Quiet Joseph

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

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sermon. God Bless. Father in heaven, we thank

you for this text, familiar as it is, that speaks

to us of your grace to us in Christ Jesus. Jesus,

for he will save his people from their sins and

Emmanuel, God with us. Lord, I pray now that

you would unstop our ears. Quiet our minds that

are often so distracted with so many things that

are going on in our lives and the world about

us. Give us hearts, not of stone, but of flesh.

God, do your work in us, we pray. In Jesus' name,

amen. Okay, I would guess that at least some

of you Maybe it was last year when it came out,

but over this last year have seen Nate Bargatse's

Nashville Christmas special from last Christmas

Eve. If you haven't, I would recommend him. He's

sort of a regular name in the Rowan household.

He's pretty clean, which is nice if you got little

kids for a comedian. Anyway, among other things,

there is a little skit. where Nate plays the

angel of the Lord who comes to the nativity scene.

There are Mary and Joseph on either side of a

little manger and on the other side of the stage

there's the three wise men and in walks Nate

Bargazzi with this curly wig on and this sort

of Romanesque breastplate that is shining gold

and a white robe not too unfamiliar from the

one that I have on. And then enormous white wings.

And they start to talk about Christmas and how

for generations and centuries people will remember

that night with things like pine trees, which

of course Mary and Joseph say pine trees. Yes,

pine trees. And he talks about how they will

remember that night with singing songs. about

the events of that day. Mary responds, songs

about Jesus? To which the angel says, a few boring

ones, yes. I love Christmas songs. He says, there

will be songs about you, Mary, and songs about

you, three wise men. And will there be songs

about me? Joseph? Joseph asks. They're going

to be lots of songs, the angel replies. Since

most of them won't be about what's happening

here, they will be about snow and snow related

activities. But there's no snow here. We are

in the desert, says Mary. Right, replies the

angel. But I want you to think about Joseph's

question. And there will be songs about me to

Joseph. I mean, we have songs about the names

of Santa's reindeer. We have songs about Santa

getting run over by reindeer. We have songs pleading

for it to snow. Let it snow, let it snow, let

it snow. We have questionable songs about how

cold it is outside and how your baby needs to

stay in, you know? But we do not have Joseph

songs. And if I'm actually honest, I was thinking

about this. So the text we just heard are the

lectionary texts for the fourth Sunday in Advent

for this year. Because we finished up 2 Corinthians

last week. week, and we still had a week left

in Advent. I was like, I'll just use the lectionary

texts. I'll take the wisdom of the church's lectionary

and use that. And it kind of struck me that the

lectionary text for the fourth Sunday of Advent

this year is actually one of the texts that we

often read at Christmas itself, right? But what

struck me as I was studying for this a couple

weeks ago is just how present Joseph is. Again,

I have preached Numerous sermons sort of focused

on Mary. I have preached sermons on Elizabeth.

We have looked together, I think actually two

times over the last 10 years, since this will

be my 11th year around Christmas as the pastor

here at Second City, on the mothers of Jesus

in the genealogy in Matthew. So we've looked

at Rahab and Ruth and the others there. But I

have not. preached a text that is focused much

on Joseph. And of course, there's some reasons

for this. You know, Zachariah is present. Simeon

gets a song. Mary gets a song. Joseph never talks.

Okay, kind of interesting. But if you look at

actually the texts of the incarnation of Christ,

primarily which we find in Luke and Matthew,

Mary is very present in Luke and actually Joseph

is the one who's most present in this Matthew

text. Mary's certainly there and she's certainly

a key figure, but she's mentioned four times

by name in chapters one and two, and Joseph is

mentioned seven times by name in chapters one

and two. Interestingly, the Magi get a speaking

part. You might remember, where is he who is

born King of the Jews, right? He asks Herod.

And of course, Mary gets her song in Luke, but

Joseph never speaks. He's quiet. And yet, he's

very present. And I think it's in this quiet,

faithful presence that we actually have something

that we are being taught that's very, very important.

But first, I want you to just look with me how

present Joseph is, okay? Because I think Joseph

needs his due in some ways this morning. So do

you have your Bibles open hopefully to Matthew?

