Mary & Joseph: Profiles in Courage

[00:00:00] Speaker A: And join me in prayer. Dear God, tell us what we need to hear and show us what we need to do to obey you. Amen. And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son. And you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great, and he will be called the son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, how shall this be, since I have no husband? And the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your kinswoman Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God, nothing will be impossible. And Mary said, behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. There's more. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way when his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph. Before they came together, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. And this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but he knew her not until she bore a son. And he called his name Jesus. This is the word of the Lord. [00:03:03] Speaker B: Thank you, Claire, for that reading. We are so grateful. Good to be with you again as Matt is away enjoying family time in San Diego. Trish Harrison Warren is an Episcopalian priest who lives in Austin, Texas. She's also a weekly contributor to the New York Times editorial page. And Trish has created a wonderful little devotional about Advent, and this is what she writes by practicing the Liturgical year, the church does the story of God, proclaiming that story, enacting that story, planting that story deep in our minds, in our hearts. For we who are followers of Jesus, Christmas time is far from over. We worship here on Christmas Eve, and I want to extend a thank you to every person who provided leadership for that beautiful service. And next Sunday, we celebrate Epiphany, the appearance of three wise men who came seeking a king, a newborn child. And long after Target has put away all the decorations, we carry with us the significance of the birth of Jesus. I vividly remember this week, the week between Christmas and New Year's 24 years ago, we got in our van and we drove 400 miles from Spokane, Washington to Bend, Oregon to celebrate our oldest son. Keith's engagement to April Clark was a joyous occasion filled with laughter and expectation. The wedding date was set September 29, 2001. But then 911 happened. The shock of the attacks in New York City and the Pentagon and the tragic plane crash in Pennsylvania. Fear spread across the country. Travel connections were cancelled. No one knew what would happen next. Do you remember your feelings during that period of anxiety? Keats and April did get married on September 29, just 18 days after 9 11. But the plans had changed. Many of the invited guests who were going to fly into Spokane to be at that wedding couldn't get there. But the wedding went on. And in the middle of the wedding, I dropped the wedding rings onto the floor. And my dear friend Ron Pyle, who was coefficient, just put his hand on my shoulder, pushed me to the side and said, I got this. He picked up the rings. He proceeded to conduct the rest of the wedding. And sure enough, at the end of that ceremony, Keats and April were married. But things didn't go according to my plan. And I am so glad that my dear friend Ron showed up for me in that important moment in our family's life. Joseph and Mary had also made plans. It was called a betrothal. It's a religious and it's a legal agreement that they are married. But culturally there's a waiting period, sometimes up to a year. And during that period, as was the custom, the groom was set would set about building a room or a suite of rooms on the family home. And when the addition was completed, then his wife would come and live with them. The dwelling was finished. The entire village would celebrate, sometimes a party that could last up to seven days. And the husband and wife would live together, married in their new dwelling. That was the plan for Mary and Joseph. But as we Heard in this morning's passages, plans changed. Our story in Luke's version begins with the angel Gabriel, who knows what he's about to announce is an enormous hiccup, a huge disruption to the betrothed couple's plans. Mary will become pregnant by the work of God's spirit and bring into the world the one who is described as the Son of the Most High, the Son of God. But now, in this announcement, all their plans are threatened. As humans, when we are threatened, we often feel fear, this emotion that results from a national aversion either to threat or to risk. And obviously this announcement has enormous implications for Joseph as well. And in both passages, Matthew and Luke, we heard the command, don't be afraid. This phrase, do not fear, don't be afraid, shows up 365 times in the Bible, one for every day of the year. And it's the most frequent command in all the scriptures. But as any of us as parents know, it's not enough to tell a frightened four year old in the middle of the night, don't be afraid. There aren't any monsters. Don't you remember we talked about this? That frightened child, that terrified little boy, that trembling little girl. They need more than our words. They need a mom, they need a dad to wrap their arms around that child and assure them that they are not alone and that they will stay with the child until that boy, that girl, falls asleep. Mary and Joseph need that assurance as well. So here are several things to notice in these stories from Matthew and Luke. The first is that God shows up. Isn't that the whole point of Christmas? That God shows up, enters in? For Joseph, it was in a dream, and for Mary it was in the form of an angel. Now God knows that Mary and Joseph cannot bear the responsibility of being the parents of Jesus all on their own. God will be with them. And so this assurance comes from the gospel writers. Listen to Mary. Gabriel says, you have found favor. The word literally is in Greek, Karis, Greek, grace. You have found grace, Mary, with God. The Lord is with you. And to Joseph, you will call the child Emmanuel. God is with us. God shows up in the middle of the altered plans. But more than that, God doesn't just show up. Mary and Joseph are seen. They are recognized. They are considered essential in the work of God. Both of them are called by name, Mary and Joseph. And when we speak a person's name, what you're saying is, I see you. Right after we got married and I was attending Fuller