Preached by Alexandria Bois-Bonifacio
Fourth Sunday of Advent - December 19, 2010
Do you know that you have only five shopping days before Christmas? Do you know that you only have five more days to spend five billion dollars? Do you know that during the twenty-five days of Christmas that we North Americans will spend twenty-five billion dollars? Do you know that this is the biggest spending binge of the year for the American economy? Do you know that many corporations make fifty percent of their profits during the lucrative Christmas shopping season? Have you heard the advertisements bark out the commercials: “Christmas toys on sale. Christmas toys on sale. How can you have a bright shinny Christmas unless you have a bright shinny new car? Hurry, hurry, hurry, down to the mall of your choice where there is plenty of parking. There is plenty of parking and plenty of places to spend plenty of cash. Hurry, hurry, hurry. You have only five more days to spend five billion dollars.”
Yes, we are in the middle of Christmas mania, aren’t we? It is that time of year when we are so very busy and there is so much to do. We are all doing similar things at this time of year. Let me see, how many of you have put up your Christmas Tree? So how many of you put up lights for Christmas, either inside the house or outside? Let’s see, who makes lists of presents you need to buy? Do you have a present-list? O well. ... Let’s see, how many of you baked some kind of Christmas cookies for the holiday? How many different kinds of cookies should you make? How many dozen? ...And, how many events do you go to during the Christmas season. The Sunday School program? The church choir concert? The high school Christmas program? Who sends Christmas letters or Christmas cards? When a two-paged single space Christmas letter arrives from a long-lost friend, do you really slowly read the whole thing? Yes, we do. We read the entire letter. Have you noticed how perfect all the families are in these Christmas letters? My family is always perfect in our Christmas letter; you wouldn’t recognize us. I wonder what Mary and Joseph’s winter festival letter would have looked like?
I could spend most of my time today telling you interesting facts about the birth of Jesus. Like how we place the birth between 6-4 BCE (before the common era) because we can historically date Herod the Great and when he died. It was Herod after all who slaughtered the baby boys in his region, two years old and younger, so we estimate that Christ was born within two years of Herod’s death – so 6-4 BCE. Or I could tell you that in 7BCE there was an unusual conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Saturn. This unusual movement between the planets may be the cause for the star that had been seen by the magi. If you type Jupiter, Saturn and the birth of Christ into google you will find more than 10 000 sites dedicated to this astronomical research for the star of Bethlehem. I could even tell you how most of our Christmas traditions, like exchanging presents, or time off of work / school, or exchanging baking have historical references that pre-date the birth of the celebration of Christmas that do not necessarily pertain to the celebration of the birth of Christ. But I am not going to. Because what captivates me, more than these interesting facts and more that the 25 billion dollars that gets spent every year, what captivates me more than 2000 years after the birth of Christ is Mary and Joseph. Mary, Joseph and their winter letter to their friends and families.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
VST – Vancouver School of Theology – has a great table in the main lobby of the library. A few of us students found our way to that table and cracked open our commentaries nearing the end of the semester. We all had to write sermons with the text about Mary and Joseph and the unexpected pregnancy. We were in the middle of discussing the passage about Mary and Joseph, their engagement, Mary becoming pregnant, Joseph not being the father, and Mary having to have this delicate conversation with Joseph, trying to explain what happened.
We were imaging the human situation of Mary trying to tell Joseph that she was pregnant, not by him or another man, but by the Spirit of God. We were in this intense discussion, when the head of the Spiritual Directors came into the library. I called him over and asked him, “Are you a trained spiritual counselor?” “Yes, I am” was the reply a little confused. We both knew he was, but I continued. “I need some professional advice from you today.” My friends all had blank stares on their faces. They had no idea what I was getting at. “I need some advice and I can get it in front of my fellow pastors. I have this man who is coming to see me and he is engaged to this young woman, who is pregnant. This man is very upset because he knows that he is not the father, and he is asking me what to do. What is your advice, spiritual counselor?” By now my friends were snickering, knowing that I was playing on the Mary and Joseph story. The counselor was silent and didn’t say anything. Finally, one of the students chimed in, “The correct answer is, ‘They named him Jesus.’”
Joseph, Jesus and the virgin birth; the story of the virgin birth is at the heart of our Christmas celebrations, and often we tend to forget about Joseph. He seems like a back seat actor – not in the forefront of the story.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Virginity is not a hot topic in today’s world of conversation. We rarely if ever discuss if someone is a virgin or not. In our vocabulary today, the word, “virgin,” refers to someone who has not been sexually active.
