Readings
Isaiah 7:10-16
Psalm 80:1-7, 16-18
Romans 1:1-7
Matthew 1:18-25
Let me start by saying that I know it’s Advent, but I’m going to break with Anglican orthodoxy and say, “Happy holidays!”
I do sincerely hope that this holiday season is a happy one for you. But I know that for many of us this time of year is anything but happy. If we are grieving the loss of a loved one, it can be a time of loneliness and pain. If we are trying to live up to the expectations of the season, it can be a time of demand, stress, and even distress. How many of us have been so shaped by our culture regarding what to expect from this holiday season? We envision it to be a time of warm fellowship and loving family. We are fed visions of perfect decorations and cozy environments. And advertisers are quick to try and convince us that, if we but use whatever it is they are selling, such a holiday is assured. All of this can leave us with a sense lack and an underlying depression.
In today’s Gospel we hear Matthew’s version of the birth of Jesus. In this telling we do not hear about shepherds in the field. We do not hear about a baby in the manger. In short, we do not hear the story we all have come to know and love. Instead, we hear a very different story. We hear a story that is primarily about Joseph.
In this story Joseph discovers that Mary, his betrothed, is pregnant. Knowing that he is not the father, this would have been a massive scandal and a massive blow to Joseph. Within the law and custom of his time, he would have been well within his rights to publicly rebuke Mary and have her stoned to death. Even so, we find that Joseph instead chooses to not claim his rightful victim status, but instead opts to divorce her privately, primarily to protect Mary and her family from the shame of this situation.
Now, this is when the story gets interesting. You see we are told that Joseph has a dream in which God comes and speaks to him. In this dream God says, “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.” What God is basically saying is that he is giving the world a gift. He is giving something of himself in this child and that this child will offer the world a path away from its error and brokenness.
Now it would be easy for us to assume a strictly supernatural interpretation of this story. It would be easy to simply take it at face value and conclude that God directly intervened. But I ask you, if that is the case then why didn’t the story we just heard tell us that an angel appeared to Joseph? Why, instead, did Joseph hear all of this in a dream?
Perhaps because God works in ways we often don’t think about. Perhaps because this story is more about Joseph’s own imagination and hopefulness than it is about supernatural miracles. Perhaps, just perhaps, this is an invitation for us to recognize something about the nature of the human condition and the nature of the world we live in.
There is no question that Joseph and Mary were facing a scandal. It is important for us to remember that. By all accounts this was a difficult, painful, and messy situation. Imagine the overwhelming sense of betrayal that Joseph must have felt learning that the young woman he was to marry had slept with someone else. Imagine the concerns of scandal both for Mary and for Joseph. Imagine the sickening reality that the child would face. Being a single mother was far more scandalous than it is today and is something that the child would have carried for his whole life. In short, by all accounts and by all measures (both those used then and those used today) this is not a good situation.
But, then in a dream Joseph imagined a different reality; a reality shaped by the faith that he practiced. He imagined for his wife and his child something altogether different than the facts on the ground presented. Inspired by the witness of scripture and the promises of his faith, Joseph recognized in the situation an alternative for this child and by extension an alternative for himself and his wife. Instead of scandal he saw salvation. Instead of pain he saw a path to joy.
You see reality isn’t just about the facts. Each of us is shaped by a culture and a society that informs how we understand and interpret those facts. Moreover, to some degree our ability to even see or recognize the facts around us are shaped by that culture and society. Through language and symbol, we filter the data and interpret the world and the material within it.
We are biased in our scientific age to think that there is an objective world in front of us that is informed only by the data we receive. We presume that we can see that data and draw conclusions in an unbiased way. In other words, we are tempted to presume that reality is shaped by the facts only and not by us. But even in the realm of science we know this not to be true. Scientists increasingly recognize that the data and the outcomes observed are shaped by the observer and that we must be very careful about how we both ask our questions and how we interpret our observations. We are coming to recognize that two persons observing the same phenomenon can in the end draw radically different conclusions even though the raw data is the same.
So, what does this mean for us. Well, put simply, the world is how we see it and what we make of it. The world is not simply a set of objective and arbitrary things and events. Rather everything in our lives is informed by the assumptions and interpretations we bring to it.
The faith of our forebears, the faith of Joseph, the faith of Jesus himself calls us to see the world not as indifferent or hostile, but as being marked by the grace and benevolence of God. But whether or not we see it is up to us.
If we see only brokenness then we will receive brokenness. If we see only woundedness, then we will live only with pain. But as we have seen with Joseph, when we open up our imaginations to the possibility that God is at work in the world about us then the facts point to a different reality. A reality marked by joy, peace, reconciliation, and restoration.
This is a perspective that does not deny the shadow side of existence, but instead recognizes that in the end all things are moving towards God and wholeness; that even in the midst of pain there is redemption; that even in the midst of brokenness there is hope.
This is why we are called to be agents of peace and reconciliation in the world. We do it not to simply be do gooders. No, we do it to be the embodiment of the world that is promised in our faith tradition. We do it to incarnate redemption, reconciliation, and restoration. We do it despite how the world chooses to interpret the data. Instead, we choose an alternative to such a vision.
As we navigate the remainder of the holiday season, may we remember that our hope is not in the perfect Christmas as our world defines it. No, our hope is in a child, born in scandal and loved by a father not his own. Our hope is in a world that is marked by joy, peace, and love in the midst of shadow and despair. Our hope is shaped by a God who is ever loving us into existence and being love itself.