Seminary, my wife Suzette was teaching at Palm Crest Elementary School, up Palm Drive in La Canada. She made the journey there every day. And one day as she was driving to school, a dog ran out in front of the car. Suzette hit the dog. The dog was dead immediately. The owner came out, wasn't upset, and just said to Suzette, I knew that dog was going to get killed someday. Keeps running after cars. Almost some relief. Suzette went to school, told a few of her colleagues what had happened, and then she was in the teacher's lounge at lunch. And Carol Bishop, this sixth grade teacher, who also had a master's degree in counseling, walked up to her, took Suzette's face, put it in her hands and said, you feel like you killed a person. And in that moment, Suzette started to weep, because that's exactly how she felt. Carol Bishop didn't just show up, but she saw Suzette and she entered into what was going on emotionally with her. God gets the situation with Mary and Joseph. And there's more to this promise than simply God being with us. God is not going to leave Mary and Joseph to themselves. Now. God will accompany them along the way, which we heard the promise in the passage. God promises that the Holy Spirit will be with them, guiding them, providing for them, directing for them, caring for them. And through the care that God is going to give to them, they are going to care for Jesus. We use the word community a lot in church settings. Beyond the walls of this church, we function as a community by doing life together, being there for each other, no matter what the need. Life is way too difficult with too many surprises on this journey to do it alone. We need one another, especially when our hearts are confused or broken. That's inevitable for every one of us. So as I look out this morning, I know how you are a community for each other. I know that some of you go to your friend's children's music recitals, theatrical productions, sporting events. Some of you take that late night phone call when somebody's distressed. And just recently, I heard of one of you that left a family gathering to go to the hospital because you just gotten a call that your friend had just been given a terminal diagnosis of cancer. That's community. That's not just showing up, but that's seeing someone else, seeing some other family in their situation and entering into that with them. My friend Kevin Parker knows the importance of showing up and accompany others. Kevin was one of the first students I met when we went to Whitworth University in Spokane in 1994. He was a Young Life leader. And he immediately took interest in our three children, Keats and Brandon and Shannon. And he navigated the enormous challenge that they were facing of a new town, a new school, new friends. Feeling totally displaced from their life in Colorado Springs, Kevin knew the importance of Young Life's major principle of ministry. Seeing people where they are and entering into their life with them. Kevin kept showing up and walking their journeys with them. And I will be forever grateful for the way that he loved our kids during that difficult transition for them. After Kevin graduated from Whitworth, he moved to Littleton, Colorado to be the Young Life director there. Through his ministry, he befriended a freshman boy who invited him to school one day to have lunch with him. The day Kevin showed up at the cafeteria, he saw his friend across the room. And as he started to walk towards him, the shooting began in the cafeteria at Columbine High School. Kevin went through the entire experience with those students under a table in a cafeteria for 20 minutes. And after the initial trauma of that tragedy, Kevin and his wife Carrie welcomed students into their home night after night after night. This went on for several years. Their home became a place of refuge, a sanctuary where they could cry and ask their toughest questions. Kevin and Carrie heard lots of questions during that nightly vigilance. The cascade of why questions? Why did this happen? Why was my friend killed, my teacher murdered? Why did I survive? Why didn't the shooter's parents do something to stop them? And perhaps the most important question, we see it all the way through the Bible, why didn't God do something about this? Kevin and Carrie just stayed present. They showed up and they let those grief stricken students know that they were with them. And often late at night after the students had left, Kevin would call me and process all the grief that he was carrying that Carrie was feeling. We usually talked about the importance of showing up and of seeing others in their situation and being present for them. And I said, Kevin, somehow in the middle of this, your presence and Kerry's presence with those students, God is showing up. A few years later, six of those students graduated from Columbine and made their way to Whitworth University. And I had the privilege of seeing the power of what staying with other people and their situations meant. And they told me over and over and over again how Kevin and Carrie had been such a healing presence for them. That story reminds us of a third element of how we deal with fear. We listen to people in conversation. We listen to their ideas, their feelings, their questions. Both Mary and Joseph had all kinds of Questions? Didn't they listen to Mary as she speaks to Gabriel? How can this be? How? This doesn't make any sense. This is biologically impossible. And when Joseph hears the news of Mary's pregnancy, he has his own set of questions. Mary has violated the betrothal law. I thought she loved me. I am supposed to break off the relationship with the one that I love. But that has terrible consequences for Mary. It could even cost her her life. What do I do? Question after question after question. And none of Mary and Joseph's questions are rejected. Instead, their questions take them deeper into the mystery of God's unique plan and their role in that plan. God's presence being present with them does not take over their journey. It does not protect them from some of the struggles that will lie ahead. But showing up does mean that God takes Mary and Joseph's question seriously because their life situation is important to God. Showing up, accompanying someone on life's path, being a listening ear for each other. This is how we deal with life circumstances that can terrify us and how we can build community with each other. And there is one more part to the Mary