"THE VISIONS OF ADVENT - JOSEPH"

 “THE VISIONS OF ADVENT – JOSEPH”

There are two versions of the Christmas story in the New Testament.  As we saw last week, the first one is in Matthew and centers on Joseph.  The second one is in Luke and centers on Mary.  Partnering with the Holy Spirit, Mary is the driving force in the Advent stories, and I’ll look at her story next week.  This week I want to focus on Joseph, since his story follows right on the heels of the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew, which we reflected upon last week.

We hear from Matthew that the “birth of Jesus the Christ took place in this way.”  Then Matthew proceeds to tell us the birth story from Joseph’s point of view.  Joseph is engaged to be married to Mary, but she brings him disturbing news of a very difficult sort:  she is pregnant by someone other than him.  It was not unknown for couples who were engaged to have sex, but Matthew’s version does not address this issue.  We can only imagine Joseph’s anger and cynicism when Mary tells him that she is pregnant by the Holy Spirit: “Wow, Mary, I’ve heard some twisted tales about people getting pregnant, but this one is about the worst – and, it really hurts.  How could you do this to me, to us?”

The Jewish law at this point allows for several punishments for Mary’s apparent transgressions.  Joseph can require her to be publicly humiliated in front of the elders of Nazareth, or he could ask that she be stoned to death by the elders and other males in the village.  Joseph’s heart is full of pain and anger, but he will not allow his male dominant position to express itself in a degrading way towards Mary.   Matthew tells us that Joseph is a righteous man, so he decides to divorce Mary quietly, dismissing her and sending her back to her family – let them deal with this mess.  At least he has not publicly shamed her or given her the death penalty.

But, Matthew also tells us that Joseph is a man of visions, and after he has decided how he will end the engagement to Mary, he has a vision from God telling him not to be “afraid” (the Greek word here is the root of “phobia,” meaning a deep anxiety.)  The messenger from God tells Joseph to take Mary as his wife and to take the unborn baby as his son.  The messenger also tells Joseph to name his son “Jesus,” whose root meaning is “God saves.”  Matthew does not reveal to us the wrestling that is in the heart of Joseph, but the righteousness of Joseph wins out.  He accepts the vision from God and marries Mary and fathers Jesus.  In this way, Joseph is protecting Mary and Jesus – single women with children in this time are in a very vulnerable position, as well as their children.  Joseph provides them cover in a male-dominated world – he gives them shelter, no matter the hurt in his heart or the ridicule that he will face from his male buddies.  “Oh, yeah, the Holy Spirit, huh, a likely story!”

Joseph is a man of visions.  He looks for God and finds a vision which tells him what to do in this difficult and humiliating situation.  He acts on that vision, and he gives Mary the shelter that she needs.  His visions do not stop there, however.  In the second chapter of Matthew after the birth of his son Jesus, Joseph receives another vision from God, which tells him to take the Holy Family away from Bethlehem into the land of Egypt, because ICE authorities from King Herod are coming for them, with murder in their hearts.  Joseph obeys this vision also, and they flee in the middle of the night, heading for the land where Moses was born.  The second chapter of Matthew closes with yet another vision for Joseph – he is told to take the family back to Israel, for those commanding ICE have passed on.

I’ve always wondered about these visions of Joseph – are they really true?  Or are they just stories created by the early church in response to the tremendous curiosity about the birth of Jesus.  To borrow a phrase from Marcus Borg, “these stories may not have happened in just this way, but they are true.”  I also remember that for all of her life the great freedom finder Harriet Tubman swore that she received the times and places for her freedom runs in visions from God.  So, that raises the question for us:  what visions is God sending to us in our time?  Visions for us personally like Joseph?  And visions for us communally, as with Harriet Tubman?  In this Advent season, may the Spirit give us eyes to see and ears to hear.