Fourth Sunday in Advent: December 23, 2007

Joy L. McDonald Coltvet

Isaiah 7:10-16

Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-25

First Reading--God saves

In this encounter between King Ahaz and the prophet Isaiah, we get a glimpse of Ahaz interpreting God's word very rigidly, in a way that becomes annoying even to God. Ahaz apparently follows the command not to put God to the test absolutely. Even when invited by God to cut himself a little slack and allow God to assuage his fear and build his confidence by asking for a sign, he will not do it. So God, or at least God's prophet Isaiah, gets a bit ticked off. In what can be heard as a humorous encounter, Isaiah tells Ahaz that, frankly, he's wearisome and if he won't ask for a sign, God's going to give him one anyway. The sign is a young pregnant woman who will have a child named "Immanuel." Before this child grows to the age of maturity, the enemies that Ahaz fears with a paralyzing fear will be powerless. In other words, God asks, "What are you so worried about, Ahaz? Don't you know that I, the Lord, am with you? Don't you know that I am taking care of my people?" Like Ahaz, the psalmist cries out to God, "Save us!" And equally often, God promises, "I am the Lord your God. I am with you."

It's interesting that Romans 1 is the text paired with Matthew 1, because the writers seem to have a very different sense of what makes Jesus both human and divine. In Romans, we read that Jesus was "descended from David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead." This is the earlier witness, and it seems to affirm Jesus as born of two human parents, Mary and Joseph, but divine or "Son of God" because of being raised from the dead. Although this is not dominant theology today, it is in dramatic contrast to the story we hear in Matthew's Gospel. Matthew is clear that Joseph's role is not that of biological parent. Matthew emphasizes that Mary conceives from the Holy Spirit, a "new creative act that makes Jesus uniquely related to God." (9) Joseph, according to Matthew, is father of Jesus through the actions of adoption, through claiming and naming his son.

Joseph and his powerful, life-saving dreams "book-end" Christmas this year. It is interesting that although angels appear directly to people in Luke's account, they appear to Joseph in dreams. Joseph follows the angel's instructions not to be afraid but to stay with Mary. Because of Joseph's faithfulness and commitment, God's saving work begins. Because Joseph remains with Mary, she is saved from disgrace. The promise that this son, Jesus, or "God saves," who would save people from their sins, must have been awe-inspiring for Joseph as he woke from sleep.

Pastoral Reflections

In the second chapter of her book The Joy Diet (10) Martha Beck invites readers to ask themselves a series of questions to be better able to speak the truth:

* What am I feeling?

* What hurts?

* What is the painful story I'm telling?

* Can I be sure my painful story is true?

* Is my painful story working?

* Can I think of another story that might work better?

The whole point of this exercise, it seems to me, is to be able to recognize that we have choices about the way we tell our stories. Because we can never tell every detail, we get to choose the parts of the truth that we will highlight, the parts that we will carry with us, the parts that will become truth for all time verses a temporary reality.

This is a storytelling season. Here, in Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, we hear the stories that we hear each year, that we tell over and over again. We listen again to hear God's voice proclaiming love to us for all time, whether our present reality seems full of pain or full of joy.

In the face of Jesus' crucifixion and then the many sufferings of the early church, it would have been easy for early Christians to tell this painful story: God has abandoned us. We are foolish to give our lives to this work; our gospel is good news to no one, least of all to us. But instead, they recognized and proclaimed another story. In Matthew, they told the story of a child who was born among us as the fulfillment of God's promises through time. They told the story of a young woman pregnant through the Holy Spirit and the story of her fiance, whose roots connected their family to King David and whose dreams saved their lives.

This is a season that our ancestors in faith created because they knew we need it. We need a time to tell the story of God's coming among us, past and present and future. Who has taught us better to go through the process of truth-telling that Beck describes than the witnesses of Jesus' crucifixion, who chose to transform their initial painful story of God's abandonment and the loss of Jesus into a story of God's unfailing promise, Jesus' passionate commitment to God, and God's raising Jesus from the dead? They have shown us the way in this season to transform our stories and proclaim them, offering hope, peace, and joy.

A theme throughout today's readings is that of vocation. Paul describes himself as servant, apostle, and recipient of grace. God is the one who saves. Joseph is called to be faithful husband to Mary and father to Jesus. Our vocations are those tasks, roles, and duties we are called to do because there is need in the world and it gives us joy to do them. Martin Luther had a very high view of the vocation of parenthood. He somehow noticed that although we do not always value those tasks which are most mundane, those often are the tasks that are most vital for our shared life together.

To what is God calling you and your congregation in this season?

Another theme on this day is adoption. Joseph adopted Jesus. He claimed him as family and named him Jesus. God declared Jesus the Son of God. In baptism, God adopts us as precious children. God claims each of us as family and names us sisters and brothers, family of God. A powerful song to sing on this day that articulates these themes of longing for truth, longing for family, longing to belong is "Christ, Be Our Light" (ELW #715):

Longing for light, we wait in darkness.
Longing for truth, we turn to you.
Make us your own, your holy people,
light for the world to see.
Many the gifts, many the people,
many the hearts that yearn to belong.
Let us be servants to one another,
signs of your kingdom come.

Beck offers a final tip on the journey to the joy of speaking the truth: "Offer compassion to your inner lying scumbag." (11) When we are not able to tell our stories with hope, peace, and joy during this season, we can remember that God offers grace and compassion to humanity not by separating from us in our times of need but by becoming one of us. God saves us by being right here, in whatever is going on this time. God is with us. JLMC

9. Raymond E. Brown, An Introduction to the New Testament (New York: Doubleday, 1997), 175.

10. Martha Beck, The Joy Diet: 10 Practices for a Happier Life (New York: Crown, 2003), 45.

11. Martha Beck, The Joy Diet: 10 Practices for a Happier Life (New York: Crown, 2003), 45.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Lutheran School of Theology and Mission
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning