Called

This is the text for my Christmas Eve sermon. I am focusing on Joseph and Mary and leaving the rest of the Birth Narrative to Christmas Day. My texts for this sermon are Luke 1.26-38, Matthew 1.18-25 and Luke 2.1-7.

You may be thinking, Pastor, where’s the rest? Why are you stopping there? Where are the angels Harking? The shepherds shepherding? The Wise Men? The little drummer boy? Where is the rest of Christmas??

Relax. It’s still there; except for the drummer boy. The harking angels and shepherds are still there in Luke’s Gospel, and I’m going to talk about them tomorrow morning (9 a.m. at Our Savior’s and 10:45 at Emmanuel). As for the Wise Men, we celebrate their visitation to the newborn Christ on Epiphany, which is Sunday, January 6 (9 a.m. at Our Savior’s and 10:45 at Emmanuel).

But tonight, I want to focus on this tiny family, Mary, Joseph and their newborn bundle of joy, Jesus. I imagine them all huddled together; Mary looking adoringly at her baby, Joseph looking adoringly at his teenage bride. While the last two lines of the readings from Matthew and Luke tell the most important part of the story, the baby Jesus was born, I think the more interesting information is in what comes before.

In the first reading from Luke, (Luke 1.26-38) we are told that the angel Gabriel went to Nazareth, a very little, teeny tiny, small town, and found Mary, a young girl engaged to a man named Joseph. At this time, the Jewish tradition called for a two part marriage, the betrothal, then the actual marriage, a few months later. During the betrothal, the man and woman lived together in separate rooms in his house, but did not share a bed.

So Mary, who by the tradition of the Jewish people at that time would have been in her early teens, is visited by the angel Gabriel, who tells her she has received God’s favor, and that God is with her. God has chosen her to have a special honor. She will give birth to a baby, a boy, who will sit on the throne of King David, and rule over Israel forever.

I think Mary takes it quite well. She asks only one question, “How?”

Gabriel explains that through the power of the Holy Spirit she will conceive and carry God’s Son. The angel goes onto say that as a sign of the incredible things God is doing, Mary’s cousin, Elizabeth, who is a WHOLE lot older than Mary, is pregnant. Gabriel tells Mary that “Nothing is impossible for God.”

Mary tells the angel that she serves the Lord; let it happen as you have said. Think about that An angel of God comes to her, to tell her that she, a virgin, will have a child, a son who will be the Son of God and reign over Israel forever. And her response is, “I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be with me as you have said.” Gabriel drops this unexpected, unanticipated request on her, and she says, “Sounds good.”

Then she leaves town. Mary goes to visit Elizabeth, and stayed there for about three months.

So that brings us to Joseph. Mary takes off for three months, and then … “She was found to be with child.”

We don’t know how Joseph found out. Was she showing when she came back? At three months, it is possible. Did she tell him right away? I can’t imagine what a conversation between Mary and Joseph would have been like. Were there whispers throughout Nazareth? Is that how Joseph found out? If they talked, I can’t imagine that going well.

However, Joseph was “a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, (and) planned to dismiss her quietly.” It was not just public disgrace, by the terms of Hebrew law, Mary should be taken outside the city gates and stoned to death. And quietly? You would understand better than I can, how do you keep something quiet in a tiny town, in a small community? If there weren’t whispers before, there had to be outright conversations after.

Just as Joseph was making up his mind, while he was asleep, an angel appeared to him, telling him not to be “afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.” The angel tells Joseph the child is fulfilling a prophecy that God will be with us. That is what Emmanuel means, God with us. The child will save his people from their sins.

But Joseph had plenty reasons to be afraid. First, the child was not his. By not dismissing the pregnant Mary, he would bring shame to himself and his family. He would be breaking the Laws of his people. He would be giving away the birthright of the firstborn to a child that he KNEW was not his. Not only was it not his, this was a HOLY child, a child that fulfills prophecies and will save his people. The angel is calling for Joseph to do a great deed.

When I first began to enter the ministry, I learned you tell and retell and analyze your call story. A call story is how you felt or heard the call to ministry. It is the answer to “What led you to become a pastor?” We also study the call stories of people in the Bible. One thing almost every Biblical call story has in common is the questioning or rejection of the call. Let me give you an example, how did Jonah react to God calling him to be a prophet? He ran the opposite way, he got on a  ship which ran into bad weather, he was thrown off the ship (into the water), got swallowed by a whale, which spit him up on the shore near where he was to go. There are great examples of those who are called; Abraham, Moses, David, all ran or said, “You’ve got the wrong guy. Not me.” Knowing these people questioned their call is helpful when you have your own questions.

But not in this case, or cases. We don’t hear any doubt from Joseph. We are told, “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Mary asked only how was this going to happen.

Neither rejected the call. When the angel of the Lord showed up, they didn’t treat his arrival like seeing on caller I.D. a call you DON’T want to take. They didn’t pretend not to hear it. They didn’t say this was the wrong number. They didn’t make the excuse that they were busy, or didn’t need one, or couldn’t possibly do it at this time. Mary said she served the Lord. Joseph did as he was commanded.

Bethlehem was overflowing with people who had to return for the census, and there was nowhere for them to go. Despite this child being the Son of God, Our Savior, Emmanuel, they could not find a place to stay. So when Mary gave birth to Jesus, she had to use a feeding trough for his first cradle. There the three of them, two of them called to take care of the third, were together.

We are all called by God. Some of us may be better at keeping that call on mute than others. Some of us may not have checked our messages in quite a long while. Some may think they’ve turned the phone off.

You. Are. Wrong.

God is still calling you. Want proof? You’re in church right now, aren’t you?

Nothing is impossible for God. Whether you are here by your own volition, through the invitation and encouragement of family or friends, or by the nagging and threatening of those same loved ones, you are here to hear and experience God’s Word and God’s gifts of grace, love, mercy and forgiveness.

I have no idea how God may be calling to you. The angel of the Lord spoke to Joseph through dreams. So tonight, when you are nestled all snug in your bed, with visions of some odd thing dancing through your head, take a moment. Is that vision due to mixing fruitcake, pickled eggs and lutefisk, or is God talking to you? God may be saying don’t eat that stuff together, or at all.

Or God may be calling you. God may be asking you to help in God’s work. Besides the gifts that will be exchanged later tonight and tomorrow, you maybe able to give of yourself, of your talents and abilities, or of your time, to help those who are in need of help. As we share in the joy of the season, you could share the story that is the reason for the celebration, the gift of God’s son. While we will be gathering with family and friends, you may gather more often in worship of our Savior, who came to earth to totally give of himself, including dying on a cross for you and for all, for the forgiveness of our sins.

God is calling you to take part in God’s work in the world. Now if that makes you nervous, and are thinking that Jonah’s escape plan doesn’t sound that bad, relax. God asks only what we are capable of doing. Of course, God can empower us to do so much more than we think we can do, but right now, we can share the Good News. Our Savior Emmanuel has been born.

 

 

 

The Christmas Story - St. Paul's Church, Auckland, NZ