Do the Right Thing

Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year A

December 22, 2013

Matthew 1:18-25

Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel,"

which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

When I was growing up, and even now, one of the things I was told to do and tried to do is the right thing.  I think all of us are in the same boat, when we are given a choice, when we have a decision to make, we want to make the right choice, and we want to do the right thing.  When we are hungry, we all know that we should make good decisions about what we are going to eat – something healthy over something that’s not as healthy.  We know that the right thing to do is to try and exercise a little every day, rather than sitting on the couch, or at the table reading the latest posts on our Facebook feed.  We know there are many things we should do, they aren’t necessary to do, but they are the right things to do.

We know that when we find something that isn’t ours, the right thing to do is to try to locate the real owner.  We know that if we see someone stumble and fall, the right thing to do is to help them up, to make sure they are okay.  We know that the right thing to do is help someone in need.  As parents we want to do the right things, to ensure that our children grow up to be good, decent people.  As children we want to do the right thing for our parents, especially as they get older, we want to make sure the right decisions are made.  Each and every day, in situation after situation there are decisions that need to be made; we know the right thing to do is, well, to do the right thing. 

When we are driving down the highway, we know the right thing to do is to stay under the speed limit – it’s the law.  Yet, how often do we not do the right thing?  We know the right thing to do according to most doctors is to eat more vegetables than meat; yet, how often does that really happen?  The right thing to do is brush and floss our teeth after every meal, but really?  The right thing to do is to follow the rules; yet, how often do we try to find ways around the rules?

Doing the right thing can be hard.  Doing the wrong thing – that’s pretty easy.  It’s easy to grab the candy bar at the checkout lane.  It’s easy to just sit and not go for a walk.  It’s easy to not say or do anything when you see someone in need.  It’s easy to look the other way.  It’s easy to sleep in on Sunday morning, skip church.  It’s easy to allow the Christmas season around us cause our focus to shift from God to goods, from peace to possessions.  It’s easy to get turned around and confused, it’s easy to lose sight of the right thing.

Joseph wanted to do the right thing.  He and Mary had been engaged.  Now, in ancient times an engagement was a lot like an engagement today, but there was a major difference.  Then, an engagement was essentially a contract.  Arrangements had been made between the families, there was often an agreement amounting to a contract of the wedding to come.  There were stipulations about how the bride and the groom were both supposed to behave and act in the time before the wedding.  These were contracts that often dealt with issues far beyond just the bride and the groom.  In our day, breaking off an engagement is not an easy thing to do; but in ancient times, breaking an engagement was almost impossible. It was like having to go through a divorce.  And Mary is suddenly pregnant.

Joseph wants to do the right thing, he was after all a righteous man.  Matthew tells us he was a righteous man, and righteous people do the right things.  So, what does a righteous man think when his betrothed shows up pregnant?  Well, we all know where babies come from, and if Joseph hadn’t broken the rules of the engagement, then Mary must have – she had committed adultery.  This would have brought shame on both Joseph and Mary’s families, and it could have easily led to Mary being stoned to death – that was after all the punishment for adultery according to the Old Testament.

So, Joseph being the righteous man he was, seeks to divorce her, to break the engagement, quietly.  He wants to save her the shame and public disgrace, not to mention being killed.  He could have legally exposed her, declared her an adulteress, and she would have been executed.  Yet, he likely still cared for her, he knew the penalties and wanted to protect her.  He was a righteous man.  He wanted to do what was right.  He knew what the law said, what his families and the church expected, but he sought a different path.  He sought to protect her as he left rather than seek punishment.

It wasn’t an easy decision; even divorcing her quietly would bring questions.  And an unmarried woman, giving birth to a child was destined to a life of hardship.  She would become amongst the lowest of the low, and her child would be shunned, but at least she would be alive.  The law was clear.  What else could a righteous man do?

Joseph’s internal battle, his battle as he sought to do what was right was finally answered by the words of the angel, who told him not to fear.  This angel’s message of not fearing though is different than the message of not fearing that Mary received.  Joseph is told not to fear taking Mary as his wife.  His turmoil about what to do, what is the right thing to do, is calmed by the angel.  He is not to fear what may happen, the judgment that could come, the shunning that might result, the questioning from friends and family.  No, his fears are not to keep him from marrying his betrothed.

