Joseph's Big Dream

Joseph’s Big Dream

Today I'd like for us to go into Joseph’s head, sorta like we did Mary, last week. We are tempted to just look at the top of the story, you know, Joseph received a dream and then took Mary as his wife and was Jesus’ earthly father.  But when we take out the shovel, there is a lot to remove!

1.       We all have heard about Joseph. We know his name comes from the Hebrew name, Yosef or Joshua: the one who brought God’s people into the Promised Land.

2.       We know he is a descendant of David. According to the oldest-known Greek edition of Matthew, Joseph was in Bethlehem when he had the dream. Perhaps he actually lived in Bethlehem prior to the formal “taking home” ceremony-banquet with Mary. We know Joseph, Mary and Jesus lived in Bethlehem for up to 2 years after Jesus’ birth and before taking refuge in Egypt before returning to Nazareth to live.

3.       The gospels describe Joseph as a “tekton.” The word could mean “carpenter,” thus Joseph’s symbol is that of a saw.  But it could mean a worker in iron or stone or a person who does odd-jobs around the village.  We have the tradition and the writings of the early church leader, Justin Martyr, who in 165 AD wrote, “Jesus was trained by Joseph to make made yokes and ploughs.”

4.       Finally, we know that Joseph is a pious and a religious man.  He follows the religious orders of Judaism and the religious holidays – doing what is required after the birth of Jesus and then later, taking the pilgrimage to the Temple at Passover when Jesus is 12.  We know Joseph believed in angels.  We know his part of the Christmas drama has him obeying the direction of the angel to marry Mary – to flee to Egypt – and, to escape a massacre of children. Joseph is last known when Jesus is 12. He is not mentioned again, alive – not at the wedding in Cana of Galilee, the first miracle of Jesus and not at the cross, where Jesus entrusts his mother’s life to John, his disciple. So sometime in the 21 years between Jesus’ 12 year and Jesus’ death, at approximately 33, Joseph died. 

This is what we know, but we can guess a few other things:

1.       If we accept the “tradition” of Judaism, Joseph’s marriage is arranged while Mary was just a child, we can guess then, he was a child. Artists paint Joseph as an older man with a white beard, but rather, around the same age or a few years older than Mary …  

2.       Again, if we accept the “tradition” of Joseph living in the same village as Mary, in or near Nazareth, then we can guess it is probable he worked in the regional capital, Sepphoris.  Sepphoris was a Roman city of higher-class persons under construction during this time. It is within walking distance of Nazareth. It's possible that Joseph is one of the stone masons or, if a carpenter, built small wooden necessities needed in the building. In any case, Joseph is an outdoors person – probably having strong shoulders and callused hands. He would have been respectable, but far, far down the rungs of the social ladder.

3.       Finally, we can also guess that Joseph is not the first boy in his family, thus, he did not inherit his father’s household. First-born males served in the Temple, as did Elizabeth’s husband. The Bible has him going to the Temple to partake in the ceremonies, but it does not mention his serving at the Temple.

Joseph had but two qualifications to play in the Christmas drama – he is a descendent of David and, for whatever reason, since Mary is God’s choice, he, too is God's choice. In this regard, I like to think that Joseph is someone with whom we can all identify – a common man who dared to be obedient to God's will for his life.

For a 1^st century Jew, being a husband and being a father is the utmost importance. Thus, Joseph’s place in the Christmas story is that of Mary's husband and then Jesus’ earthly father. That’s where today’s message begins.

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Remember there are three parts to the Jewish marriage: the engagement as children, the promise, and the taking-home banquet.  According to Matthew, Joseph and Mary were engaged, they were "betrothed," or “promised,” but had not had the “taking home ceremony-banquet.”

We have come into a dark time for this “man,” – or as we would have looked at him, older boy.  Joseph has had his Barmizpah – in Jewish life, he is a man.  He has spent the last two years getting ready for the banquet – with his family, raising money for the wine, the sheep, and foods, buying the necessary items for the whole village to participate. 

