Confirmation Class

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church December 27,2020.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:21-38.

            Well, Christmas is over.  Yes, we still have New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to look forward to.  We have a few days before we really get to the serious business of January.  But the big events, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, are all over.  

And too often, that’s how we look at it from a faith standpoint.  We drop Christmas as soon as it’s over.  We leave the baby Jesus in the manger and go on to something else.

But of course, Joseph and Mary could not just go to something else.  They had to deal with the reality of raising this baby, this divine Son of God that they had responsibility for.  That’s quite the responsibility.  So, obviously, they wanted to do it right.  So they presented Jesus at the temple.

 First, of course, Jesus was circumcised when he was eight days old.  That was in accordance with the law.  Then, we’re told of Jesus being presented at the temple of the Lord.  This happened, according to Luke, “when the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses”, which would have been forty days after Jesus was born.  That means that at some point in those forty days, Mary, Joseph, and Jesus made the trip from Bethlehem to Jerusalem.  

That was not a long trip--it was about six miles. But, of course, Mary and Joseph would’ve had to walk it, carrying Jesus, so it’s not like it was really easy.  You and I would probably be really upset if we had to walk six miles carrying a baby.  But back then, it was just the way things were.  People were used to walking everywhere they needed to go.  It was no big deal.

So Mary and Joseph walk the six miles from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, and then walk some more until they get to the temple.  They buy the required sacrifice.  And while they’re there, they meet two people.

The first was a man named Simeon.  Simeon lived in Jerusalem, and he had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he saw the Savior.  This day, this day when Mary and Joseph are presenting Jesus at the temple, the Holy Spirit told him to go to the temple courts.  We don’t know if the Spirit told him why, but he went there.  And he saw Jesus.  And as soon as he saw Jesus, Simeon knew that this was, in fact, the Savior he had been kept alive to see.

And as you read what Simeon said, you get the impression that Simeon understood, far better than most people at that time, just who the Savior was going to be.  Most people at that time thought the Savior would be a great king, someone who would return Israel to power as a great nation.  But look at how Simeon describes Jesus:  “a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel.”  And then he tells Mary:  “This child is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be spoken against, so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed.  And a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

Simeon understood that Jesus was not going to be a political leader.  He was going to bring salvation to both the Gentiles and the Jews, but that salvation would be spiritual salvation, not a political salvation.  And he would cause “the thoughts of many hearts” to be revealed, both for better and for worse.  Simeon understood exactly what kind of Savior Jesus was going to be.

And then we meet Anna.  Anna was a prophet.  She was eighty-four years old.  We’re told she had lived with her husband for seven years after their marriage and had been a widow ever since.  Assuming she was married young, as was often the case at that time, Anna may have been a widow for sixty years or more.  I know there are people here who’ve lost spouses, but think of that.  To be a widow or a widower for sixty years.  That’s a long time to be alone.

We’re told that she never left the temple, but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying.  We don’t know how long she’d been doing that.  It was not necessarily for the whole sixty or so years she’d been a widow, or even for most of those years.  But it seems like it must have been a while.  And just as Simeon finishes talking, Anna comes up, gives thanks to God, and starts telling everyone about this child who’s going to be the Savior.

So what’s the point?  Why is this story in the Bible?  Is it just an interesting story, a little piece of the life of Jesus, or is there more to it?  What are we supposed to learn from this?

Well, I’m sure there’s more than one thing we can learn from it.  There almost always is, when we read the Bible.  But here’s the one I want to focus on tonight.

Have you ever had a time when you felt like God was giving you a message?  Or, have you ever felt like the Holy Spirit was leading you to do something, or to say something, or to go somewhere?  Or maybe you did not recognize it as the Holy Spirit, but you just felt like there was something inside you telling you that you needed to talk to some specific person, or go to some specific place, or do some specific thing.  You did not know why, but you just had this strong feeling that this was what you were supposed to do.  

Have you ever had that?  I think probably most of us have, at one time or another.  And probably most of us have followed that prompting, at least some of the time.

But here’s the thing.  Sometimes, we get that message, or we follow that prompting--we do what we’re led to do, we go where we’re led to go, we say what we’re led to say--and it seems like nothing happens.  And some time goes on, and nothing continues to happen.  And we start to wonder.  Did God really give me a message?  Was the Holy Spirit really leading me to do that, or say that, or go there?  Or was it something I made up, something I imagined, something that came out of my own head or from someone else and I just fooled myself into thinking it was from God?

When that happens, we need some confirmation.  We need to get some kind of a signal, some kind of sign.  We need something to encourage us to stay the course, something to let us know that yes, we really did get that message from God.  We really were led by the Holy Spirit.  God really did speak to us, and God really is going to be faithful and keep the words God said.

God does not always give us that confirmation, and God does not promise that God will give it to us.  Sometimes we’re asked to have faith and to trust and to keep believing.  But sometimes, God will give us that confirmation.  God will give us that encouragement.  God will give us a signal, a sign, that we really did get that message from God that we thought we did.

That’s what happened here.  Look at Mary and Joseph.  The angel Gabriel had told them that their child was the divine Son of God.  They’d listened, and they’d believed.  They’d gone everywhere they were supposed to go, they’d done everything they were supposed to do.  But still, they had to wonder.  You know, it had been several months, at least, since they’d heard from Gabriel about who this baby was going to be.  They had to be thinking, you know, our baby looks like any other baby.  He acts like any other baby.  Is he really going to be that special?  Are we really going to be raising the Savior of the world?  