In the Old and New Testament, there are two meanings to the word, “virgin.” There is a Hebrew bible meaning, and a New Testament meaning. A Hebrew meaning and a Greek meaning. The first meaning is this: the word, “virgin,” simply means “young woman.” Such as in the passage from Isaiah 7:14 that says, “a young woman shall conceive and give birth to a child.” The word simply says “young woman.” and the Hebrew word for young woman is “alma.”
But there is a second meaning of the word as well. In Matthew 1:23. “Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and his name shall be called Emmanuel.” Highlight in your mind the word, “virgin.” The New Testament was written in Greek, and the Greek word means someone who has never had sexual relationships with another. Eventually, the Hebrew Bible was translated into the Greek language, and the meaning of the word changed from young woman to sexual virginity.
Today, we celebrate not simply the birth of Christmas, not simply the birth of the festival of lights, not simply midwinter festival. Today, we celebrate the birth of the Son of God. And the story of the virgin birth accentuates that Jesus was and is the Son of God.
Different cultures throughout history have valued virginity differently. That is, in the ancient Greek culture, virginity was not prized. In the ancient Roman culture, virginity was not regarded as precious. But in the Old and New Testament, we find virginity being appreciated and valued.
In the Hebrew bible, virginity was a highly prized value. A virgin was someone who was precious. Rebecca was not merely a young woman; she was a virgin. The Bible is very emphatic about that. There were several laws to protect the virginity of women. That is, parents made arrangements for their daughters to be married and they expected their daughters to be virgins. If their daughters were not virgins, their value went down by fifty shekels and that was a lot of money in those days. So fathers made sure that their daughters were virgins. … If a man raped a virgin, he would be punished by death. … If a woman was engaged and she had sexual relationships with another man, she and her lover were to be killed. Virginity was a very serious part of Hebrew bible culture and law, and there was great pressure to retain one’s virginity.
When we move to the New Testament, we find a similar emphasis and high value placed on virginity. The word is no longer the Hebrew word, “alma,” but “apathone” in Greek. It is translated purity. The King James Version of the Bible translates it “chastity.” Men and women were to be chaste; that is, they were to be sexually pure. A mark of a true Christian was that he or she was pure in their sexual relationships. Sexual purity became a defining characteristic in contrast to a culture of sexual promiscuity.
So, in both the Old and New Testament, virginity is a highly prized value. It is the expected behavior of Jewish men and women, of Christian men and women.
But then as we travel forward through history sexual values changed. In our culture, virginity is no longer held in such high value as the Old and New Testaments. That is, with the advent of “the pill” and a more permissive society, virginity became not so valuable anymore. The media and mass culture began to promote the idea that premarital sexual activity was normal and acceptable. Virginity became old fashioned. On TV and in mass culture, living together seemed totally acceptable. If you add all these up, there became enormous pressure against virginity in our culture, with the church often fighting a losing battle. Virgins may not admit that they are virgins because it may then be suggested that they are prudes or inexperienced, and no one wants to be a prude or inexperienced.
But in the Old and New Testament, virginity was highly valued. It was the expected behavior of men and women, so at the time of Mary and Joseph, it was expected that Mary and Joseph would be virgins.
At that time in Jewish history, their families had arranged the engagement and marriage of Mary and Joseph. Mary and Joseph were probably second or third cousins. Mary was very young, perhaps a thirteen or fourteen year old girl. The engagement was very serious and called a “betrothal.” They were engaged before two witnesses. The man would give the woman a present; her father would pay a dowry. If the man died, she would be called a widow. If the woman died, he would be called a widower. If the engagement broke up, it would be called a divorce. During the time they were engaged, they were called husband and wife. While they were engaged, they were to be virgins and they were to have no sexual intercourse prior to marriage. The engagement was to last one year and then they were to be married. If a woman became pregnant by another man, she could be stoned to death.
During that year they were engaged, an angel or divine messenger visited Mary. Mary was told that she was to become pregnant. She asked the divine messenger, “How can I become pregnant? I have no husband. I am not married yet. I am engaged to Joseph, and we cannot do that kind of stuff. How can I become pregnant?” The angelic messenger said, “The Holy Spirit will come over you, and the Holy Spirit shall cause you to conceive and give birth to a child.” Mary waited. And waited. And waited. She missed her first period. Her second period. She started to have morning sickness, and it was now time to have that important and delicate conversation with Joseph.
