What do you fear? When you’re afraid, give me your hand.

Well, friends, we continue the series

we've been going through from Matthew

this morning. We're going to look at

chapter 1:es 1-2.

As we think about what we fear this

morning, what it means to reach out to

one another when things feel scary. Um,

hear the word of the Lord from Matthew

1. And I promise there's a reason I'm

reading all these names.

This is the genealogy of Jesus, the

Messiah, the son of David. the son of

Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac

the father of Jacob, and Jacob the

father of Judah and his brothers. And

Judah the father of Perez, and Zarah,

whose mother was Tamar,

Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the

father of Ram. Ram the father of

Aminadab, Aminadab the father of Non.

Non the father of Salmon. Salmon the

father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.

Boaz, the father of Oed, whose mother

was Ruth. Oed, the father of Jesse, and

Jesse, the father of King David.

David was the father of Solomon, whose

mother had been Uriah's wife. Solomon

the father of Rayoboam. And Rayoboam the

father of Abijah. Abijah the father of

Asa. Asa the father of Jehoshaphat.

Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram.

Jehoram the father of Uzziah. Uzziah the

father of Jotham. Jotham the father of

Ahaz. Ahaz the father of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah the father of Manasseh.

Manasseh the father of Ammon. Ammon the

father of Josiah. And Josiah the father

of Jeconiah and his brothers at the time

of the exile to Babylon. We're almost

there.

After the exile to Babylon, Jeaniah was

the father of Shielil. Sheiel the father

of Zerubabel. Zerubabel the father of

Abbehood. Ahood the father of Eliakim.

Eliakim, the father of Azor. Azor, the

father of Zadak. Zadak, the father of

Akim. Akeem, the father of Elihood.

Elihood, the father of Eleazar. Eleazar

the father of Matan. Matan the father of

Jacob. And Jacob the father of Joseph,

the husband of Mary. And Mary was the

mother of Jesus who was called the

Messiah. Thus there were 14 generations

in all from Abraham to David and 14 from

David to the exile to Babylon and 14

from the exile to the Messiah.

And this is how the birth of Jesus the

Messiah came about. His mother Mary was

pledged to be married to Joseph. But

before they came together, she was found

to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.

Because Joseph, her husband, was

faithful to the law and yet did not want

to expose her to public disgrace, he had

in mind to divorce her quietly. But

after he had considered 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 home as your

wife, because what is conceived in her

is from the Holy Spirit. She will give

birth to a son, and you are to give him

the name Jesus, because he will save his

people from their sins." All this took

place to fulfill what the Lord had said

through the prophet. The virgin will

conceive and give birth to a son, and

they will call him Emmanuel, which means

God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did

what the angel of the Lord had commanded

him, and he took Mary home as his wife.

But he did not consummate their marriage

until she gave birth to a son, and he

gave him the name Jesus.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be

to God.

Well, you probably know this if you've

read much scripture, but each of the

gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and

John, they all give us a slightly

different version of how the Messiah

came into the world. Um, Mark's gospel

is the shortest. If you haven't noticed

this, Mark's in a hurry. He's got

somewhere to be. And so, he actually

skips right over the birth narrative

entirely and just tells us that God came

into the world in the person of Christ.

and he begins with John the Baptist and

Jesus's baptism.

Last week, we looked at the Gospel of

Luke's version, which is all about Mary.

It's about Mary's annunciation. Mary

going to visit Mary's family, Elizabeth

and Zechariah, for the birth of John.

Mary's Magnificat. All about Mary.

The Gospel of John is our poetic mystic

gospel. And so John's going to talk

about Christ coming into the world uh in

kind of more elaborate poetic terms.

He's going to talk about the cosmic

Christ, the logos, the forever word of

God outside of time coming into the

world into the darkness with light and

love.

But today we read from Matthew's gospel.

And Matthew wants us to see a closeup of

Joseph.

Joseph, why he's so essential to the

story.

Matthew tells us that Joseph is engaged

to Mary, which you you want to know that

at this time an engagement was far more

serious than it is in our own culture.

It means that Mary and Joseph with their

extended families would have gone to

their rabbi and they would have given

each other their marital vows. They

would have written up their marriage

contract. Um, in the eyes of the law, in

the eyes of the church, in the eyes of

their whole community, they were husband

and wife from that point on. The only

thing left to do was go home and plan an

elaborate wedding. usually about seven

days of dancing and feasting and

drinking and celebrating.

And then after that, they would move in

together and begin their family.

But it's right in the middle of the

wedding planning part, after they've

become engaged, after they are husband

and wife, um that Joseph's fiance turns

up pregnant.

