Emmanuel

Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 7: 10-16, Matthew 1: 18-25 Sermon Title: Emmanuel Preached on December 22, 2019 What was going on in Joseph’s mind? Can you imagine? I know it’s hard to imagine. Joseph and Mary are Saints of the Church and heroes of the faith. They are parents of the Christ child! It’s hard to imagine them as having emotions or doubts like all the rest of us, but to fully grasp the magnitude of this Second Scripture Lesson from the book of Matthew it’s important to recognize that Joseph and Mary were people. Sometimes we think of the stories in Scripture as happening to spiritual figures who are somehow different from us. If we think that way then we miss the point completely. So, imagine instead what you would be feeling if you were in Joseph’s shoes. You’re engaged to be married. The wedding plans are in place. There have already been multiple bridal showers. Invitations have been sent. Maybe, because you’re a carpenter, you’ve already put an addition onto the house, or maybe you’ve been working on a bed for your bride to sleep in. I don’t know exactly what it was like. Neither does anyone else, so just imagine what it would have been like for you to find out that after you’ve told everyone and prepared in various ways Mary was “found to be with child.” How would you have felt? What would you have been thinking? Now imagine what your mother would have said. It’s hard enough for the daughter or son-in-law to be. I was once a son-in-law to be. I love my mother and father-in-law very much. I’ve known them now for 19 years. For nearly 20 years they have been as much a part of my life as my own parents. Their home, especially their vacation home on a mountain in North Carolina, feels like home to me. They’ve always welcomed me in and have been kind and loving beyond measure. But I will tell you this. About the time Sara and I were getting serious, her father bought a revolver. He did. He said it was because of the wild boar that had invaded their property up on the mountain. That’s probably true, only by this purchase it was clear to me that he had a gun and he knew how to use it, and as I had been invited into the heart of his beloved daughter, I could imagine him using that gun for more than just protection from wild boar. This is a precarious place; the place of a son or daughter-in-law to be. I don’t know whom my daughters are going to marry or fall in love with, but I already hate him. I do. And considering that hatred I can imagine what was going on in the mind of Joseph’s mother, and what words of hers might have been poisoning her son’s thoughts. “Well, I never liked her anyway,” his mother might have said. “I told you to stay away from her,” she might have added, “And that’s why I invited you to meet my friend Lois’s daughter, Miriam. She’s such a nice girl. Maybe she’s a little homely, but at least she has class unlike this Mary of yours.” This is part of the challenge of getting married: your parents may have been looking for an opening to criticize your fiancé, and as soon as they have it, the flood gates open. That’s not because they don’t want you to be happy. It’s because they love you and don’t want you to get hurt. I can just hear Joseph’s father: “I knew that girl was going to break your heart Joseph. But you weren’t thinking, were you son?” Parents are like that. People are like that. We all are. We jump to conclusions, and it’s not just because we’re prone to suspicion or conspiracy or fear, but because we want to protect the people we love from those who appear to be deceptive, dishonest, or disloyal. The problem is that appearances can be deceiving. And you all know what they say about assumptions. Have you ever thought about how many assumptions inform the opinions of your family members? And have you ever wondered whether or not those family members know how wrong the assumptions they are making are? Such would have been the case with Joseph’s parents, his friends, and even Joseph himself, because Mary was found to be with child, but it’s not what any of them thought. Still, I have to imagine that they were talking and that Joseph was listening, because that’s what people do. And so: Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. In those days he could have had her stoned, humiliated, or cast out from the community. Because he was a kind man, he took all his assumptions and tampered them with compassion. Assuming he knew why she was with child, rather than give voice to his full anger or embarrassment, he was kind. I like that about him, but even his kindness was misinformed for he was operating on the basis of assumption rather than truth. That happens an awful lot. Do you ever think about how much of our lives we spend misinformed? Every morning Thomas Jefferson woke up and placed his feet in a bucket of cold water because his doctors told him it was good for his health. When George