And then, when they take Jesus to the temple, here come Simeon and Anna.  And they say, yes.  Yes, your child is going to be that special.  You really are going to be raising the Savior of the world.  All that stuff that Gabriel said is really true.  You really have received a message from God, and God will be faithful to God’s word.  That had to be a huge relief to them.  It had to feel so wonderful, to have someone come along and confirm that they really had received a message from God, that things were going the way they were supposed to go, and that they really could trust God’s promises.

You and I have been given messages from God, too.  There are places were supposed to go, words we’re supposed to say, things we’re supposed to do.  That’s true for us as individuals, and that’s true for us as a church.

And a lot of us have been doing them.  Some of us have been doing them for a long time.  And sometimes, we don’t seem to see any results.  We wish a Simeon, or an Anna, would come and confirm God’s message for us.  We wish they’d come and tell us that we really have received a message from God, that we really are doing what we’re supposed to do, that we really are going the way God wants us to go.  We wish they’d say things are going the way they’re supposed to go, that we really can trust God’s promises.

Well, we don’t actually get Simeon and Anna.  But I think there are signs all around us, if we look for them.  I can’t speak to each person’s individual calling, but look at our parish.  Despite the pandemic, we’ve still kept our kids programs going in both Onida and Gettsyburg.  We don’t always have as many people worshiping in person, but we’re reaching more on the livestream.  We’re expanding our ministry, reaching people in other towns, reaching people who would never come here in person.  Despite everything, there are signs of all kinds of good things going on in this parish, if we just look for them.

Does that mean everything’s perfect?  Of course not.  Far from it.  We have challenges, and the pandemic has given us more challenges.  But you know what?  We’ll always have challenges.  Mary and Joseph had a lot of challenges, too.  God never promised us everything would be smooth and easy.  

But if we keep doing what we’re supposed to do, if we keep going where God wants us to go, things will go the way they’re supposed to go.  God will confirm God’s message to us in any number of ways.  God really is speaking to us.  And God’s word is always true.

 

Following God

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish on Sunday morning, December 27, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 2:1-15.            

            Well, Christmas Day has come and gone.  We had the big Christmas Eve service.  The presents have all been handed out and unwrapped.  Some families will still have get-togethers this week, and of course we still have New Year’s Day to celebrate.  But still, the Big Day is over.  We’ll gradually settle back into our normal routines again.

            I would think that, a couple of days after that first Christmas night, there’s nothing Mary and Joseph would’ve liked more than to settle back into their normal routine.  But they could not.  For one thing, they had a new baby to deal with.  Now, I’ve never had children, but I’m pretty sure that when your child is two days old you don’t just settle back into your normal routine.  In fact, that normal routine is probably never coming back again, right?  You find a new routine, a new normal, but I’m pretty sure that a baby changes just about everything in your life.

            And then, there’s the fact that they were not home.  They were still in Bethlehem.  We don’t know how long they were there.  They were still there when the wise men came to see them, obviously.  Some people think they might have been there as long as two years.  

            Now, they obviously did not stay out in the stable that long.  At some point, Joseph and Mary did find a place to live.  In fact, we’re told that the wise men came to “the house” to see the baby.  Whether they built a house, bought a house, rented a house, were living in someone else’s house, we don’t know.  But at least they did have a house to live in.  Still, it was not home.  I would think the one thing they probably wanted most, after all this time, was just to go home and start living their lives together.

            But of course, that’s not what happened, is it?  One night, when Joseph is asleep, an angel appears.  We don’t know if it’s the same angel who told Joseph that Mary was going to have a child.  But an angel came and told Joseph to take Mary and Jesus and go to Egypt, because if they stayed where they were, Herod would have Jesus killed.

            Now, as I said last week, we’re never told what Joseph’s thoughts or feelings are when he’s told to do something.  We’re just told that he did what the angel said.  I mean, when an angel comes and tells you that your child will die unless you leave and go to Egypt, you’re going to go to Egypt.  Any parent would do that for any of their children, never mind that this is Jesus we’re talking about.  When Joseph heard this, he did not hesitate.  He woke up Mary and they took Jesus and headed for Egypt that same night.

            But even though Joseph did not hesitate, I have to think he was not particularly thrilled with any of this.  Neither was Mary, for that matter.  “Egypt?  We have to go to Egypt?  We don’t want to go to Egypt.  We just want to go home.  We want to get back to our family, to our friends.  We want to get back to our old lives.  What are we going to do in Egypt?  We don’t know anybody in Egypt.  We don’t even speak the language.  Why Egypt?  Why can we not go back to Nazareth?  Or how about Jerusalem?  In fact, why can God not protect us somehow so that we don’t have to go anywhere?  I mean, He is the all-powerful God, right?  And besides, the angel said our child is God’s Divine Son.  Surely God would not let his Divine Son die.”

            Now, I want to make clear that this is all speculation.  The Bible does not tell us what was going through Joseph or Mary’s minds when all this was happening.  It just tells us that they went to Egypt.  But it seems logical, don’t you think?  Even though they obeyed God, I would think they still had to wonder sometimes just what God was doing and what God was getting them into.

            We’ve talked before about this idea that following God should somehow give us an easy life, and how the Bible makes clear over and over again that an idea like that is simply not true.  It seems to me this is Exhibit A.  Joseph and Mary followed God.  They did everything that was asked of them.  There were a lot of times when they did not understand it.  There were a lot of times when it did not make sense to them.  But they still did it.  And it certainly did not get them an easy life.  In fact, in the months and years immediately after Jesus’ birth, following God seemed to get Joseph and Mary nothing but trouble.

            Most of us would say that we follow God.  Not perfectly, of course.  There are times we go our own way, do our own thing.  We all have those times when we decide we know better, when we decide we have to do it our way rather than doing things God’s way.  But for the most part, we do try to do the things God wants us to do.  We do try to live our lives the way God wants us to live them.  