Joseph did what was right.  He may not have done what was right according to the customs and practices in the first century.  He may not have done what was right according to his family.  He may not have done what was right according to the laws of Judaism.  Yet, he was a righteous man, and he did what was right to fulfil God’s plan, to fulfil God’s desires.

As people of faith we look to our faith to guide us when we seek to determine what is right.  Sometimes, it can be pretty easy to know what is right or wrong, what is God’s desire for us as followers.  The scriptures are clear on issues like idolatry, murder, stealing.  Yet, there are times when the words we turn to in the Bible may not be quite as clear, when we are not able to find a definite answer in black and white.  In those moments, in those times of decision we can look to the model of Joseph for guidance.

How?  Joseph did what was necessary for Jesus to be born in Bethlehem.  Joseph put aside the rules and expectations of his culture and his faith, and did what God asked him in order that Jesus might be.  That is the standard for us as well in moments where clarity may not be found in our Bible, in our church, in our society: what is the action that will make Jesus present, the choice that will allow others to see or experience the holy presence of our Lord and Savior.

The phrase ‘what would Jesus do’ is one that we often hear; yet, let’s be honest lots of the time we don’t really know what Jesus would do, we just do what we think is right and then say that’s what Jesus would do.  Rather than doing that, what if instead we were to ask, “How can I bring Jesus to this situation?”  What is the action, what is the decision, what are the words that will make another person see and know that Jesus is somehow present in that moment?

In just a few days we will celebrate the birth of Jesus.  We will gather around a tree, we will share gifts with one another, we will remember how it was Jesus came to born amongst us, and within us.  As we think about Christmas, as we think about the year that is coming to an end, as we think about the new year that is soon beginning let us think about how it was, when it was, and where it was that Christ was born in our midst.  Let us seek that in the coming year, it is not only on Christmas that we see Jesus being discovered to be amongst us.  Amen.

Waiting and Working

Third Sunday of Advent Year A

December 15, 2013

Luke 1:46-55

And Mary said: "My soul magnifies the Lord,

   my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God's servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   the Mighty One whose name is holy.
God's mercy is for those who fear God
   from generation to generation.
God has shown great strength;
   and has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
God has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
God has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.
God has helped God's servant Israel,
   in remembrance of God's mercy,
according to the promise made to our ancestors,
   to Abraham and Sarah and to their descendants forever."

Waiting can be tough.

I remember when I was younger, and I see it now with my own childen, how hard it was to wait those last few weeks before Christmas.  It seems like at least once a day I get asked how many days until Christmas.  It gets harder and harder as each day passed.  Every time you walk out the door, you see something that declares the coming of Christmas.  Each day it gets closer, and the closer it gets the harder it becomes to wait.  The cards and letters begin to appear in the mailbox.  You see a package or two appear, delivered by UPS or the postal carrier.  The Christmas tree appears, begging to have the space beneath its branches filled with gifts.  You find yourself humming the carols and hymns, that may not have been thought of for the last year.  The anticipation builds, and you just want to get to it.

My wife and I were never blessed to feel the anticipation that comes with pregnancy.  We only felt that crazy anticipation of knowing a child was coming, but having no real clue when; and then that call that tells you, “4 weeks!”  I’m not sure which is better or worse, being able to spend 9 months or so in preparation, or only having a month.  Either way, you begin to anticipate.  There are always things to do, trips to the store to buy things you think you need, a crib to repair, a nursery to paint, arrangements to be made at work, double-checking your insurance.  There is always something more, and then there are the thoughts you have about the child.

With a pregnancy comes anticipation.  You wait, and yet you can’t wait.  What will the child be like?  Will it have eyes like its mom or dad?  Whose nose will it have?  When will it allow us to sleep through the night?  Will they inherit my bad habits?  How tall will they grow?  Will we make it as parents?  How badly can you mess up and still succeed?  Will they be healthy?  Sometimes, we might even allow ourselves to wonder even further down the path ahead: what will they be like as an adult?  Will they be someone that inspires others?  Will they be a leader?  Will they be a servant of others?  With the coming of a child comes expectation, there comes endless possibilities, there comes joy.

Today we focus on the song of Mary, the prayer of Mary when she learns of her pregnancy.  These words are her thoughts, her daydreams.  Yet, they are so much more.  Mary sings out her joy, her feelings of being blessed, her feelings of having been chosen by God; and then she gets lost in her song, in her joy.  Her song goes beyond the joy felt in her own self, to the joy felt in creation itself.  She was waiting, yet creation itself was also waiting to be transformed.

