Do Your Best

This is the message given at the communion service at Oahe Manor Thursday, December 12, 2013.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 1:18-25.

            You know, in a lot of ways, Joseph is kind of the forgotten man of the Christmas story.  I mean, we know he’s there.  We certainly would not put together a nativity scene without Joseph.  But a lot of times that’s about all we know about Joseph—that he’s there.  The Christmas story tends to be about Mary and the baby and the shepherds and the wise men.  Joseph is just kind of set to one side.

            That’s true even in the Bible verses we read today.  We’re told that an angel appeared to Joseph.  We’re told what the angel said.  We’re told that this took place to make an Old Testament prophecy come true.  But we’re not told a thing about what Joseph said.  We’re not told anything about what he thought.  We’re not told anything about how he felt.  It’s like Joseph was just kind of prop, like he’s not really all that important.

            But put yourself in Joseph’s place.  You’re about to get married.  And the woman you love, whom you’re about to marry, comes to you and tells you she’s pregnant.  And you know the child cannot possibly be yours.  And yet, she swears that she has not been unfaithful to you.  She tells you that she was visited by an angel, and that this child is, in fact, the son of God.

            How would you react to that?  I mean, you might want to believe it, but how could you?  It sounds so totally unbelievable.  Who ever heard of such a thing?  I mean, yeah, you’ve heard about the Old Testament prophecy about the virgin birth, but that was eight hundred years ago.  And now, your fiancée is trying to convince you that she, out of all the people in the world before and since, was told by an angel that she’s the virgin the prophet was talking about?  Come on.

            But, you still have feelings for Mary, so you decide to just cancel the wedding and keep things quiet.  Your family and close friends will know what’s happened, but they don’t have to know why.  Life can go on for everybody.  And then, you get visited by an angel, too.  And the angel tells you that everything Mary told you was true.

            How would you feel?  Relieved, probably.  Maybe a little ashamed for having doubted Mary.  But then what?

            I don’t know about you, but I think I’d be scared to death.  Think of the responsibility!  It’s hard enough to raise kids under normal circumstances.  But this.  I mean, is the kid going to look different, have some sort of angelic shine to him or something?  Is he going to act different?  What are you supposed to do?  How in the world do you be the Dad to the Son of God?

            I suspect a lot of stuff like this was going through Joseph’s mind.  Probably some of it went through Mary’s mind, too.  I’d be they had a lot of talks about it when they were waiting for their child to come, and probably after he was born as well.

            We’re not told about that in the Bible, though.  Again, we’re not told anything about what Joseph said or thought or felt.  He was not even asked if he agreed with all this.  It was like whether he agreed with it really did not matter.  Joseph does not appear to have been given any choice about it.  We’re just told that Joseph took Mary home with him as his wife.  In other words, Joseph accepted the situation God had given him and decided to do the best he could with it.

            And it strikes me that this is the same thing that God often asks us to do.  Because there are a lot of times in our lives when things happen, and whether we agree with them or not really does not matter.  We’re not given any choice about it.  God just asks us to accept the situation God has given us and do the best we can with it.

            Some of you—maybe all of you—are here because of situations you were not really given a whole lot of choice about.  Even if you made the decision to come here, you made that decision because of situations you did not have much control over.  If you could have everything the way you wanted, you’d feel better, you’d be able to do more things, you’d be independent, and you would be living on your own rather than be here.

            I certainly don’t blame you for feeling that way.  And I’m sure God does not blame you for feeling that way, either.  But, as you know, that’s not one of the options you have.  You are in the condition you’re in, and that condition requires you to be here.  God did not give you a choice about that condition.  And what God asks is that you accept that condition and do the best you can with it.

            What that means, exactly, is different for each of you.  Each of you has different talents and abilities.  Each of you is in a little different condition.  That’s okay.  None of us is asked to do everything.  We’re just asked to do the best we can.

            You know, when the angel talked to them, the angel did not tell them all the stuff that was going to happen.  The angel did not say, “Oh, and by the way, you’re going to have this baby when you’re traveling away from home, and it’ll be born in a stable.  And then you’re going to have to go away and live in Egypt for a couple of years before you can come back home.”  Joseph and Mary did not know any of that.  They lived their lives one day at a time, the way we all do.  They made it up as they went along.

            So, if you don’t know exactly what to do, that’s okay.  Joseph and Mary did not know what to do, either.  But if we accept the situation God has given us and resolve to do the best we can with it, God will show us what to do, just like God did with Joseph and Mary.

            We don’t always get to choose our situations.  But we do get to choose how we respond to them.  If was accept the situation God has given us and decide to do the best we can, God will take care of the rest.