Atom“God Sends a Messenger”
Matthew 1:18-25 “But just when he had resolved to do this, and angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid…”
At Lake Washburn, where I was raised, one of my jobs as a boy was to be a messenger to our neighbors and to those who stayed at my parents’ resort. As hard as it is to believe, there was a time before cell phones and even phones in the cabins that lined the shores of the lake. My parents had a phone, however, even a party line at one time if some of you can remember such. Those of you who do not, ask your parents or grandparents about the wonders of party lines! Anyway, when calls would come to my parents for one of the guests or one of the neighbors, my brothers or I became the messengers, running along a footpath, or taking the boat down the shore, bearing the news in person.
I tell you that story this morning because the gospel reading here is one that involves “personal messengers “ – for that is what angels are, personal messengers – sent from God to speak a word on God’s behalf.
All of us probably need such a word from time to time, but if anyone needed a messenger from God, it was Joseph. Most of you know his story well. You’ve heard it so many times it can become a bit of matter-of-fact. Yes, Joseph found out about Mary’s pregnancy and being a righteous man, he decided to put her aside quietly. But imagine the feeling that is hidden in these few words. Imagine how Joseph must have felt as the story begins here in Matthews’s gospel. Imagine how Joseph must have felt that his world was crashing down around him with the news that his betrothed, his Mary, the woman to whom he was engaged to be married was pregnant and the child was not his. I can imagine Joseph lying awake on his mat in his little house. It’s 2:00 o’clock in the morning, the hour when we are wakened by our fears and uncertainties, the time when we struggle with faith and the future. Joseph found himself unable to sleep as his thoughts raced over the events of the past few days…as he prayed and asked God how this could have happened to him. Joseph was a faithful man, you remember. Matthew tells us that he was “righteous.” He was a man who took seriously his relationship with his God. “Dear God,” he thought, “What have I done wrong? I have tried to honor you in all that I do, in my work and in my worship. I try to keep your commands to the best of my ability. I try to be honest with my customers and faithful in my giving to those who are poorer than me. How can you have let this happen to me? How can Mary be taken from me? What have I done to displease you that this should all be taking place?
And his anguished thoughts drift back to Mary…and he remembers the first time he saw her in the village and realized that she was of marrying age, a lovely young woman from a good family…and of how he had gone to her father to arrange the marriage, to ask for her hand. He was a bit older than her, it was true, but Joseph had much to offer in marriage. He was a good man, of good reputation; he had a good business in his carpenter shop. He would be well able to take care of the young daughter of Heli and Anna. And so the contract was made. Mary was officially engaged to Joseph of Nazareth.
How lovely these last months had been, as he and Mary had spent time together – always supervised by relatives, to be sure – but time spent together working on their home to be and talking and listening and growing to know each other and each others’ families. What joy Joseph had found in Mary, in her sparkling eyes, her infectious laugh, in her simple yet profound faith in their God. More than anything, ti was apparent to Joseph that Mary desired to honr her God, and in so doing to honor him as her husband. And so in these last few months their relationship had grown and changed. It had become much more than an arranged marriage between two of Nazareth’s families. He had actually grown to love Mary and believed that she felt the same about him.
“So, how had this come to be?” He sat up straight on his mat in the darkness. He could lie still no longer. “How could Mary have become pregnant?” Joseph knew for a fact that the child could not be his. He had always honored Mary as he knew God would have him honor her. For Joseph there would be no intimate relationship before marriage.
He bit his lip to hold back the tears. There was only one thing to do…Joseph would have to go to Mary’s parents quietly and tell them that he had to break the engagement. He would take the dishonor for breaking the engagement. Perhaps then they could send her away to relatives to bear her child. It was the only way she cold be safe, the only way that he could protect her from the stoning that the law demanded.
Still, it just wasn’t fair! Joseph slammed his hand flat against the mud wall and cried out again, “Dear God, what did I do?”