·         He has been doing everything he needs to do in preparation for his wedding, the biggest day in a Jewish man’s life.

·         Then, what he never imagined would happen, happens: his fiancée is pregnant.

·         He knows he is not the father, so suddenly his world shatters!

This is a dark time for Joseph, a dark time, indeed!  Yes, this, the most important time of his life – it is the deep winter night of Joseph's life. He has never encountered something that has left him so out-of-control. 

Joseph does not want to see Mary stoned, though at this point, something had to happen. Culture demanded it. Maybe the alternative could be breaking off the relationship, not making a big deal of it. It seemed to be the most honorable thing to do within Jewish faith. What would that mean? 

·         It would mean to Joseph’s family, Mary would be as dead, thus, the engagement would be declared dead.  

·         It would mean Mary would remain home with her family, in quiet shame, where she and her child would live out their days beyond the circle of respectability.

·         It would mean Mary would probably never marry and would be left to devises beyond respectability to live once her father died.

It is not a solution that leaves Joseph satisfied. It does little to dissolve his anger, his shame, and his hurt. However, just as once he could not imagine his engagement shattering in this way, so now he cannot picture any better resolution. 

This is a deep winter’s night of Joseph's life! From our Scripture, having decided on his course of action, Joseph goes to bed. He sleeps the sleep of the exhausted, the vanquished, and it is a fitful sleep. To Joseph, in that slumber, there comes a dream.  You have had them. I had one Monday night following some bad news in a couple of telephone calls. These are times when things are not going right or you have problems and your dream is shaped by the problems:

·         It is not some small dream, the result of a bit of undigested potato or a daylight triviality demanding his attention.

·         What comes to Joseph is a BIG DREAM, as spacious as the deep winter night, and far more overwhelming.

·         This dream is an uneasy place for him to be, for yet again he feels out of control as never before.

The dream speaks with the voice of command:

·         He's told to take Mary, pregnant Mary, as his wife.

·         He's told not to be afraid.

·         He's reminded that he's more than just a young guy trying to get started in life, who earns his keep one day at a time:  His is the family tree of King David, and though Joseph now feels like a pauper, underneath he knows he's a prince.

The dream does more than just pump Joseph up:

·         He finds out strange things about this unborn child, whose face or name or sex he had not yet begun to imagine.

·         The father is not some lout from the village who would dare take advantage of Joseph's fiancée.

·         This child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

·         God's the father! Not Joseph! Not any man in Nazareth!

The dream gives this baby, yet to be born, both a name and a mission:

·         He's to be named “Jesus,” a name that means, “savior, healer, the one who rescues.”

·         He'll have the same name as Moses' sidekick, Joshua, who brought Israel into the Promised Land.

·         He'll have a similar mission to perform. Not to deliver God's people from slavery in Egypt, but out of slavery to their sins.

Can you imagine what Joseph must have been thinking when he awakens from the dream?

·         Lying in his bed in a cold sweat;

·         Wonder whether or not he's losing his mind;

·         One thing's for certain: his troubles are not yet over.

·         He still has a pregnant fiancée and his relationship with her is about to collapse.

·         AND, his ONLY solution of the two his culture would accept is now being rejected by God.

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It's still a dark night, there's a difference now: a torch is blazing against this winter blackness. But I am sure it takes a while for the dream to settle into Joseph's heart.

·         At breakfast that morning, he is probably acting like a zombie.

·         Later at the work site, he probably isn’t doing anything right – bending nails or splintering wood.

·         Finally he comes to see that this big dream, still echoing in his head, is nothing less than God's message to him: an angel speaking a word even more startling than the news that Mary's pregnant.

Much to his surprise, against his will, contrary to his better judgment, he recognizes the dream as the revelation of a larger purpose than his own comfort or discomfort.

·         The problem is still in place.

·         But, now Joseph recognizes that there is power in that problem.

·         What looks for all the world like a burden is there to offer all the world a blessing.

