This week's gospel (for Advent 4, Year A in the Revised Common Lectionary: Matthew 1:18-25) opens in a very matter of fact manner, "Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way." Then, unlike the Gospel of Luke, which our Nativity-focused culture tends to love, we hear about Joseph and not Mary. The Eastern Orthodox Church calls Mary theotokos, or God bearer, and with them I heartily rejoice in her willingness to continually say "yes" to God, which is so beautifully described in the Third Gospel's stories. Yet, when I put myself in Joseph's shoes I find his own response to Christ's coming into the world another complete act of Faith in God's working among us.
Joseph was a righteous man, we discover from Matthew's words, and he was going to do the noble thing when he found out that Mary was with child. He was to "dismiss her quietly" from their engagement. Ending a proposed marriage in a small town, like Bethlehem, would hardly be a quiet act, but Joseph set about accomplishing this before he lay down for sleep one night. Joseph held as his intention that no shame be brought unto Mary, and this points to the virtuous way in which this son of David lived his life. Today, we still have disparity in the way in which men and women are treated, especially around issues of sexuality and "illegitimate" pregnancy, so for Joseph to do as he was planning was indeed outstanding and righteous! Yet, all of Joseph's good intentions were dwarfed by what God had in store for him through the Holy Spirit and his partner Mary.
The angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream telling him not to be afraid of taking Mary as his wife. Upon awaking Joseph who was so convinced by the vision that he did as the messenger told him. Yet, we must be careful not overlook the riskiness of this move from a societal perspective. If anyone found out that Mary's child was not Joseph's own, he would have been scorned, shamed, and humiliated by those around him. One's status in Jewish society in the First Century would have been correlated with her or his moral credibility. Joseph's livelihood depended upon the respect of others. So for Joseph to go from a quiet dismissal, which would have been in and of itself risky, to something that could have led to complete societal isolation himself shows just how profound Joseph's faith in God was after having this dream. So what does Joseph's faith show us?
I believe, as strange as it sounds, that Jesus really was born of the Holy Spirit within Mary. I believe that an God truly spoke to Joseph in a dream. I believe that Joseph was indeed a righteous man intending to do what was least shameful to Mary, yet God's will can defy even our best intentions. God's salvific (salvation-focused) work does not typically happen in a manner that appears logical to us. Remember from this last week's gospel, Jesus referred to the great John the Baptist saying, "the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he," and elsewhere that even the wisest on earth are fools in the kingdom of heaven. So even those who appear to be most "godly," "righteous," or "Christ-like" and even we who work towards the best laid plans can often come up lacking. This does not appear to be very good news on the surface: even my best intentions, even my righteous ways, and even my best attempts are not always in line with what God is doing.
However, good news rests just beneath the surface, or better yet, just behind our sleepy eyelids. In a season when we are warned to keep awake (for we know not when God will come like a thief in the night), the good news for Joseph appears ironically when he is sleeping. For Joseph his ways are righteous, but they are not God's most abundant will. God's work sometimes will come in such a way that we cannot even believe it, nor understand it. This is so hard for me as a rational, intellectual, and heady person. How can Mary be a virgin? How can Joseph stand by her? How can God actually come into the world? The difficulty is in resisting the urge to attempt to explain away God's Mysteries. Maybe that is an unsatisfying answer, but God's will brings comfort in that we do not have understand everything, that we cannot prove beyond a shadow of a doubt Mary's virginity, Joseph's dream, or Jesus' divinity. Leaning into the mysteries of God, withholding our attempts to explain away God's ways, and living into Faith allows for the gift of grace to transform our own righteous intentions into God's miraculous working in the world.
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