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Sermon for Sunday, December 23, 2007

“Sooner or Later — We Need Joseph”
Matthew 1:18-25

The Bible is a book full of words. Beautiful words, wonderful words, words of hope, promise, peace, love, joy, challenge, poetry. Words of God at work in the world seeking to redeem people and that redeeming Word made flesh in Jesus. John Wesley called the Bible a “talking book” and it really is. It is a treasure book for reading the mighty acts of God and is the guidebook for preaching and teaching God’s word.

But…you knew that was coming didn’t you? It is also a resource for those who do not speak, but for those who just stand there in the right place at the right time.

William Willimon tells of a Christmas pageant in one of his churches. On the night of the pageant a real problem developed. The director came running down the hall where all the actors were just about ready to go on stage. She was calling, “we have no Joseph. We have no Joseph!” Sure enough Joseph had come down with the flu and there’s nothing worse in a Christmas pageant than a Joseph with a stomach flu who might not be able to hold it together!

Someone finally said, ‘Let some shepherd stand near by the manger with Mary. Nobody will notice that he is missing. Besides, he doesn’t have any speaking parts in the story.”

Hmm. Interesting. I’ve heard the story, read the story, seen the pageant probably hundreds of times by this stage of life. Maybe we don’t need Joseph. Does he offer anything to the nativity except a warm body? It’s easy to overlook him. We know about Mary, the mother of Jesus and her contribution to the birth of Jesus. She certainly is a central person in the manger story if for no other reason, someone had to give birth to the baby, but of course there is more. Mary shows up throughout the life and ministry of her son. And yet without saying a mumbling word Joseph blips off the screen after the visit to the temple when Jesus was 12.

What do we know about him? He was a village carpenter. Any good carpenter is good at organization. Each tool is in the right place so that you know where it is just when it is needed. Most carpenters are good at math. What do they say? I learned this from some of our guys on mission trips when supplies were at a premium – “measure twice, cut once” is how they say it. All lines straight and exact. You can’t add it back once it is cut. Joseph might have had a pretty ordered world until, until God intruded into his world and things began to get a little messy. His fiancé, Mary, was pregnant and not by him and Joseph’s well ordered world began to crumble.

And if things were not complicated enough, the announcement came from the emperor in Rome that everybody had to go back to their hometown to register for taxes. That meant he had to load Mary on a donkey, Mary now, “Great with child” and make the long road to Bethlehem, the city of his ancestors.

Orderly, careful, exact Joseph is in a mess that was not his own. Joseph who doesn’t say a word in the scripture and never utters a sound in a Christmas pageant begins to take his place in God’s story.

What we find in Joseph, quiet and unspeaking Joseph, is a person who demonstrated a compassion that is amazing. His first reaction to the news that Mary was expecting a child was that she had been unfaithful --- makes sense to me and it would have not been any surprise for him to in our language, “kick her to the curb.” When we are hurt our first impulse is to want to hurt back in return and Joseph would have had every excuse in the world to humiliate Mary since she had humiliated him but we discover some deeper qualities in Joseph. It is hard for us to imagine the impact on that news on his society. Today, unwed mothers are not uncommon and pregnant brides are not exactly rare. Hollywood has glamorized such situations. Just ask the Britany and Jamie Spears.

Joseph had every ‘right’ to divorce Mary. He had the law as well as society on his side but I think he understood his righteous status far better than most. A “righteous” man in Jewish life meant that he regulated his life by the Jewish law and this law called for a woman guilty of adultery to be publicly stoned. He would know what the law in Deuteronomy 22 said, that an engaged woman who is not faithful to her fiancé is to be stoned to death.

Do you remember the woman brought to Jesus in a very similar situation and how the men with stones in their hands referred to the Moses law? They could have stoned her. He could have humiliated her and hung her out to dry, but rather he made another decision because he was “unwilling to put her to shame.” And decided to “divorce her quietly” (1:19)

Joseph settled on what he believed to be the kindest of all possible ways to manage a difficult situation. He would not have Mary stoned for adultery, which he could do according to scripture, he would not even disgrace her. He decided to dismiss her quietly, to send her away with no public humiliation. That was Joseph’s plan in verse 19. It was a sane, reasonable approach. And it held up nicely, until verse twenty.

Joseph’s righteous went farther than just following the law of his faith. It was deeper and more profound than simply observing laws and customs. It was a righteousness that grew out of God’s presence in his life, a righteousness that allowed him to hear the voice of the angel of his dream and obey its command.

It was his righteousness that must have led him to compassion. He was not flippant or indifferent about what was happening. He was serious enough about what had happened to plan to divorce her but he made a different decision, he took the approach of compassion and mercy. He did not write her off as hopeless.

Is it surprising that years later the One who was nurtured by this kind of father would say to a woman, “I do not condemn you, go and sin no more.” It was Jesus way of saying “I have come to be an answer for sinful people, not to add to their burden.” That kind of compassion demonstrated by Joseph can be seen through the entire ministry of Jesus. Could God have known what he was doing when he put His only begotten son under the influence of this kind of earthly father? There is not one in a thousand who would have responded as Joseph.

It is amazing isn’t it that Joseph the carpenter whose world fell apart around him yet his righteousness, his trust, led him to take his place in God’s story.

Mary sang a song of joy when the angel told her that she was going to have a baby and the baby’s name was to be “Jesus.” Joseph was too stunned, too confused to sing. Not one word from Joseph is recorded in the gospel story. He just took his place in the story without songs or speeches stumbling along that road from Galilee to Bethlehem.

In the Christmas pageants he is almost a virtual stranger because he says not a word but the more we learn, the more we know Joseph was needed. God entrusted his only Son to a man of righteousness whose life ran deeper than just following the rules. Without saying a word, he got his lines right.

My seminary pastor, John Claypool, tells about Bob Benson who lived in Nashville. Benson had a little son who wanted to take speech lessons and worked hard all year at it. The grand finale of the lessons was a play to be given by all the students. Mike was given just a bit part – only three lines close to the end of the play. They practiced and practiced until the day of the play and at last Mike’s moment came: “and he said his lines, not too soon, not too late, not too loud, not too soft, not too slow, not too fast – he said his lines just right.

Benson left the play thinking: “This is a parable of my life. I am just a bit player in the great Drama of history. But when the curtain comes down and the stage is vacant at last, I hope it can be said of me – he said his lines – not too soon, not too late, not loud, not too soft, not too fast, not too slow – he said his lines just right.” (Claypool sermon, 1979, 12/9)

Joseph said his lines just right! His role was not the starring role, yet in the part he was given, he said his lines right. Is there a better thing that could be said of any of us, or a finer example for us to follow?

What he did with his part – how I pray that I – you – all of us do! So take your place. The curtain is being raised. The story has begun.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, our worlds get confused and rocked just like Joseph’s. In those times prepare us just like you did Joseph. Give us the grace to live as you would have us live in whatever strange circumstances we may find ourselves. Make us ready to receive you, ready to have you born into our lives so that it may be said of us, “we said our lines just right,” just like Joseph. Hear our prayer now in the name of Him who has become flesh and dwelled among us, even Jesus the Christ, our Lord, Amen.

— Robert Thompson
Pastor
First Baptist Church, Ashland

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