Love (2)

Matthew 1:18–25 NIV

18 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. 19 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. 20 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. 21 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.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: 23 “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”). 24 When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. 25 But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

On this, the last Sunday of Advent, we begin to transition from longing and waiting to looking for the nativity story. We expect shepherds in fields, keeping watch over their flocks by night. We expect innkeepers with stables full of soft, sweet-smelling hay. We expect a pregnant Mary on the brink of delivering her child. And we have come to anticipate it all wrapped in wonder, beauty, and nostalgic simplicity. Most of our nativity scenes are clean and crisp: angelic faces, resting animals, a clean stable. Even “Away in a Manger” claims the baby Jesus did not cry! Our familiarity with this story often sanitizes it, removing the messy humanity of it, like the fluids at birth, the swollen feet that come with third-trimester pregnancy, and the general noise and messiness.

We also tend to sanitize the family dynamics Jesus was born into. Matthew 1, however, is not a narrative of shepherds in the field or sweet-smelling hay. It’s not a sanitized narrative at all. In fact, it plunges us right into the messy family dynamics Jesus was born into. A betrothed and supposed virgin ends up pregnant, and the man she is engaged to finds out. This is a mess in a culture and religion that allows for the stoning of adulteresses. This is a difficult place for a man who is filled with love and compassion but also righteousness and dedication to his faith. In this mess, on this last Sunday of Advent, we reflect on love.

Maybe, despite our nostalgic feelings toward the shepherds and angels of Luke 2, this is the perfect passage for us to talk about the love of God so great that he not only entered the world in a stable but also entered into the humanness of messy family dynamics.

Jesus is born into the royal lineage of David.

Matthew 1 begins with the lineage of Jesus, about which there are many important things to note.

This lineage mentions four women by name, which is not typical, and a fifth is alluded to: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Uriah’s wife (whom we know as Bathsheba), and Mary. Of these women, the first was involved in an incest scandal, the second was a prostitute, the third was a Moabite (which the Jewish people considered about as bad as being a prostitute), the fourth was trapped in a messy scheme of rape and adultery by King David, and the fifth turned up pregnant before marriage.

Joseph and Mary are both named in the lineage. Naming Mary as his moth-er emphasizes the virgin birth. Naming Joseph as his father connects Jesus to the royal line of David, which is important because it indicates that Jesus fulfills the prophecy of Jeremiah 23:5 that the Jewish messiah would be a descendant of David.

Jeremiah 23:5 NIV

5 “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.

For Joseph to be named as Jesus’s father is incredibly important. Adoption in ancient Jewish culture worked differently than it does now. If a man claimed a child as his, he was considered in everyone’s eyes to be that child’s father, regardless of biological parentage. In legal and relational terms as well as matters related to inheritance, claiming a child ended all question and debate.

For Joseph to appear in the genealogy as the father of Jesus before Matthew even tells about Jesus’s birth offers an important foreshadowing clue for first-time readers: despite the drama surrounding Mary’s premarital pregnancy, we now know that Joseph is going to claim Jesus as his child.

Jesus is born into a mess.

Engagements in the first century were not like engagements today. A betrothal was a contract between families. It was not “let’s plan to get married” but rather “our marriage has begun.” Money or goods were exchanged in the betrothal stage.

Engagements (betrothals) were difficult to call off. Since it was a contract, and part of the whole marriage endeavor, ending one required a divorce. Breaking a con-tract often left the woman destitute and dependent on her family of origin.

While betrothed, even though the wife did not live with her husband until the marriage was complete, they were expected to live with the fidelity of a married couple. Often this was the period of time that the husband would build a house for the new family and set things up to prepare for the wife to move in after the marriage ceremony and celebration.

Unfaithfulness in a betrothal was not a reason to call off the engagement but was grounds to call for stoning. Women who were caught in adultery were ushered outside of town to be stoned to death so their dead bodies wouldn’t make the town unclean.

Mary would have been viewed by her entire community as unfaithful. They would have had no reason not to think so. They had no frame of reference to believe in or understand the Holy Spirit’s involvement. Even other women who became miraculously pregnant (Sarah, Hannah, Mary’s cousin Elizabeth) still had husbands and became pregnant by those husbands.

We aren’t sure how Joseph found out about Mary’s pregnancy. She might have told him, or he might have heard rumors and confronted her about it. However he found out, we can be confident that his initial feelings were that she had committed adultery with another man. We can imagine the devastation this would have caused him in the midst of preparing their new home.

The righteousness of Joseph is important in this story. The fact that Joseph decided to divorce Mary is not what matters. In his culture and religion, he had every right to divorce her for bringing shame to his family! What matters is that he decided to divorce her quietly. He could have called for her stoning, humiliating her in front of the entire community. Divorcing her quietly was a compassionate choice.

