The fullest Yes
Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent (December 18, 2022)
View the scripture readings and the Collect of the Day: Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A
Preached at St. James’ Episcopal Church in Hyde Park, NY. A video of our whole 10 am service is available here.
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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.” Matthew 1:18-21
Edited Transcript
May only truth be spoken here and only truth be heard: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Please be seated.
The passage we have [today] from Paul's letter to the Romans ends with: "...including yourselves, who are called to belong to Jesus Christ."
We are called to belong to Jesus Christ. And this morning I want to invite us to reflect on what St. Joseph can teach us about what it looks like to belong. What does it look like to belong to Jesus Christ?
Joseph is a good and righteous man. He's a kind man. He's a moral man. And we see, in this story of how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came to be—it came to be because Joseph was part of it. But in the first part of this story, Joseph actually does not yet know what it means to belong to the one who is coming into the world.
See, we begin this story with Joseph finding out that let his betrothed, Mary, is pregnant and it's not his child. And he's a good and righteous man. So he has every right to kind of haul her up in front of everybody and make a big fuss about how he's been wronged. But being a good and kind and righteous man, he determines, probably after praying and reflecting... he says, I'm not going to do that. I could. I could, but I'm not going to do that. I'm going to let her go away quietly. I'm going to let this baby and this woman go away quietly to do whatever it is that they're going to be able to do in this world that is not hospitable to women alone in the world with a baby. But at least I'm not going to add to the burden.
So he determines that's what he's going do. And that's why I say he has not yet heard the fullness of the call to belong to Jesus. Because he determines he'll send that baby away, and then he goes to sleep. He sleeps the the sleep of a good and righteous man. In that peaceful sleep, God shows up.
And God says, wait my friend, there is more! To be a good and righteous man is good, but to belong to Jesus is more. To belong to Jesus means to be in relationship with the vulnerable, with those who come into our lives who might change our lives dramatically. To be one who belongs to Jesus means things are going to be way different than I ever asked or imagined.
This messenger from God says to Joseph, it's not enough to dismiss her quietly. You need to stay with her. This is going to be your family. And the one who is coming is the one who was promised, the one who brings the fullness of God's Love into the world. And you belong to that baby, Joseph. You can't send him away. You belong to this baby, and to this woman.
And when Joseph wakes up, he joins Mary (who in Luke's Gospel says, let it be done to me according to your word)... He joins Mary in saying Yes to the thing that is bigger and wilder than anything either of them had asked or imagined when they first made their promises to each other. It's because of the Yes of both Joseph and Mary that this Love was able to come into the world. It's because of Joseph and Mary's Yes, that the love of Jesus knew the love of humanity, that Jesus was raised in a home where he was loved, that he wasn't sent away into the cold to fend for himself.
When we're called to belong to Christ, we're called beyond what feels good and righteous and into what demands our discomfort, our risk of ourselves: to lay that down for the love of one another and for the love of God.
That is the Yes that is being prepared in our hearts in this Advent season as we get closer and closer to that day of Incarnation. And it's a lot to ask of us, isn't it, to be more than good and righteous, but to lay ourselves down for one another.
And our collect [prayer] reminds us that like Joseph, we aren't responsible all on our own for preparing that room in our hearts that will help us to belong to God and to the Love that is coming into the world. In our prayer this morning: "Purify our conscience, O Lord, by your daily visitation." That means it's not just us, in the words of the carol "Joy to the World," are saying, "let every heart prepare him room." It is not just us, but God who is working in us to prepare that room. The grace of God is preparing that room within us so that we, like Joseph, God won't let us go until we say Yes to the fullness of God's call for us.
Joseph had a plan, his own plan. And then God made sure that Joseph knew what the full plan was! And this prayer that God would visit us daily and prepare room in our hearts for love reminds us that like Joseph, we can count on God to prepare us for the fullest. Yes to the love of God that is calling us.
Amen.