Joseph retains his right to be perplexed! But his attitude is changing, he no longer feels afraid and he changes his mind:

·         He will follow through on his intention to marry;

·         The child in Mary's womb he will raise as his own; and,

·         God will be the one to put together the pieces – God will make sense of this puzzle.

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I have shared with you before that my Theology – my “God-talk” belief process is to be the best Mike I can be. Only I can be me. Joseph's task is to be Joseph – to be the best Joseph he could be: Nothing more, nothing less! It would be God's task, God’s task to make this child a savior, an Emmanuel, as he promised in the dream. And that will be enough to do, even for God.

·         Joseph makes his place in history because Joseph does not follow the rules.

·         The rules say that say Mary should be stoned to death.

·         Joseph acts in a totally unselfish manner.

·         Joseph put aside his pride.

·         Joseph then adopts Jesus as his son.

·         It must have been a scary thing for Joseph to take such a risk.

·         Only a deep and abiding faith could have enabled him to follow through with the angel’s instructions.

 

 

Conclusion: The simple truth is this: none of us can avoid a crisis at some point in our lives. All of us will have trouble in the course of our lives. Someone may appear to be always on top of the world, but what this shows is that we do not know that person well. Your dark time or mine can be the road to a larger purpose. Anytime we follow God and do that thing which is unpopular or goes against what society considers to be “right,” we take a risk. It can be very lonely and we will likely lose some friends in the process. Joseph, however is given assurance. He did not have to be afraid. God was with him.

What poor young Joseph first sees as a disaster, and the ruin of all his hopes, turns out to be Emmanuel, God with us! Joseph is not crushed by what occurs. Instead, he receives a message that changes everything. But that divine message would be useless except for one thing: Joseph is willing to hear it and act on it.

Mary-A Faithful Response

A Faithful Response

Luke 1: 28-36

 

If you follow the faith logic of the Roman Catholic Church or the Orthodox Church, then you believe from the beginning of Creation God prepared the womb of a young woman, Mary of Nazareth to be the mother of God.  But under the more Protestant viewpoint, Mary is a girl of innocence who, because of her faithful response, has gone down in history changing the world! What if she had said, “No!”

 

We really do not know much about Mary, but we do know the culture she was born into. The gospel makes it clear she is from the linage of David. Her name, Mary, is the Greek form of the Hebrew name, Miriam – the sister of Moses. 

·         We know she is living around the time period we call, the 1^st century A.D.

·         We also know she is living in her parents’ home, in the mountain regions, near the Sea of Galilee. It is the region where the different continents of the world come together – Africa, Asia, and Europe, near the mountain, Har Megiddo – the area some Christians believe the battle of Armageddon will occur. 

·         We know Mary is considered marriage-age.  John, Karen, Kristen, Jeremiah -- Mary is around the age of your girls. Imagine!

 

In Jewish tradition, there were three steps in the marriage process:

·         The engagement: The engagement has been arranged by the parents through a matchmaker. Mary would have been a child when this was done;

·         The Promise: This is a formal ratification of the “marriage-to-be” – a time for the community to accept a coming together of two families.  This betrothal normally takes place a year before the couple would be formally considered man and wife. In most cases, the girl would have been around 12 years of age.  During this time, the couple was legally bound to each other.  In other words, if the man died before the actual wedding, she would have still been considered a widow. During this time, they would have been referred to as, “husband and wife,” but they would have refrained from sexual relations.

·         The wedding: Unlike today’s church ceremony, the wedding is actually a “formal home-taking” ceremony – the groom would officially bring his bride to his home.  Arriving, a banquet, lasting up to a week would take place.  It is during this week-long party, the marriage is consummated.

 

The Christian church believes Mary conceived Jesus through divine intervention while she is betrothed to Joseph, but before the home-taking ceremony.  You might be interested to know that the Muslim Qur’an also shares Mary conceived Jesus through divine intervention.  If all this is true, Mary is 13 at the birth of Jesus.

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Imagine this – if, indeed, it’s possible for you to imagine: a 12-13 year-old girl is confronted by an angel. The angel says God has chosen her to be the mother of God!!

·         If it were you, what would you say to that dazzling figure – an angel, to such a startling announcement?

·         What would you do if an angel appeared to you while you were at fetching water at the well?

·         What would constitute your faithful response?

 

That’s what I’d like for us to think about this morning: Are we willing to have a faithful response – like Mary, even when it may prove negative to your personal life? When faced with an unexpected, unsolicited and, often, undesirable situation or circumstance,

·         What does it mean to have faith?

·         Can Mary – can we, refuse to follow God?

·         Do things just happen, or is there some overall plan at work here in which everything fits together?

 

Let’s face it: we cannot prove the Bible stories from the viewpoint of the Catholic Church or the Protestant Church – the Christian story cannot be proven: the story of the virgin birth – the story of Mary, one way or the other. But, as Christians,

·         We believe!

·         We believe, first and foremost that God is sovereign.

·         We believe God is at work reconciling us to God.

·         We believe God is in Charge.

 

Now, saying this, we are not blaming God for everything that happens – that God sent Hurricane Sandy to wipe out a good portion of New Jersey and New York City.  We simply are saying we believe Romans 8:28 – “All things work together for good for those who love God and to those who are called together for His purposes.”

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Let’s look at what Mary does!

·         When the angel Gabriel appears to Mary she does not run away!

·         Mary does not ask Gabriel to leave her alone – I believe she could have – I believe she has the freedom, the personal choice, to say, “Go away from me!”

·         No, instead, she listens and she tries to understand the meaning behind what is being said. Luke says it like this: "She was greatly troubled at the saying, and considered what kind of salutation this might be (Luke 1:29).”

 

I submit to you the first ingredient of a faithful response is to consider what God is up to and how God might use an unforeseen circumstance, even an unwanted event, to bless you and strengthen you in faith. I will not defend the Calvinistic doctrine that everything happens according to some preordained plan, but I will submit that I believe, “God is in charge.”  If we believe this, we are able to take the unexpected events of everyday life and see them, not as impositions that get in the way, or as obstacles to be overcome, but as opportunities that can lead us into a closer relationship with God and those around us.

 

Alongside of this, as part of our faithful response, it is “alright” to “question” what is going on! Why are we afraid to question God?  In our Scripture, Mary questions what was going on. Mary is baffled and rightly so. She asks, “How can this be?” It doesn’t make sense!

·         Even today, 2,000 years later, the idea of a “virgin birth” is a mystery that defies our logic.

·         We cannot explain it, yet we confess it every time we recite the Apostles’ Creed.

Our belief, to me, is a faithful response. It allows for the fact that there is so much more to God’s creation and God’s will for our lives than we can possibly ever know or fully comprehend.

 

A faithful response looks to God without having all the answers:

·         Without a hint of warning, a young man with a wife and a child lost his job this week. “Merry Christmas!” He can be angry and upset and go off the deep end, or, or he can turn to God and ask, “O.K., Lord, where do we go from here?”

·         A family’s home in New Jersey is washed away by the storm surge of Sandy. The family home of over 100 years is gone along with memories that can never be replaced. They can become bitter and resentful of those who “dodged the bullet,” or they can pray to God, thankful for being alive, rolling up their sleeves and starting over.

Seldom can we say why things happen. Seldom do we have all the answers. If we wait until all our questions are answered, nothing will ever happen.

 

We take what we know; we use our best judgment; and we take a leap of faith. This, to me, is a faithful response.

 

I seriously doubt that Mary has any idea what will happen in her life.  I dare say Mary knows she is in dangerous territory!  Parents would have told her, “Do not listen to strangers!” Of course, this man says he is an angel – I don’t know if he had identification or not.  Still, she listens! And when Gabriel was finished, she bows her head in humble obedience and says, “Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; be it to me according to thy word (1:38).” 

·         Friends, I think we take this for granted – we think this is just a statement on Mary’s part.

