Joseph of Bethlehem

from my sermon on Dec. 2, 2012, from Matthew 1:18-24

(I have my Austin Habitat for Humanity tee shirt on.  I walk up to a plain wooden bench with some wood on it.  I start sanding a board.)

Do the right thing.  That's my creed.  Those are the words that I live by.  My name is Joseph.  How many words do I say in the Christmas story?.....not one, nada, zip, zero!  That's just fine by me.  Actions speak louder than words.  I need to use a few words to tell you my story.

Look at my hands.  They are rough, calloused.  They are working man's hands.  They are used to holding tools as I shape wood and stone.  People expect me to do the right thing.  When they have a leaky roof, I fix it right the first time.  When they need a door hung, I fix it right the first time.  When they have a farm implement that needs repair, I fix it right the first time.  People depend upon me to do the right thing.

So our families contraced together for Mary and me to become engaged.  That's how it was done.  My mom and dad talked to her mom and dad, and it was done.  I hardly knew her.  But it was the way things had been done forever.  It was the right thing to do.  She was in Nazareth.  I was in Bethlehem.  After a year or two, we would become married. 

But when she visited her kinswoman Elizabeth in a nearby town, I went to see Mary.  Something was different about her.  You could tell just by looking at her.  She told me that she had wonderful news.  She blurted it right out. She said, "I'm pregnant."  I was crushed....hurt, disappointed...angry.  I felt betrayed.  I knew it wasn't my baby.  I hadn't known Mary in that way.  Mary tried to calm me down, "It's alright.  I am carrying a child because the Holy Spirit came upon me and caused me to become pregnant."  I replied, "Right, I am sure that happens all the time."

I was so mad I wanted to hit something.  I wanted to hit Mary.  But I looked at my hands.  They are not cruel hands. 

But what is the right thing to do?  The law clearly says, I have taken my hand over the Torah, reading it many times, in Deuteronomy 22:23-24, "If there is a young woman, a virgin already engaged to be married and a man meets here in town and lies with her, you shall bring both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death."  By law, it is the right thing to do.

But I looked at my hands.  They are not hands that could kill Mary.  And then it hit me, they are certainly not hands that could kill a baby.  To kill Mary would mean that the child she was carrying would be killed also.

What is the right thing to do?  My hands  had held the holy scriptures which talked of a God who loved.  Even when Adam and Eve did the unthinkable, God did not destroy them.  He cast them out of the garden, but he also let them live, and even made for them clothes.  When Cain killed his brother Abel, God did not kill him Cain, but gave him a mark, so that others would not kill Cain.  God destroyed the earth by a flood, but saved a remnant, Noah and family on the ark.  It seems that God kept finding a way to show love and bring new life to God's people.  I remember what the prophet Micah said, "What does the LORD require?  But to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."

The scriptures call me a righteous man.  You may think that righteousness means keeping the law, but what it really means is "right relationships."  Righteousness means goes beyond keeping the law to showing love.

I resolved to divorce Mary quietly.  That way she and the child would live.  All of the blame, all of the shame would be upon me.  People would see me as one who had gotten her pregnant and then deserted her.  I would be known as the one who did not keep promises.  No longer would I be known for doing the right thing.  Although before God, I knew it to be the right thing.  I had peace about it... shalom.  I was settled.  I could live with my decision.

It's funny.  I have always had dreams.  You would think that a practical person like myself who could look at wood and see the grain of it and fashion just the right implement would have nothing to do with dreams, but no.  I am like my namesake, Joseph of Genesis, who saved our people like ago, because he had dreams and could interpret dreams.  God spoke to me through an angel in my dreams.  God essentially said that I should take Mary as my wife, and that I should take the child as my own.  I was to name him Jesus, which means "the Lord saves."  That this child would be known as "Emmanuel," "God with us."  I knew that I had done the right thing.  I got confirmation from God.  I lived into the meaning of my name, Joseph, which means "Increaser."  I was increasing God's presence, God's love in the world.

Look at your hands.  I imagine that they are not rough and calloused like mine.  May they always be soft.  May they always go beyond the law demands to do what love is.    Who are the ones you hold in your hands?  May your hands always do the right thing.