Jesu Juva
“Waiting in Wonder (Joseph)”
Text: Matthew 1:18-25; Isaiah 64:1-9
In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
The time of Christmas really is “A Great and Mighty Wonder” (LSB #383). It is a great and mighty wonder that God would love sinners and rebels like us. Who sin not just a little, but a lot! Who are stubborn and slow learners. Who doubt and fear. It is a great and mighty wonder that God would then send His Son into this sinful and rebellious world, to save it. To save us. And it is a great and mighty wonder that God comes to us today with His gifts and gives us His life. Our God is truly a wonder-ful God. That is, a God full of wonder - wondrous deeds, wondrous love.
And I think that wonder is what Joseph must have felt. His world had just been rocked. He was betrothed to Mary and awaiting the day of their marriage when he found out the awful news that she was with child . . . and not his. No doubt hurt and perhaps a bit angry that he has been thus dishonored and shamed, he nevertheless does not return the hurt, vent his anger, dishonor or shame her. He resolves to divorce Mary quietly. And if Joseph’s anything like us, wondering what he did to deserve this.
But in his wondering, the God of wonder sends his angel to him with wonder-ful news. Things are not as they seem. In fact, just the opposite. Mary has not been unfaithful, God has been faithful! And you, Joseph, have not been dishonored and shamed, but honored by God and chosen by Him to care for and be the guardian of His Son, coming into the world in this wondrous way. His Son whose name you will call Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. He will save YOU, Joseph, from your sins.
At this point, Matthew simply records and reports that Joseph woke from sleep, [and] did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. But surely there was more to it than that. Surely Joseph wondered. Why him? He was just a tradesman, not person of standing in the world or in the community. And why Mary? Mary was just a young maiden no one had ever heard of. They had no wealth with which to care for the Son of God! What is this great and mighty wonder being revealed to Joseph?
And surely, over the course of the next months, Joseph’s wonder continued as he waited in wonder for the Son of God, for this gift of God, and for God’s plan to unfold. As he talked with Mary . . . as they traveled to Bethlehem . . . What a wonder-ful thing God was doing. A thing full of wonder.
For usually, when one thinks of God coming, it is more as the prophet Isaiah described:
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
Like when God came down on Mount Sinai, and there was fire and the earth shook (Exodus 19:18). Or when God sent fire down on Elijah’s sacrifice in his contest with the prophets of Baal and consumed not only the water-soaked beast, but the wood, the altar, and the ground all around (1 Kings 18:38)! Or when the angel of the Lord came down and slew 185,000 enemy soldiers in one night (2 Kings 19:35). But now God coming like this? As a baby? Who needs to be fed and changed and carried about? And not with a king or queen or prophet as father and mother, but two lowly and unknown folks from Nazareth? Is this not a great and mighty wonder?
I wish we knew more about Joseph, his thoughts as he went through this time and waited in wonder. But that we don’t . . . well maybe that’s the point. All Joseph had to rely on was the Word of God as he waited for this birth, and even after. The Word would sustain him, as it had before this day.
And that is true for us as well. God is doing wonder-ful things, things full of wonder, all the time. Some of them we know, many we do not. And surely many in ways we do not expect, as with Joseph. And we wonder; we wait in wonder for God. What is He doing? When will He act? And how? Where? Through whom? And then there are the wonders He is doing for you, and through you for others. If we do not see them, is it because we are too preoccupied with other things? Or simply because these great and mighty wonders are too wonderful for us to know? But God has given us His Word, and on that we rely. And His Word sustains us. That even if we do not know and cannot see and fall short in our understanding, our wonder-ful God is doing wonder-ful things. And we wait in wonder at His loving and saving work for us.
But this does not mean waiting idly. Joseph didn’t. He did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. As he waited in wonder, he did those things God had given him to do. He took care of Mary. He prepared for this birth and to be a father to this child. And so we do what the Lord has given us to do as we wait in wonder for our Lord to come again in glory. Maybe those things we are given to do seem small, maybe tiresome, maybe not really what we’d rather be doing. But God is working His great and mighty wonders through ordinary things and ordinary folks. Like Joseph, Mary, and you and me. He is the potter. We are the clay, Isaiah said. He is at work, working wonder-ful things. Whether they look it or not.
So I think Joseph can teach us a bit as we wait for our Lord to come this advent season, and beyond. Even as Zechariah taught us about waiting in silence, and Mary and Elizabeth taught us about waiting together, so with Joseph, we wait in wonder. Wonder at the marvelous works of God. Wonder at His love and mercy. Wonder at His forgiveness. And most of all, wonder at the sending of His Son like this: the mighty God as a small and helpless baby. The greatest and mightiest wonder of all.
In the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment