The Church of St.
Paul and Incarnation, Jersey City NJ
December 22, 2019
Year A: The Fourth
Sunday of Advent
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
Unexpected Destinations
And
just like that, our quick, four Sundays-long, Advent journey is coming to an
end.
We
began by reflecting on the need to make room for our journey, that there are
some burdens – our regrets, our grudges, our fears - that are best left behind.
And
then we talked about how we needed directions for our Advent journey – that we
need direction – and our Advent direction was the call of John the Baptist to
repent, to have a change of mind and heart, to turn back to God.
And
then last week we reflected on the interruptions that can occur during our
journey, like when John the Baptist found himself in prison wondering if Jesus
really is the one, interruptions like when we find ourselves suddenly
sidetracked by loss and tragedy, which have been all too common around here
lately.
And
now today, on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, we turn our attention from John the
Baptist to another main character of this season: Joseph.
Joseph never says
a word in the gospels, but through his righteousness, faithfulness, and courage
change he changed the lives of Mary and Jesus, and changed the course of
history.
At
the end of a journey, sometimes our destination looks nothing like what we
expected.
Pretty
much everything we know about Joseph comes from the Gospel of Matthew.
We’re
told that Joseph is a descendant of the great King David and that he is a
righteous man, and certainly his actions prove that to be true.
We’re
told that he is engaged to Mary, who was probably quite young. The tradition
has long been that Joseph was much older but there’s nothing in the gospel to
confirm that.
We
can assume that the families of Joseph and Mary had arranged their marriage and
that Joseph expected that his destiny was to live a normal, unremarkable life, working
as a craftsman, raising a family with Mary, and faithfully following his Jewish
traditions.
But
then the most amazing events happened, overturning what Joseph had thought was
his destiny, sending him to an unexpected destination.
After learning of
Mary’s pregnancy and knowing that he was not the father, Joseph first planned
to quietly end their engagement. But, after an angelic dream, Joseph makes his
life-changing decision, the history-changing decision, of staying with Mary and
raising her holy child as his own.
An
unexpected destination.
We
tend to think of that as the end of Joseph’s story and the truth is that after
this we don’t hear too much more about him, but for as long as he lived his
decision to stick with Mary and Jesus would change his life because people in
the family, people in the village, they would have known that Joseph wasn’t the
boy’s father and, well, you know how people are. There would have been
whispering and snickering, there would have been gossip, and Joseph would have
to ignore all of that, rise above all of that.
And,
soon a tyrant will be on the murderous hunt for the holy child and Joseph will
need to leave behind everything familiar, fleeing with Mary and Jesus to Egypt,
living for a time as refugees in a strange land.
So,
I wonder about the cost for Joseph, how his faithful and righteous choice
shaped his life.
I
wonder about the cost for Mary, a cost that she will have to pay all the way to
watching her son die on the cross.
And,
I also wonder about the cost for Jesus, who as he grew up would have heard the
same gossip, would have somehow absorbed the trauma of fleeing to Egypt with
his frightened parents, just as refugee children are scarred by their
experiences today.
It’s
always hard to separate out nature and nurture, how much of who we are is
hardwired and how much of it is shaped by the world around us, but I like to
think that Jesus’ status as a kind of outsider helped give him a special bond
with the outsiders of his time: the lepers and the prostitutes and the
tax-collectors.
Maybe
Jesus didn’t just love the outsiders, but he actually identified with them,
too.
Sometimes
our destination looks nothing like what we expected.
And
when we land in those unexpected destinations we have a choice.
Joseph
could have just walked away, leaving Mary as an unwed mother, an unpleasant place
to be in that time and place.
For
that matter, when Mary found herself in the unexpected destination of being
chosen to carry the Son of God into the world, she also could have said no. She
could have told the angel, “Pick someone else.”
And,
really, Jesus himself could have rejected his mission too, choosing to live a
quiet life in Nazareth, maybe rejecting his mother’s and Joseph’s stories of angels.
Jesus could have given into anger about the unusual circumstances of his birth.
Sometimes
our destination looks nothing like what we expected.
And,
it’s at that moment that we have a choice:
We
can become bitter, so disappointed that things didn’t work out as we expected.
Or,
landing in an unexpected destination can open our hearts, open our eyes, to God
at work around us.
This
past Thursday we had the annual interfaith homeless memorial service over at
Old Bergen Church.
It’s
a very simple service, mostly some prayers, and some music led by Gail and
friends. And, maybe because of its simplicity, I think it’s one of the most
meaningful and beautiful services of the year.
Homelessness
is certainly an unexpected destination, isn’t it?
As
part of the service, the names of deceased homeless people are read by people
who work at the shelters.
When
Jaclyn Cherubini, the Executive Director of the Hoboken Shelter, reads the
names, she often adds personal details about the people we are remembering,
details that show personal care, details that bring tears to me eyes every
time.
One person had the largest set of keys she had
ever seen.
And,
for a couple of the people, she mentioned that after they had gotten out of the
shelter, after they had found permanent housing, they came back to the shelter
and volunteered, helping others who were in the same spot that they had been in.
That’s
just amazing to me because I’m pretty sure that if I had managed to escape a
homeless shelter I would do my best to forget all about it and would certainly
never go back.
But then here at
our own church, I can think of several people who have landed in the unexpected
destination of homelessness – and, rather than leaving them bitter, that
experience has made them extra-compassionate to people begging on the street,
offering not just money or a sandwich but taking the time to talk, taking the
opportunity to offer encouragement, human being to human being, brothers and
sisters.
So,
today we come to the end of our Advent journey, remembering righteous Joseph
who found himself at a most unexpected destination, called by God to be more
loving and more courageous than he had probably ever thought possible.
Joseph, and Mary, and Jesus, all found
themselves in unexpected destinations.
And
they all said yes - yes to love, and yes to God.
Amen.
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