The following message was shared at several care home services last week.  Today's service featured the Sunday school Christmas pageant as the message.

    As Matthew tells the story of the birth of Jesus the Messiah, he does so from Joseph’s perspective.  This is actually the most that we hear about Joseph in the entire Bible, but what we do hear gives us a portrait of a good and faithful man.  When he discovers that Mary is expecting, and knows that the child is not his, he agonizes over the right thing to do.  He would have been well within his rights to publicly accuse her, and even to have her stoned to death.  However, Joseph loves her too much to go public with it.  Instead, he decides that he will separate from her quietly, trying to save whatever dignity they both have left.

    However, as soon as Joseph has made up his mind what to do, God shows up.  God shows up through an angel in a dream and tells Joseph the truth about this child that Mary is carrying.  He has been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He will save his people from their sins.  And Joseph is instructed to take Mary as his wife, and to name the child Jesus.  And then the dream ends with a prophecy from Isaiah about the child who will be known as Emmanuel, for “God is with us” (Mt. 1:23).

    Perhaps one of the most remarkable things about Joseph is that he not only believes the dream, but acts on it.  He takes Mary as his wife, and when she gives birth to a son, he names him Jesus.  For Joseph, this simple act of naming the child was an act of great significance.  It was an act of adoption – an act that said to all those around that this is my son.  And so, as far as anybody else knew, this child belonged to Mary and Joseph.

    The name Jesus is significant, because the name means “God is salvation.”  However, the mention of Emmanuel is also significant.  Really, don’t all of us long to know that God is with us?  In Joseph’s case, he knew that God was with him and Mary because of his dream.  But how do we experience Emmanuel – God with us?

    Some of us, too, might have dreams where God shows up, or where God sends a messenger.  However, that’s not necessarily the case for everyone.  Some of us might also have experiences where God shows up through another person who comes into our lives at just the right time and in the right place.  In other cases, maybe God shows up in a vision or through an angel.  Regardless of how God shows up, the promise of Emmanuel remains.

    Through Jesus, God is with us in joy and in sorrow, in sickness and in health, in pleasure and in pain.  God is with us when we are alone and when we are with others, when we worship and when we pray, and where two or three are gathered in the name of Jesus.  God is with us in the bread and in the wine and in the waters of baptism, even as Jesus comes to us today, giving us the gift of himself in this feast of love.

    And so, today we give thanks: for Joseph and Mary, who acted in faith and in trust; for Jesus, who came to save his people from their sins; and for God who is with us and who continues to come to us through Jesus Christ.  Thanks be to God!  Amen.

Week of Advent 4 (NL 1)                            Matthew 1:18-25
December 18, 2014
Fred Douglas Lodge
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

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