Have you ever had that struggle of faith when life presents you with a dilemma in which you’re not sure how to respond and you wonder where God is in all of it? You’re faced with whether or not to accept it and move ahead in faith or reject it as being too preposterous. I think that’s the position we find Joseph in as we examine the Christmas story from his often overlooked perspective.
W. H. Auden has pictured Joseph at home that night, in an empty house, sitting there in the dark. He hears everything; the drip of the bathroom tap, the creak of the sofa spring, the wind against the window. And he hears Mary, again and again, telling him about the angel, about the message, about the Messiah. But who would believe it? Who could believe that God would choose to invade space and time via a scandalous disgrace?
W. H. Auden has pictured Joseph at home that night, in an empty house, sitting there in the dark. He hears everything; the drip of the bathroom tap, the creak of the sofa spring, the wind against the window. And he hears Mary, again and again, telling him about the angel, about the message, about the Messiah. But who would believe it? Who could believe that God would choose to invade space and time via a scandalous disgrace?
The more I think about this story, the more I meditate on these few brief verses of this incredibly poignant passage regarding Joseph and Mary, the more I think maybe scandal was precisely the point. Maybe the circumstances surrounding Messiah’s birth were meant to tell us what following the Messiah would really mean. Maybe following the Messiah would mean the same thing for us that it meant for Joseph, scandal.
So what is God trying to tell us in this little bit of Christmas trivia? Listen to this sermon as we pull our chair up next to Joseph and let’s learn what we have in common with Joseph as he faces this bit of news that Mary tells him.
So what is God trying to tell us in this little bit of Christmas trivia? Listen to this sermon as we pull our chair up next to Joseph and let’s learn what we have in common with Joseph as he faces this bit of news that Mary tells him.
