025 St. Stephen s Anglican Church Belrose Sunday, 4 December 2016 Advent II: Jesus, Hope Born in Crisis MATTHEW 1:18-25, ISAIAH 7:1-17 Stephen B Morse Introduction In 1995, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up by the Mandela government in South Africa with the intent of preventing the gross violations of apartheid from reoccurring, and to unify a divided nation scarred by the past. At the helm of his commission was the Archbishop Reverend Desmond Tutu, who used his religious influence to steer the nation towards restorative justice. Though not perfectly managed and subject to criticism, the overall view, both Christian and secular, is that the TRC helped reveal the worst excesses of apartheid and achieved a good measure of social reconciliation the entire process had a cathartic, healing effect that enabled the country to transcend the violence and acrimony of the apartheid years. (See http://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/unit.php?id=65-24e-3) For Bishop Tom Wright, Tutu s way was all about prayer, and then it was all about dangerous and Bible-based confrontation and negotiation, both with the white government who saw him as a grinning monkey and with the black activists who called him an Uncle Tom for rejecting their way of violence. (God in Public, 2016, p.124). It was in the crisis of the revolution, that God moved his servant Tutu to awaken a nation to the possibilities of grace, forgiveness and social transformation. I chose this story because it points us to the reality of Jesus coming and being among us, to speak into the crisis of humanity and usher in a message of hope. Today we continue our Advent series in Matthew s gospel. Last Sunday, we saw how the evangelist introduces Jesus with great boldness. For Matthew, Jesus, rather than Caesar Augustus is the apex of history. His origins are from the beginning. He is the fulfilment of God s pacts with Abraham and David, as well as being the embodiment of the faithful remnant of the exile, the suffering servant who leads us back to the Father. But rather coming to us as a conquering warrior in the skies, as we move into verse 18, we come face to face with the humble beginnings of God s great high priest, king and prophet. No doubt, you know the story well. A poor couple from the backwaters of Galilee who are engaged to be married, one day discover that Mary is pregnant, and Joseph had nothing to do with it. Luke goes into more details as is fitting, for he is presenting the viewpoint of the young woman, Mary. Women generally have more to say than men about especially on the subject of babies. But here, in Matthew, Joseph, being a man, is more caught up with the social and religious furor associated with her apparent act of sexual immortality. Theme The whole story centres on the meaning of God being with us Immanuel. Right in the middle of little story we find these words, verse 22: Matthew 1:22-23 22 All this took place to fulfil 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 ). 1
The passage refers to our second reading today from Isaiah 7:14, which is dated to the period before the exile 732BC (see 2 Kings 16). At that time, the southern kingdom of Judah was facing a great crisis of its own. The northern kingdom, Israel, had allied itself with Aram or Syria. Together, their armies marched up to attack Jerusalem and bring down the nation. Now, Judah s king at the time was Ahaz. Despite not being a good king, Isaiah comes to encourage him to ask God for a sign that God is on his side. He refuses on the basis that he doesn t want to put God to the test. Which is kind of strange considering he was putting up altars to Baal and the like. So, God says through his prophet: Isaiah 7:13-17 13 Hear now, you house of David! Is it not enough to try the patience of humans? Will you try the patience of my God also? 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. 15 He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, 16 for before the boy knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right, the land of the two kings you dread will be laid waste. 17 The LORD will bring on you and on your people and on the house of your father a time unlike any since Ephraim broke away from Judah he will bring the king of Assyria. The one born of a virgin, the one called Immanuel would come late in time. In the thick of Israel s protracted crisis, when all that was precious to God s people was lost, and the freedom of living in the Promised Land had given way to oppression. His birth would be the fulfilment of God s plan to redeem humanity and the entire creation. So, what does this all have to say about the nature of Jesus being our Immanuel our God with Us? On the one hand, it means that the is not indifferent to human frailty. We often think that God cannot tolerate sin, but he chose to dwell among us the sinful ones. Jesus is the hope born in crisis. On the other hand, his birth is the beginning of a new era, that awakens faith and excites a new imagination for what God is doing in the world. Today, I wish to explore these two ideas under the headings: 1. Jesus the Hope that Enters our Crisis; and 2. Jesus, the Hope that Expands our Vision. 