Sermon 12/9/12
Matthew 1:18-25
Journey – What Brings You Here?: Joseph
Are you the kind of person who can remember your dreams?
Some people seem to be able to recall them easily, and some people never
remember their dreams. I usually fall into that latter category, not
remembering anything other than blurry images from my dreams. Do you wonder
what our dreams mean, if anything? Are they just leftover thoughts from our
day, thoughts our full and busy minds could no longer hold? Some dreams seem
pretty straightforward in meaning. When I first became a pastor, I prepared my
sermons much earlier in the week than I do now. This wasn’t because I was so
much more diligent or because I was so much less a procrastinator. No, this was
because like clockwork, I would have nightmares about forgetting to write a
sermon and being caught unprepared on Sunday morning, unless, in real life, I
had already finished my work early in the week. Pretty easy to figure out what
those dreams meant! Other times, I just have no clue. I once had a very
elaborate, multi-part dream, that involved train tracks, coins falling, and
chasing after a seminary friend. I was curious about it, since it was so vivid
and I actually remembered it, so for fun I looked up in a “dream
interpretation” book what each of the items in my dream might mean. Every
single thing in my dream meant: money. Money, money, money. So much for that!
Still though, dreams can be powerful. Shortly after my
grandfather died, back in 1998, my mother had a clear dream, where my
grandfather, no longer frail from illness, but healthy and happy, visited her
at work, and assured her that he was ok. This dream gave my mom an incredible
sense of peace, in the midst of the pain and grief. She felt like God was
reminding her that her father was ok – more than ok – and she trusted the
message she received and was comforted. What have your dreams been telling you?
The scriptures are full of stories of God communicating
through dreams. In Genesis, we encounter Jacob dreaming a vision of a ladder
ascending into heaven, Pharaoh, dreaming of feast and famine in Egypt, Joseph,
Jacob’s son, dreaming of his role that will set him apart from his eleven
brothers. And the dreams continue through the prophets, and into the New
Testament, where we encountered Peter, back in October, who experienced in a
trance a vision of God opening the table to Jew and Gentile alike. Dreams can
be powerful. And dreams play a significant role in the story of Jesus’ birth,
as today, we turn our journey’s focus to Joseph.
Now, you
might think Joseph is a pretty significant figure in the New Testament, in the
story of Jesus, and of course, he is:
He is the husband of Mary, Jesus’s mother, and he is Jesus’ earthly father, the
parent who raises him. But if you think about what we read about Joseph in the
scriptures, you might be surprised to realize that other than passing mentions,
like, “Hey, isn’t that Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph?”, and the scene where
Jesus is twelve and stays behind in the temple while his parents, not even
named separately, are searching for him, Joseph is only mentioned, only appears
in relation to the birth and surrounding events of Jesus. That’s it. So, it is
significant, too, for us to note that every
scene in the birth story where Joseph appears, we hear about a dream he’s had
that contains a message for him about God’s plan, how God will use Joseph to
help usher in the birth of Jesus, the savior.
We first encounter Joseph in the gospel of Matthew.
Luke’s gospel tells the birth story mostly from Mary’s point of view, but
Matthew focuses on Joseph. Matthew tells us that Mary has been found to be with
child, from the Holy Spirit, and then tells us how Joseph responds. Joseph, we
read, is a righteous man. We don’t know what Mary has told Joseph about her
pregnancy – whether she told him the child was God’s, and Joseph doubted, or
whether Mary even had a chance to explain at all – we don’t know how Joseph
learned the news. But Joseph, preparing to divorce Mary, a legal step that
would have to be taken even after an engagement, chooses to do so discreetly, wishing to shield Mary from the full
punishment she could have received – death by stoning. Just as he is planning
the divorce, he has a dream. A messenger from God tells him in a dream that
indeed, the child Mary carries is from the Holy Spirit. They’re to name the
child Jesus – which means savior – and he will be God-with-us – Immanuel. When
Joseph wakes up, we read that “he did as the angel of the Lord commanded, and wed
Mary, who eventually gives birth to Jesus. After Jesus is born, we encounter
Joseph in Chapter 2, as twice more, a messenger appears in Joseph’s dreams, and
directs Joseph where to flee, where to move to so that Jesus is safe from
those, like King Herod, who would do him harm.
