It's always so much fun when I am able to connect the stories in the Gospels to the roots of the Old Testament. And Matthew's Gospel makes it easy since he is always wanting us to know that the things happening with Jesus are fulfillments of the prophecies from before.
So here's the story behind the story of how Matthew wants us to understand the birth of Jesus as the long-awaited answer to right the wrongs of Israel's past. See what you think.
Texts: Isaiah 7: 10-16; Matthew 1:18-25
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Have you ever had a dream that feels so
real that when you wake up…you almost have to pinch yourself?
I once had one like that years ago when
I was working in radio.
Our half-hour magazine program was
pre-recorded.
At that time…we were still in the analog
days of reel-to-reel tape machines.
We hadn’t yet made the transition to
digital files.
We depended upon an engineer to hit the
play button and send our show out over the NPR satellite system.
In this dream…there was some crisis that
happened which prevented our program from starting on time.
And for whatever reason…the engineer
wasn’t in the control room.
So…I had to rush into the room…quickly
fast forward the program to the correct starting place…so that the show would
air and time out correctly.
I remember waking up…and the palm of my
hands were sweaty from having gone through such a stressful situation in my
dream.
Later that week…on that Friday evening when
“Capitol Report” was to air…. for all the public radio stations in
Florida….there was silence.
The engineer wasn’t in the control room
to start the show.
I ran into the room…quickly hit the fast
forward button…and pushed play at the exact point we needed to for show to air
and time out correctly.
I couldn’t believe that I had had a
dream…and in my dream I had already rehearsed this scenario so that I knew what
to do.
I was both amazed…and very grateful.
Dreams can be fanciful and weird as our brains
process the information they’ve taken in during our waking hours.
And they can be informative and give us
messages that will help us see our way through the difficult decisions of life.
Because our conscious egocentric selves
are at rest and quiet…this is the perfect time for God to reach us.
We hear in our Gospel about a dream that
helped guide Joseph to rethink his decision to dismiss his pregnant young wife.
We can understand the predicament of
this couple.
Joseph had probably had another dream about
his life’s purpose and direction.
He’d probably fantasized about starting
a family with Mary…and making the most of his life as a carpenter.
Instead…he learns from her that she has been
visited by an angel and she’s already pregnant.
We can imagine such news would’ve rocked
his world as his vision of a simple family life gets completely shattered.
Fortunately…Joseph had enough of a
sensitive nature that he understood and had empathy for the precarious
situation of Mary.
According to the Torah…Joseph not only would
have been in his rights to break off the engagement…but he could’ve brought her
before the priest…and made her a public spectacle…accusing her of adultery
(Numbers 5:12-28).
That’s when an angel paid him a visit in
a dream…and gave him the directive he needed…to carry out a much larger vision.
And the rest…as they say…is history.
And speaking of history…Matthew wants to
make sure that we see that connection between the sign given to King Ahaz from
the prophet Isaiah and this announcement of Jesus’ birth.
For Matthew…this is the fulfillment of a
promise God made to the Jewish community …and to us later as the Christian
Church of today.
Who was Ahaz and why does this matter?
Ahaz was the son of Jotham…the ruler of
Judah.
He succeeded his father to the throne in
the year 735 BCE when he was only 20 years old.
King Ahaz was not remembered as a
“righteous” king.
Among his many dastardly deeds was to
sacrifice his own son in a pagan ritual.
Ahaz cared more about being in power and
had an ego that went on forever…including building altars all over Jerusalem to
worship anyone but the God of his ancestors.
This vague sign given to Ahaz…about a young
woman giving birth to a child who “will eat curds and honey before he knows how
to refuse the evil and choose the good” made little impression on him.
He refused to pay attention to this
sign.
Because Ahaz refused to listen to
Isaiah…and take this sign as a reason to follow God as opposed to looking to
human alliances for protection and his own will for greed and grift…he led his
people into disaster and their downfall to the violent and repressive Assyrian
regime.
Now…we hear Matthew in our Gospel making
this historical connection for those descended from the Assyrian exile to see
that this vision spoken to Ahaz is now coming to fruition.
This child that Mary is bearing is that
long sought-for sign of Jerusalem’s rescue from oppression and the tyranny of a
new occupying force…the Roman Empire.
Matthew’s message: Don’t be like Ahaz.
Don’t doubt God’s will acting in the
world.
Trust in this sign that we will be
delivered from our distress.
And here we are now…so many centuries
later…hearing these words and being asked again to trust that God is going to
be with us.
We are invited to look to this
inbreaking of God…Emmanuel…of God with us…to be reminded that change is coming.
Hope is being born.
Peace is on the horizon.
Joy is ready to be stirred up as Love
meets the challenges of our times.
We are at a moment in our collective
lives in this country where this Love is desperately needed.
Things are not OK in the world right
now.
There are still wars.
There are people so afraid of masked
agents of the government that they will not leave their homes.
Farmers are struggling to find markets
for their goods.
And our government is involved in scandal
upon scandal with no accountability while scapegoating whole segments of the
population.
We are once more being beckoned to hear
this story of the birth of Jesus and see it as the sign of a change that is
coming…a change that stands at a 90-degree angle to the brokenness of our world
and demands that we meet these challenges with Love.
Because the world that Jesus came into in
the First Century was also full of chaos and corruption.
It was also full of people scared of their
governing authorities.
It was also ruled by fear and
intimidation.
If there ever was a time when we need to
be brought back to the that dream experienced by Joseph…the vision that kept
him standing with Mary and helping to bring this sign of Hope and Love into the
world…now is the time.
The question for us: Are we ready to receive
this gift of God?
We know the beginning…middle and end of
the Jesus story.
We also know that with each time we
encounter this narrative we are getting that nudge to do our part to be more
like Joseph…and less like Ahaz.
To trust that God’s purpose will be
worked out through us doing our part to live into the reality that Love
is a greater force for change…that faith can help us overcome
fear…and that we have a role to play in making this a better world for
everyone.
Our former Presiding Bishop Michael
Curry was fond of reminding us that the dream God had for this world was one
where the mountains of problems we see in front of us are lowered…and the
valleys of despair are drained and raised up.
That dream is still possible…if
we keep looking…and noticing…and seeking the helpers in the world.
It can be the reality if we trust in the
teachings of Jesus to lead us toward building up our communities.
It will come about with our leaning into
our faith that God is with us as we serve the Christ in each other.
God is with us…and in us…to be the light
and the love in the world.
In the name of Our One Holy and
Undivided Trinity.
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