Sermon – Rev’d Bob Driver
• Isaiah 7:10-16
• Romans 1:1-7
• Matthew 1:18-25
There are no less than five dreams in the two opening chapters of Matthew’s Gospel. Most of us, I think, have dreams at one time or another – it’s one way God tells us what he is up to, especially how he’s at work in our souls for his good pleasure, flattening our mountains and raising our valleys.
Some years ago I had a swarm of dreams involving buses. It took me about three years to work out, why ‘buses. ’Bus, as you know, is short for “omnibus”, Latin, meaning “for all”. In other words, for “bus”, read “church”.
The Church, like a ‘bus, is always on the move. Look at the Magi; they come from the East, they enter the “house”, usually a metaphor for Church; they “see the child Jesus or his Mother” – early Christian devotion to Mother Church went hand-in-hand with devotion to the Mother of God – Mary, Virgin Mother is the symbol of the Church, our Mother.
Then, the Magi go home a different way to the one they’d come. Doubtless they went on a Link ‘Bus, telling everyone what they’d seen and heard, as the shepherds do in Luke’s account.
As for Joseph, he flees to Egypt – Herod, for his part, sends the SS to slaughter the baby boys.
Joseph then leaves Egypt and comes back to Israel and finally ends up in Nazareth.
That’s a lot of tagging on & off with the Hop card!
The still centre of all this activity however is also the Church, where we do indeed come across Jesus and our Blessed Lady in the stillness of Christmas – it’s where we, along with the Magi, worship God and offer so to speak our gold, our frankincense and myrrh – our whole being in fact for God to do his work in us and through us.
Then, there are times when the Church, like the original Holy Family must flee back to Egypt because of persecution – or perhaps they go underground. Either way the Church in exile will examine itself and its beliefs, a return to its roots, a return to the early Church Fathers to see what they taught; the Church not in retreat, which might lead to despair, but a Church on retreat, re-discovering itself. Unless we know where we’ve come from, how shall we know where we are going, what ‘bus is going to take us?
The very name “Joseph” is evocative, reminding us of the Old Testament Joseph whose story also includes dreams. The Ishmaelites who take Joseph off to Egypt are carrying large amounts of spices, resin and myrrh like the Magi. Joseph is sold for 20 silver pieces, reminding us of Judas’ treachery and the cost of our redemption. Both Old and New Testament Josephs are concerned with doing the right thing; the Old Testament Joseph refuses to go to bed with his master’s wife; the New Testament Joseph wants to obey the Law by dismissing his betrothed who is pregnant (she has, in effect, “broken off” the engagement, so by law Joseph must dismiss her), yet doing it “quietly” so as not to embarrass her. Law and Love come together.
In both stories there is much coming & going to and from Egypt.
Both Josephs could be said to have taken up the refrain of John the Baptist – I must decrease; he must increase”. The Joseph of Genesis must, despite his exalted position in Pharaoh’s Egypt, become a little child for reconciliation to take place between himself and his family – indeed we find him crying uncontrollably when he learns of the identity of his siblings.
Our New Testament Joseph must likewise obey the promptings of the dream – Old Testament prophecies are thereby fulfilled – very important for Matthew’s Jewish readers – “behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son”; “out of Egypt I have called my son”; “he shall be called a Nazarene” and so on. Joseph is therefore a true prophet; he has decreased, he is subject to the demands of the dreams which are the demands of God. God is viewed by some as a limitation to human freedom – God must be sidelined if man is to be fulfilled. But God is never in competition with his creation – he does however want to free us from our self-seeking self-absorption.
The Magi ask the people of Jerusalem, “Where is the child born to be King of the Jews?” It’s a foreshadowing of the Cross – also at Jerusalem – with its superscription “King of the Jews”. Our liberation is costly; it costs Jesus everything.
But righteous Joseph doesn’t act out of self-interest – he obeys God and that is to the benefit of Mary and the child Jesus and all of us today. He must turn the shame he must feel at Mary’s pregnancy into feelings of joy at the work of the Holy Spirit in Mary’s life, the life of the Church. As Martin Luther said, “The Law is not fulfilled unless it is fulfilled with joy”. Joy and grace belong together. Mary is full of grace. We find joy, the joy of Christmas, in loving God by doing his will in the present moment and leaving the future in his hands. Mary’s freely given response to the Angel Gabriel, “Let it be done unto me according to thy word”, leads us too to freedom, freedom to do the will of God in whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Jesus tells his disciples, “Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear; many prophets and righteous people longed to see, and you see but did not see it and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it”.
In other words, the Christ, the Messiah has come into our world at Christmas so that we might indeed come into right relationship with God and with one another, all because of his great love for us and for all creation which he will renew, a new creation which we the Church already embody in all our comings in and goings out, and in the ponderings of the silence of our hearts.