Pregnant.

And Matthew makes sure to tell us that

they've not consummated their marriage.

And so imagine that conversation, right?

That's an awkward conversation.

Mary goes to Joseph and says, "Yeah, I'm

clearly having a baby and you and I both

know that it's not yours,

and I can't really prove who the father

is. An angel showed up and told me this

was going to happen."

Scholar Willamon says that if Mary is

blessed among women, then Joseph is

embarrassed among men.

He's got to be disappointed and hurt,

very confused, culturally humiliated. I

mean, what's he supposed to do now?

What's he supposed to do now?

Matthew makes a point of telling us that

Joseph is just. He's good. He wants to

be a good guy. He wants to do the right

thing. I mean, he can break off the

marriage publicly and leave Mary to deal

with it, saving his own reputation as

best he can.

But Joseph apparently cares far too much

for Mary to do that.

Whatever it is he believes about her and

about what happened, he is not willing

to shame her.

He just won't do it. And so, he decides

he's going to divorce her privately.

He's going to go back to the rabbi and

ask him to undo the marriage contract.

And and as he's about to do that,

just when he's head in there,

we're told that the dreams start.

The dreams start.

God's Messiah is going to be born. the

angel says. And Joseph's job in all of

this is to go and take Mary home as his

wife and to name that child.

Now, we all know that nothing was ever

the same for Joseph again after that.

Joseph's sense of right and wrong, of

being the good guy that does the right

thing,

it got lost in all the divine shuffle,

of this miraculous story of Christ

coming into the world,

his righteousness, it gave way to God's

imaginative love.

And so, even though he's confused, even

though he's deeply afraid himself,

he chooses courage.

He does exactly what the angelic dream

tells him to do. He goes to Mary and he

takes her home as his wife before

they've had a chance to throw this big

party.

He takes her home.

He basically says to Mary, "Give me your

hand.

I'm I'm in this with you.

Let the neighbors say whatever they

want.

Let them assume whatever they'd like.

We're in this together.

Joseph absorbs

the shame of what it looks like, right?

So, like everyone else, it's just an

unplanned pregnancy.

He's willing to carry the burden of like

gossip and judgment right alongside

Mary.

But what does this make Joseph in the

larger story here? Right?

I mean, the church has never really

known what to do about Joseph. Is he the

dad, or is he the adopted dad? Is he the

stepfather?

Is he the husband? Or is he like the

superchased roommate?

Or or is he a labor and delivery nurse?

Right?

I mean, even go look at art. Even look

at our own stained glass window here.

and he's just kind of off to the side,

bored and asleep.

Art's pretty consistent when they show

Joseph.

We don't know what to do with him. And

part of that is he disappears from the

gospel accounts when Jesus is a

teenager, leaving us to assume that he's

died at some point in that period of

time. And and though there's not a lot

out there to help us uncover who the guy

was as time went on, Matthew wants to

make sure we understand exactly who he

is when Jesus comes into the world.

And Matthew is not being subtle here,

friends. Not even kind of. Now, we might

not have any idea why it's so important

that he begins his gospel with 17 verses

of family lineage.

But the original reader would have

opened that up and immediately

understood why that family tree was a

very big deal.

He gives us another clue because when

the angel speaks to Joseph in his dream,

he greets in this way. He says, "Joseph,

son of David,

be not afraid."

Who Joseph is, what family line he

descends from, it's very important.

Because if the promised Messiah,

if the Messiah that's coming into the

world has to come from the house and

line of David like the prophets have

been declaring for centuries,

if this Messiah is going to be the new,

the ultimate son of David, well then

Joseph has to be the man.

Joseph has to be the dad.

And Matthew goes out of his way to make

sure we see this.

He's demanding we pay attention.

Which is why the enunciation to Joseph

is really, really important. He has a

very vital role to play. According to

Matthew's version of the gospel, the

whole thing actually hangs on him and

what he does after he gets visited by an

angel.

I mean, because if he believes the

angel, right, like the story can

continue.

It'll work out. Mary will have a home

and a family and the right name.

But if he doesn't believe, then

everything comes to a grinding halt.

Yeah. If he wakes up from his dream and

heads off to his rabbi with the divorce

papers, then everything changes.

Mary's an outcast for her infidelity,

left to fend for herself and this

illegitimate child.

But that doesn't have to happen.

That doesn't have to be the way it goes

because this child that she's carrying,

I mean, think about this. This child

that she's carrying, everyone is going

to assume it's Joseph's

unless he says otherwise.