These powerful words of Mary have come to be called the Magnificat, from the first words in the Latin translation.  When I hear magnificat my mind immediately goes to an English word that sounds so similar, the word we have in our translation: magnifies.  Mary declares, “my soul magnifies the Lord.”

One of the things I remember about my grandfather was his magnifying glass.  There was always one on his desk.  He used it for all sorts of things, but its primary use was to look at the postage stamps he collected.  He could look through its lens and the details that were in the stamp to see would become more visible.  It didn’t show what wasn’t there; it showed what was there, yet may have been hard to see.  A magnifying glass allows you to really see something, to get into the subject you are looking at.  You aren’t distracted by the stuff on the edges, you aren’t distracted by the stuff that may not matter.  You look closer, you may even see things you had missed before.

So who is the Lord that Mary is magnifying?  What does this God look like?  It’s sometimes said that no one knows someone as well as their mother; so what do we find when we look closer through the eyes of Mary, the mother of Jesus?  This is a God of reversals, of transformation.

God has taken the proud, those who spend their hours focusing on their own abilities, their own successes, and scattered them.  Their focus on self has been dissolved.  God has taken those in power, those who reign over others, those who use their positions to rule over others and taken their positions from them.  In their place, God has lifted up the lowly, the powerless, the oppressed, the over-looked.  Those who are rich, who have plenty, those who have much and have placed their focus on their own plenty have been emptied.  Those who have little or nothing, those who are hungry, those who are in need have been filled.  God has looked upon his servants, upon his children and responded to their cries of need and despair.  That is the God that we see through Mary’s magnification:  a God of love, a God of righteousness, a God of justice, a God of equity.

One of the things I hadn’t noticed when I had looked at this passage in the past was how Mary seems to get lost in her words.  She begins in the present, and then finds herself in the future.  Her spirit rejoices, and she continues to tell what God has done – not what God is doing, or will do.  This is what God has done.  Mary’s hopes and dreams are not just hers, they are the hopes and dreams of the church, they are the hopes and dreams of us.  They are the declaration of what we believe God has done in Jesus our Savior, they are what we look for in the final fulfilment of God’s Kingdom, God’s reign is brought into being.

Mary’s song of joy, her song of motherhood, her song of hopes and dreams, her song of expectation and fulfilment is also our song.  We too may sing with Mary, “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the lowliness of God's servant….the Mighty One has done great things for me, the Mighty One whose name is holy.”  And we too magnify our God.

In our words, in our actions, in the things we say and do, in the things we place as important in our lives and in the lives of others, we magnify God.  So, the question is, who is the God you are magnifying?  Does the God that you are making easier for others to see, the God that you are defining match up with the one that Mary declares? 

Mary’s song mixes up present and future; that which is and that which will be.  In the season of Advent, we look to the past and to the future at the same time, we remember what has been and is, and what will be.  We think of the promises fulfilled, and the promises yet to be fulfilled in the fullness of time.  Yet, what would the world be like if we, like Mary, could mix up our tenses?  What would it look like if we lived our lives, not looking to the future when the world will be transformed, but lived as though the world was transformed now?

What if instead of praying and waiting for the day when the proud will be brought down and the lowly lifted up, we lived as if that was already the case – lifting up those who we encounter who have been brought down?  What if instead of praying for God to provide for the hungry, we saw that God has already provided for the hungry out of the bounty given to us?  What if instead of praying that the poor and homeless would be cared for, we worked for a world where the differences between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’ was not so great?  What if in our very lives, rather than looking through binoculars at a hoped-for time yet to come, we magnified a God and a time, a kingdom and a reign that is amongst us now?

I began this talking about waiting, and how waiting can sometimes be difficult.  One of the things about waiting that I’ve discovered is that when you stop focusing on waiting, and instead focus on doing, the waiting becomes easier.  So let us magnify our God, let us work to bring the kingdom into focus, let us work to raise up the lowly, to provide for those in need.  Let us work that our waiting will be easier.  Let us work, that in our waiting we may rejoice.  Let us work, that we may join with Mary and declare, “My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior, my Soul magnifies my God!”  Amen.