosen to do anything as great as this, but I will tell you this: We are all chosen. We are all chosen to do God’s will, many times in life; and yet, so often we refuse to surrender. We are so busy doing this and doing that, living our lives like we want to live them, doing the things that we want to do. No time for what God has for us. No time to hear the word that God speaks to us everyday. Such cluttered lives, full of stuff, too busy, to cluttered to hear the calling that we all have. This Advent I want you to think about that. It is a good time to begin hearing again, God’s word; to see again the coming of God into the world and into our lives; to see that our lives are not our own and that we are all called to surrender them. We do think the same thing, that if we surrender, we lose. If we surrender it won’t be my life anymore; but a marvelous thing is that when we surrender we have life, His life. Ask God what He is saying to you during this month. What kind of calling He is making on your life? As you partake of the supper today, come in repentance and surrender and faith; and ask God, “Please Lord, show me what I should be and do?” It certainly won’t be something like Joseph, those things don’t come along every day, but we are all called, all called, to do extraordinary things even though we are ordinary sinners, ordinary people. What is God calling you to be and do for Him?

Would you pray with me?

Lord thank you that in your grace you choose, just people, just us. Forgive us for not hearing, for not listening, for having our back boat up and not wanting to do. We thank you for the grace that still forgives us and still calls us. Show us what we need to be and do in this time, this Advent, in this moment. In Jesus’ name. Amen.