Matthew 1:18-25
When I read the gospel text for this week, I let out a huge sigh. What the heck lectionary committee… what were you thinking telling us Jesus is born on Advent 4! We aren’t ready for Jesus yet! It’s still Advent! We have been working way too hard at keeping advent for you to surprise us with Jesus’ birth on Advent 4! This is too early! I have more bourbon to drink from my advent calendar! I have more Christmas presents to buy! This is not the time Jesus was supposed to show up! It’s too early. Are we even ready for Jesus?!
There’s someone else who wasn’t really ready for Jesus’ birth either and his name is Joseph. Instead of singing, Mary did you know? because scripture tells us Mary knew, we should sing Joseph did you know because it took him a little while to get with the program. Joseph had a plan to leave Mary quietly as to not cause any drama or controversy because his young fiancé was pregnant before they were fully married. Joseph did not want to be in the middle of that drama especially when they would start to tell people this is the Son of God.
Just as Joseph had planned this quiet escape and had his future figured out an angel appeared to him in a dream… or a nightmare depending on how you look at it! This angel tells Joseph not to be afraid and to stay with Mary. The angel goes on to tell Joseph to name his son, Jesus, salvation. Our gospel story goes on to tell us that Joseph stayed with Mary and named his son, who was born on Advent 4, Jesus.
Now, Joseph could have completely ignored this angel and stayed his course of leaving Mary and living a life out of the spotlight and away from discord. He would never have been known as the father of the boy who gets lost in the temple or the one who raised the radical socialist who preaches on the street corner. He would have never had to be accused of getting his young fiancé pregnant or watch his son be murdered at the hands of an oppressive government. Joseph could have quietly continued his carpentry business by following his plan but instead he chose to listen to an angel that came to him in a dream and told him to stay.
Joseph completely changed his plans for his life and ventured into this journey with Mary having no idea what would come of this. He listened to this angel and agreed to raise the Word the made flesh. Joseph wasn’t ready for Jesus. This wasn’t in his life plan for Jesus to be born on Advent 4! He never anticipated that his young fiancé would be pregnant before they were fully married. Joseph wasn’t ready for Jesus and yet he listened. He listened to an angel in the middle of the night and then helped Mary usher in the Christ child.
This year I want to set before you the year of listening. I invite you all to engage in this year of listening as we listen for God in this place and our next mission opportunity. I set a year before us as listening is not a quick process. Listening takes time and energy and we should be deliberate before we jump into the next thing. But what if Jesus shows up too soon? What if the next mission opportunity comes before our year of listening has concluded? What if like Joseph an angel comes to us in a dream and says here it is but that doesn’t follow our scheduled year of listening?
Joseph listened. There are times when we will have our life set on a course. Where we are sure we know the next thing we will be doing and how it will all turn out and then, something like an angel appearing to us in a dream will completely rattle our life plan to its core. But we have the same decision as Joseph we can listen and change course or we can continue to forge ahead with our carefully thought out plan like a year of listening.
Of course there will be times when we think, oh Jesus that is too soon! Our year of listening is not completed! It’s only advent 4 you can’t show up yet! But, God is with us. Jesus is here and we are called to follow him even when he shows up at the wrong times. Our Church is always saying lets wait a little bit longer. Let’s do one more study and have a committee. Let’s plan this for one more day. We just aren’t ready yet. But, in that waiting we are hurting our most vulnerable neighbor because they have been waiting long enough for the Church to act. We will always think oh this is too soon or it isn’t right but when God is calling us to the next thing who’s to say no not just yet? God is with us.
Sometimes, our perfectly laid out plans are thwarted by angels in dreams and listening. And oh how unsettling that is just when we know we have this perfect plan set up and it is undone in an instant. We have no idea if the next plan will work or even if it’s a plan at all. We don’t know if that was truly an angel speaking to us or just another one of our silly dreams. I thought I had advent planned perfectly and that I would open my final tiny bourbon bottle as Jesus arrived on Christmas morning and yet the lectionary writers thwarted my plans and brought Jesus to the scene on Advent 4! I will get over it eventually, but don’t we sometimes hold grudges when our plans are completely changed.
And yet there is something beautiful in listening and changing course. If Joseph had stayed his course of quietly leaving Mary, he would have wondered what happened during labor. Was Mary okay? Is the baby okay? Joseph would have wondered what it was like to raise the Christ child the Son of God. Joseph would have had all of the what-if’s had he walked away but he listened to that angel in his dream and trusted his gut that this was the right thing to do, this is what he was being called to.
We must ask ourselves is there any harm in starting things when the Spirit moves? Is there a problem in following Jesus when he shows up too soon? There are times when we don’t want to go along with where the Church is being called. There are times when like Joseph we will have an escape route planned and no one will even notice our quiet exit. We think we can just exit quietly rather than being a part of the coming kin-dom of Jesus. Even when Jesus shows up too soon or it doesn’t feel quite right and we would rather disengage than follow along, God is with us.
So, let’s listen to what’s next and never fear that its too soon. We may want to listen longer and wait just a few more weeks making sure that it’s the right choice but as our lectionary proves, God isn’t always on our time schedules and Jesus may come breaking in before our plan says he should. And even when it feels too soon I say, God is with us. It won’t always be easy to allow the urging of the Holy Spirit to change our course. It won’t be easy to listen to the angel in our dreams and change all our plans. And maybe like Joseph we aren’t ready for Jesus to come just yet. We aren’t prepared for this, but scripture reminds us that Jesus is Immanuel, God with us. As we continue to venture into the unknown of this church and listen to angels in our dreams know that God is with us. Just when our perfectly laid out plans get thwarted; God is with us. When we are unsettled to our core because we do not know the way forward, God is with us.
So in this upcoming church year I urge us to listen. Listen to each other. To our neighbors. To our enemies. To the outcast and the marginalized. Let’s listen to what the Church can do better. Let’s listen to what parts of us can die. Let’s listen to where God is calling us next. In all of this listening maybe God will show up too soon… like on advent 4… and call us to our next venture but even in that too soon-ness God is with us. God is with us in the chaos and stillness. God is with us when the pews are full or when the worship chairs feel empty. God is with us, faithful people of Luther Memorial. So, let us listen to where God is calling us next. Amen.