This little section on the end of chapter one

after the genealogy that began our chapter. And

what you see, he's mentioned... By name there

in 18 right when his mother Mary had been betrothed

to Joseph verse 19 and her husband Joseph and

then verse 20 the angel of the Lord appears to

him in a dream saying Joseph son of David We

could go down Verse 21 he's mentioned as his

pronoun. She will bear a son and you Speaking

to Joseph shall call his name Jesus If we go

down, verse 24, when Joseph awoke from sleep,

he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him,

he took his wife, verse 25, but he knew her not

until she had given birth to a son and he called

his name Jesus. So every verse except for verses

22 and 23 in this little section mention Joseph

either by name or by the pronoun and in his action

and his presence is pervasive in this passage.

He may be absent in songs. He may be not sort

of present with his voice, but he's very, very

present in this text. And I think, again, he's

teaching us something incredibly important that

you find throughout the Bible, but he's showing

us the beauty of living a faithful life, okay?

The beauty of living a faithful life with our

faithful God, okay? Now, here's what I want you

to hear first. There are all kinds of calls for

unfaithful action. There are all kinds of calls

for unfaithful action. What do I mean by this?

Well, I don't mean that there's part of this

passage that is specifically saying, Joseph live

in unfaithfulness to God and to those about you.

But what I am saying is that, In our minds and

in our hearts and actually in the world about

us, we have all these different calls to unfaithfulness.

Okay, consider this. What does the angel say

to Joseph? What do angels say to people? Don't

fear. That's what angels say to people. Don't

fear. Do not fear to take Mary as your wife.

You remember that this is what the angels said

to Mary also, and to the shepherds, which means

that they were much scarier than Nate in that

costume, right? On some level, it wasn't just

the circumstances, but there's something about

angels that are probably rather frightening,

okay? But think about this, fear often can be

a call to unfaithful action. And Joseph had real

reasons to fear. He had found out that his fiance,

this woman who he had been betrothed to, was

expecting a baby. And he knew how babies come

into the world, and he knew that he had been

faithfully waiting until he and his fiance were

husband and wife when they were wed. And so,

unquestionably, undoubtedly, He must have thought,

the person who I trust the most in the world,

who I was gonna unite to for the rest of my life,

I can't trust, who can I trust? Is that not fear

inducing? Of course it's fear inducing. He probably

actually said, what kind of judgment do I have

that I would... be engaged, be betrothed to somebody

that would do such thing. I must not even be

clear thinking myself. I thought I was thinking

all right. So he probably lives in some level

of fear of his own ability and his own trustworthiness

of his own mind and his own thinking. No doubt

he feared what this would mean for his own future

life and the future life of this young woman

who he was betrothed to. In his commentary on

the Gospel of Matthew, Stanley Hauerwas, some

of you hopefully are familiar with Hauerwas,

says, the Matthew story of Mary's pregnancy lacks

the charm and detail of Luke's account, but that

may be its value. One of the great enemies of

the Gospel is sentimentality. and the stories

surrounding Jesus' birth have proven to be ready

material for maudlin sentiment, Matthew's account

of Jesus' conception and birth is unapologetically

realistic. Which is to say, Joseph is engaging

with this scenario that for all kinds of reasons

would cause him to fear. It's unapologetically

realistic. Part of the realism of it is that

it shows that Joseph says I've got to act here.

I've got to do something. Because his fiance

is expecting and he knows he isn't the father.

No doubt the question swirling around is what

will tomorrow bring? What kind of unknown am

I living into? What kind of new uncertainty will

happen to me? after the one thing that I thought

would happen for the rest of my life is not going

to be happening. The person I thought I knew

best, I don't really know. Fear, what I'm suggesting

to you in some ways is fear often calls us to

unfaithful action, living into fear, okay? Another

thing that often calls us into unfaithful action

is shame. Now, The angel says, do not fear. The

angel does not say, don't live in shame, but

shame is in this passage. We'll look at it again

in a second. The passage actually doesn't necessarily

mention that Joseph is sort of in this state

of shame. But what it does do is it calls, It

calls Joseph to action in the exact place where

shame would cause him to hide. Let me try to

explain this, okay? Joseph, we're at the very

end, it says, and he called his name Jesus, right?