We have no Biblical record of that conversation, but we do have our imaginations, and we can imagine a delicate scene. This conversation was not at all pleasant. Mary said, “Joseph, I have something to tell you. I don’t understand it, and it is hard for me to tell you because there is no way I can comprehend what is going on.” … “Go ahead, Mary. Tell me. I can handle it.” … “Joseph, I don’t know how to tell you.” … “Tell me; we can handle anything.” … “I am pregnant.” …There was a long silence. Truly, a pregnant pause. This was an awkward moment between them. Joseph automatically assumed she was pregnant by another man. He had been humiliated. Their relationship had been humiliated. This woman had betrayed him. She had been fundamentally dishonest with him and he was upset. He knew the legal consequences. He knew the Old Testament law. She could die for this. So could the other man. … So he asked the question, “Who? Who got you pregnant? Whom have you been with?” … A divine messenger visited me and told me that this was going to happen. The Holy Spirit got me pregnant.” … “Sure Mary. Sure.” … The Bible said that he resolved to divorce her quietly. Look carefully at the text; it clearly implies that Joseph did not believe her. … “What do you do? What do you do when the woman you trusted is pregnant by another man? She can die for this. So can he. What should I do in this nasty situation?”
Joseph was a good man, a kind man, an honorable man. The Bible uses the word, “righteous.” Joseph was a righteous man.
Then we come to the next beautiful line, “Joseph was unwilling to put her to shame.” That line says mountains to us about Joseph. He didn’t want to hurt Mary. He didn’t want to destroy her. He was not punitive. He was not revengeful. He wasn’t out for a pound of her flesh. Instead, Joseph had these feelings of grace towards her, and so he resolved to divorce her quietly. Not tell her parents. Not tell his parents. Not tell the Jewish rabbi. Not to tell the Jewish court so he could get his money back. … So the first story about the birth of Jesus is a story of compassion, a story of grace, a story of a man who had been enormously violated by a pregnant woman and he vowed not to punish her. He had been deeply violated, yet he still loved her and took care of her. This is the gospel.
But the story continues. An angel or divine messenger appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Mary is pregnant by the Spirit of God. The Spirit hovered over her and she is now pregnant. You are to marry her and name the child Jesus for he will save the people from their sins. Call him Immanuel because God is always with us.” And so Joseph remained with Mary because he believed the dream and the message of the angel.
The story today does not only tell us that Joseph was religious or righteous. It tells us that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus. Joseph was the legal father. Joseph was the adopted father. But he was not the biological father of Jesus.
Today, we celebrate not the birth of Christmas, not the birth of a festival of lights, not the birth of a tradition of exchanging presents, not even the birth of the Son of God. Today we focus on Joseph.
Joseph is usually a back seat actor in the Christmas story. I often forget about him and have never really considered his importance. Mary and Jesus take the forefront and I get caught up in their story that I forget all about Joseph.
I often think about Mary. Why her? I wonder. How did God pick her? Was she special? Was it her alone? Could no other due? Mary and Jesus give us reason each year to spend 25 billion dollars giving gifts to show our love to our friends and family at this time of year. Jesus, through his life, teaches us to love one another as he has loved us, but Jesus isn’t the only biblical character to teach us of love.
I considered Mary, Mary and Jesus as biblical witnesses to love and I forget all about Joseph and then this week I had to consider this story in Matthew, were Joseph is the primary character. Then it hit me, what if God did not pick Mary alone, but Mary and Joseph?
When I think about child development and what it takes to raise a child – let alone the son of God – I realized that God knew exactly what he was doing, giving this baby – that we still celebrate – to Mary and Joseph.
Joseph was a religious and righteous man, but he could not disgrace Mary. Not even after he felt so betrayed by her. It is Joseph who acts out God mercy and love even before the angel appears to him in a dream. Who better, less than a week from Christmas, to show us the trueness of God’s love? Joseph the back seat actor is now in the forefront showing us how to love one another, how to forgive one another. Who better to raise Jesus, to help us see Emmanuel – God with us, than Joseph?!
[1] Sermon adaptation from Rev. Edward F. Markquart, Sermons from Seattle.
No comments:
Post a Comment