Unless he says otherwise. I mean,

whether or not it's his own DNA involved

here, Joseph is going to become this

child's father the moment he says so.

the moment he takes Mary home as his

wife.

According to Matthew's version of the

gospel, Joseph's yes is as crucial as

Mary's.

It takes both parents to give birth to

the Messiah. Both parents. Mary to give

him life and Joseph to give him his

name.

Jesus Christ, the son of David.

This is a story, friends, about a good

guy.

A good guy who wakes up one day to find

his life has been absolutely turned

upside down.

It's about a righteous man who surveys

this like giant mess that has absolutely

nothing to do with him and then chooses

to believe that God is somehow like

still in all of it

with every reason to disown it all.

It's every reason to walk away from this

mess in search of like a neater, tidier,

cleaner life, with a more conventional

family with a wife who won't have such a

difficult call on her life.

Joseph does not walk away.

He just won't walk away. No, he reaches

out for Mary. He claims her as his own.

He picks up the scandal and shares it

with her.

and he gives both Mary and Jesus his

name.

He owns the whole mess and legitimizes

it.

And that becomes the place where the

Messiah is born.

I think when we look at the story again

year after year, Joseph might be like

the character in the narrative that we

probably like most closely align with.

You know, the one facing really

difficult circumstances

way out of our control

that has nothing to do with us. We

didn't cause it.

Living lives that maybe we couldn't have

imagined for ourselves.

and probably lots of times

feeling really tempted

to just divorce oursel from all the

things that cause us hurt, from all the

things that make us afraid.

But you know, Joseph is also the one

that has like remarkable courage here.

I mean, even though he's afraid,

he trusts the voice of God over and

above his own pain and discomfort and

shame. He believes in the impossible,

which is sometimes really hard to do,

isn't it?

He's the one willing to claim the

scandal, protect Mary, and adopt this

child as his own.

I often wonder about what Mary would

have done without Joseph.

I mean, what would she have done?

There's no way.

Because it's really, really hard to

carry the burdens of this life on your

own, isn't it?

I mean, that's the truth where you're

living in an epidemic of loneliness.

But we desperately need each other.

We aren't going to make it without each

other.

We think we can. We think we can just be

an island,

but frankly, it's just not true.

And especially when we're afraid, we

need each other the most.

When your problems feel out of control,

when the circumstances of life and

culture and government feel like

insurmountable,

you need each other.

You need each other. We need people to

reach out their hand and to walk

alongside of us and to look us in the

eyes and remind us what the angel of the

Lord said, what it is we're called to do

in this moment.

We often like in these these moments

that are so scary to us, we need like a

flesh and blood human being to grab our

hands and remind us that we do not face

this alone. Not only is God with us, but

we've got each other.

I imagine this is how Mary got through

her darkest days. I imagine the same is

true for Joseph. That they were able to

keep the faith.

They were able to keep listening for

angels.

This is who we are for one another as

the church friends. I think it's like

our probably our most profound witness

is we exist as a community for each

other.

We are those people. We survey a broken

world all around us. One that feels to

me like it's growing ever more crazy,

out of control, and scary.

And then we just keep declaring to each

other over and over and over again

that we are not alone.

that God is still being born into this

world, into our own messes

to redeem them,

to shine light and love into the

darkness.

So, who might you need to extend a hand

to this week?

Or, and this is sometimes a tougher

question for us. Who might you reach out

to and say, "I need somebody.

I can't keep trying to do this by

myself."

You're not meant to do it alone,

friends.

I close by just um reading you a few

lines from a poem called Getting to the

Front of the Stable by poet Anne

Williams.

Is this Joseph a man to be stuck for

centuries at the back of the stable?

Actually, Joseph probably stood in the

doorway guarding the mother and child

or greeting

shepherds or kings. When he wasn't in

the doorway, he was probably urging Mary

to get some rest, gently covering her

with his cloak, assuring her that he

would watch the child. Actually, he

probably picked the child up in his arms

and walked him in the night, patting him

lovingly until he closed his eyes.

And as a gesture of gratitude, let's put

Joseph in the front of the stable where

he can guard and greet and cast an

occasional glance at this child who

brought us life.

Let's pray.

Lord, you created this world and you

wired humanity with a need for one each

other for one another.

We can't do it by ourselves, but we sure

like to try.

And so, may we reach out our hands.

Maybe we have the humility to ask for

help.

May we have the compassion to extend our

hand to those around us we know need it.

May we give gratitude for the people in

our lives that hold us up and remind us

that we're not in this alone.

Amen.