Whose Person Am I?

Matthew 1:18-25

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            I came across those words this week as I was preparing to write this sermon, and I had to read them again. “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.” Does it ever!

            I think there is something profound in this statement, it connects faith with action in a deeply personal way. Being God’s person does not simplify our lives, as much as we would like to say and believe that it does. Instead, it ‘complicates’ them - in a holy way.

            Being God’s person calls us away from comfort and complacency. Being God’s person requires us to go to places of discomfort and challenges us in ways we never thought possible. But in the midst of those places, God also blesses us and gives us the gifts we need to thrive as God’s agents of mercy and love.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Joseph may not have had the words to express this reality, but I bet he felt this disruption and complication to his very core. After all, Joseph must have thought he had it made. What a satisfying, if not downright happy time in his life.

            He was secure. He was engaged to be married. Better yet, he was engaged to a young woman, a virgin, someone whom he had every reason to believe would serve him well as he strove to have a family - perhaps a few sons to keep his business going, as well as someone to care for and to be cared by for the rest of his life, God willing.

            This engagement, or ‘betrothal’, was a binding contract, a legal piece of business in those days. It was not likely to be the romantic relationship sealed with a proposal on bended knee and a beautiful diamond ring – or even a simple cigar band – as we might expect to take place today.

            Rather, the agreement between Mary and Joseph was, in keeping with their times, a solemn pledge, part of a process leading to marriage. Because they were betrothed, Mary and Joseph would be looked upon as if they were married, even though they would not live together until after the second stage of their marriage, consummation, took place, which might happen as much as a year later.

            This commitment was commonly considered impenetrable; A betrothal was serious business. You didn’t just break this contract – a divorce was required, and you had better have a good reason to seek this option.

            But Joseph wasn’t thinking about divorce on that day when he found out that Mary was pregnant. Before her confession, perhaps he was dreaming about how he might be expanding the carpenter business someday, with all those sons he hoped to have. If they worked hard enough, and if they were blessed by God, they might be able to not only expand their little carpenter shop but maybe even open a franchise; they could name it ‘Joseph and Sons.’ It was good to dream.

            It also felt good to know that you were committed to another – and Mary was a fine catch-young, innocent, a promising helpmate. But then God intervened, even though Joseph didn’t fully understand it at the time. And his life, his world, were never to be the same again.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            After Mary shared her news with him, what turmoil, what utter chaos Joseph must have felt his life had devolved into. The scandal of having his young fiancé show up pregnant was beyond embarrassing, it was mortifying, and it held dire implications for Joseph’s next steps.

            What pain and embarrassment he must have felt as he listened to Mary’s story about a heavenly visitation and an immaculate conception. I cannot even begin to imagine what that conversation or Joseph’s initial reaction must have been like; Mary insisting that she had been visited by an angel and was with child by the Holy Spirit of God, and Joseph in shock at what he was hearing.

            So – Joseph considers his options and, being a decent kind of guy decides that he will ‘quietly dismiss’ Mary, avoiding scandal as best he can, while also avoiding subjecting her to legal prosecution and potential execution by stoning. Because that was a very real possibility if the truth got out.

            Then, God interrupts even those plans. God had determined to use Joseph to serve as an ally in God’s own work, because that is what God frequently does – recruits allies to serve God’s purposes in the world, all for the grand purpose of the salvation of humankind. Joseph learns firsthand how true it is that “being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Suddenly, an angel of the Lord visits Joseph, too. This time the angel, the very messenger of God comes in a dream and reveals to Joseph the truth of Mary’s pregnancy – indeed, the child she will bear will be a son, conceived from the Holy Spirit. Joseph is recruited to be this child’s father, to name him Jesus, which means “God saves,” for he will save his people from their sins.

            Being God’s person means for Joseph that he will take Mary as his wife and will live with her and raise a family with her, beginning with this child, the holy child soon to be born. He will name the child – an important task and one reserved for a father.

            He will claim this child by naming him, and he will name him Jesus. Thus, he will confer upon this child not only a name but a lineage as well – the child will descend from the house of David, through Joseph.

            Joseph will protect Mary now and he will protect this child in the future, even to the point of giving up the life he is building as he flees from the wrath of Herod and takes the holy family into exile in Egypt.

            We won’t hear much about Joseph after that, but we should never forget the way he, like Mary herself, responded ‘yes’ to the summons of God to serve as an ally in God’s saving work, thus altering not only his own life, but the history of the world as well.

            Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in holy ways. Joseph’s life took on a new dimension and direction as its course was interrupted through the scandalous circumstances of a virgin birth and holy mission for God.

            What does being God’s person mean for you and for me? What does it mean for us today? Where might we see points of contact between this story and ours today?