She will bear a son and you shall call his name

Jesus. So Joseph is the one that's supposed to

name this child, this child who he did not have

a part of conceiving. he's supposed to take on

the fatherly role of. That would have been the

act of the father to do the naming. Related to

this role, you might remember that is the presentation

of Mary and Joseph of the Child of the Temple.

We're going to look at that in a couple weeks,

actually, as we consider Simeon and Anna. But

that would have been a fatherly action and a

public fatherly action, right? So they do that

in Luke. Chapter two. But what this is saying

is that the angel is inviting Joseph to take

on the fatherly role. So everyone around them

would have known that this baby was conceived

before their wedding, right? I mean, everybody

would have known that. We aren't exactly told

how Joseph found out that Mary was with child,

but we are told in Luke that when Mary finds

out from the angel, she immediately goes to Elizabeth.

So it's not like she immediately goes to her

fiance and tells him what's going on. She immediately

goes and spends some time with Elizabeth. So

it's very, very possible that Joseph doesn't

know that Mary is expecting until she's showing.

Maybe a few months in, we don't really know.

We don't know this, but it's very possible. And

what's certainly true is that, They would have

known, okay, this baby was conceived before you

were you were wed. Mary started to show, this

is the time frame. And Joseph is supposed to

act like he is the father. He takes Mary with

him down to Bethlehem to be registered for the

census. And this is kind of interesting. Unlike

in Luke chapter two, when we're told the end

of Luke chapter two is the story of, the only

story we have of Jesus and his youth. And he

goes down to celebrate the Passover. And it specifically

says that they went down with relatives and friends

and stuff. It's interesting that that details

there in Luke and it's not here. in Matthew when

they're going down to Bethlehem, which would

have actually been fairly close to Jerusalem.

And so the norm would have been if you're traveling

a ways, you would travel with other people, right?

Well, how far is it from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

Does anyone know this? It's about 90 miles on

the trail. It's about 70 miles as the crow flies.

It's a 90 mile trek. It's a long walk. It's a

long walk when you're nine months pregnant. Do

you think you want friends and relatives helping

you out along the way? Yeah, yeah you would.

Where are they? They're probably so unsure of

what is happening with this young couple and

how in the world is she pregnant already? And

now Joseph's supposed to own this dynamic, right?

I mean this, you can see that there's a lot of

shame and this social shame in this scenario

that can be taking place and Joseph is actually

called to live into it in a way. Had they been

promiscuous. Have they brought shame on their

family? Is that why their family's not there

with them? Maybe it took the family a couple

years to buy into this whole story of an angel

appearing to Mary. Probably not something that's

easily believable. Where this little boy had

come from, who they finally got around to saying,

yeah, we'll travel down south with you to Judea

and to Jerusalem. But what I'm suggesting is

that shame is often actually a call to unfaithful

action. I don't want people talking about me

like that. I want to be with this lady. I heard

last week that 87 % of adults say that they are

rather constantly stressed. 87%. And I first

heard that and I thought, is that surprising?

And I thought, I actually don't think it's terribly

surprising if it's that high. There's a lot of

things that can stress us out, right? As adults,

maybe it's like, maybe it's how do I afford life?

How do I pay for children? What do I do with

my older children that aren't talking to me and

we're estranged? Maybe we're worried about aging

loved ones. Of course, the unbelievable political

polarization. neighbors not talking to each other,

friends disowning you because you voted for X,

Y, Z, whatever. I mean, there are innumerable

sort of reasons why we say we are stressed out.

How are you? The most common response. Oh, well,

I guess you could say I'm fine. But most of it's

like, I'm busy. We just live busy lives, stressed

out lives. Here's the thing, in a state of stress,

we are often ruled by just a tiny little part

of our brain and this tiny little part of the

brain releases hormones like adrenaline and cortisol

which means we react quickly and emotionally

and we do this to stay alive and this little

part of our brain releases these these hormones

this little part is the amygdala as many of you

are familiar with and the interesting thing is

that it actually blocks our clear thinking part,

right? Our prefrontal cortex. That's what's happening,

right? So here's what's happening is that 87

% of adults are just reacting. We're just reacting

because we want to stay alive, which is called

amygdala hijacking, right? It's taking over.

