Advent 4 – 2019
Matthew 1:18-25
Marian Free
In the name of God who calls us out of our comfort zone and into a world as yet unknown. Amen.
Fifty years ago many people were threatened by the emergence of feminism and some still are. Its opponents have argued that women are intrinsically different from men and have different roles and should stick to the responsibilities appointed to them. Of course, that view is no longer prominent, and most would agree that the feminist movement has had a positive impact on Western society. Not only has the movement freed women to take a fuller part in the world but, at its best, it has liberated both women and men to be themselves and to achieve their full potential. It is true that there have always been men who have taken a lead in household chores, in cooking and in childcare but, as women have been freed to join the workforce and pursue their dreams, so more men have taken the opportunity to take up roles traditionally assigned to women including those of primary child-carer and chief cook. Because some women (and a few men) challenged the existing customs of their day, what was counter-cultural and even threatening 55 years ago has become, for many, the norm.
In their different ways both Matthew and Luke make it clear that Jesus’ birth is only possible because Joseph and Mary were prepared to act in ways that were radical and counter-cultural. Responding to God’s call on their lives was both dangerous and subversive and yet they faced the challenge with grace and courage. Despite the fact that the gospel writers make the choice look easy and imply that their decision were received by their neighbours without question, it is important to remember that only Mary and Joseph were privy to the appearance of the angels. They may have been confident that it was God who was speaking to them, but their relatives and friends would only have had their word for what had taken place. We have no idea how the small, religiously conservative village of Nazareth responded to the shocking and even immoral behaviour of two of their members. Like all change-makers Joseph and Mary risked vilification, exclusion and even stoning – Mary for becoming pregnant to someone other than her betrothed and Joseph for ignoring the social and biblical norms by taking her in marriage.
Neither Joseph nor Mary would have been able to justify their choices by pointing to history or to precedent. Nor could they defend their behaviour with reference to Old Testament prophecy. Nowhere in the Old Testament does it suggest that a carpenter from Nazareth would have a role in the birth of the Christ. I can’t imagine that anything in Joseph’s religious background or education would have led him to expect that the Christ would come into the world by means of two very ordinary people in a backwater of Palestine, let alone that he would be one of those people.
Joseph did not even have the advantage of seeing the angel face-to-face, but only in a dream. Nevertheless, Joseph, unlike Mary, asked no questions. He simply woke up and did as the angel commanded without any thought for the consequences for himself.
Joseph and Mary were free to say “no” to the angel’s request. They could have argued that responding to God’s call was simply too difficult, too dangerous or too risky. They might have been concerned about what other people might think and what the impact on their lives might have been. Instead, as the gospel writers tell it, their response was immediate and wholehearted, even reckless. As a consequence of their willingness to be God’s vessels for change, the course of history was dramatically altered. Within four centuries the child to whom they gave a welcome was worshipped throughout the Roman Empire and today, the faith that bears his name is one of the world’s major religions.
In the insignificant village of Nazareth, in the Gentile region of Galilee, Joseph and Mary could not have known how far-reaching their decisions would be. They would not have foreseen that in the name of their son hospitals and schools would be built to heal and educate the poor, that slavery would eventually be brought to an end, that wars would be won and lost and that thousands would give their lives rather than renounce him.
Joseph and Mary risked everything – their respectability, their family, their friends and even their lives – to answer God’s call. Throughout history thousands of others have refused
to be bound by cultural norms and sometimes, at great risk to themselves, have challenged the status quo in response to God’s call on their lives. Many of those whom we now call “saints” were non-conformists – people whose vision and confidence in God, led them to confront injustice and oppression and to question corrupt leadership both in society and within the church. Often, they paid for their actions with their lives.
Joseph and Mary together with saints and martyrs through the centuries remind us that, as followers of Christ, we are all called to be change agents – to hear the word of God tugging on our conscience, urging us to do what is right, to challenge unjust structures and to care for the poor and the outcast – with or without the approval of the society in which we find ourselves and with no concern for our own safety or social status.
The voice of the angel may elude us, but that does not relieve us of our responsibility to be those who through our words and actions bring Christ to birth in a world that as yet does not know how much it needs his presence.
Swallowsrest 