Scripture Text: Matthew 1:18-25
This morning, we hear the story of Jesus’ birth as the Gospel of Matthew tells the story. It’s not the one we’ll hear next week on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We’ve got no census, no trip to Bethlehem, no inn, no shepherds, no angels. Instead, there’s a young girl and her fiancé and an unexpected pregnancy that causes a crisis. The key to our story this morning is that Joseph, the aforementioned fiancé, is righteous.
We’ll start by taking a look at what that word righteous means. Then, we’ll explore how Joseph’s righteousness plays out in this story. And finally, we’ll take a look at how we are called to live righteously in our own lives.
Righteous and righteousness appear in the Bible 579 times! That’s 344 times in the Old Testament, 109 times in the Apocrypha, and 126 times in the New Testament. In Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel alone, the word righteous appears 77 times. And, in the much shorter Gospels, righteous appears 32 times. That’s a lot of righteousness! Noah is the first person described as righteous in Genesis 6, and the righteous are encouraged to continue their righteousness in the final chapter of Revelation. It’s safe to say that righteousness is a concept that is shot through our Bible from start to finish. But, the problem with churchy words is that they often wind up defining themselves. It's not super helpful to say that be righteous is to live in righteousness. So, what does righteous really mean?
The most common definition of righteous is living a life pleasing to God. This most often gets demonstrated in how a righteous person cares for others. Here’s an example from Isaiah, chapter 33: Those who walk righteously and speak uprightly, who despise the gain of oppression, who wave away a bribe instead of accepting it, who stop their ears from hearing of bloodshed and shut their eyes from looking on evil, they will live on the heights; their refuge will be the fortresses of rocks; their food will be supplied, their water assured. Later, Isaiah describes righteousness as something we can put on like we do an article of clothing. We are called to be righteous - to live lives that are pleasing to God, as demonstrated by how we care for others.
What does all this have to do with our story this morning?
Mary’s fiancé Joseph was a regular guy living an un-extraordinary life when an unexpected thing happened. All we know about him, according to Matthew, is that he was righteous. He was living a life pleasing to God. He cared for others and he was not interested in oppression.
Joseph learns that his fiancé is pregnant, and he knows that there’s only one reasonable explanation for a pregnancy. And he knows that he was not a part of that reasonable explanation. So, Joseph draws a logical conclusion – that his fiancée Mary has been unfaithful to him. It’s not an unreasonable conclusion.
In first century Palestine, marriage practices were different from ours. At the moment of betrothal, the couple was already considered married, although they were not yet living together. The legal system of patriarchy favored males. Joseph would have been well within his rights to make a big public fuss. He could have made a public accusation, and divorced Mary in a way that would have caused her great public shame. In fact, it might well have led to her death. It certainly would have destroyed her social standing – and likely would have forced her into slavery or prostitution.
If their marriage, like so many in the first century and throughout the ages, was something that had been negotiated by their parents, then Joseph might have even taken a great deal of pleasure in shaming Mary. After all, his male reputation would have been at stake. So, Joseph could have salvaged his ego and his pride at the expense of Mary, her child, and the future the mother and child might have together.
Instead, Joseph stopped. He took a breath. He didn’t act oppressively. Matthew says it’s because he was righteous. His righteousness prompted him to decide to quietly divorce her, another legal option open to him. In this scenario, Mary and her baby would still have a difficult life, but Joseph would not have violated her.
Joseph’s pause makes all the difference. Because in that moment, God intercedes. An angel, a word which simply means messenger from God, appears to Joseph in a dream and communicates and unexpected and decidedly illogical reality about this child Mary is carrying. It doesn’t make any sense. And yet, Joseph believes this messenger and takes his righteousness to a whole new level.
So, what does all this have to do with us?
It seems to me that the options open and available to Joseph are very much part and parcel of the human condition. As we move through this thing called life, we are given countless opportunities to serve our egos or to serve God. We are given countless opportunities where we can act rashly or we can act righteously. The choice is ours.
Except that it’s rarely that easy, right? We’ve been shaped and formed by experiences that don’t always bring out the best in us. We’re busy. We’re stressed. We’re broken. We look out for ourselves first, almost by instinct. So what hope is there?
For me, the first step is always awareness. I know what God hopes for from me and from each of us. Righteousness. Living a life that is pleasing to God because of how we treat others. We can take that quote from Isaiah 35 that I referenced at the beginning, and put it in contemporary language: Walking righteously. Speaking truth. Despising oppressing. Being honest in our economic practices. Not gossiping. Turning away from evil. This is what living a life that is pleasing to God because of how we treat others looks like.
And, when I can’t do it all on my own, which is regularly, I plead with God in my prayers to give me these gifts. I ask God to send angels who can guide me in living this way. And when I realize I’ve blown it, I ask for forgiveness, and move forward to try again.
Our world today could use more righteousness. On this fourth Sunday of Advent, I invite you to join me in using Joseph as your model. AMEN.
Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10
This morning’s reading from the prophet Isaiah is a poem that embodies hope. Addressed to those living in exile, it promises that God sees the plight of the exiles and promises to act to restore them to their home on Mount Zion. This poem is a word of hope to us, as well. From that age to this one, God sees the plight of God’s beloved and promises to make a Holy Way to guide us home.
In 587 BCE, the Babylonians conquered Judah, destroyed Solomon’s beautiful temple, and took most of the residents of Jerusalem and the surrounding countryside into captivity in Babylon. They were forced into slavery and to remain in exile in Babylon. This exile continued for over fifty years, until the Persians conquered Babylon, and their king, Cyrus the Great, gave the Jews permission to return home.
Today’s reading from the Isaiah was written to those living in slavery and exile in Babylon. It’s the same message that God gave to those living in slavery in Egypt many generations before this one. God hears your cries. God sees your plight. God will act to deliver you from this horrible situation.
This morning’s poem is filled with signs of hope. The desert will blossom. The barren and rocky places where the jackals live will become swampy marshland. Those who are weak and infirm, including those who have been harmed by the Babylonians, will have their health restored. And, God will bring the people home. God will make a Holy Way – a path in the desert – that will bring them back to their home in Jerusalem on Mount Zion. And, here's the good news – it's a path that is so straightforward that “not even fools shall go astray!”
From that time, all those millennia ago, to this day, these words continue to be God’s promise to us. God hears our cry. God sees the plight of God’s people. God will act to make a way forward, a way of health and healing, that will lead us back to God. It’s striking that when John the Baptist sends word to Jesus to ask if he’s the one, Jesus’ response echoes many of the signs that Isaiah foretold: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.
I don’t know about you, but it seems to me that we are living in a particularly scary time. Our news is filled with stories of people in perilous situations. The news out of Syria is horrific. Our relationship with China seems super rocky at the moment. ISIS continues to wreak havoc in a variety of places. In recent weeks there have been earthquakes, a tsunami, tornadoes and forest fires. In the United States and around the world, right now, young women are being trafficked and sold as sexual slaves. We continue to read about issues of racism in our country and abroad. In my own circle of friends, people I know and love are struggling with cancer, the loss of loved ones, the ending of long-term marriages, and prolonged unemployment.
Periodically, I shake my fist at heaven and ask God to get busy on this blooming desert and Holy Way home thing. Haven’t we been waiting long enough? I don’t know about you, but I’m tempted to ask if it hasn’t happened yet, after 2500 years, are we foolish to keep hoping. In another passage from Isaiah, the prophet cries, “Why don’t you rend the heavens and come down?” Yes, God. Please. Now.
I have some words of hope born of my reading of scripture and my own deep convictions, that I fall back on when I am in that fist-shaking mood.
First, we are all just a breath away from that moment of homecoming. When we take our last breath, we will be brought into that world where, as the book of Revelation tells us, “Death will be no more; sorrow and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.” When we breathe our last, we will walk that Holy Way to a new way of being where “all things will be made new.” It doesn’t change my desire to want this world to look more like the world to come – but when all hope feels lost, it’s helpful to remember that this world is not the end of the story.
Second, for Christians, we see Jesus as the fulfillment of that promise that God makes in Isaiah 35. Jesus’ answer to John the Baptist shows that he saw himself as that fulfillment, as well. When we live fully into our calling as followers of Jesus, loving God and loving our neighbor, we become part of God’s way of making that Holy Way.
Which leads me to my third point of hope. Here I quote that great theologian Mr. Rogers (who was, in addition to being my children’s television hero, a Presbyterian pastor). Mr. Rogers said, “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’” Everywhere we look we are given the bad news. It’s because bad news sells. But if you sift through that bad news, you will find the helpers. You’ll find those who run towards the danger, not away from it. You’ll find those who are working hard to make the desert bloom, the irrigate the barren places, to bring healing to those who are in pain.
Here’s a concrete example: In the African American community, there’s a saying – that God will make a way out of no way. In other words, when it looks like there is no way to go forward, God will make a path. During the height of the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation in this country, African Americans worked together to make a way out of no way. They developed ways to address their needs and aspirations that fostered values of community, service, and mutual support. Prayer, music, and worship were a vital part of making that way for many people. When ways forward were closed to them because of race, they made new ways forward.
Jesus tells us that we are to love God and love our neighbor. That word love isn’t just an emotion. In Greek, it’s an active action verb. It’s another way of saying “be a helper” or “make a way out of no way.” How is God calling each of us to live that out in this day and time? It’s a question for each one of us.
Right at this very moment there are those among us who are having the very best moments of their lives. And there are those going through the worst things imaginable. Most of us are probably somewhere in the middle. God’s promise to each of us, wherever we are on this journey is that God sees us. God hears us. God restores us. And God is building a Holy Way, with whatever helpers show up, to lead us home. Some days, we are desperately in need of those holy helpers. Other days we are the helpers. AMEN.
On this, the second Sunday of Advent, we encounter John the Baptist. We find him in the wilderness, at the Jordan River, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The powerful religious leaders of his day, who were generally in conflict with one another, were united in their opposition to John (and later also to Jesus). Their curiosity, coupled with their desire to make trouble, led them to follow the people out of Jerusalem into the wilderness to see what was going on. John’s message for them is also an important message for us today: Bear fruit worthy of repentance.
