Beyond Right, Beyond Religion
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 Holy Spirit Episcopal Church, Sutherlin Oregon
21 December 2025, 11:00 a.m. Sung 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,
the final Sunday of Advent, is Mary Sunday. But 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. The
principal figure in Matthew’s infancy story is not Mary, but Joseph.
There
is an important detail in this story: “because he was a just (or
upright) man, Joseph did not want to publicly denounce Mary, so he
decided to divorce her quietly.” Joseph could exercise the rights
accorded to males in that society and, to protect his dignity, punish
the woman who has so shamed him. He could publicly accuse her of
adultery and divorce her, and perhaps even see her stoned to death to
satisfy his honor. Some even said it his DUTY to humiliate or even kill
her, to uphold the right and God’s dignity.
But
Joseph just can’t conceive of such a harsh way of treating Mary,
although it is fully within his rights. He decides a quiet divorce is
the kindest way out of the difficult position into which Mary has put
him. Out of compassion for Mary, he decides to not insist on his
rights. He chooses a less brutal path: quietly break the engagement and
send her on her way. Both paths are legal, and “right” in accordance
with the law of that society. Of course, by sending Mary away, Joseph is
abandoning her and her child, and condemning them horror. But at least
the law is upheld, and right is sustained.
But
Joseph has a dream, and an angel tells him that Mary has not betrayed
him, and rather, that the child to be born is holy. Joseph must not
abandon Mary or the baby. He is to support and sustain Mary, foster the
child, and even give it the heroic, patriotic name Josh. (“Jesus” is a
nick name for Joshua.).
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 tells us to go beyond right, beyond legal, beyond good,
beyond nice, and truly sacrifice ourselves to make God’s love become
flesh in our lives and the lives of others.
Joseph
chooses this path. He listens to the dream and goes ahead and marries
Mary, effectively adopting her child. Then he spends the rest of his
life supporting and nurturing the woman and child whose abandonment had
been his legal right, if not duty.
Going
beyond the right, going beyond what the rule books say, is the way of
love. It is like when Jesus says ‘you have read in the Law ‘don’t
commit murder or adultery,’ but I say don’t even let yourselves be
overcome by rage or lust.”
This
principle has special application at this time of year, which recently
has seen not just by rampant commercialism, but also increasing
sectarianism.
Some
say we need to put “Christ” back into Christmas. But they have it
backwards. I think they want to take “Christmas” that big joyous public
party for all,regardless of faith, out of “Christ.” Like the Grinch in
Whoville, they want strip out the heart of Christmas--inclusive generosity and compassion. And they steal it from
our idea of who Christ is and what Christ calls us to. What they say they want is
more explicit Christian branding on a holiday that has become one big
shared public party, but by insisting on this, they miss the incarnation
of God as a compassionate inclusive man that is the heart of the
Christian feast.
Just
look at how this argument plays out. For several years running now,
some people, usually evangelicals waging what they call a “culture war,”
whine about people they say are trying to “take Christ out of
Christmas.” They see “Happy Holidays” not as an effort to be inclusive
and try to spread holiday cheer to all, but rather a deliberate insult
to Christians and Christ. Once they even argued that Starbuck’s
Coffee’s use of red holiday cups marked with the company logo rather
than white snowflakes were part of an anti-Christian plot. Such a
partisan and sectarian approach contrasts sharply with a “common prayer”
and “universal” approach to the faith, which sees us in community with
those of differing beliefs or no belief, sees our duty as to minister to
all, and sees shared holiday fun, with or without the Christian
trappings, as a sign of God’s love.
There
once was a time when self-styled “Bible believing” Christians of an
earlier day outlawed Christmas altogether because it wasn’t “Christian”
enough.