·         BUT, in the 1^st century A D, Mary is quite literally putting herself in God’s hands. For Mary, this could be a death sentence!  I am sure Mary probably has seen or has heard about a young woman being stoned-to-death for this “offense.”

·         Theologian, Barbara Taylor writes, “(Mary) becomes the most important woman in the world simply because she is willing to say ‘yes’ without a clue where it will lead her. Doing so, she becomes the prototype for all of us who are into invited to bear God into the world.”

Mary gives us one of the best examples I know of a faithful response to an unforeseen and unlikely – and uninvited – circumstance of life: “Be it to me according to thy word.”

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Now, we could stop here.  I think if we did, we would see a picture of a young pre-teen willing to naively respond to God.  But, I would like to take this a step further by asking the question: “What happens when the angel leaves the room?”

 

Have you thought about it? I mean it is easy to be brave, it is easy to say, “Let it be!” when Mary is with an angel! But how about when the angel is gone and Mary alone must face the world?

·         Gabriel informs this young girl that she will conceive a child, that she will bear a son.

·         Mary is informed that she will be breaking of all social norms of the first century!

·         The angel is now gone and it is Mary, Mary alone, who has to confront her community!

·         The angel has left, and it is Mary, Mary alone, who must confront her parents! If you had been her mother or father, would you have believed her?

This is the first century. Mary does not own her life – Mary is literally, LITERALLY the property of her father! In our marriage ceremonies we ask, “Who gives this woman to be married? The response is, ‘Her mother and I.’” For us, it is just part of the ceremony, but for the first century, it was a fact. I know, I know, we do not think this way anymore, but they did!

 

According to Luke, this is what Gabriel told Mary, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.” Can you imagine Mary going to her daddy and saying, “Daddy, I am pregnant – but God did it!” It was not unheard of for the father in the first century to send his own daughter to be stoned! It happens today in Jihadish-ruled countries.

 

We do not know what happened after the angel left the room. But I bet there have been times in your life: someone asks you a tough question and you have to make a decision, only later to you slap yourself on the forehead and say, “I wish I’d asked this or that.” Was that the way it was with Mary:

·         “Why didn’t I ask Gabriel to tell my parents when I had the chance?”

·         “Will Joseph stick around?”

·         “Will my parents still love me?”

·         “Will my friends stand by me or will I get dragged into town and stoned?”

·         “Will the pregnancy go all right?”

·         “You say the child will be king of Israel, but what about me? Will I survive his birth? What about me?””

Oh, how Mary wishes she had asked Gabriel to go with her to see the community leaders. How she wished she had asked Gabriel to speak to her parents. But “Elvis has left the building” – the angel is gone! The facing of the world must take place – facing the unexpected – “facing the difficulties of life head-on” is the second step of a faithful response.

 

 

 

 

This is true in regard to just about everything that ever happens to us in life. You can make all the plans you want, but what is the saying: Life gets in the way. Life happens.  

·         Facing the possibilities of being unaccepted because of our beliefs – being an outcast;

·         Facing the words of Simeon outside the Temple gates: “God, you can now release your servant; release me in peace as you promised. With my own eyes I’ve seen your salvation; … (and to Mary) the pain (will be) of a sword-thrust through you.”

·         Facing the accusations against your son – accusations leading to the unthinkable!

Mary will be there! – Mary will at Calvary! At the foot of his cross. I wonder what she would have said to the angel if she had known about Calvary.  Would she have still said, “Yes?”

 

I think – I really do think – that is a question we should try to answer this Christmas. Are we willing to have a faithful response – like Mary, even when it may prove negative to you?

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There will come the time for all of us, for each of us, when God will come calling.

·         Will we respond faithfully? Will we be like Mary?

·         And, what will we do after the angel has left the room? Will we face life as it comes?

 

The next time an angel comes into your room and says, “Have I got a proposition for you!” just say, “Yes.” Then, Fasten your seatbelt and get ready to take a ride, because when the angel leaves the room, life is about to happen!