            How’s that worked out for you?  Has it given you an easy life?  Probably not.  That’s not to say everyone here is miserable.  Most of us would probably say that our lives are more or less okay.  But I don’t know that any of us are on easy street.  Our lives may be more or less okay, but we still have plenty of problems.  And sometimes, those problems are pretty serious.

            And in fact, sometimes, following God seems to make things worse.  Because the thing about following God, about truly following God, is that sometimes God leads us to places we don’t want to go.  Sometimes God leads us to do things we don’t want to do.  Sometimes God leads us to deal with things we don’t want to deal with.

            And sometimes we think, “I don’t want to go there.  I don’t want to do that.  I don’t want to have to deal with those people.  I just want to be home.  I just want to be with my family and with my friends.  I just want to live my life.  Why can God not just let me stay where I am?  I mean, he’s the all-powerful God, right?  Well, then, whatever it is that needs to be done, God can surely do it without me.  Why do I have to do this?”

            You know, we talk all the time about how we need to trust God.  And of course, we do.  But too often, we end the sentence there.  What we don’t ask is, “Trust God to do what?”  What is it that we really need to trust God to do?

            Trust God to take care of us?  Well, that’s what we’d like, of course.  But as we’ve already said, following God does not guarantee us an easy life.  God will take care of us in the sense that, if we accept Jesus as the Savior, we’ll have salvation and eternal life.  And it’s impossible to overstate how important that is.  But that does not mean that God will take care of us while we’re on earth.  God might, but God might not.  Following God might mean that our lives on earth are a constant struggle.  Following God might mean, as it did sometimes for Joseph and Mary, that our earthly lives are nothing but trouble.

            Trust God to make things work out all right?  I think we can trust God to do that.  But here’s the thing:  God’s definition of things working out all right might not be the same as our definition of things working out all right.  And the time at which God makes things work out all right may not be the time we want them to work out all right.  After all, as we’ve said before, God sees hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of years into the future, if the world is going to last that long.  God is making things work out all right, but that does not mean that things will be all right in our lifetimes.  It might not happen until a long time in the future.

            Trust God to do what’s right?  Now we’re getting there.  God will always do what’s right.  And if we follow God, we will do what’s right, too.  

            That’s what Joseph and Mary did.  They may not have understood why they had to go to Egypt.  They might not have known what they were going to do there or how they were going to survive there.  They just knew that going to Egypt was what God wanted them to do.  And they trusted that, if it was what God wanted them to do, then it must be right, even if they did not understand it.

            That’s the kind of faith Joseph and Mary had all their lives.  It’s what led them to agree to be Jesus’ earthly parents.  It’s what led them to go to Bethlehem.  It’s what led them to go to Egypt.  It’s what led them to, eventually, go back to Nazareth after Herod died.  There were plenty of times that Joseph and Mary did not understand what was going on.  They did not understand why God was asking them to do these things.  But they knew God wanted them to do it, so they did it.  And they trusted that it must be right, because it was what God wanted them to do.

            That’s the kind of trust you and I need to have.  Trust that if God wants us to do something, it must be the right thing to do.  Trust that if God wants us to go somewhere, it must be the right place to go.  Trust that whatever God wants us to deal with, it must be what we’re supposed to deal with.  And continue trusting that way, even when we don’t understand, even when it seems like things are not working out right, even when it seems like our trust is getting us nothing but trouble.

            It’s not easy to have that kind of trust.  It was not easy for Joseph and Mary, either.  But they did it.  And if they can do it, you and I can do it, too.  God will always do what’s right.  If we follow God, we’ll always do what’s right, too.

 

Connections

The message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on December 20, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Luke 2:1-21

        What we read for tonight in Luke is what we think of when we think about the Christmas story.  It’s the bit Linus reads in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.  It’s Mary and Joseph and baby Jesus in the stable with the shepherds around.  This is what we want to hear on the Sunday before Christmas.  After all, who does not love hearing a story about a baby?

         And it is an amazing story, really.  The divine Son of God, taking human form, coming to earth to live among us.  Living as a human being, feeling all the things we feel, enjoying all the things we enjoy, suffering through all the things we suffer through.  Limited by all the limitations we have.

         You know, at Christmas, we talk all the time about Mary and the faith she had and all the suffering she endured.  And that’s appropriate, because she did have tremendous faith and she did have to endure a lot of suffering.  And we talk about Joseph, and the faith he had, and all the things he had to do, taking care of his family and so forth.  And that’s appropriate too, because Joseph did have tremendous faith and he did have to do a lot of things to take care of his family.

         But we don’t usually talk about the sacrifice Jesus made and the suffering he endured.  I mean, we talk about that during Lent.  We talk about how Jesus was arrested and beaten and tortured and ultimately killed on a cross.  But we don’t talk about the sacrifice Jesus made just by coming to earth in the first place.  In fact, we usually don’t think about Jesus’ birth that way at all.

         But we should.  After all, we’re told that Jesus, the divine Son of God, was with God the Father from the beginning.  Remember what we read in John:  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  Jesus, the Word, was with God the Father from the very beginning.  And Jesus had been with God all through everything that had happened since, everything that had happened up until this point in history.

         And now, Jesus was separated from God, just like we are.  I mean, yes, Jesus had divine powers, power that you and I do not have.  But I have to think he could not possibly feel the sort of connection to God the Father that he had in heaven.  He had that same separation from God that we have.  He could pray, of course, just like we all can, and he could go meditate and try to feel close to God, just as we all can.  And there were times, such as at the transfiguration, when he was briefly given some of that connection back.  But for the most part, when he was on earth, it looks like Jesus was separated from God just like you and I are.

