12/09/2018

this morning scripture

comes from Matthew chapter 1 vs. 18 225 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 in 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 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.

And 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 is with us when Joseph woke up. He did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not. Consummate their marriage until she gave birth to their son. And he gave him the name Jesus. the word of God to the people of God

a little aside before we get started this morning about the time and the place of that setting it it says that Mary and Joseph were to be married in our culture. Usually that's an engagement time write a time to throw a party right like just kind of go. Hey, they said something and they exchanged them. They change the ring and that's good. We're going to celebrate that in in Mary and Joseph's time. It would have been that Joseph had paid the Dowry and then about a year to a year-and-a-half was going to go in between that and their wedding. Okay, but during that time they were both married. Okay. So one of two things sometimes happen sometimes surprise people got pregnant before they were married and if it was the couple right then they would just do it quietly. Right? And so then that would be the deal, but if it wasn't Is then some options were on the table? Not none of which was stoning right that would have that would have been gone long before this but it would have been a public trial and a disgrace for Mary. Now the result of that disgrace for Mary would have been that Joseph could have got his Dowry back and he could have been went and met someone who his family may be approved of more. Right? And so but what scripture tells us that Joseph is a man of the law, but but by the letter of the law you could have done that. But it's the intent of the law that Joseph follows and he does not want to disgrace marry. But instead to kind of do it quietly. But in that meantime that the narrator Matthew the author Matthew gives us some insight into what Joseph is planning when an angel of the Lord appears, right and we know from last week the angel of the Lord appears and says the same thing which is Don't Be Afraid right calls him by his name son of David so is lineage Joseph and then that Jesus that he is going to have a son and he's going to name him Jesus. Jesus is the Greek. Translation of in in Hebrew it would have been yahshua. Right? Does that sound like anything else we've heard before? Joshua okay. And Joshua was just as common then is like Robert is now right so the historian Josephus and stuff could think of 20 people he knew that were named Jesus. Okay. Now if you don't name your kid Jesus right like not something they're real excited to write on the birth certificate in English. And so the idea here is that Jesus is coming and he is to be born and he's going to have a family but but this family that Jesus is a part of Joseph isn't responsible for rent like Joseph. Joseph is raising a child that is not his own write Joseph takes on the responsibility. Of raising Jesus as his own.

Because God has spoken to him. And this morning we're going to want to talk about family. Have I prayed yet? osprey

God we just pray that the meditations of our hearts in the words of my lips might be pleasing in your sight our Rock and Our Redeemer. Amen.

Tell my daughter Vera is in a commercial for Saint Anthony's which will come out. I don't know sometime this spring summer whenever it. I had an opportunity to meet Vera's parents on camera. They're very beautiful people. I'm not really taking kindly to that. So the reality is the what we see presented as an image of what family is is never the true image of family write the idea that what is sold to us as the image of family, even if we somewhat might resemble that it's not that the nitty ingredient what family really is. I can think of the first Christmas in ferajna Ashley and I were married and we had we had Veera and we were both far from Far From Home.