I’m amazed by what we don’t
hear in these short passages with Joseph. We don’t hear Joseph ask questions. We don’t hear Joseph say, “Why
me?” or, “I don’t think I heard you right,” or “I don’t believe you” or “that’s
totally ridiculous, God,” or “that’s just not a practical way to have the
savior come. Don’t you have any more sensible ideas?” Joseph dreams, and when
he wakes, he acts. Throughout my ministry, a common question I’ve had people
ask me is this: “Why doesn’t God speak to us as clearly as God spoke to people
in the days of the Bible? Why don’t we hear God or see God in the same ways
anymore?”
But let
me ask you, if God spoke to you like God spoke to these biblical figures, would
you believe it? Even as you are ready to say, “of course I would!,” try to be
very honest with yourself. When Aaron and I went through the process to be
ordained, we had to take a psychological assessment, with hundreds of
questions, and several of them asked the question, “Do you hear voices?” in one
way or another. Now, for pastors-to-be, that’s a loaded question! Do you mean
the voice of God? But no, we knew that “hearing voices” was something that
would be sign of concern, of mental health issues. If we encountered God in the
ways folks did in the scriptures, I suspect we, and others, would mostly think
we were crazy. I think God speaks to us in ways that we can hear God. And so if
it is easier for us to hear God through careful study of the scripture, through
prayer, through practices we somehow consider “logical,” God will speak to us
that way.
But what if our relationship with God could be so much
richer, what if our discipleship could be so much deeper, what if the dreams we
could dream with God could be so much more vivid if we could learn to believe
what we proclaim: nothing is impossible with God! I recently took my nephew Sam
to see a movie, “Rise of the Guardians.” The story is about Jack Frost, who
joins Santa Claus, the Sandman, the Tooth Fairy, and the Easter Bunny as
guardians over the children of the world. Deep stuff, right? The conflict comes
when children begin, because of a villain, to stop believing in these guardians, causing them to lose their
powers, and eventually to disappear altogether. Jack Frost eventually finds a
way to help the children believe again, by helping them to use their
imagination, have fun, and experience joy.
What kind of imagination, what kind of believing did it
take, do you think, to believe that the automobile could exist? The airplane?
The television? The computer? The smartphone? Just yesterday, I downloaded an
app for my phone where you can hum a tune into the phone, and the app will tell
you what song it is. I was just marveling, awe-struck, that such a thing is
possible, and it isn’t even new technology anymore! Sure, all of these
inventions and innovations have hard science behind them, facts and figures.
But without imagination, without believing there must be some way to make it work, we would never have all these things in
our world.
Is God speaking to you? Is God trying to find a way to
make God’s dreams into your dreams?
Our aim is to be more open, more willing to hear and see God in unusual ways,
so that we are ready, like Joseph, to acts, when God puts a dream – sleeping or
waking – into our mind. There’s a brainstorming exercise that we’re going to try
soon with our Visioning Team at Liverpool First, where you imagine all the ways
you might build a better bathtub. There’s no restrictions. Every idea you think of gets written down, and no one is allowed to
say, “Well, that wouldn’t work because…” A carpeted bathtub? Sure! A bathtub on
wheels? Sure! A bathtub where you soak in peanut butter? Sure! No wrong
answers! I’ve used this activity before, and you wouldn’t believe how hard it
is for sensible adults to let loose and dream about a better bathtub. It is
nearly impossible for people to refrain from trying to limit themselves to
practical suggestions. Nearly
impossible.
Could a baby be the savior of the world? Impossible!
…Nearly. Could Mary’s pregnancy be from the Holy Spirit? Impossible! At least
you’d think. Could Joseph endure the scandal of staying with Mary anyway? He
couldn’t stand it, could he? Could he believe in dreams? God’s dreams?
Impossible? Essential. Life-changing.
Life-saving. World-transforming.
Let’s dream, friends, and be a bit impractical.
Nonsensical. Unbelievable. Occasionally even a little ridiculous. Because
God-with-us has a dream to share. Let’s make God’s dreams our reality. Amen.
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