         I wonder when Jesus really felt that.  I assume he knew it was going to happen, but when did he really start to feel it?  Did he not feel it until he was an adult, and fully realized who he was?  Did he feel it already when he was young, during that episode when he was twelve and went off by himself, away from his parents, to go and visit with the rabbis?  Or did he already feel it in this scene, as a baby, when he was lying in the manger with Joseph and Mary beside him?

         Whenever it was, it had to be really hard for him.  He knew it was going to happen, or at least I would think he did.  I’d think Jesus would have to have known, when he agreed to come to earth and live among us, that he would not have that same connection to God the Father that he had while he was in heaven.  But did he really understand what that was going to feel like?  Did he know how hard it was going to be to lose that connection with God, even if it was only going to be for those years on earth?

         It had to be a hard thing for Jesus.  It was a tremendous sacrifice Jesus made.  He voluntarily gave up that connection he had with God.  And he did it for us.  Jesus gave us an amazing gift when he did that.

         You know, when you think about it, Jesus really gave up his life twice for us.  We know about how Jesus gave up his earthly life for us when he died on the cross.  But Jesus also gave up his heavenly life for us when he was born to Joseph and Mary in the stable.

         Jesus gave up his earthly life on the cross to save us from the consequences of our sins.  He took the punishment that should have gone to us, so that if we simply believe in him, we will go to heaven.  And that’s an incredibly awesome thing.

         But Jesus gave up his heavenly life to do something just as important.  Jesus gave up his heavenly life to come here to earth and live among us.  Jesus gave up his heavenly life so we could know God better and understand God better.  Jesus gave up his heavenly life so that we could see who God is and how God wants us to live.

         In other words, Jesus gave up his connection to God the Father so that you and I could have a connection to God.  Before Jesus came, people did not know God, not in the way you and I can.  They did not have a personal relationship with God.  Oh, maybe a few of them did, the great prophets like Moses and Joshua and people like that, but not everyday people.  Not people like you and me.  There was no thought that common people could just talk to God.  Why would God listen to you?  Why would God listen to me?  If you wanted to talk to God about something, you went and talked to the priest.  You asked him to pray for you, and they you waited and eventually asked the priest for God’s answer.  The priest might be able to talk to God, especially if he was a high priest, but you and me?  No way.

          And Jesus changed all that.  Jesus came and showed us, individuals, common people like you and me.  He showed us how to talk to God.  He showed us how to listen to God.  He showed us that we did not need to go through a high priest to talk to God, we could do it ourselves.  Everyone—you, me, and everyone else you can think of, from the highest of the high to the lowers of the low—can have a personal relationship, a personal connection, to God.  Jesus gave up his connection to God so that you and I could have a connection with God.

         Did Mary and Joseph understand that, do you suppose?  Probably not.  Not totally, anyway.  They probably understood some.  They knew this was a special child.  The angel had told them that he was the divine Son of God who would save people from their sins.  But did they really appreciate how that was going to work or exactly what it meant?  We don’t understand it that well now.  Could they really have understood it then?

          But you know who maybe did understand it?  The shepherds.  You know, as you look at this story, the shepherds really don’t seem to have that much of anything to do with it.  They did not know Joseph or Mary.  They were nobody important or special.  They were just ordinary people, people like you and me.  They were just getting by in life, doing their jobs, doing what they had to do.  In George Carlin’s phrase, they were doing just enough work to not get fired and getting paid just enough not to quit.

          And then, all of a sudden, an angel appears to them.  And then a whole company of angels.  And they tell these shepherds about this incredible thing that’s happened.  And they tell them to go see the baby.

And they do.  And they know.  They don’t know everything.  They probably don’t understand what Jesus had to give up in order to be born as a human being.  But they know something is different.  They know they have a connection to God they’ve never had before.  And they know that, somehow, this baby caused that.  They know that somehow, in some way, the birth of this baby means that they are connected to God in a way they never were before.

And they know that they’re never going to lose that connection.  They know that connection they have to God will always be there.  And so they go away, happier than they’ve ever been in their lives, so happy that they cannot help but tell everyone they meet about this incredible thing that’s happened, this incredible thing that they’ve not only seen but that they’ve felt in their hearts.

We have that same connection to God that the shepherds had.  We have it through Jesus Christ.  And that connection will always be there for us, too.  We can give it up.  We can let it go.  But God will never take it away.  Any time we choose to turn back to God, that connection to God will always be there for us.

Jesus gave up his life in heaven to give us life on earth.  And Jesus gave up his life on earth to give us life in heaven.  It’s an incredible gift.  It’s the gift of Christmas.

 

No Ordinary Joe

The message given in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish Sunday morning, December 20, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 1:18-25.

Several years ago now, we had a contest to choose our favorite Bible character.  Maybe some of you remember that.  Mary won the contest.  Joseph, on the other hand, didn’t even get to the quarter-finals.

That’s kind of how it is for Joseph.  When we hear about the story of Jesus’ birth, Joseph is pretty much the forgotten man.  We hear a lot about Mary and Jesus, and the shepherds and the wise men and the angel, but never much about Joseph.  Joseph is kind of the odd man out of the Christmas story.  It’s like he’s just sort of there. 

            But, of course, that’s not true.  Joseph was a really important figure in the life of Jesus.  The decision God made in choosing Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus was every bit as important as the decision to choose Mary as his earthly mother.  And yet, we’re told almost nothing about him.  In fact, at this point we’re not even told that he was a carpenter.  The only way we find that out is when Jesus is referred to later as “the carpenter’s son”.  We’re certainly not told anything that would indicate that Joseph was unusual in any way, any more than Mary was.