And there's a time when this is actually really

helpful and good, okay? And this time is when

you're actually needing to stay alive, like truly

stay alive. Because what happens in this whole

fight, flight, freeze response, we're seeking

to protect ourselves. But oftentimes we're doing

that out of this sense that we don't know the

whole story. Like we're trying to control, we're

trying to figure out how do we stay alive. Actually,

our bodies react, this is kind of interesting,

right? In this state, our eyes dilate and we

get a tunnel vision. So we literally can't see

as clearly, like literally our eyes get more

tunnel vision. Our breathing changes, our blood

constricts, our blood veins constrict. So we're

kind of, we're preserving ourselves for what's

gonna come, right? And we just live in this state.

87 % of adults say, this is the state that I'm

living in. Which means they're not really thinking

very clearly. If you're in real danger, it's

very helpful. If you're not, it's actually very

destructive. We're mostly living stressed out

lives full of fear and shame. And for the most

part, these stressed out places of fear and shame

are actually calling us to live unfaithful lives.

So think about this, right? What do we do? We

often live lives very defensively. We're often

trying to seek to control our environment, to

control those around us, to control our image.

What we're often doing is we're demanding that

we are in the right and we get angry when other

people want to challenge our thinking or our

feeling or whatever. Like, you know, we get this

really defensive kind of angry posture towards

others. We lash out. Or often, you know, that's

kind of that fight response. Oftentimes we just

numb out, right? Football game after football

game. You probably know people that want to place

bet after bet after play after play on different

games. I mean, how good are potato chips? How

good is MSG? I mean, right? It's delicious. And

so we just reach for it because it's like, oh,

at least I can have this sense of delight for

a little while and sort of check out from the

stress around me. Of course, we are in a world

that tells us that the highest good is individual

self -expression. You do you, you be you is the

most important thing, which aggravates this idea

of self -preservation and self -delight and the

self, right? The self. All this, what I'm suggesting

is this place of fear and shame, which is so

related to our places of stress, which is so

influences our brain, which so influences our

body, so influences our community. calls us to

a life of unfaithfulness. There are all kinds

of calls that Joseph was experiencing socially

and probably in his mind and in his body and

places of his heart that were calling him to

unfaithfulness. Circumstances he found himself

in, the hormones pulsing through him, the culture

around him. But interestingly, if anything, Joseph

is not said to be someone who goes along with

this. There's no sense in this passage that Joseph

heard these calls and said, okay, I'm going to

live in this unfaithfulness. If anything, it's

the exact opposite, isn't it? If there's a call

to unfaithful action around him, what we see

actually in Joseph is a very faithful man. The

descriptor actually for Joseph in our text, verse

19, and her husband Joseph being a just man.

The descriptor there, just man, is the word decaios.

Most of the time we translate that word righteous.

I mean, if there's one descriptor for Joseph,

it's actually, it's not unfaithfulness, it's

righteous, just. Righteousness, often in the

Bible, particularly if you're around Protestant

churches, the primary way we use righteousness

is like what we do when we confess our sins and

we receive the righteousness of God. We're declared

righteous before a just God because of the righteousness

given to us. But so in the Bible, righteousness

often, and particularly in Matthew of the Gospels

actually, is a reference to right living, to

faith living in light of who God is, in light

of who we are. And Joseph here is called a righteous

man. Right living in the Bible and right faith

in the Bible always go together. Faith in what

God does and living in light of it. So what do

we see in Joseph? First we see he's not willing

to play the shame game. I said we'd come back

to this, but specifically it actually mentions

shame, right? And Joseph's not willing to play

it really. So verse 19, and her husband Joseph

being a just man and unwilling to put her to

shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. Now,

we think of divorce, of course, in our age is

primarily connected to marriage, but we know

that they were not yet married because the angel

says, do not fear to take Mary as your wife.

