Judgment Day: Christmas, Part 2

When he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, [may we] without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing. Amen.
"one will be taken and one will be left"
Taken… When we hear it relating to people, it has scary associations. Like Elizabeth Smart taken from her home at knifepoint… the movie Taken with Liam Neeson where his daughter is kidnapped by human traffickers. Sometimes we talk about people being 'taken from us' by disease, drugs, accidents, mental illness....
When we hear that two will be in a field and one will be taken and the other left – what does being taken mean? What do you imagine?
Two folks standing out there in the garden, pulling radishes, and suddenly one shoots up into the stratosphere, and the other left standing, staring at the sky?
One interpretation of this passage, made famous in the Left Behind series, imagines it somewhat like this – just on a larger scale, like a cosmic evacuation on the eve of a military strike. God, with a handful of rescue ropes tied to his most valuable assets, yanks them up and out of there right before he pushes the big red button.
In this view, to be taken is to be rescued out of the world by God while others are abandoned, left to die with the enemy.
What kind of Good News is that? Not very. It offers salvation only to folks who are on the right side and important enough to rescue. It's a cosmic Halo mission, and you may or may not make it to the chopper to get out before the bombs start falling. It's a gospel that believes the world is doomed to destruction. A gospel that sees God as a powerful and highly unstable leader who may at any moment decide to nuke the whole planet. It's a gospel driven by fear: fear of the enemy, however you would like to define them, but mostly fear of God, because he may go postal and blow you up with everybody else if you don't figure out how to become necessary.
In our culture, everything is charged with fear these days. Everything around us is telling us how to prepare for hurricanes, for floods, for being charged by a bear, for surviving a broken elevator chain, for escaping from a psychopathic serial killer. Buy a security system, a gun, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher – I mean, you never know. Try to secure your position at work so you don't get axed, watch what you say. In relationships, you can't trust anyone; never let down your guard. It's not paranoia if they really are after you. The Left Behind gospel plays right into those fears.
But is this the kind of message Matthew's intends when he says keep awake - you don't know when the Lord is coming… he'll be like a burglar? Should we sit up all night on the couch with a .45? What if he opens the door – shoot him?
That's one of the problems with bad theology. It leads you to conclusions that don't make any sense with the rest of the story.
Let's try another way to read this passage, especially the part about some being taken and others left. What about that word left? Does it mean rejected/abandoned? As in one will be accepted and the other rejected? Just because we have a word pair doesn't mean they're opposites, like good/bad, yes/no, hot/cold; some word pairs are simply related things: parent/child, today/tomorrow, call/response.
Here's one way we use taken/left that doesn't mean accept/reject. We were picking some radishes out of the garden a couple weeks ago. Some we took; others we left. We didn't reject them; they weren't bad. They just weren't ready yet, so we left them a while longer. I don't know if that's a justifiable interpretation here, but I think it's worth considering. At least it makes more sense to me with the rest of the gospel.
And what about taken. What are some other ways we can use it – other than to mean stolen, kidnapped or killed, as in 'he took my wallet' 'that lunatic took our daughter,' 'leukemia took my mom.' What about "receive" or "accept" as in 'take a compliment' 'take a call' 'take help that's offered.'
If you offer someone a compliment, don't you want them to accept it? If you give someone a call, don't you want them to answer? If you give someone a gift, don't you want them to take it? What if that's an accurate way to understand "one will be taken"? One will be accepted, received by God; one person's life as a gift, which God takes. "Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to Thee..."
Christmas will be coming up a few weeks from now; this period of Advent is preparing for it. We're not waiting for Jesus to come, though. We're waiting for him to come back. We say it all the time: "Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again" "We remember his death; we proclaim his resurrection; we await his coming in glory." Advent is actually preparation for Judgment Day – Christmas, part 2. We're not primarily reenacting a period of waiting for Jesus to be born, to pretend like it's happening again. We're preparing for what happens next.
Think of Christmas morning as a day of judgment – it's a moment of truth… All the things that have been hidden under wrapping paper are finally opened and everybody sees what was given.
Now think of Judgment Day like Christmas morning, when God takes and opens the gifts we've offered. That's what Advent is about, working on the gift you're preparing for God. Your life - or what you trade it for - will be your gift, the reciprocal part of the exchange. At Christmas, we opened the gift God gave us. On Judgment Day, he'll open the ones we give him.
When he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, [may we] without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.
Amen

Joseph was a good man

Year A - Advent 4
Readings: Isaiah 7:10-17 Romans 1:1-7 Matthew 1:18-25 Psalm 24 or 24:1-7