The gospels don’t even tell us how Joseph found out Mary was going to have a baby.  Matthew just says Mary “was found to be with child.”  I suppose, at some point, Mary must have told him. Imagine you’re Joseph, at that point.  The woman you’re engaged to tells you she’s going to have a baby. You know it cannot be yours.  And yet, she swears she has never been unfaithful to you, that this is some sort of miracle from God, that this child she’s carrying is going to be the savior of the world.

            How do you think you’d react to that, if you were Joseph?  I mean, you’d want to believe it.  We’re not told for sure, but the scriptures make it sound like Joseph really did care about Mary.  He’d want to believe she was telling the truth.  But how could he?  A baby born without a human father?  The savior of the world being born like a human baby, born to an ordinary, single woman?  No matter how much Joseph wanted to believe that, there’s no way he could have, any more than you or I could.  It just would’ve seemed impossible.  It would not have made any sense to him, any more than it’d make sense to you or me if it happened today.

            What would you feel, if you were Joseph?  Hurt, betrayed, angry, sad. I’m sure Joseph felt all those things, too. 

          Then, we hear that an angel came to Joseph in a dream to tell Joseph that Mary was telling the truth.  Even so, the story gives Joseph kind of short shrift.  I mean, when Gabriel came to Mary, they had a conversation.  we’re told about all of Mary’s questions, and we’re given all of Gabriel’s answers.  Eventually, we’re even given a big speech by Mary about what she thought and how she felt about all this.

            We don’t get any of that about Joseph.  In fact, you know how many words of Joseph are quoted in the Bible?  Zero.  Zip.  Nada.  Not one word.  From what we can tell in Matthew, Joseph never got to say anything.  The angel just did a monologue.  The angel told Joseph what Joseph needed to know, and Joseph did what the angel told him to do.  It’s the same every time in scripture that an angel appears to Joseph—when he’s told to take his family to Egypt, and when he’s told to go to Nazareth.  Each time it’s just, the angel tells Joseph to do something, and Joseph does it.  It’s like what Joseph might have felt or thought did not matter at all.

            But of course, it did matter.  Joseph mattered.  Joseph was chosen by God to be the earthly father of Jesus, just as much as Mary was chosen to be Jesus’ mother.  And if we want to know why God chose Joseph, we can look at the one thing about Joseph that we are told.  Matthew Chapter One, Verse Nineteen tells us that Joseph “was a righteous man”.  He may have been an ordinary man in some respects, but just like Mary, Joseph had an extraordinary faith.

            You know, after the story of Jesus’ birth, we never hear about Joseph again.  There’s one more reference to him in the Bible, in the story about when Jesus is twelve and stays behind to talk with the rabbis after Passover, but you know what?  Joseph is not even mentioned by name.  We’re just told that Jesus’ “parents” went to look for him, and we’re left to assume that includes Joseph.  Again, it’s like Joseph is just sort of there, like he’s not really very important.

           But think about it:  Joseph would’ve had a lot of responsibility for raising Jesus.  Not only was Joseph responsible for providing Jesus with food and shelter and love, he was responsible for Jesus’ education.  After all, there were no schools for kids to go to back then.  At that time, a boy would stay home with his mother until about age seven, and then go to work with his dad.  This was not just a work time, either.  It was a time for education, and the education, other than teaching Jesus a trade, would’ve been mostly religious education.

            In other words, Joseph was the one responsible for raising Jesus as a religious man.  That’s why God chose Joseph, a righteous man, to raise Jesus. Now obviously Jesus, as the divine Son of God, knew God in a way the rest of us never will.  But still, Jesus was raised as a human being.  Joseph was the one who gave him a background in the scriptures and in the religious teachings of the rabbis.  Think of all the times Jesus quoted scripture to people.  How do you think he knew it so well?  He learned it from Joseph.

            Think of the strength of character Jesus had.  Now again, Jesus was not just a human being, but he did have a human side to him, and it was important that the human side be strong.  Again, Jesus got that from Joseph.  When he was helping Joseph, Joseph was showing him how a good, righteous man is supposed to behave. 

After all, Joseph never had an easy life.  We assume, although we don’t really know, that he and Mary did not have a lot of money.  They moved around a lot—again, we’re told that they moved a couple of times when Jesus was still very young.  Joseph had to deal with lots of problems.  The way he dealt with those problems was a model for Jesus to follow.

            Joseph, as a carpenter, was what today we’d call a small business man.  That meant Joseph was always dealing with the public, and back then, just like today, there are times when the public is not all that easy to deal with.  Sometimes business was slow, and Joseph wondered how he’d have enough to pay the bills.  Sometimes a whole lot of business came in at once, and of course everyone wanted their project to be done first. Sometimes something Joseph made would break and the customer would be mad at Joseph and demand he fix it for free, whether it was his fault or not. Sometimes, Joseph would make something for someone and they’d refuse to pay him, or claim that he’d done it wrong, even if Joseph had done exactly what they’d told him to do.  Joseph had to deal with all this and more, every day.

            Now, think of all the times Jesus had to deal with difficult people.  How do you think he learned how to do that?  From Joseph.  From watching his earthly father deal with difficult people, and seeing him handle them in the way a righteous man does.

            Joseph was obviously so important in the life of Jesus.  Yet, as I said, he’s kind of the forgotten man.  He’s just sort of there.  In fact, when I was picking hymns this week, I could not find a hymn about Joseph.  There are none. Mary, the shepherds, the wise men, the angels, the baby, they all have hymns. But Joseph?  Nothing. 

We never really think about Joseph in this story.  He neither asks for nor receives any attention.  He just very quietly obeys God.  He does what God expects him to do.  A very quiet, humble, righteous man.

