Advent XXIII (The Joseph Saga)

It is not the story Luke tells about the birth of Jesus that the lectionary uses to guide us into the Christmas season, but the indecision and the decision of Joseph as he struggled to settle on what he would do at the news of Mary's pregnancy.  It was not a moment he expected.  He expected children, but he expected them to be his.  Mary's explanation for being pregnant was one of the wildest he had ever heard.  It no doubt left him shaking his head.  He did not talk a smart man to imagine what people would be saying about Mary and the fool he would be for staying with her.   

Verse 19 of that first chapter of Matthew tells us that Joseph finally decided to quietly end their relationship rather than expose her to public disgrace.  In the moment of deciding what to do, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream telling him there was a different way.  "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." (Matthew 1:20).  When Joseph woke up, the Scripture speaks of his new resolve with the words, "did as the Lord commanded him, he took her as his wife." (Matthew 1:24).  

This rendering of the events of those days is such an appropriate text for this fourth and final week of the Advent season.  It is a story about waiting.  It is a story of God acting and coming.  It is the story of a way being prepared in the heart of the man who would serve as the earthly Father of the Son of God.  It is a story of hope for as the angel said to Joseph, "...she will bear a son, and you are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins."  (Matthew 1:21).  It is a story which reminds us of the "He is here..yet, the still to come One."