Perhaps some of us have been where Joseph was, or maybe that’s where we are today, in a time when our whole world has come crashing down around us. We have tried to be faithful, tried to live our lives as God would have us live. We have worshipped and served and done our best to live out of God’s love. And still we have lost something precious to us…someone precious to us and we lie awake at night asking, “How can this be? Dear God, what did I do?”
My friend David surely had such sleepless nights. He was a good man, David, raised by a faithful Christian family, people of the earth. They were dairy farmers who worked hard from sun-up to sun-down, yet who always found time to live out their faith, to worship every Sunday – even if they did occasionally doze a bit in the comfortable warmth of the sanctuary after a busy morning of chores. They were a family careful to tend God’s good earth and to the needs of their neighbors. David had married Brenda only a few years before and theirs was a strong, loving companionship of common interest and common faith. David never dreamed that when he took Brenda to have surgery to correct a foot problem that she might never return home with him. But somewhere in the recovery process there was a blood clot and Brenda died.
“Dear God,” he must have thought. “What did I do to deserve this? I have always tried to live faithfully…to serve yo and those I lived with. I have tried to keep your commands and have sought your forgiveness when I have failed. Dear God, how can you let my Brenda be taken from me? How can you let my hopes and dreams come crashing down around me? Don’t you care for me at all?” Such questions – David’s questions, Joseph’s questions – are the questions of a wounded heart. They’re honest questions – the kind of questions God would expect of us and questions that God is big enough to handle.
Matthew tells us that God sent a messenger to Joseph in his dark night of fear and questions. And the messenger said, “Don’t be afraid, Joseph. Don’t be afraid to take Mary to be your wife. God has big plans for you and for her and for the child she will bear, God’s child. You cannot see God’s plans from here. Indeed you may not ever see them in your lifetime. But this child will break down the separation between God and humans. This child will save people from sin. You will call him Jesus. But he is more. He is also almighty God with you. You will call him “Immanuel.” Don’t be afraid, Joseph; you are not alone. God is with you.”
God sent a messenger to my friend David as well, an angel by the name of Chris, who had lost her own husband in a tragic accident only months before. She came bearing gifts. A hot meal when David didn’t feel like cooking or eating. A listening ear and an understanding heart. Chris came as God’s personal messenger: “Do not be afraid, David. You are not alone. God has a bigger plan for Brenda and for you that we cannot understand from here, a bigger life that we cannot see from here. I can’t explain it, but I know it is true, because God sent Jesus, Immanuel, God with us.”
You see, I am convinced that God still sends personal messengers. God doesn’t use phone lines or cell phones or text messaging. God sends personal messengers. For a very few, these may take the form of angels, visions and dreams. Some of you have had angel visitors in times of personal crisis. For most of us, however, those personal messengers – those angels – will look pretty ordinary. They will take the form of a friend or neighbor who brings us a listening heart, a timely word, a comforting hug, a good meal – a personal reminder that we are not alone, and that God has a bigger plan for our lives.
Indeed, a personal reminder of God’s plan is what this season is about, is it not? God sent Joseph and Mary personal messengers to tell them that a bigger plan was afoot for their lives. But God sent a far more personal and powerful message to the whole world in the person of God’s son, Jesus. God sent Jesus to tell us that our life matters, that we are loved! God sent Jesus to tell us that our sin, no matter how devastating to us personally or to those whom we have hurt, need not separate us from God or from each other forever. God sent a personal message of forgiveness and life and hope to each and every one. And we call him Jesus, God with us, Immanuel.
I believe God would say to us, if I might be a personal messenger this morning – God would say, “I am with you. Even in your sleepless hours before the dawn, even in your most fearful time, even in your time of greatest loss. I am with you. I am Emmanuel, the God who comes to live among you – to live in your body, to experience your doubts and your joys, to die your death so that I might swallow that death in life forever! I am Emmanuel and I am calling you, my children, to be messengers for me to those with whom you live, work and play – to those you know and to those you do not know yet. I have sent my personal messenger to you and I am sending you to those who may not otherwise hear! Let us pray…
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