            How many Josephs have you known in your life?  I’ve known quite a few.  We have a lot of them in this parish.  Men and women who never look for any attention, and who don’t get or even want any glory.  People who just quietly serve the Lord and do whatever needs to be done.

            Most Josephs have no idea that they are Josephs.  They have no idea how important they are.  That’s the thing about Josephs—they don’t think they’re anybody special.  They think they’re just doing what a person is supposed to do. They don’t think they’re any different from anybody else.  They think, well, anybody else in my position would do the same thing.  They think they’re just common, ordinary, everyday people.

            It never occurs to Josephs that they are important people.  Yet, when you think about it, Josephs are the most important people in the world.  They’re the ones who do the things that everyone else just takes for granted.  They’re the ones who do the things in our lives that just automatically happen, the things we never even think about, the things that are just done.  They do them quietly, humbly.  Josephs don’t expect or even want any thank you for what they do. They don’t want anybody to make any big fuss over them.  When you do try to thank them, they tell you it was no big deal and change the subject.  Yet, without Josephs, nothing of any importance would ever get done.

            God specifically chose Joseph.  God knew that Jesus’ earthly father could not be someone who would demand a lot of attention.  God knew Jesus’ earthly father could not be someone who wanted glory for himself.  God knew Jesus’ earthly father had to be someone who did not want the spotlight, someone who would quietly do what needed to be done, and then step out of the way.  A good, humble, quiet, righteous man.

            Joseph was chosen by God.  All Josephs are chosen by God.  We would not have the Christmas story, and we would not have the Savior we have, if not for Joseph.  This Christmas season, let’s thank God for Joseph.  Let’s then think of all the Josephs in our lives, take some time to pray for them, and thank God for putting them in our lives.  Let’s make sure we thank them for all they do to make our lives and the world what they are.  Then, let’s try to think of a way we can be a Joseph, too.

 

 

The Warning of Herod

This is the message given in the Sunday night service in the Gettysburg United Methodist church on Sunday, December 13, 2020.  The Bible verses used are Matthew 2:1-23.

            You know, when you come to tell the Christmas story, you have a lot of characters to deal with.  You have Zechariah and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Baptist.  You obviously have Mary and Joseph.  You have the angel Gabriel.  Later you have the shepherds and the wise men.  The thing about a good story, though, is that it always has to have a villain, and that’s true of the Christmas story, too.  Tonight, we’re going to talk about the villain, King Herod.

            Herod is not someone we want to talk about in the Christmas story.  In the traditional Sunday school Christmas pageants, he’s often left out entirely.  He’s certainly not part of anybody’s nativity scene.  None of the advent or Christmas lectionary readings talk about Herod.  The only time he gets in at all is on Epiphany Sunday, and then the focus is usually on the wise men, not on Herod.  At Christmas, we want to talk about the good stuff, about the angels and shepherds and the baby in the manger.  That’s understandable, but as we’ve said before, everything in the Bible is there for some reason.  So let’s look at Herod and think about why this is part of the Christmas story.

            Now, Herod was a king in some ways, and in other ways he was not.  This area, Judea, was still under the control of the Roman Empire, and so Herod could only be king as long as the emperor said so.  Still, as long as the empire could collect taxes from Judea and as long as Judea was not causing problems for the emperor, the emperor really did not care very much what Herod did.  So, in a lot of ways, Herod was pretty much in control there.  In that sense, he really was pretty much the king.

            At the time Jesus was born, Herod was about seventy years old.  Given how long people lived at that time, he was considered a pretty old man.  He’d been in power for over thirty years.  A lot of people in Judea could not remember a time when Herod had not been the king.  Herod himself probably had a hard time thinking of himself as anything but the king.  He was used to being king, he liked being king, and he was going to stay king any way he could.  Plus, Herod had three sons whom he hoped would take over after he died.

            Another fact we need to remember when we look at this story is that the political history of Judea was not all that stable at the time.  The Romans had only ruled Judea for about sixty years.  The people of Israel did not like the fact that they were ruled by Rome.  They wanted independence, and every once in a while there’d be a rebellion against the empire.  These were all things that Herod knew very well.

            Then, too, the position of king was not always the safest one to hold.  There were always people out to take over, and the way they’d usually try to do that was by killing the king.  When you were king, you always had to watch your back.  You had to be careful who you trusted, and you had to always be on the lookout for people plotting against you.

            When we think about all that, Herod’s actions in the Christmas story become more understandable.  Not okay, not excusable, but understandable.  You’ve got a king who has been king so long that he cannot envision himself not being king.  You’ve got a king who knows there are very few people he can trust.  You’ve got a king who knows there are always people trying to get him out of the way and take away his throne and his power.

            So, imagine you’re King Herod.  You’re sitting there, minding your own business one day, and these “wise men”, these astrologers, come by.  They tell you there’s someone who’s been born to be king, and he’s some place nearby, and they want to come and worship him.  Now, people back then tended to buy in to signs and stars and such, so this would not have seemed like a particularly strange story.  You’d tend to believe it.  So, how would you react?  What would you do?

            Our scripture says that Herod was frightened.  I’m thinking he was near panic.  Everything he’d worked for all his life was being threatened.  He does what to him seemed like the logical thing.  He calls together his advisers and finds out where, in prophecy, this king is to be born.  Then, he sends the wise men to that town, Bethlehem, tells them to go look for the new king there, and to let him know exactly where this king is when they find him.

            As you know, the wise men found Jesus, but did not report back to Herod.  Herod eventually found out about that and got even more panicky.  So he had all the male children in Bethlehem two years old or under killed.  

            What an awful thing.  Think about that.  Every boy two years old and younger was killed.  For no reason whatsoever, other than Herod’s fear that he might no longer be king.

