Eucharistic Gospel Reading for the 4th Sunday of Advent: Year A:
“But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”” (Matthew 1: 20 – 21)
So God is preparing to walk with people on earth. And God decides to start as all humans start, as a baby. Of all the earth, and specifically, the people of the earth, Joseph and Mary become the new Adam and Eve. This is not about original sin but a new place to begin. This is not even about marriage as the scripture makes clear. This is about the best parents for raising God Incarnate regardless of whatever marital customs the community had developed for themselves.
Joseph goes to sleep with a heavy decision to make: to keep, or not to keep Mary. He decided not to keep her but even that was burdensome. This is why an angel from God came into his life and in a dream none the less. This is not the first time God visited us in this way. In the first beginnings, in Genesis, God visited Jacob as he slept (Genesis 28: 12 – 13).
For me, Joseph is the patron saint of fatherhood. He hears and obeys. He is told that he is not to back away from marriage to Mary only because he is not the biological father of the baby. Joseph is told by the angel of God that this is not about him, it is about saving all humanity from our sins, then and now. Jesus is born into humanity to save us not from disease like cancer, Covid, Aids or any other fatal illness. Jesus is born into our presence not to prevent our mortal death from horrific storms or natural disaster. Jesus didn’t even come among us to save us from the sin of personal violence and murder from our neighbors. All such deaths are temporal dangers. They have nothing to do with the eternal life promised. Our personal sins however, our hatred of our brothers and sisters, our disrespect of other human beings can hinder our relationship with God and can indeed separate us from the eternal life offered to us by God Almighty. God saw this and decided to come among us, Emanuel, in the infant of Jesus Christ to mend the breach, to redeem our Salvation.
Joseph was a silent listener and servant of God. We have no words from Joseph anywhere in scripture. Later he will be told to take the baby and mother to Egypt, and later still to bring them back to Israel. He silently obeys.
Do you believe that God, or the angels of God, really did this? If yes, do you believe God can, and still does this kind of holy work? I do. Like Joseph and Jacob, we too get so burdened with fear or conflicts of the norms and laws of our day that we need help in doing what God wants. It is during these times that God acts. God’s dreams enter our troubled and tired minds sometimes as we dream because we resist when we are awake.
This is the Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit of God always acts for the benefit of the human race and this earth, our fragile, island home. The Holy Spirit of God continues today, preserving us in eternal life by saving us from our sins, saving us from permanent danger. And, like Joseph, we too are called to silent obedience.
As we listen to what the Spirit of God is saying to us, let us live to love and to serve, and to teach others to love and to serve, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
Let us pray: Fourth Sunday of Advent (BCP p. 212)
Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
onewhoponders 