Advent 4A
Grace Evangelical Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
December 18, 2022
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus, the Christ. Please pray with me. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight oh Lord our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
There’s that time-worn question that is asked of every child – What do you want to be when you grow up? And then perhaps the one asking has a suggestion or two. And, you can see the child’s eyes move and wander around the imaginary sky until it lights upon something that may be the stuff that dreams are made of.
And as we age, the nature of what we dream for changes, doesn’t it. The dreams may become less lofty, less exotic and more full of that which we hold most dear. OR, the dreams may become even more lofty and exotic. One of my dreams over the years was a hot air balloon ride – and I realized that a few years ago – the quiet and the vista – and we happened to land in the back yard of a confidential drug treatment facility and the directors weren’t exactly sure what to do with these drop-in visitors.
Like many others as a teen and young adult, I wondered about what I would work at – would I be a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher. Of course, then, girls had not dream of being pastors.
And then in college things started coming together – graduate school in social work, a wedding to my high school sweet heart, plans for a first home in Minneapolis. But then along came someone who whisked me off my feet and those plans and dreams took a very different course – a course that ultimately brought me to this place at this time and for this I am most grateful.
You see, God had a different dream for me.
All of us have dreams for our lives. We dream of meeting the perfect someone that we'll share our life with. We dream about having a good job and being able to provide for our families. Some of us dream about having kids. Some of us dream about doing interesting work. Some of us dream about traveling to strange and far-away places. But all of us dream about what our lives will be like in the future. This is part of the God-given gift of hope.
Joseph and Mary had dreams, too. Joseph, who was probably much older, in his twenties or maybe even thirty, was established in his profession; he had the means to support a family. Mary was probably a teenager, but she knew how to make a home. The two of them were already committed to each other in a marriage contract; bound by custom, honor and faith exclusively to one another. Their dream was for Joseph to earn a living and Mary to make a home, and the two of them would raise a family – a nice, normal, faithful, Jewish family. That was their dream.
But God had a different dream.
One day, Mary found herself to be pregnant by the will of God. God had acted to fulfill God's promise to be with his people forever, a promise he had made to Abraham, Moses and David. God had acted, and suddenly, the dreams of Joseph and Mary were thrown out the window. That's the way it always is: God acts, and we respond.
Mary's choices were pretty limited. As a young girl in trouble in an ancient society, all she could do was have the baby and throw herself on the mercy and kindness of her future husband or endure the legal and societal punishment for her seeming wrong.
But Joseph had other options. He could have turned her out of his house, leaving her to fend for herself, a life of hardship and extreme poverty not to mention social shunning and shaming. Or he could have reported her to the authorities, and let them take care of the situation through the punishment for what seemed to be obvious adultery. In either case, Joseph would have been just fine. His honor and reputation would have been restored, and his dreams for his life would have been largely undisturbed though slightly interrupted. He could have found another wife, and settled down to raise a family – a nice, normal, faithful, Jewish family. After all, that was his dream.
One night, God gave Joseph another dream – one that was different. In this dream, Joseph's life wouldn't be quite so easy. He would stay with Mary and protect the child she carried and raise him as his own. A step-father. He would likely have to endure the ridicule of his friends and neighbors for standing by Mary, who had obviously betrayed him. Then, he would have to hide his wife and his child from the authorities and travel long distances over hard roads to far away lands. And he would do all this simply because he was faithful to God.
All of us have dreams about what our lives will be like someday – dreams for ourselves and our families; dreams about how our lives might turn out. Dreams are the root of our imagination. They form the foundation upon which we plan for the future. If we're very lucky, and if we work very hard, some of our dreams might become a reality.
But sometimes our dreams are interrupted by events completely out of our control. Something happens and we're out of a job, or a loved one gets very sick, or the person we thought we'd spend our lives with wants to go some other way. These are times when, like Joseph, we don't really know which way to turn. And these are times when, if we are willing, we can become a part of God's dream for us.
Let go of your dream, Joseph. Your dream of having a nice, normal, Jewish family. Your dream of living in one place, and having a nice house, and raising 10 kids who will take care of you in your old age. Let go of your dream and take up God's dream instead.
In God's dream, the child Mary was carrying had been conceived by the Holy Spirit. In God's dream, Joseph and Mary and the baby were all part of God's grand plan for the world. In God's dream, the child that had been conceived by the will of God would be called "Emmanuel."
Emmanuel. It is a Hebrew word that means, "God is with us," but that doesn't fully capture the meaning. It is more like God is one of us. No longer was God satisfied with being just some distant being of incredible power that was separated from the lives of the people he created. Oh, no. God promised to be more than that. God promised to be a God who lived among his people. And so God came to be one of us; to live among us. Emmanuel means all of us are part of God's dream.
God promised Joseph that he would be with them as they raised the child. God promised to walk with Mary and Joseph, and he continues to walk with us, right here and right now, and through every celebration and disappointment in our lives. Getting married? God is there. Having a baby? God is there, too. Lose a job? God's right there. Sick and in the hospital? God lies in bed with us.
And how do we know this? How do we know that God's creative and promise-keeping work is still a part of our lives?
That's where our faith comes in. Our faith holds that the baby Jesus, born of Mary and adopted by Joseph, is still acting in the world today despite all signs to the contrary. Our faith holds that God is still with us – God is one of us – whenever we wait and watch for words of hope, or mercy, or grace even today. We are surrounded and filled by God, because we are surrounded and filled by the Christ who lives within us. We are all part of God's dream.
I think that this is the real meaning of Emmanuel: that through faith, God lives within us. All of us are a little bit like Mary, the God Bearer; we all carry God inside us. And all of us are a little like Joseph, listening for God's promise, and responding in faith to God's action in the world today.
Come, Emmanuel. Come as you came that day 2000 years ago, to live and act in the world you created. Come to us today, and live inside us. Come, as you fulfill your promise to make us all a part of your dream to save the world.
Thanks be to God.