Washington was sick, the doctors rushed over and decided that his blood levels were out of whack, so they bled the poor man until he died. Today there are people like me who will rub Ben-Gay on any sore muscle, though it’s healing properties are unverified while its odor has proven to be highly offensive. Likewise, others will prescribe Robitussin for every malady. I’m always giving Becca Yan, a member of the church staff, a hard time for her conviction that essential oils will cure anything. It sounds like witchcraft to me. Only who knows? Who knows? We do. Or so we think. And yet, how often are our assumptions misleading us? How often do our prejudices misinform? How many holiday dinners end with World War Three because Uncle Alfred is sure that his liberal grandchildren are communists and his liberal grandchildren are sure that Uncle Alfred would vote for Atilla the Hun? We don’t really know, yet we think we do. Our assumptions mislead us. We take a few scattered observations and let them fill in the gaps. Our minds run in circles based on misinformation. And I know it’s hard to argue with the reality that this woman was with child but let us all give thanks to God for Joseph who was willing to abandon all of his assumptions in favor of a dream. Now, be honest. You don’t give much credence to dreams. Neither do I. But dreams do affect me. They affect Sara too. Some mornings Sara wakes up already mad at me, and for good reason. But once or twice she woke up mad at me, and I asked her what I had done. She looked at me and said, “Well, nothing I guess, but you won’t believe what you did in my dreams last night!” Has that ever happened to you? Something like that happened to Joseph. It was a dream and it changed his world view. Only consider this: Mary was visited by an angel. All Joseph had to go on was a dream. He could have explained that dream away saying, “It must have been indigestion.” He could have told his mother about it, and it wouldn’t have stood up to all her assumptions. He might have just allowed the dream to fuel his compassion, to affect his emotions but not his actions, and yet Joseph allowed this dream to change the course of his life and the fate of this world. It was a dream of the great promise made by God to humankind summed up in one word: Emmanuel. That’s a name, and it means simply: God with us. Not God looking down on us, trying to figure us out. Not God making assumptions about who we are and what we’re thinking. God with us, knowing us, understanding us, in such a way that leaves no room for misinformation or assumptions. That matters tremendously because in every human relationship assumption are being made. What we don’t know we often make up, and so often what we make up is worse than the truth. Consider the Grinch. I’ve been under the weather, and so I’ve had a lot of time to watch my holiday movies. Maybe you haven’t, so let me remind you. The Grinch lives in a cave on Mt. Crumpet. Mt. Crumpet looms over Whoville, and the Grinch lives in that cave with his dog Max. He thinks a lot about the Who’s in Whoville, but he doesn’t really know any of them well. He thinks he does, however. He assumes their Christmas is materialistic. That they don’t care about people, unless those people are carrying toys. Only then he meets Cindy Lou Who. Cindy Lou Who is different. What does she want from Santa? Well, in the new Grinch movie, Cindy Lou Who only asks Santa that her Mom who works so hard would have a break. And how does she react when she wakes up on Christmas morning to find nothing under the tree? The Grinch assumes that Cindy Lou and every other Who in Whoville will be devastated. That Christmas will be ruined! Instead, Cindy Lou and all the Who’s in Whoville gather in the town square to sing that weird, nonsensical song, because Christmas in Whoville isn’t about the stuff. What happens when the Grinch hears them sing? He comes face to face with the truth. He learns who these Who’s in Whoville really are. And his heart grows three sizes, only do you see what had to happen? His assumptions had to die. The distance between Mt. Crumpet and Whoville was bridged, not by what the Grinch thought he knew, but by the truth. It was like a dream where he finally understood. It was like a miracle when everything changed because he was close enough to really know. That’s what Emmanuel means. God comes to earth to become one of us, rather than rely on assumptions. Can you imagine what would happen if our friends in Washington were so bold as to try and understand each other to such a degree? Can you imagine how dinner at Christmas would change if we were all so bold as to try and understand each other that way? In Christ, God has done it, for this is what love requires. And in listening to each other, in striving to understand rather than assume we already know, we are continuing the work that our God has started in Emmanuel: God with us. Amen.