1. Jesus the Hope that Enters Our Crisis When God entered the world through the birth of Jesus, he chose to do so in a way that invited confusion, conflict and crisis. As our Immanuel, Jesus enters into the fullness of our crisis which sets the scene for the kind of Messiah is was born to be. Have a look again at verse 18: Matthew 1:18-19 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. The nature of Mary s conception immediately created a deep problem in her life that we must not underestimate. According to some, there is no Old Testament expectation of a woman conceiving a child as a virgin. While Isaiah 7 gives the promise of child being born to a virgin, this passage does not specify the means by which the virgin is impregnated. In other words, there is no indication in Old Testament that the Jews in Jesus day expected the messiah would be born through a miraculous conception. This explains the shocked reaction of both Joseph in Matthew 1. When Joseph learns about Mary s pregnancy, he behaves as though she got pregnant in the usual manner. 2
To be engaged in those days meant more than it does today. It indicated a firm commitment of about one year duration. During this time, the girl remained living with her own family, but the bond between the couple remained strong, and marriage-like. In Deuteronomy 22:23-24, a betrothed woman could be stoned to death as an adulteress if she sleeps with another man. That Mary became pregnant before they came together was therefore a very serious offense. And Joseph is aware of this. In verse 19, he is described as a man faithful to the law a just man, who has the right to end the marriage. What is interesting about Joseph though is that he is no strict Pharisee. He mulls around the idea of showing mercy, but lands on self-interest, and decides to divorce her secretly in order to avoid an open scandal. And rather than make a public show of her, he makes the decision to move on with his life and leave the Mary to suffer her own shame in silence, in her father s house. It was an easy decision to make (cf. Deuteronomy 24:1). And for many men in the world today, it still is. You have to ask yourself, why on earth would the Creator of the world choose to enter the world in this way? To choose the most precarious method of bringing the Saviour of the World? Bearing children is risky enough that anyone is born at all is a miracle! Yet, in addition, God adds to Jesus birth - poverty, as well as the potential scandal of Jesus being born through sin. Surely the only plausible answer has to with the very nature of Jesus being our Immanuel. God with Us in all our frailty, brokenness, lost-ness and scandal. Illustration At times, it s hard to imagine how God could work to bring about his purposes through the many crises of our world. The documentary on SBS, First Contact, hosted by Ray Martin brings six Australians face to face with the pain of many indigenous Australians. You may have seen it. Not all on the team are able to sit with the reality of Australia s White Australia Policy, in which many aboriginal children to taken from their families and tribes and put into state controlled homes and institutions. Many were severely abused both physically, mentally and emotionally. We can only pray that as we commit ourselves to the wellbeing of indigenous Australians, that God would bring about the social change that we looking for. It s amazing the healing that comes when a person s story is voiced and heard. Personally, Sarah and I are faced with the impossibility of human trafficking intervention. As we have sharing our story and the reality of trafficking, we have interacted with men who struggle to get their head around the issues when the oversupply of girls for sexual exploitation outweighs the number of girls who find freedom, healing and restoration. And yet, we sense God is at work, calling us to be in it as he is in it. Application Many Christians today wrestle with the idea that God seems to work through the life s crises. Most of us try to live our lives avoiding crises, making life as safe and secure as possible, if not comfortable. We get put off by scandals. It s easier to live with a hope that is out of this world, than one that s in it. Many in the world say that God is not welcome. But God says, I m in, regardless. What we may fail to see is that right throughout the Bible, God chooses to operate in and through the crisis: from the crisis of creation God s Spirit bring order out of chaos, from the chaos of a fallen world God is working to redeem creation through the revealing of the children of God (cf. Romans 8), through the crisis of the cross Jesus endured a violent and shameful death at the hands of sinful men. We are likewise born through the crisis of Christ s death. In baptism, we identify with the 3
sufferings of Christ and are made a new. As you think about your own situation or circumstance, or as you think about the issues facing our world, what viewpoint will you take? Do you invite God to come into the crisis? Do you expect him to be at work when things seem lost? Having considered the crisis of Mary being found to be pregnant outside marriage and the dilemma that Joseph faced, let s consider how God works in Joseph to change the course of history. 