Trust In The One - December 4, 2016

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Matthew 1:18-25

Joseph had to go by faith.

Life in the Bible was so easy. Sure, we know they didn't have washers and dryers, or cars, or microwaves, but really, besides all that, they got off pretty easy. Think about it. You just heard today's story about Joseph. We get a simple discourse where it's matter of fact. Joseph's engaged to Mary, which actually means they had signed a legal contract to be married. But they weren't living together because they hadn't had the big wedding feast. That was normal. Sometimes a couple might wait a year between the legal part and the big wedding feast. So Mary and Joseph were in the waiting time, and then she ends up pregnant. Now, Joseph's a reasonable man and obviously understands how those things works.

He gets that she must have had an affair. He's angry, hurt and upset that she would cheat on him, and he has two options: 1) have her stoned publicly or 2) divorce her. Now, we might think that's extreme and try and conceive of other options that Joseph might have considered, but the reality is this is now and that was then and the customs of our cultures around these things don't have a ton of overlap. The law was if a woman was caught in adultery she should be stoned, or the husband had grounds for divorce. Period. So, Joseph, being a righteous and law abiding man knew he had those two options and he chose grace....he was going to divorce her quietly and hope she might survive....despite his own possible thoughts of vengeance.

So Joseph decided to take the high road and was probably trying to figure out how to tell Mary his plan. And then he had a dream where an angel—a messenger of God—came and told him that Mary is pregnant but it's ok, it's God's fault—-she's pregnant by the Holy Spirit and he doesn't need to worry about it, just stay with her and name the boy Jesus. Then the scripture tells us, Joseph woke up and did what the angel said. Plain and simple.

Like I said, things were so easy in the Bible. Life dumped Joseph on his head. His heart was broken. He decides to rise above and take the high road and simply divorce Mary—allowing her and the baby to live—and just as he's figuring out how to tell her, an angel comes and tells him to ditch his plan and "Just relax. It will all work out in the end." And it's cool. He's good with that.

Life was so easy back then.

Well, it seems that way anyway. But really, I don't think it's so straightforward...only that there was only so much room in this here book and so they had to cut out all the fluff. So we have to imagine the humanness. Because Joseph isn't really human here...this isn't real life for any of us. No argument. No turmoil. No debate. No drama. Just bing, bang, boom and the story happens beautifully. Now, I might get a few details or linguistic cues wrong here, but this is what I think might have gone through Joseph's head after he woke up from the dream...

"I gotta have faith. Gotta have faith. Just have faith. Fake it until you make it. Preach faith until you have it. Just have faith. Just. Have. Faith. (breathe) Right..."

"God said I'm to stick with Mary...I'll remain her husband. She'll be my wife. This will be our son and we'll call him Jesus. God said so. I'll be a dad. The angel said so. It was an angel, right? It was an angel. It had to be. Either it's an angel or I'm crazy...."

"I'm crazy. That makes way more sense. I have got to be crazy. I dreamed that God sent an angel to talk to me. And that angel said to relax and stick with the plan. Marry Mary and raise this kid. Not Ishmael's kid, or Zeph's, or Micah's....nope...not some other guys kid...because that would be crazy, but God's kid...'conceived of the holy spirit.' Yep, that makes perfect sense...."

"I. am. totally. nuts."
"Just have faith. I have got to believe. I have to believe God is in this somehow or else I am a total fool and I will never overcome the shame I bring to my family. This is God. Somehow God did this. I don't know what and I don't know how, but God is doing something...through Mary...with me. God is doing something with me. So I'll do it....or God will do it...however that's supposed to work. Who knows what it is, but I'm gonna wait and see. "

"I'm waiting...(pause) waiting to see what you're gonna do God....could you just tell me, because waiting isn't really my gig....(pause)...(listening)...nope? you're not gonna clue me in? Oh right, I got a clue...we'll call him Jesus...Yeshua...Yahweh saves. We'll call him Jesus and remember "God saves". So you're gonna do some saving then, eh God? Oh yeah, the angel said Jesus would save the people from their sins. And just how will I raise my son to do that?! I don't even know what that looks like."

"Alright, Joe, you're getting ahead of yourself...just believe. Trust God. Have faith. Let God lead you. Follow God. God is in control. God has a plan. God is doing this. God, why are you doing this? I mean, I don't exactly know what this is, but why me? Why Mary? Why us? Couldn't you have messed with someone else's life?! Sorry, that was disrespectful. I mean, (a little tongue in cheek), I'm really grateful you picked me for such an amazing thing. But could you at least tell me why...?!"

"I'll figure it out along the way, I guess...I gotta have faith and just trust God."

(double beat)

Now, I don't know if any of that actually went through Joseph's head, but I have to believe that he's as human as the rest of us and struggled with doubts and questions and what ifs. The scripture tells us he did what God asked. Which is great. But I know lots of people who have done what God asked and still struggled to have enough faith to get there. They still questioned. They still had doubts. They were tempted to walk away. But they stuck it out, they stayed when it did not seem reasonable. And they held tight and had faith.
Joseph had tremendous faith....and a hearty dose of humility and grace to not only be fair with Mary, but trust her and move forward. Don't let the simple account of his encounter with the angel fool you into thinking he didn't struggle and wrestle like the rest of us. I don't know, maybe he had the gift of faith and didn't struggle like others of us would, but it's still had to be hard to wrap your head around the idea that the Holy Spirit got your wife pregnant before you'd even moved in together and somehow it was all going to work out all right.

Whatever he thought, whatever he questioned, Joseph was faithful. One step at a time, one day at a time, he allowed God to work in him and through him and he raised one heck of a man. And for that we give thanks. Amen.