            With all this, we come back to the question:  why is this part of the Christmas story?  You know, Herod died not too long after the events described in the Bible took place.  If the wise men had not gone to see him when they did, he might never have known about Jesus at all.  The children in Bethlehem would not have been killed and Joseph would not have had to take Mary and Jesus and run to Egypt.  Things would have been a lot easier for everybody.

            The Bible tells us this was to fulfill Old Testament prophecies, but that’s really not an answer.  Could God not have fulfilled these prophecies some other way?  In fact, God could have not had these prophecies be made at all.  If these prophecies came from God, then all these things have to have been part of God’s plan from the beginning.  We assume that God never does things without a reason.  I said at the beginning that every good story needs a villain, and that’s true, but God surely had more of a reason than just giving us a good story.  What would the reason be for this?

            Well, any time we start to think about God’s reasons for doing things, we’re speculating.  None of us can every fully understand the mind of God.  As I thought about it, though, I think I may know at least part of the answer.

            All the other main characters in the Christmas story are examples of people with great faith.  Mary, Joseph, Zechariah, Elizabeth, the shepherds, the wise men, all of them.  They all were told by God what to do, and they did it, even though they did not fully understand why.  They are wonderful examples for us.  They appeal to the good in all of us.  They give us role models.  We should all aspire to have as much faith as those people did.

            We aspire to that faith, but that does not mean we have it, or even that we can relate to it.  Herod, though, is something else.  Herod appeals to the dark side of our nature, and believe me, we all have that dark side.  We all want what we want and we all want to keep it once we get it.  We all want to keep control of our lives and keep control of the things around us.  When someone comes along and threatens all that, when someone comes along and upsets the apple cart, threatens what we have and our control of it, we don’t like that very much.  We tend to resist it.  Our response often is to do everything we can to keep things the way they are, to keep things the way we like them, and to fight against anyone or anything that changes that.

I think part of the reason Herod is in this story is to be a warning for each of us.  I ask you sometimes, when we read passages in the Bible, to try to put yourself into the story.  In the Christmas story, that means to think about what it would be like to be Mary or Joseph.  That’s a good thing to do, but it’s not really possible.  None of us can really imagine what it would be like to be involved in the virgin birth of the Son of God.  That’s something that’s so beyond our experience that we really cannot understand it.

I think it’s a lot easier to imagine ourselves as Herod.  I think it’s a lot easier for us to imagine having a fairly comfortable way of life, and then have that way of life be threatened.  I think it’s a lot easier for us to imagine having worked all our lives for something, and then hearing about someone who was going to take it all away.  I think it’s a lot easier for us to imagine how we’d react if we were Herod than it is for us to imagine how we’d react if we were Mary or Joseph.

I think Herod is there as a warning for us.  Herod is there to remind us that what’s important in life is not to accumulate power for ourselves.  What’s important in life is not to accumulate wealth.  What’s important in life is not to get our way.  What’s important in life is not to have things go the way we want them to go.  When we get that wrong, we can find ourselves fighting against things that are good.  We can find ourselves fighting against what’s right.  We can even find ourselves fighting against God.

In less than two weeks, it will be Christmas.  We’ll celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We’ll talk about Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds, and the wise men.  That’s fine.  But we need to talk about Herod, too.  Herod may be the villain, but there’s a little bit of Herod in each one of us, including me.  Let’s pray that God forgive us for that, and help us overcome it.  Let’s pray for God to help each one of us be someone who worships the Savior, rather than someone who fights him.

 

Mary's Faith

This is the message given on Sunday morning, December 13, 2020, in the United Methodist churches of the Wheatland Parish.  The Bible verses used are Luke 1:26-38.

It sounds like the angel Gabriel was pretty busy about this time two thousand years ago.  About six months before our reading for today, Gabriel visited Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, to tell him he was going to have a son and he should name that son John.  Now, Gabriel shows up again.  This time, Gabriel visits Mary, the earthly mother of Jesus.

            We don’t know all that much about Mary, really.  In fact, a lot of what we think we know is actually assumptions and guesses.  We know that she was a virgin, but that’s about it.  We assume that she had no particular status because the Bible says nothing about her having one, and usually the Bible does makes reference to a title or to wealth or something like that if they exist.  We assume that she was young, partly because women tended to marry young at that time and partly because she outlived Jesus.  On the other hand, she was a cousin of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, whose husband had considered her too old to have children.

            The fact that the Bible gives us no particular information about Mary tells us that she was considered to be nobody special.  In fact, after Jesus started his ministry, one of the things his critics often said was, “Is this not Mary’s son?”  It’s as if Jesus could not possibly be anybody special if he was just Mary’s son.  Even the name “Mary” was pretty common.  The gospels alone give us several different women named Mary who played a part in Jesus’ life.

            We’ve talked before about how God often asks us to do things that take us out of our comfort zones.  To say Mary was being taken out of her comfort zone, though, is to really minimize what she was going through when Gabriel came to her.

            Think of all the things that had to be going through Mary’s mind when all this happened.  Think of the roller-coaster of emotions she must have felt.  I mean, here Mary is.  As far as we can tell, it’s just an ordinary day, a day like every other day.  Mary is doing her daily chores, doing whatever she did on an ordinary day.  And all of a sudden, the angel Gabriel shows up. 

And apparently, Mary is really scared at seeing him.  I say that because the first thing Gabriel says after greeting her is “Do not be afraid.”  But his greeting before saying that was odd, or at least it seemed like it to Mary.  What Gabriel said was, “Greetings you who are highly favored!  The Lord is with you.”  

