Beloved Joseph, Joseph Mine (Advent 4A)

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Beloved Joseph, Joseph Mine
Isaiah 7:10-16; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25; Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Fourth Sunday of Advent (Year A)
Homily delivered at Trinity Parish Ashland (Oregon)
22nd December 2013: 8:00 a.m. Said Eucharist

The Rev. Fr. Anthony Hutchinson, SCP, Ph.D.

God, give us hearts to feel and love,

Take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.

Today’s homily is very short, given that at the 10 a.m. service we had a dramatic presentation from the children from Godly Play in the place of any homily at all. 

We saw last week the importance of the Blessed Virgin and saw this reflected in the Magnificat, her song of praise in Luke’s Gospel.  Though today is Mary Sunday, we hear actually very little about her in today’s Gospel.  That is because the cycle of Gospel readings for this year is from St. Matthew, and in general, Saint Matthew does not focus on women as closely as does Saint Luke, source of last year’s readings.  The principal figure in Matthew’s infancy story is not Mary, but Joseph.  There is no annunciation to the Blessed Virgin here, only an unexpected pregnancy and a dream explaining it to Joseph, her promise soon-to-be husband.   Joseph is patterned after the patriarch by the same name, he of the coat of many colors, of many dreams and prophetic interpretations, who saved his family by taking them into Egypt. 

Given how overwhelming the figure of the Blessed Virgin is in Luke and in early and later Christian faith and devotion, I find it somewhat comforting, as a man, that a figure like Joseph shows up in Jesus’ family.    The German carol, “Josef Lieber, Josef Mein” (Beloved Joseph, Joseph Mine), sums up well his role, “hilf mir weigen das Kindelein” “help me rock the baby to sleep.”  Foster, not biological father, yet father all the same. 

  

There is an important detail in this story: “because he was a just man, Joseph did not want to publicly denounce Mary, so he decided to divorce her quietly.”  The assumption here is that according to the Law, he could stand on his dignity and male pride: an engaged woman who was found to be unfaithful to her intended was guilty of adultery and could be denounced and publicly stoned to death to satisfy the honor of the male who was seen to have had his property rights violated.  But Joseph is just, and can’t conceive of such a harsh and bitter way of treating Mary, although it is within his rights according to that society’s laws.  He decides a quiet divorce is the kindest way out of the difficult position Mary has put him into. 

But he has a dream, and an angel tells him that Mary has not betrayed him, and rather, that the child to be born is holy.  He is to foster it, and even give it the heroic, patriotic name Joshua. 

In our lives, there are many times when we are faced with a threefold choice.  We can live the law of selfishness, of nature, or of getting by with what we can get away with.  Or we can, like Joseph, be just or righteous.  We can be “nice,” or “good people.”   And that is far better than just insisting on our rights and dignities. 

But on occasion, God intervenes and talks to us, whether in dreams, or scripture, or contemplative moments, or in the advice of friends.  And sometimes God will tell us to go beyond good, beyond nice, and truly sacrifice ourselves to make God’s love become flesh in our lives and the lives of others. 

This principle lies behind the repeated saying in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it said (or the Law says), but I tell you….”  

Joseph is an example of listening to God and sacrificing ourselves, not for the good, but for beyond good, beyond law. 

May we follow his example and follow this call when it comes to us. 

In the name of God, Amen.