story that deserves mention. This morning, my friend Matt Sorens works with World Relief, one of the nine government approved agencies to support refugees who have passed through the 25 point screening process to be allowed into the United States. Their multi ethnic church in Chicago has people worshiping there every week from over a dozen countries. These people share their stories of heartache and struggle, some waiting in refugee camps 5, 10, 15 years or longer before receiving their approval to come to the United States. The children of this church know the stories that have been shared. Several years ago, Matt's youngest daughter was playing with the Nativity set during Advent. Matt says this is one of her favorite activities during this Christmas time. And she reenacts the scene over and over and over again. The sheep and the shepherds, the camel and the wise men, the gift of the newborn Mary and Joseph, the baby Jesus lying in a manger. And as she was playing one day several years ago, she ran over to her dad and said, daddy, Daddy, there's someone missing. Matt sat down next to her and began to check the Nativity scene. Shepherds and sheep, check. Magi and camels check. Mary and Joseph and Jesus the manger, check. He said to his daughter, looks to me like everyone is here. I don't see anyone missing. His daughter replied, no, daddy, we don't have a bad king. Without the bad king, we don't have the whole story. Matt paused and he knew exactly who his daughter was referring to, Herod. In their church, his daughter had heard numerous stories of ruthless tyrants who had forced members of that congregation into exile, flee for their lives to refugee camps in other countries and to wait there, to wait, to wait. Completely unsure of what would happen next or if their circumstances would change. Sure enough, here in this story, the threat of infanticide, the murder of boys under the age of two in the region of Bethlehem, sent Joseph and Mary into exile in Egypt. The bad kings ruthless infanticide had turned that family into refugees fleeing to a strange land in order to preserve their lives. And under cover of darkness, they made their way out of Bethlehem and headed south, probably going right through what today we call Gaza and into Egypt. And during that journey, surely their fears returned. Another completely unexpected turn of events. An unknown language, no familiarity with the customs or the food. How are they going to be supported there? How are they going to be treated? And where was God in the midst of these terrible circumstances? Can God be with us in a foreign land? Egypt. A wise sage once said, remember in the darkness what you have seen in the light. That memory will guide you through the darkness. Mary and Joseph's memory prompted them now to continue to live out the story of what God was doing. A story that began a long time ago with God's faithfulness to people in Egypt. So often in the Scriptures, as a matter of fact, 46 times in the book of Deuteronomy, there is this command, you shall remember all the ways you, your God showed favor to you in Egypt. You shall remember, you shall remember. You shall remember Egypt. Now in Cairo, Egypt, there's a synagogue, it's called the Synagogue of Jeremiah. And there in that synagogue, as Mary and Joseph probably gathered for weekly Shabbat services, that building was a testimony that six centuries before Joseph and Mary, Jeremiah had also made a journey into Egypt. He was driven into exile at the time of the Babylonians conquest of Judah and the destruction of Jerusalem. And while the Babylonians were approaching Jerusalem, Jeremiah being fully aware of what they intended to do, he was bold enough to purchase a piece of land and record the deed. He knew what was coming. The unspeakable atrocities of the Babylonians. But Jeromeiah also knew that the Babylonians were not going to have the final word. That land purchase was the prophet's testimony, convinced of God's grace in the midst of terrible calamity, that there was going to be a future for his people. So while in Egypt, Joseph and Mary remember and they wait like the Israelites waited and Jeremiah waited And they did not lose trust in God's presence. The assurance, I am with you or God's grace, you are my favored ones. Years later, we don't know exactly how long Herod dies and they do return to Nazareth. And out of Nazareth comes the Gospel of Jesus in his ministry of love and grace and mercy and compassion. Historians will sometimes apply the phrase profile and courage to a person whose extraordinary bravery is deemed worthy of commendation in Mary and Joseph. As we listen to these stories this morning, we hear a narrative of courage as they cooperated with God and as God showed up for them, and as God accompanied them. Think now from Nazareth to Bethlehem, from Bethlehem to Egypt, and from Egypt back to Nazareth. And there's where Jesus grew up, and there's where he became the person that we read about in the Gospels, the one who brings us salvation. God took every one of their questions seriously all along the way, throughout their entire journey. And in the process, their doubts were transformed into courage. They did not go on this journey with God and with each other in their own power. They were driven by their inner faith that the Messiah was coming. In fact, they were entrusted with the Messiah. And they kept going, in spite of all the difficulties that they faced, because God was with them. Now none of us knows what our futures hold. Just like Joseph and Mary did not know about a stable birth or an Egyptian exile when they said their first yes to God, what held them during their most difficult and dangerous moments were the same assurances that we receive today. So we rely on God's spirit living within us so we can show up to do our small, simple acts of courage. We often say, Merry Christmas. Maybe we should say during this period, God continues to show up. Let's pray. Oh God. Sometimes we are in the midst of difficulty, seasons of confusion. We engage in a frantic rush with schedules too filled, our minds too filled, only to find ourselves empty. Give us hope, Lord, and remind us of your steady power, your gracious purposes, that we may live fully, renew our faith that the earth is not destined for dust and darkness, but for frolicking life and deep joy, so that, being set free from our anxieties for the future, we may take the small, simple risks of loving today. Amen.