What you need to understand is that in the ancient

world, engagement was a much weightier thing

than it is today. They were bound together and

to break that bond would have been a very significant

action. It wasn't quite marriage, but it was

sort of more than even sort of engagement in

our world. He didn't want to be a part of a corrupt

marriage and actually he had every right to cancel

this engagement Okay, this would not have been

something that would have been remotely outside

of his right thing to do to cancel this He could

have exposed Mary as an unwed mother to public

disgrace That would have been a norm of his day

and there would have been certain Penalties punishments

rather severe that would have gone along with

that, but he doesn't do any of this No. There

were better and quieter ways to do this that

still sort of preserved some of her dignity and

he sought to do that, okay? And this is interesting

actually. One thing I read in studying for this

is righteousness in Matthew particularly is often

connected to this idea of treating other people

with dignity. So righteousness often is actually

combating shame in Matthew. It's kind of interesting.

Joseph lives into this kind of righteousness,

into this faithful action because he's unwilling

to play the shame game, which he totally could

have played and which would have been the norm

of his day. But the other thing here, and this

is kind of interesting, is that Joseph isn't

controlled by fear. So the angel does speak to

the place of his fear, right? The angel doesn't

just go, oh, it's okay. something else is going

on here and you should still marry her. The angel

does actually say, hey, this child was conceived

by the Holy Spirit. So he actually addresses

the place of his questioning and his fear. Mary

had been pure, which is to say, the angel does

say Mary has been pure. She's been holy. She's

been faithful to you as you had hoped, right?

But he also doesn't allow the social fear, which

he no doubt would have known and felt as we all

do, to run his life. So despite what others may

say or do, despite how others may not join them

in the journey, may not, you know, throw the

baby shower and all the rest, He takes Mary as

his wife and he takes her down to Bethlehem and

he names that child as he would have done if

he were the biological father. He owns this place

of fear and he acts faithfully within it. Okay,

so here's the interesting thing and I hope this

is kind of where you're going. How do we do this?

How do we not live into the shame game and how

do we not live into fear? I mean seriously, if

87 % of adults are just living out of stress,

probably a lot of us are doing that and probably

a lot of that stress is related to the idea of

fear and shame. So what do we do? What's the

answer? How do we actually kind of... live like

Joseph here, right? How do we learn? How do we

not just live stressed out and angry and controlling

and vindictive and numbing lives? Because we

all know that that's the norm. We all know that

that's mostly what people are telling you to

do, right? Live angry. How do we do this? Well,

if you've been around religious folk, not just

Christians, but Christians too. Maybe you've

heard things like, dare to be a Daniel and be

brave like David. And maybe you've heard a sermon,

I really haven't, because I haven't heard sermons

about Joseph. Be just like Joseph, Joseph the

just. That maybe the answer is just to put these

figures before you and live into their kind of

way of being. But that's a moralism, right? It's

a moralism. And moralism leads you to pride,

which leads you to look down on others, which

does not help the world. So what do we learn

from this text? Well, one thing, and I actually

didn't know Dave was going to mention this, because

he was doing this devotional. He says there's

the names in this passage. There's two names

that are highlighted for us. and both names are

given actually their meaning. It's an interesting

little detail here in Matthew. First, Jesus.

Look at verse 21. The angel speaking to Joseph.

She will bear a son, and you shall call his name

Jesus, for he will save his people from their

sins. Jesus is, in Greek, the Hebrew name Joshua.