Certainly, none of us that I know of has had recent angelic visitations, but certainly, through Christ, God has called all of us to “be God’s people.” As we observe Joseph’s dilemma, [Melinda Wagner writes,] a light is shed on the rocks and hard places that squeeze us today. God’s people must regularly decide whom to believe, what to risk, and how to choose among disagreeable options. Those may be things that feel all too familiar to many of us today.

            When God spoke to Joseph through an angel in that dream, he discovered something about God’s mission to redeem the world and he learned he had a role to play in God’s plan.

            Our scripture reminds us that all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means “God With Us.” To make for better English, translators often insert the word “is” into this phrase. But I think there is something significant about the literal translation, “God With Us”.

            Because the thing is, God does not only accompany us, walking by our side as God makes us his people and then calls us as allies in God’s saving work. Rather, God dwells in us, abides with us, and joins us in a unique way through the incarnation of Christ.

            In the person of Jesus, God is with us to save, to comfort, to forgive, to empower, to challenge, to make us a part of God’s reign of justice, love, peace and mercy. But God doesn’t just accompany us we seek and strive to bring about the change in our world that will make it more reflective of the kingdom of heaven, God joins with us blessing us with hope and calling us to make choices that advance God’s just and loving reign in the world.

            “Being God’s person does not simplify our lives. It complicates them in a holy way.”

            Being God’s people calls us out of our own comfort so that the comfort of the oppressed and those who suffer injustice might increase. It means looking around our community, places of work and school and our everyday lives and seeing the low places of the world, where our neighbors are disadvantaged, their rights and needs neglected, and where injustice takes place.

We remember Mary and realize that being God’s people may mean advocating for the rights of women and childlren, especially those in abusive relationships, those abandoned, alone, isolated, and struggling.

            Being God’s people may require us to face the ways we turn away from those who seem scandalous in our community – those who struggle with addiction, homelessness, unemployment, those recently released from prison, the differently abled. Our lives become complicated when we acknowledge that God calls us to embrace and love those whom the world rejects and judges. We remember that God’s forgiveness thrives where people are the most vulnerable and hurting, but then we remember there is no place more scandalous that the cross itself.

            While it is true that “being God’s person does not simplify our lives; It complicates them in a holy way,” it is also true that God with us, Emmanuel, is always present, always abiding, freeing us from whatever binds us.  God with us strengthens us, blesses us as we respond, as God’s people, to the messiness of life into which God is calling us.

            The good news of this gospel for us today is that indeed, despite the ways that being God’s people complicates our lives, there is deep gladness, knowing that God continues to act in scandalous ways to become one with humanity.

            As we prepare our hearts and our homes for the coming of Christ during this final week of Advent, let’s remember we are indeed God’s people. Think of Mary and Joseph, and know that God has beautifully complicated our lives, bringing love, mercy, and justice through the miraculous albeit messy story of scandal and forgiveness, renewal and hope, mercy and love, in the one named Jesus, God saves.

Indeed our Emmanuel, God, is with us. Amen.

             

             

           

           

           

           

           

China and Linens

Matthew 25.14-30

I find the concept of the “witness protection program” fascinating. You know the program I mean, don’t you? It’s a program meant to offer life protection to certain individuals and their families. These individuals are witnesses, who have vital information – usually of a criminal nature – about powerfully connected people – think, “mafia.” The information they have must be protected. Both before and after they are finished testifying, the witnesses that possess this information and their families, must be protected. Through this program they are given new identities and a new life. To keep witnesses and their families safe, all of this is done and information about them is kept in absolute secrecy.

In my family of origin, we had a “witness protection program” too. It was called “the china closet.” And when I was growing up, it held and concealed a particular treasure - my grandmother’s tablecloths and china. Today the tablecloths must be over seventy or eighty years old, and truth be told, age in and of itself has had a toll on them. The china is at least that age, probably older. But most of the time, when I was growing up, the china closet hid it all away for its own protection. It was so well hidden, in fact, that I often forgot it even existed. And yet, these items had stories to tell, and by keeping them hidden, the story stayed under wraps as well.

When we had family celebrations, or the holidays like Christmas or Easter came, our treasures were sometimes allowed out of their protective prison cell.  On those occasions the place settings for the adults would include this valued treasure, while we children still ate off the everyday melamine dinnerware. Treasuring these things meant keeping them safe, protecting them and preserving them. And so they were kept, protected, behind the china cabinet doors, for decades.

Although they testified to family celebrations and the stories and people that went with them, many of whom were no longer with us, we couldn’t use these items, because something might happen to them if we let them out of the china closet. This was our own “witness protection program.”

I’m reminded of that china when I read the Gospel for today. Here, the master has gone away but before leaving he calls forth three of his slaves. Now, he knows very well the capabilities of these slaves. And so, when he gives them talents to care for in his absence; to each one he gives amount that he knows he or she can handle.

