Friday, December 27, 2013

Learning from Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25


Let's look at this sometimes too familiar story slowly to understand it in today's terms.


Joseph who knows nothing of God's Holy plan, discovers that his soon to be wife (considered his wife in the act of betrothal) went missing for three months and shows up pregnant. He does not know the back story. He doesn't know what is happening, but decides to handle the matter himself quietly (rather than a public shaming and stoning which was completely acceptable at the time). This alone is an act of compassion we should learn from.


We have all had days where we have met someone and could easily make judgments. You know the person who parked in your spot at work and should have known better. What about the girl who is wearing the way too short skirt, or the guy that is driving ridiculously fast. What about the person who is yelling and screaming at the driver in front of them, or their children....


The thing is you don't know their story. You don't know what their day, weak or life has been like. Joseph did not know what was going on with Mary, yet he chose to deal with her quietly. He didn't shame her. He didn't talk about her in a loud voice so that she knew he was belittling her. How do we deal with those who we think aren't living like they should? Who aren't doing what we think they should? Who aren't acting like they should?


Joseph does not act immediately. He sleeps on it. He takes time to digest what he sees, what he knows and what he should do.


Do we do that? Do you spout off to who ever will listen when someone does something you disapprove of? Do you complain to their parents? To your friends? Do you take time to think about it? Try and see it from a different perspective?


You see Mary being pregnant was not only a huge shame for her, but for her entire family and for Joseph. Honor was everything at the time and in this there was no honor. If he chose to accept her and her child as his own as the angel tells him to do by having Joseph name Jesus. Then Joseph was also accepting the shame and a very difficult path. It was not an easy thing for a man in a patriarchal society to accept another man's child as his own. Blood lines were important, lineage was important. Matthew spends the first part of the chapter reviewing those lines. Yet if we take a moment to take notice we will see they are not as pure as we thought. There are women and men in those lines who lied, cheated, were prostitutes, foreigners, and did not always make the best choices right down to David himself.


Isn't that the way it is though. When we stand in a position of power, a place where we are on the verge of being made to feel uncomfortable we begin to think the worse of the one making us uncomfortable. Our defenses go up, we act rashly protecting what we think we know, and our “values” even if we aren't acting on them.


Yet Joseph sets an example of what Jesus will teach to all the world that love needs to win out. That patience and compassion need to replace pride. Faith in God's will needs to trump embarrassment. Perhaps as we wait in anticipation of Jesus' coming we should not only learn from him but from Joseph how to take a moment and love someone who we do not understand, who makes us angry, who makes choices so different from ours they seem to be poor choices. Perhaps this Christmas season we need to consider what difficult situation God is leading us into so that we can share with the world his Good News and Saving Grace.