We’re told Mary really had no idea what that meant.  She probably wondered, “Why would I be highly favored?  I’m nobody special.  What’s that all about?”  Then, though, Gabriel confirms it, saying “you have found favor with God.”

So far, so good.  Then, though, Gabriel hits her with what she’s going to do.  Gabriel says, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus.  He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.”

            Mary still does not understand.  In fact, she’s probably totally confused by now.  I think anyone would be.  Her mind was probably reeling.  She’s being told all this stuff that’s going to happen to her, stuff she cannot possibly understand.  The thing is, too, that Mary is really not given a choice here, or at least it does not sound like it.  Gabriel does not ask her whether she’ll agree to have these things happen to her.  Gabriel does not ask if Mary wants these things to happen.  Gabriel also does not ask how she feels about any of it.  Gabriel just says this is what’s going to happen.

            Could Mary have said no?  It’s hard to tell.  But she did not try to, or if she did it’s not recorded.  The only thing she says is, “How will this be?”  Maybe she was thinking she could get out of this on the ground that it was impossible, we don’t know.  Gabriel, though, says they’ve got that covered.  Gabriel says, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.  So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God.”

            Listen to what Mary says in response to that.  This is the proof that God made the right choice in choosing Mary.  Mary says, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”

            Think of the faith Mary had.  Think of the courage she had.  She’s being thrown into a situation that she had nothing to do with creating.  She really does not even have any clear idea of what’s going on here.  She’s told that she’s going to have a son.  How’s she going to explain that to Joseph?  I mean, yeah, she can tell him what the angel said, but how likely is he to believe that?  Would you?  Joseph might very well refuse to marry her, and who could blame him, really?  How’s her own family going to react?  They probably won’t believe her, either.  Will they support her?  Or will they throw her out?  If they do, how’s she going to take care of herself and the baby?  How’s she going to get enough money to survive?

            Then, on top of that, there’s this business of her son being a king and being the Son of God.  Do you think Mary really understood what that meant?  I doubt it.  We have a hard enough time understanding it now.  Even if she did understand it somewhat, think of the responsibility she was taking on.  Not only was she looking at quite possibly being an unwed mother and having to raise a baby on her own with no help and no clear way to make any money, this baby she was raising was supposed to grow up into some sort of king and was supposed to be the Son of God, whatever that meant. 

Think about it.  Those of you who are parents, think about the months before your first child was born.  I’ll bet you were pretty nervous.  You probably wondered about your ability to be a mother or a father.  You wondered if you’d be able to raise this child properly.  You worried that you might make mistakes.  Now imagine if that child you were going to raise was the Son of God.  What would be the consequences of messing that up?  Those consequences would not just affect you or your child; they could affect the whole future of the world.

Mary had to be tempted to wonder, “Why me?  Why did God have to choose me for this?  I was just minding my own business.  I was looking forward to getting married to Joseph, settling down, just living a normal life.  If this is what it means to be favored by God, I don’t want any part of it.  Why could God not have chosen someone else to give this great favor to?”

All this stuff and more had to be going through Mary’s mind.  She had to be scared to death.  If she asked “why me”, though, the scripture does not tell us so.  Listen again to what she said, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”  Mary had enough courage to face whatever she had to face, and she had enough faith to trust that God would be with her through it.

Have you ever been faced with a situation that scared you?  I suspect almost all of us have.  Maybe you’re facing it now.  Sometimes those situations are the result of something we’ve done, but sometimes they’re not.  Sometimes, we’re just like Mary was.  We’re by ourselves, minding our own business, thinking things are going okay, thinking our lives are fairly well planned out, thinking it’s going to be smooth sailing, at least for a while.

Then, all at once, something happens, or we find out about something, and suddenly our lives are completely upside down.  That plan we thought we had for our lives is out the window.  Nothing is going to happen the way we thought it was.  In fact, nothing is ever going to be the same again.  Our world has changed.  We have to find our way in a new world, a new situation.  We have to somehow, in some way, figure out how we’re going to cope with a situation we never expected or wanted. 

We’re not given a choice about it.  How we feel does not matter.  We think “this is impossible”, but we find out that it’s not impossible.  It is happening.  We wish it was not, we wish things could get back to normal, but we know things are never going to get back to normal.  Things will never be like they were ever again.

Some of you have been there.  I know you have.  Some of you are there now.  If by some chance you have not been there yet, you probably will be at some point.  If you have been, and you got through it, there’s no guarantee that you won’t be back there again.  It’s the way life works.  We like to think everything happens for a reason, and maybe it does, but if so, there are a lot of times when the reasons are not ones we can see or understand.  A lot of times, it feels like stuff just happens.  We have no control over it, and we cannot see any reason for it, and all we can do is try to find our way through the best we can.

None of us knows how we’re going to respond in a situation like that until we’re actually in it.  Mary did not know how she would respond, either.  I’m sure the possibility of something like this happening had never occurred to her.  When it did, though, Mary came through.  Her faith in God was strong enough that she could handle it.  She did not ask “why me?”  She faced the situation and prepared to deal with it.  She said, “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.”  She did not know what was going to happen.  There were all kinds of things that could go wrong.  Still, she trusted God enough to believe that God would see her through, even though the situation was something she probably neither wanted nor expected.

None of us knows how we’re going to respond in a situation like that until we’re actually in it.  If we have faith in God, though, we can handle it.  We don’t have to ask “why me?”  Instead, we can face the situation and prepare to deal with it.  We can say “I am the Lord’s servant.  May it be to me according to your word.” 

We still don’t know what’s going to happen.  There still may be all kinds of things that can go wrong.  Still, we can trust God enough to believe that God will see us through, even when the situation is something we neither want nor expect.

That’s what Mary did.  Through our faith in God, you and I can do it, too.