While in today’s context we might think of talents as those skills, gifts and abilities we possess, in Jesus’ time and in his world, a “talent” was the largest unit of currency or coin. It was a large sum of money, each one perhaps equal in value to about 15 to 20 years’ wage. So a slave who received five talents would be like a millionaire, and even the slave who was given the one talent would be handling quite a lot of money.

The master gives these varying amounts, not because he’s playing favorites here; rather, he knows them well, and is giving each one only what they can work with without being over-burdened. Yet when he returns, he expects to see that they’ve worked well with what he’s given them – and in this case, success means growth of that gift.

In fact, each of the first two slaves doubled the amount they had been given. They knew that someday the master would return and they wanted to be able to show him evidence of their faithfulness. They wanted to make their master proud and to please him. Perhaps they were even motivated by a sense of gratitude. The master had put a great deal of trust in them, and they did not let him down.

Yet the story also has a sad twist to it, too. Because this third servant, while given an amount he had the ability to care for and grow, just like the others, failed to do anything at all with the money. Either out of laziness or fear -- he hid the talent he was given away, for nobody to see. Maybe he eventually forgot it was there. Whatever it was that caused him to bury the talent and hide it away, when the master returned all he could show him was the same talent the master had given him. Unchanged. With no growth, certainly no better off than when he received it.

God has given each of us gifts to use for the benefit of the Body of Christ, and for the kingdom of God here on earth. It makes sense, then, that when we welcome the  newly baptized we say to them, “Let your light so shine before others that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” We’re not told, “here is the light of Christ, now quick, go hide it and keep it safe, lest somebody try to blow it out.” Rather, we told to shine into the world. News flash! This is no “witness protection program” – we’re not supposed to hide this treasure away and keep it safe! Instead, God trusts us to grow the treasure – and the only way to grow it, is to use it – to share it with others!

The story that goes along with this gift – the gift of life in Christ Jesus, is a story we are meant to tell! Not only as individuals but as a church! As the Body of Christ in the world, we are sent out into the world, to shine our collective lights, and to shine into the darkness! And Jesus goes with us.

Friends, WE are the witnesses that are sent out into the world, to testify to the good news of the salvation of Jesus Christ for the world. We are the witnesses who, rather than being closeted away, are sent into the world to witness to the great and wondrous news of God’s mercy and grace through loving acts of generosity and kindness to others. We follow the commandment Jesus himself called the “greatest” - sharing the love of Jesus Christ with our neighbor and with the world. Jesus gives us this mission, and equips us to do it. Jesus knows our gifts and abilities well, and we are asked to do only what God knows we are able to do. Through the Holy Spirit, God has provided all we need to prosper the kingdom of God in the world, to build up the treasure of God’s kingdom.  

Sharing this treasure is sometimes a risky thing to do. It is sometimes a scary thing to do because we’re not sent to go out just a couple of times a year, and to be choosy about who we share this with. We are not only to share it with certain people as the china and tablecloths at the table of my childhood could only be shared with the people who knew how to treat them and keep them safe.

We are called and gathered to share the treasure of faith in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, with one another here, and to take that message out into the world, to grow and prosper the kingdom of God on earth, knowing that Jesus goes with us.

Sometimes, when we share who we are as children of God, things get messy. There are some who may not be ready to hear this good news. But by God’s grace we are ready, and we are given the gifts and talents necessary to share it. We are strengthened and fed for this work by God, every time we come together to share Word and Sacrament. We are prepared for it each time we join in song together, sharing our heritage and our hearts.

God enriches our knowledge and trust in the story each time we confess our faith, when we declare, “I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth! I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord. We believe Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried,” for our sake.

A few years ago, I decided that as often as we could, we would use the “good” china. Those linens, so faithfully, stored are fragile and holey now – and I don’t mean blessed – they now have lots of little holes in them, where the natural fibers are losing the battle of aging. You see, not using them, and storing them away didn’t exactly protect them. They needed to be used, to be seen and appreciated and enjoyed.

So today, when we use the china, we are reminded of the people who are no longer with us. We are reminded that they, too had stories to tell even if we don’t know them all anymore. But we are reunited with them in a way, by letting these things out into the light of day to shine and to share in their goodness.

In just such a way, when we let our lights shine, we are reconnected with the great cloud of witnesses that went before us. We are growing the kingdom of God on earth and preparing it for Christ’s return. We are reminded of God’s creative presence in the world, God’s dynamic presence that is still at work, where one day, all things will be made new and whole once again. 

Until then, let’s join together with our brothers and sisters in Christ, opening the doors to the china closet wide, opening our hearts and our imaginations, shining our lights into the dark corners, and daring to risk ourselves for Jesus’ sake. And, at Christ’s return, may we stand tall as we hear the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”