God enters the mess.

An angel (or, a messenger from God) arrives to explain that Mary wasn’t unfaithful—this is a child born of the Holy Spirit.

We see angel messengers throughout the story of Jesus’s birth, appearing to Joseph, to Mary, to Zechariah, and to the shepherds in the fields. They are announcing God breaking into the world, signaling that “the day of the Lord” that the prophets talked about was coming.

Joseph married Mary, and named Jesus, indicating his receptivity and obedience to the message from God. Joseph trusted God in a significant and life-altering way. With his obedience, Joseph was entrusting his and his entire family’s reputation to God. Joseph’s faith in God was bigger than his fear of his community.

The incarnation is about God entering humanity. Jesus enters the world, born of ordinary human beings with ordinary human struggles. This was not a pristine family without issues, even though we often paint them that way. We tend to want to focus on their faithfulness and ignore their humanity. Even though they were faithful, their path was not easy, and their life was not free of burden and mess.

So Joseph knew the truth about Mary thanks to the angel. But did the angel appear to all the neighbors and other families in the community as well, to tell them they could stop gossiping about Mary? Probably not!

When Joseph decided to marry her anyway, for all we know, people assumed he was indicating that he had broken the marriage contract by sleep-ing with her before the marriage was fulfilled.

The hindsight of history allows us to see them as faithful because we know the big picture, and we know how the story turned out—but their life was difficult and awkward, probably for many months.

he incarnation is not just about Jesus being born in a stable instead of a palace. It’s also about proximity and experience, and God entering the messiness of human relationships. Jesus took on humanity in all its fullness from Day 1, including family dynamics and gossipy community members!

The love of God does not run from our humanity or our messes but enters and em-braces them. We can have confidence that, if God willingly entered a complicated family dynamic in the incarnation, then our situations aren’t too much for God. There is no distance that God wouldn’t travel to illustrate the love of God for humanity.

There is a line of an old hymn that says “the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen could ever tell.” The Advent narrative—the story of hope and anticipation—is ultimately bathed in the love of God. We trust God because God loves us. The story of Christmas—the story of the incarnation—is one that doesn’t run from conflict, pain, or humanness but embraces all the mess of humanity out of love. We are loved. No matter the mess we are in, whether it be of our own making or someone else’s. Maybe it’s even a mess that has been created because we are seeking to be faithful to God, and the people around us just don’t see the full picture. God is present with us in the midst of all of it! So on this final Sunday of Advent, we look ahead in the knowledge that we are loved. We have hope in the face of uncertainty because we are loved by God. No matter where we are, no matter what lies ahead, this is the heart of the message: “For God so loved the world, that he sent his Son” into our messes, that we might know and be known by him.

COMMUNION

RITUAL

The Communion Supper, instituted by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is a sacrament, which proclaims His life, His sufferings, His sacrificial death, and resurrection, and the hope of His coming again. It shows forth the Lord’s death until His return.

The Supper is a means of grace in which Christ is present by the Spirit. It is to be received in reverent appreciation and gratefulness for the work of Christ.

All those who are truly repentant, forsaking their sins, and believing in Christ for salvation are invited to participate in the death and resurrection of Christ. We come to the table that we may be renewed in life and salvation and be made one by the Spirit.

In unity with the Church, we confess our faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. And so we pray:

PRAYER OF CONFESSION AND SUPPLICATION:

Holy God,

We gather at this, your table, in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, who by your Spirit was anointed to preach good news to the poor, proclaim release to the captives, set at liberty those who are oppressed. Christ healed the sick, fed the hungry, ate with sinners, and established the new covenant for forgiveness of sins. We live in the hope of His coming again.

On the night in which He was betrayed, He took bread, gave thanks, broke the bread, gave it to His disciples, and said: “This is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

Likewise, when the supper was over, He took the cup, gave thanks, gave it to His disciples, and said: “Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in remembrance of me.” Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And so, we gather as the Body of Christ to offer ourselves to you in praise and thanksgiving. Pour out your Holy Spirit on us and on these your gifts. Make them by the power of your Spirit to be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the Body of Christ, redeemed by His blood.

By your Spirit make us one in Christ, one with each other, and one in the ministry of Christ to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

EXPLAIN ELEMENTS

The body of our Lord Jesus Christ, broken for you, preserve you blameless, unto everlasting life. Eat this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

The blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for you, preserve you blameless unto everlasting life. Drink this in remembrance that Christ died for you, and be thankful.

CONCLUDING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND COMMITMENT

And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, let us pray:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.