Yeshua. God saves. But Matthew translates it

for us in a way. He says this is why. Because

he's gonna save his people from their sins. Now

we think we have done bad things. We have, we

all have. That's why we confess our sins. We've

done bad things and so I am bad. You have done

bad things and so you are bad, right? This is

what, this is, you know, you go back to the garden,

Adam and Eve go against what God has called them

to do. And what they say is their sin invites

them into a place of shame. And so they have

to cover themselves. I don't want you to see

me, right? That's what we do with our sin. We

say, not just that I have done bad, but I absolutely

am bad. Not just guilty, but full of shame. And

Jesus' name alone says, I am doing away with

that. I'm doing away with it. The thing that

you want to hide, the thing that causes you to

want to lash out at others or just numb, the

stuff you don't want to deal with, I'm doing

away with that. Places of shame don't have control

over us. as we honestly bring them to the Lord

and we truly receive that he is Jesus, the Joshua,

the God saver. Savior that comes from God to

redeem his people from their sins. But the second

one, right, is this title, Emmanuel, this other

name, verse 23. Behold, a virgin shall conceive

and bear a son and they shall call his name,

right? 21 said, you shall call his name and this

says they shall call his name Emmanuel and then

Matthew says which means God with us our fear

you know which is what causes us often to fight

back or actually just sometimes to freeze or

to run hightail it out of here is often related

to our inability. We want to try to control things,

or we go, actually, I can't, I gotta run. But

what this says is God is with us. And if God

is for you, who can be against you? If the God

who spoke the world into being is with you, it

says you have no reason to fear. That's the constant

message of the Bible. If God is with you, you

can go out into the world, not a confidence of

your own, not a demanding that others follow

you or be controlled by you, but with a quiet

confidence saying, whatever God calls me to do,

He will give me the resources to do, the time

to do it, the energy to do it, the ability. There

is a rest and a quiet presence that Joseph embodies

because he knows that God is both Jesus and Emmanuel,

saves him from his sins, is present to him in

his fear. Let me end by returning to Nate Bargatze's

Nashville Christmas Nativity, which half of you

will watch this afternoon. So he's telling Mary

and Joseph and the Magi all about the stuff that

we do to commemorate the great gift of God for

the people of God in the incarnation. And so

he talks about like eulogs, which of course they're

like, what's that? The question is, what does

that mean? And of course in Nate Bargatze's way,

he says, who knows? And anyway, one of the wise

men, being wise, says, none of what you're describing

feels connected to Jesus. These celebrations

do not just honor Jesus. Nate says, they honor

the almighty being that resides on the top of

the world. God? The Magi responds. Nate says,

no. Santa Claus. Who is Santa Claus? Santa Claus

is a bearded, all -seeing mortal who sorts the

righteous from the wicked. But isn't that what

God does? Yes, but Santa does it to children,

only children. It's funny, but it's also revealing

because it's so confusing, isn't it? It's so

confusing. And let me leave you with this idea.

If Joseph confused who God was, if Joseph confused

himself with God, as we are so often told to

do, you get to decide what is right and wrong.

You decide your life. If he would have put himself

in... As his only savior, right? As the one who

has to deal with his shame. As the one who must

control because life is a scary place. This would

not have gone well. It would have been a wreck.

If he would have just thought of God like a cosmic

Santa Claus or a cosmic elf on the shelf. Then

he would have only continued on into the long

cycles of fear and shame like so many of us do

But instead he was invited into this life of

peace and rest and quiet presence Because he

learned that God is Jesus Not the one who is

just sitting on top the world bearded making

his lists of oh did Joseph do right or wrong

but instead he is the one who comes to save his

people from their sins. And the God who does

not stand far off, but is God with us, Emmanuel.

Brothers and sisters, this is the answer to us

not just living reactive lives. but being able

to enter into the places that we most fear with

a quiet faithful presence. The answer is that

God is Jesus. Your sins don't define you, and

God is Emmanuel. He is with you. Amen. Let me

pray. Lord, pray that we would know these truths.

that we would know you, that we would know your

presence with us, that you would lead us and

guide us in the way of faithfulness to you and

life for others. God, that we would not just

live out of what we are so inclined to do, which

is to shame others, to lift ourselves up towards

self -protection, towards control. animosity

towards others. God, heal us of this and heal

us of this with this message that you proclaim

in this season that you are Jesus, the God who

saves, that our sins do not define us. We are

washed clean, they are removed from us as far

as the East is from the West. And that you are

Emmanuel, that you actually desire us. that you

will long to be with us and to lead us, that

whatever may come, neither height nor depth,

angels nor demons nor anything else, all of creation

can separate us from your love and there is nothing

to fear. God, I pray that like Joseph, you would

give us this quiet, faithful confidence because

this is who you are our savior our lord our friend

our jesus our emmanuel amen thank you for listening

to second city sermons podcast we hope this sermon

has encouraged you to worship god and to celebrate

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