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December
19, 2004
(Jimmie Johnson)
Isaiah 7:10-16
Again the LORD spoke to Ahaz, saying, Ask a sign of the LORD your
God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, I
will not ask, and I will not put the LORD to the test. Then Isaiah
said: “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you
to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord
himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child
and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. He shall eat
curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and
choose the good. For before the child knows how to refuse the evil
and choose the good, the land before whose two kings you are in
dread will be deserted.
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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.
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I AM NOT so sure the miracle of Christmas is the Virgin Birth of
the Creeds. I think the real miracle is Joseph believed what he
heard and then chose to live his life acting upon his belief. Yes,
this is the miracle of Christmas for me. The miracle that Joseph,
you, and I are believers and doers of the Word. The Virgin Birth
is not the basis of our faith; it is the expression of our faith
as people who believe something we have heard and live our lives
making choices from this hearing.
I know a lot of people say miracles are things that happen in the
absence of any explanation except God. I don’t believe that’s
what a miracle is. That’s merely a mystery or an as yet unexplained
phenomenon or an unbelievable fantasy which believers don’t
have to believe. The Bible is not really about unbelievable fantasies;
rather the Bible is about a real miracle: the miracle that a sensible,
reasonable, pragmatic, and good man, named Joseph, acts contrary
to the evidence that surrounds him on every hand.*
He knows he has not had sex with Mary. He knows his Bible says if
this is the case and she turns up pregnant, then he is either to
stone her or divorce her. His Bible says it in Deuteronomy 22. He
is a Bible believer, and it is very clear. He can have her killed,
or he can walk her to his property line and give her a kick into
the streets where she will live forever because she has dishonored
not only Joseph but her own family. The baby is not his. The evidence
says neither she nor the baby is his problem. Joseph understands
the baby is not his. Joseph understands that Mary is pregnant with
someone else’s child. With every breath he takes, it is sitting
on his chest like a ten-ton gorilla.
Then the miracle happens. He acts contrary to all of the evidence.
He doesn’t call for his wife to be stoned. He doesn’t
decide to humiliate her publicly. He fears disgrace, embarrassment
and shame for both himself and Mary. Yet, in the midst of his fear,
not in its absence, but in the midst of his fear, he believes God’s
promise: “Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid...”
“Don’t be afraid to get married to Mary.” “Don’t
be afraid to become the baby’s father.” “Joseph,
don’t be afraid to become the guardian of God, the protector
of the Savior of the world.”
The miracle is that Joseph believed in God’s goodness and
mercy and compassion more than he believed in his fear and all the
evidence supporting it. That’s all any miracle comes down
to: believing God is good in the face of all that says life is meaningless
or that says if there is a God, then this God is a sicko. Acting
contrary to meaninglessness or a pathological God image
is a bodacious miracle. A Christmas miracle!
Faith isn’t lived in the absence of evidence. Faith is life
lived contrary to the evidence on every hand.* This evidence all
around us at every hour of life says only fools care. The evidence
day in and day out empirically screams that people, if not all but
still most, are nasty and brutish and will betray us in a heart
beat. That’s the undeniable evidence all around us. And if
people won’t betray us, then life and time will and shatter
us as well. All you have to do is go visit any pediatric cancer
unit or go visit any Alzheimer’s lock down wing. The evidence
all around us is that good guys and good gals come in second, third
or fifth* and sometimes don’t even get to the finish line
at all, because they were struck down way too early in life.
Yet, the Christmas story says we are to love, to protect, to honor,
to hope, to believe. That is the miracle of faith. That is the miracle
of faith being birthed in a womb of evidence to the contrary. Joseph
could have cut and run. Instead, he stayed, and he trusted there
in an Un-Seenness which is loving and working and seeking partnership
with us in the mystery of every day and night and in the face of
all evidence to the contrary. Joseph wasn’t scenery in the
drama of Christmas. He wasn’t a potted plant. He was an active
partner with God, choosing God’s goodness in the midst of
fear.
Not one word of Joseph’s is recorded anywhere in the Bible.
But his actions are there. Joseph didn’t simply disappear
after the angels and the shepherds vanished. No, he was a stand-up
guy carrying out his responsibilities till the day he died. He married
Mary. He got her to Bethlehem. He found a room for them. He took
his place by her side and never left her whatever came their way.
And if you know the story, there was plenty of danger, threat and
hardship nipping at their heels for the rest of their lives.
Joseph, the husband of Mary and the adoptive father of Jesus--we
never hear what happened to him. He disappears from the story. I
wonder why? Perhaps that’s the story’s way of telling
us at Christmas time to remember we are all to be Joseph, no matter
our gender, for the miracle of Christmas is to believe and to act
with honor and faithfulness and mercy despite the evidence all around
us.
That’s the Christmas miracle to me. The miracle is to be a
Joseph who believes God is named “The One Who Is With Us,”
to be a Joseph who chooses to act with love because we believe this
is a God-haunted universe which shall, in the end, end well and
on the side of love and faithfulness, all evidence to the contrary.
Receive the Christmas gift of faith this year. Distrust your fear,
doubt your doubts. The humanity of the baby Jesus always means God
is still for us, with us, in us and working through us. And, we
like Joseph can believe.
* Ideas from Peter Gomes, Sermons from Memorial Church, Harvard
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