This morning, we will begin by unpacking the rich symbolism and the cultural context of this passage. Then, we’ll explore what it means to bear fruit worth of repentance and how we might do that in our own lives.
The rich symbolism in our passage begins in the opening verse. We hear that John the Baptist appears in the wilderness. The wilderness was a significant place for the people of Israel. Beginning in Genesis, the wilderness was a place where people encountered God. In the story of the Exodus, the wilderness was the place where the freed Hebrew slaves wandered, with God accompanying them, for forty years! And, by the time of John the Baptist, the wilderness had become a place of resistance. People distressed by the collusion of the elites with the occupying Roman government left the seat of power in Jerusalem and fled to the wilderness. So, we encounter John proclaiming repentance in a place where God is known to show up that is also a place of resistance to power.
Next, we find symbolism in John’s attire and dining menu. Matthew tells us that John wore clothing of camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. The choice of camel’s hair clothing sounds odd and uncomfortable to us – but for John, it was the clothing of the poor – it was Bedouin dress. Combined with the leather belt, this clothing also symbolized the prophet Elijah. In 2 Kings 8, Elijah is described as, “A hairy man, with a leather belt around his waist.” And just as camel’s hair was clothing for the poor, locusts and wild honey were food of the poor. In John’s choices, we see an alignment with a beloved and revered prophet, as well as with the poor of the region.
With some understanding of the symbolism under our belts, we may begin to understand what drove the Pharisees and Sadducees to the wilderness to investigate what was going on. Together, they represented the upper and middle classes of their day. The Sadducees were aristocrats, who used their wealth and position to gain power in the Jerusalem temple system. Usually the chief priests and the high priest were Sadducees. The Pharisees tended to be from the merchant class. They also held great power. Theologically, the Pharisees and the Sadducees did not see eye-to-eye, but they found common cause in their opposition first to John the Baptist and later to Jesus. They depended on Rome for their power, and both John and Jesus threatened the status quo.
Our final symbol to explore this morning is found in what John calls these religious leaders. He addresses them as a Brood of Vipers! Let’s just say that it’s not a compliment. A viper is a type of snake. The snake is unclean in Jewish tradition, so calling them snakes would have been a big insult. But, there’s further symbolism in the use of this name. If you think back to the Garden of Eden, you may remember that it’s the snake who tempts Eve to eat the apple and share it with Adam. And, the snake does so by telling Eve lies. If you re-read the story, you’ll find that the snake’s words are full of lies and half-truths designed to get Eve to do what he wants.
To recap: We find John the Baptist, in the wilderness, behaving in ways that show solidarity with the poor, dressed like a beloved prophet, and criticizing those who abuse their power. He tells both the people who come for baptism and the leaders to repent. To the leaders he says, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
So what does John’s call mean for us today? Remember that repentance isn’t about beating on your chest, or throwing yourself to the ground, or feeling guilty. The Greek word metanoia, which we translate as repentance, simply means to turn around. When a person repents, he or she turns away from whatever draws them away from God, and turns back towards God. Or, as John Burgess says, “Repentance isn’t about guilt feelings, it’s about God’s power to transform us into Christ’s image.”
What does it mean to bear fruit worthy of repentance? Beginning with the prophets, the word fruit began to be used to describe the end result of behavior:
In Advent, as we prepare for the coming of the Christ, we are also called to bear fruit worthy of repentance. We are called to allow God to transform us into Christ’s image, and to have our fruit – the end results of our behavior – demonstrate that transformation.
I read a story this week about two families in Florida. One family was a newly arrived Syrian refugee family. The other was an American family of four. While walking on the beach, the American mom and dad encountered two of the children in this Syrian family. The children were afraid of the water. So, the Americans began speaking with them. They used words and actions to show that the water was safe. Slowly, the children approached the water, and soon were laughing and having fun. The adult with them explained that they were refugees who had just arrived from Syria.
As they returned to their home, the American mom and dad passed the large extended Syrian family. The Syrians motioned them over and offered to share their meal. They cooked a sort of pizza using pita bread, olive oil, garlic, tomatoes, cheese and fresh mint. The Americans got ice cream for everyone, as well as some toys and shoes they’d planned to donate. The mom said, “It was the most remarkable night of my life.” Another night the families again encountered one another on the beach and another meal was shared. This time, the American’s children were with them and all the kids played together.
The American dad said that these encounters opened his mind to what is happening with refugees, and that he now felt ashamed that he ever thought refugees should be turned away.
What are the fruits of repentance in this story? Love. Openness to the other. And a willingness to examine long held beliefs and change them when faced with new evidence.
Maybe your issue isn't refugees. I don't know what areas in your heart God is trying to soften. I know what those areas are in my own heart. And, I know that God is calling each of us to bear fruit worthy of repentance. It’s not about guilt. It’s about being open and allowing Christ to transform our lives.