2. Jesus, the Hope that Expands our Vision When God entered the world through the birth of Jesus, he not only enters our crisis, but he expands our vision and strengthens us to do his will. He expands our worldview, our understanding of reality. This is the second meaning of Jesus being our Immanuel. After making the decision to abandon Mary, Joseph has encounter with God, who responds to his crisis and opens his mind to another way. a) God s Response to Joseph First, God responds to Joseph. Have a look at verse 20: Matthew 1:20-21 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. It s in the dark of night that Joseph s decision to abandon Mary is radically altered. In order to protect the little divine life within her, God takes charge of the situation. And through the appearing of God s messenger in a dream, he works to expand Joseph s understanding of what has occurred. He tells Joseph to not be afraid, which is better rendered, do not shrink from doing something. Don t shrink back from what I am doing through Mary. I am bringing into the world, the one I want you to name Jesus the one called God saves. Jesus is born to be king, but the kind of king that saves his people from their sins (cf. 130:8) from the plight of human misery, from all that holds people in a bind, by their evils deeds and those of others. So, God did the unexpected in Joseph and headed off a disaster. Imagine if Joseph didn t respond to the vision. God so acted to save Joseph from himself and his bowing to social pressure to serve the law. And he opened his mind to the things of God. Well, in response, Joseph acts quickly. b) Joseph s Response to God Verse 24, so, Matthew 1:24-25 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. 4
Josephs responsive is immediate and decisive: He moves to embrace Mary and fulfil his covenant vows. He embraces the pregnancy and chooses not to have sexual relations with his wife, until after Jesus is born. He then freely embraces his wife sexually (no perpetual virginity or immaculate conception theology). Finally, he freely embraces Jesus. By naming him Jesus, he legally adopts him as his own son. It is significant that Joseph took the risk of embracing Mary. How many men who want a baby conceived by another man, let alone the Holy Spirit? In that culture, the birth of the first-born son was all important and crucial to the family line and keeping property within the family. That fact that Joseph is prepared to give up the right to beget his own first-born son, and adopt another, and even give him a non-family name, shows how much the dream impacted Joseph, and how much God had to work against the intrinsic tendency in all men, to shun responsibility. According to Michael K. Marsh, So Joseph awoke in the morning and did what he had to do. He began emptying himself. He let go of fear. He let go of the villagers voices and stares his reputation, his hopes of being a certain type of father so that, by God s grace and mercy, he might become the womb that would protect, nourish, and provide security to Mary and her child. He would be the womb that sheltered Mary and Jesus from Herod s rage and the slaughter of the innocents. He would be the womb that safely took Mary and Jesus to Egypt. He would be the womb that sustained their lives in that land. Illustration Some of you have heard Sarah and I talk about our pastor in Madrid. She talks about her story as though it was someone else s. Rebecca and her husband started Amistad Cristiana over 25 years ago. They came from the US with their two-year-old and new born and started a Bible study in their lounge room. About 10 years into the church plant, Rebecca s faced a crisis she never saw coming. Her husband woke up one day and decided he wasn t a Christian anymore and therefore wanted to end the marriage. On top of the shock of getting a divorce, Rebecca was faced with a crisis of leadership. She never saw herself leading the church on her own, nor was it part of her theology of ministry. However, she was encouraged by the church and her supporters back in the US to not be afraid, but to step into the role of senior pastor. And it is obvious to many that God is all over this appointment. The church has one of the most prominent and influential churches in Spain, launching nation-wide ministries. Out of the crisis of her divorce, God worked in something new and exciting. Application What is the reality of God being with you? What is it that God is telling to not be afraid? Are you open to God s possibilities? Conclusion Christmas is about God being with us in person of Jesus. The passage affirms that God is with us in the crisis of human suffering, but through the crisis awakens faith, and opens us up to the grace and goodness of God. When we look at the crises in our own personal lives and the crises that abound throughout the 5
world, the temptation is to shrink from doing something, to easily dismiss a situation as too hard, too complex, too uncomfortable, or even too scandalous. We can also miss where God might be working. In the fight against Terrorism, we may fail to see that God is not likely with Isis nor the Allied forces, but rather with the survivors of terrorism, who are now on a mass pilgrimage to find a new home. And, coming back to the work of Bishop Desman Tutu, it is obvious that the work of healing and restoration is still a work of progress in South Africa, and I imagine that will be the case for many years to come. As a church, we are behind Rachel and Elijah in the reconciling work that they are doing in Durban. A team from St. Stephen s led by Lauren and TJ are heading there next February. God is needing more people like Desmon Tutu, to standing the gap and pray, and to use their prophetic voice to lift people to the higher plains of hope, forgiveness, peace and restoration. Are you in? God is. Let us pray. 6