Advent IV - A December 23rd,
AD 2007
Meadowvale
Lutheran Church, Mississauga Pastor Peter Lisinski
"THE
FORGOTTEN MAN"
In the Gospel of Matthew’s
story of Jesus’ birth, Joseph is the center of attention.
Christian piety and Christmas tradition have been so heavily focused on
the relationship between Jesus and his mother Mary, that his father Joseph is
something of a forgotten man. How
many portraits of Jesus in the arms of Joseph have you seen among your Christmas
cards over the years? How many musical settings of "Ave Joseph" do you
have in your Christmas record collection?
Even official church dogma
-- perhaps embarrassed by the reasonable doubt Joseph's presence casts over
the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox doctrine of Mary's lifelong virginity --
has seen fit to minimize Joseph's role and influence in the life of Jesus. Even
the venerable Martin Luther seems guilty of our collective oversight!
In the quote from his sermon on "The Annunciation" printed in
today's bulletin he writes,
The Nativity of Our Lord involves three miracles: the first, that God and
humanity should be joined in this Child; the second, that his mother should
remain a virgin; the third, that Mary should have such faith as to believe the
announcement that she had been chosen to be the mother of God..."
Yes, you heard right!
Official Lutheran doctrine defines Mary as “Mother of God"!
And Luther concludes: "The
third miracle (the miracle of Mary's faith) is the most amazing of the
three!"
No doubt Pastor Luther is
right! Mary's faith is great,
indeed! But is Joseph's faith any less so?
Though you and I, like Mary, would also believe the word of God spoken to
us in person by a visiting angel -- and change our lives accordingly -- how many
of us would act as decisively on the basis of a dream we might have during a
fitful night's sleep while contemplating something as drastic as breaking off
our engagement or ending our marriage?
Yes, Joseph's faith, and his
humble submission to the will of God, are every bit as worthy of our praise and
imitation as Mary's! And, though it
may be true -- as tradition suggests --that Joseph died while Jesus was still a
young boy, the impact he had on Jesus' personal faith and spiritual development
is hard to exaggerate -- especially if Dr. Sigmund Freud's insight on the
subject of a father's influence on a child's image of God has any credibility!
Instead of "dismissing
Mary quietly" -- as Matthew tells us he was within his legal right to do --
Joseph embraced an unwed, pregnant young woman and, thereby, took upon himself
the same public disgrace she would have endured.
By following through on the vows they had exchanged at their engagement
ceremony, Joseph provided the legal status and social legitimacy without which
adulterous women and their children were condemned to a life of isolation and
poverty -- which forced many of them into a life of prostitution!
In Joseph, Jesus saw the
virtues of compassion, integrity, justice and generosity. He
saw in the person and presence of his earthly father the attributes of his
divine father; and he taught his disciples -- and through them, us and the whole
world -- to think of God, address God, and trust God as the one, loving heavenly
Father of all human beings!
Through the faithfulness of
Joseph, God was revealed in the life and person of Jesus of Nazareth more fully
than God has been revealed in any human life before or since!
Now, when we fragile human beings living in what often seems to be a
hostile world, wonder whether or not there is a God who cares what happens to
us, we have the promise that beyond the limitations of our fear of our mortality
there is the infinity of a God who loves us unconditionally, just as human
parents love their own children.
The good news of Christmas proclaims that this gracious God has come into the world in the divine life of the fully human Jesus Christ. Through his birth -- his life, his death, his resurrection -- you and I learn the ultimate measure of our own value as created and redeemed children of God. Our own humanity has become worthy of bearing God's divine image. Our very lives have been transformed into Bethlehem, the place where spirit and matter come together; where heaven and earth are united. Our hearts are the mangers ready to welcome and serve our little Lord Jesus; arid our faith is a new Christmas star, shining in this world's darkness, calling and leading all God's children, to come and offer ourselves in worship and in service to Jesus Christ, our newborn king.