Advent 4A 2007 Matthew 1:18-25

The church I grew up in had a Christmas pageant every year. I was in the Junior Choir there, if you can believe it – I wasn’t invited to join the senior choir – or any choir since. But in that little church the centerpiece of the Christmas pageant was a reenactment of the birth of Jesus. Every year, all the boys wanted to play the part of Joseph in the pageant. -- something different from being a shepherd – and as we grew older one attraction was that only the prettiest girls got to be Mary.

Not that I really wanted to be in the Christmas Pageant. It was just that I KNEW I was going to be in the Christmas pageant, whether I wanted or liked it or not. I was in the Christmas pageant because it would make Mama happy. And anything that would make Mama happy was important to my father, and that made it the law.

Now, participants in the pageant were faced with the following possibilities: You could be a shepherd, in which case you had to make your entrance down one of the side aisles of the sanctuary, wearing something that looked suspiciously like a dress, to the accompaniment of the snickers of those friends who had escaped the pageant that year.

If you could sing (which I could, sort of, in those days), you could be one of the Wise Men. But you would have to wear a goofy-looking turbans on your head as you marched solemnly down the center aisle, with every one watching, singing "We Three Kings of Orient Are."

But you could get lucky and be Joseph, who had to do absolutely nothing except stand there, looking tired, gazing alternately at a very pretty Mary and the Babe in the manger. No lines to memorize, no songs to sing, no turban to wear. We saw Joseph’s role in the actual real nativity as very simple: he took Mary from Nazareth to Bethlehem and made sure she was in the right place at the right time for Jesus to be born. Other than that, he was sort of just there.

The Gospels don’t tell us a lot about Joseph. There’s more space devoted to the Wise Men and the shepherds than there is to Joseph. Saint Matthew is the only one who has anything of substance to say about Joseph. For whatever reason, Joseph has never had more than a cameo role in the biggest Christmas pageant ever, the actual birth of Jesus. Joseph is the forgotten man in the Nativity scene.

But the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem is part of the Christmas story because of Joseph, whose family’s roots were in the lineage and city of David, Bethlehem. Saint Matthew tells us that Joseph was a just man, one who wanted to do the right thing by Mary. The law of ancient Israel could be harsh and cruel, especially to women. If a man discovered his fiancé was pregnant, the man could publicly expose her and destroy her reputation. Or he could break off the engagement quietly without a lot of fanfare and public involvement. This was what Joseph was planning.

But Joseph’s plans were changed by a messenger from God, an angel, who visited Joseph while he slept. The angel told Joseph in a dream to take Mary as his wife, that the incredible story Mary had told him about being made pregnant by the Holy Spirit to bear the Son of God was true!

As Saint Matthew tells us, "When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord had commanded him." T Saint Joseph followed God’s order without question and without objection. He just got up and did it. This tells us a lot about Joseph. He was not only compassionate and just , he also trusted visions and insights, responding to the activity of God in mind and in heart. Joseph simply trusted and obeyed.

That’s why we look at Joseph closely this once. Joseph’s experience of things going wrong, not turning out the way they were planned, is a lot like our own experience. The difference between hope and despair is in whether we recognize that God is with us, really with us and always has been -- that we are not alone.

As we arrange the Nativity scene at home put the Wise Men and the shepherds around the Christ child, of course. But put Saint Joseph even closer. He’s earned his place there. Because Joseph – the forgotten one, who ‘s just sort of there and doesn’t seem to say or do much – this same Saint Joseph has much to teach us about the Christmas story, and about unwavering faith.

Once upon a time a long, long time ago, in a place far, far away, a child was born. Angels announced his coming both to his father and his mother. They told them to name him Jesus and that he would be called Emmanuel, God with us. And Joseph did as the Lord commanded.

Amen