After
the English Reformation, some Christians believed that the Church had
not been reformed thoroughly enough, that it was not sufficiently
“biblical,” and that it still was corrupted by what the early reformers
called “the enormities of Rome.” They wanted to get rid of vestments,
bishops, organs, and even the regular celebration of the Eucharist
itself. These Puritans focused their political activism in Parliament
on eliminating corruption and privileges of the Royal Court and the
nobility, including the bishops, whom they tended to call “certain
popish persons.” When the Army raised by Parliament won the Civil War
and killed the King, the Puritan regime that came into power was narrow,
fundamentalist, and harsh, somewhat like an English Taliban. They
banned Prayer Book worship and bishops, and set into Law a whole range
of austere measures aimed at purifying the country.
One
of these measures banned the celebration of Christmas. Its very
name—Christ’s Mass—was far too Roman for the Puritans’ tastes. The fact
that is was marked by twelve days of mid-winter partying, singing,
drinking, and, for the more religious, Eucharists, were equally
distasteful. Special church services, mince pies, hanging holly, big
parties were banned from 1644 to 1660.
Now
in fairness to the Puritans, it must be said that they were rightly
concerned at the excesses of some of the partying: then, as now,
serious public drunkenness and debauchery were among the abuses
attendant to the celebration of the season by some.
The
Puritans, throwing away the baby Jesus with the bathwater of overdoing
it in Christmas partying, banned the holiday outright. “Christmas is a
pagan celebration,” they said, “and must be done away with by true
Christians.” They were putting “Christ back into Christmas” big time!
Note
the theology at work here—it is exclusionary, not inclusive: “true”
Christians need to show their “trueness” (and, in so doing, point out
who are “false” Christians and pagans). It is contemptuous of many of
the simple pleasures shared by people regardless of belief or tradition,
and seeks to parcel out good things only to those who are orthodox.
The puritans said, basically, “If you don’t know God in just the right
way, you are not worthy of joy. No parties for you!”
One
of my favorite choral anthems at Christmas is John Rutter’s setting of
“What Sweeter Music.” The text was written by an Anglican priest who
had lost his job under the puritans. He wrote it for a Christmas party
thrown by newly-restored King Charles II. I love the poem, with its
inclusive, incarnational theology that really does put a loving,
inclusive Christ into Christmas. and have sung it with several
different choirs over the years:
What Sweeter Music
What sweeter music can we bring
Than a carol, for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
Awake the voice! Awake the string!
Dark and dull night, fly hence away,
And give the honor to this day,
That sees December turned to May.
Why does the chilling winter’s morn
Smile, like a field beset with corn?
Or smell like a meadow newly-shorn,
Thus, on the sudden? Come and see
The cause, why things thus fragrant be:
‘Tis He is born, whose quickening birth
Gives life and luster, public mirth,
To heaven, and the under-earth.
We see him come, and know him ours,
Who, with his sunshine and his showers,
Turns all the patient ground to flowers.
The darling of the world is come,
And fit it is, we find a room
To welcome him. The nobler part
Of all the house here, is the heart.
Which we will give him; and bequeath
This holly, and this ivy wreath,
To do him honour, who’s our King,
And Lord of all this revelling.
What sweeter music can we bring,
Than a carol for to sing
The birth of this our heavenly King?
--Robert Herrick (1591-1674).
Even
in his infancy, even in the womb, Jesus calls us to go beyond self,
beyond tribe, beyond rights, and even beyond religion and sect, and to
love and serve those who have no claim on us, to make God’s love present
to all.
May
we listen to Joseph’s dream and not stand on our rights and dignities,
especially when these are called “right” and “moral,” or good
“Christian.” May we follow Joseph’s example, and follow the call of
self-sacrifice when it comes to us.
In
this coming Christmastide, may we all season sing, eat, drink, and love
each other well. Let us reconcile with each other and mend family and
friend relationships that have gone bad. Let’s not begrudge our
neighbors who celebrate and love without recognizing the source of their
joy and love, the source that our experience tells us is God made flesh
in Jesus Christ.
In the name of God, Amen.
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