We received a call that morning from a family and it said hey, would you like to come over this afternoon and play some games and have some food? I was taken aback. Because this is Christmas morning right like Thanksgiving. It's a nice gesture we can do this thing together. But if you're going over on Christmas your family, right and so our understanding of family. In the Christian Community isn't something as simple as this is what is defined family. But it it blows the top off of it. Right like the idea that we have family like friends are the family you choose right? Have you all heard that and how many of us have welcomed people into our home for the holidays because our college kid best friend couldn't make it all the way home to the coast. So they so they come and celebrate with us, right? But the reality is that we as a church family we have that same understanding we have to have that same understanding when it comes to church. You know, I know each and everyone of you and I see examples of this with where you reach out and you want to make sure someone's not alone for the holidays right? Like oh, you know, like I get asked multiple times. You know, who where you going? What are you doing? Right and so that's out of our love for one another amen. And so we have various people in various life positions or various experiences, and we want to make sure that we share the love of God with them and we'll invite him to our own family if functions even though we know that are crazy uncles going to be there and we'll play they won't talk politics this year. Right? And so the idea here is that we're willing to welcome others to the table because there they can feel the love as well. And I want to encourage us as a church family to do the same. If you would invite someone to your family Thanksgiving dinner or Christmas Day festivities invite them here as well. Because we are a Community of Faith who are constantly seeking God's face. We're constantly figuring out what God is doing in our lives. And so that we can also share that love with others. It's out of our own building up of God in us that we share with others and we don't share by this by this definition of this is what we expect family to be. I mean my first wife comes to worship with us on a regular basis. Okay, so other churches would not be able to handle that but we are okay, right like the whole idea of what unites us is greater than what divides us. And so part of it is showing others what has brought us here together, so it's not about the image of what it means to be the perfect Church. What the whole idea here is is the God we are part of God's family not because we deserve to be but because God is blowing the lid off of what it means to be part of God's family and I did that first with Jesus and then continues to do that through Paul because Paul reached out to the Gentiles, right and the Gentiles that's kind of you and me, okay, and that you and me that we didn't have access to it before Jesus. But now we do and what are we going to do with that access? Is it we're going to be family. Buttweiler definition of family might be forever changed by the welcoming of everyone to the table. So also is what we expect of family. So also is what we do is family. I have a friend. Lives in the city all his family is Irish. They're very Irish. I've been invited to their to their home and had various events with them and they make the best shepherd's pie in the world. OK. It's really really good and they know all of the things that that are traditionally Irish to do, right? So if you want to know why my daughter after she says cheers clunks the glass on the table. You can at least a test that to my training of her like that and so the idea is that they are like family but they've been in the city for a long time and they're they're kind of a different kind of family that they don't they don't necessarily just engages family. There's an expectation of family First off the expectation is that that you're going to marry somebody who can also help the family, right? So like of his parents, you know his dad siblings like there's a lawyer. and a couple liquor store owners It's good business some gas and a doctor and a chiropractor. Okay? So then so then their understanding of family means that they also have business dealings together, right? They have this family meeting once a year where they gather it's patriarchal. So it's just the guys like out in the woods in some cabin and they talk about what they're going to do like as a family right and one of those things as they talk about like what businesses they should invest in, right? So my doctor buddy, he's like I need to start a practice. So he goes to the family for a loan. It sounds like the mob I totally know but that's their understanding the family right like family isn't just that we do live together and meet together for the holidays, but that were invested in one another's lives and in the outcomes of our lives in the furthering of generation. Do you get what I'm saying? It's not just about my health, but it's about your health and it's about our children's health and it's about how we continue to love and love and love and love and love. And so that is what God is calling us to do as family. To come together with an understanding that we all have our own things that that we bring to the table. But also we all have our own gifts that we bring to the table. And how do we live is the family that understands everybody's a part of it and it's way deeper than just showing up together for a meal or celebrating a party. And so one of the things that we have to understand is that that when we come together as a family that God has brought us together for a task and for a purpose that's called our mission. And that mission is to make disciples of Jesus Christ to invite others to experience the love that we've experienced and to know that they are welcome to the table not because they earned it but because God's grace overflows and is open to everyone. the other thing that were called to do as a family is communicate were called to to share our needs and wants and desires with one another so we can plan the road ahead. Took so we're going to have a family meeting and we're going to have it on January 26th. And then we're going to it's going to be like the leadership if you were on a committee, you're going to be invited this but even if you're not come anyway come anyway, because we have to Define what unites us together and where we're going on this journey together. And when we redefine that then we will be willing and more able to acknowledge what we're welcoming others to at Christ's table cuz while we're part of this family and it's our family.

We make decisions together. as a body of Christ

and as part of this community. And so this this Christmas season when you think of family don't think of the stereotypical beautiful. Gap advertisement right or Menards advertisement think more like the Modern Family, right? The idea that that we are all coming together with all of us to figure out how these things work together.

And it's not about what how others Define us, but how we share the love of God.

Let us prey.

God we just asked.

That you might continue to help us grow with family together. That you might help us to see your love. And what is United us? And to stop seeking what divides us.

That we might acknowledge all of the ways which we have felt your mercy and have been saved by your grace. And that we bring all of us together.

That you might work through us.

In Jesus name we pray amen.