Today's gospel reading, from Matthew, talks about the birth of Jesus - from the perspective of Joseph.
Joseph is the lesser known of the 'Mary and Joseph' pair. We don't hear as much about him, usually, but today, I'm going to focus on Joseph and his role in this story of Jesus' birth - and Jesus' life - and what kind of model that can give us as we prepare for Christmas.
So who is Joseph?
In a nativity scene, Joseph is the guy standing next to Mary and the baby Jesus. How do you know it's Joseph? Well, because he's standing next to Mary and the baby Jesus.
But how do you know if the figures are not already set up?
When you take the figures out of the box, you can find Joseph by a process of elimination:
This is Mary, obviously. Here's Jesus, obviously. This one's carrying a lamb; he must be one of the shepherds. This is a king; he's wearing fancy clothes, and he's got a gift. This one's got wings, obviously an angel. Okay, that leaves - this guy - must be Joseph.
He's not carrying a lamb or leading a camel or bringing gifts. He's not singing. Usually, he's just standing there. So why does he get to be right in the middle of the scene - in the middle of the biggest event in history?
It would look like Mary and Joseph, with the baby, are mom and dad, so if that was the case, that's why he's important. But as the angel in today's reading explained, the child conceived in Mary was "from the Holy Spirit," so God is Jesus' "real" father.
Joseph married Jesus' mother, so in a sense, Joseph was Jesus' step-dad.
Probably that wasn't something they tried to explain to the neighbors, though.
"Joseph, your son broke my window!" "Well, actually, he's not my son..."
What else do we know about Joseph? How can we imagine what he was like as a person?
Well, he was a carpenter. So, I suppose if he lived in Silsbee, he might work for Westvaco - or at the pallet factory - or maybe he'd have his own cabinet shop behind his house.
If he was a member here at St. John's, he'd probably get drafted into being the Junior Warden at least once. The first time I came to St. John's, I pulled into the back parking lot, looking for the door to come in at, and there were three guys standing outside looking up at the roof. I'm pretty sure one of them was Bill Phillips, and Lloyd Boone may have been out there, too. I don't know what they were doing exactly – I guess they were fixing something - but probably Joseph would have been in that group.
I also bet he'd have been one of those folks helping people fix their houses after Rita. He and Vernon Gray would talk shop. Probably he'd have a long honey-do list, so he and John Derkits could commiserate about that, and Mary would probably complain to Bonnie that Joseph still hadn't fixed the back door to shut all the way, and Bonnie would nod sympathetically.
Anyway, that's how I imagine it. But it's a fair enough guess, because this is a real man we're talking about, and why would he be that much different from any of the men here?
Joseph was a regular person. He did normal things, dealt with normal problems with job, house, kids - except that his oldest was the son of God... Imagine that as a step-dad - even if God did give him the job and presumably backed him up, it can't have been easy raising Jesus.
We hear a few more things about Joseph up to the point when Jesus was about 12, and then the story skips ahead to Jesus at about 30 and then we don't hear any more about Joseph. So, it's possible he died before Jesus started his ministry.Joseph was a central figure in Jesus' young life, and he can be a good model for how we relate to Jesus, just as Mary is a good model.
What do we learn about him from today's reading?
Mainly, we learn two things: he was a good man, and he obeyed God.
We heard first that Joseph was engaged to Mary when he found out she was pregnant.
The next thing said about him is that, "being a righteous man," he didn't want Mary exposed to public disgrace. He was going to treat his fiancée kindly even if she'd done wrong by him.
But then, an angel appears and tells him not to be afraid to marry her - the child is from the Holy Spirit, and he should name the baby Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
This really is an odd message, delivered in an alarming way. I can't imagine what I would think to receive a message like that. It's hard to see how it would clarify the situation.
Joseph's response, though, when he woke up, was to do what the angel told him. We don't know whether any of this business about the Holy Spirit and God saving his people through this child made sense to Joseph; the text doesn't say what he thought about it - just that he did what God told him to do.
One thing I noticed about the way this passage tells the story is that, in this account, Joseph never says anything. He plans and decides to do something, he listens to the angel, and he does what the angel tells him. But he doesn't talk about it.
That struck me as similar to several men I know. Although quietness isn't confined to men, and there are many men who aren't quiet, there are a lot of guys who operate like this - they think about something and make plans, they may listen to advice, and when they decide what they're going to do, they do it. But there may not be a lot of talking in the process.
Maybe you know one of these guys. Maybe you're sitting next to him.
Maybe the person next to you is digging you in the ribs.
When I got to thinking about Joseph and what he may have been like, in relation to this doing-more-than-talking aspect, I thought of my Uncle Jim - not a big talker, but definitely a good man. He does right by his family, more so than we deserve sometimes, helps people who need help, supports his wife in her activities, and deals honestly with people.
That's how I imagine Joseph. Not much of a talker, necessarily, and not all that complicated, but someone who's honorable. He was kind to Mary, and he was obedient to God.
It's hard to represent that visually, unless you put a halo or something over his head, so that's why in nativity scenes, it looks like Joseph is just standing there, doing nothing special. But there's a lot more to it - he's standing there with Mary and Jesus, claiming them as his, looking out for them and providing for them. He's just a good man - and he's obeying God. That's all. And that puts him front and center in the middle of God's biggest plan for human history.
And good men, obeying God, are always right in the middle of whatever God's doing, wherever they are. It's like that for good men today - you can't tell just by looking at them, but watching how they live, it's obvious and powerful, even though it's not complicated.
Who do you know like this?
Think of these men when you look at Joseph in the nativity scene. Think how their example tells us something about how to make room and provide for Christ in our lives.
How does Joseph provide a pattern for us in preparing for Jesus' coming at Christmas?
Joseph claimed Jesus, worked to make a home for him, providing for him and for the people who nurtured him. Joseph made space for Jesus to grow and protected him while he was vulnerable and weak.
That's what we can do, individually and as a community: acknowledge Christ's place in our households, make space for him, and allow for his role in our lives to grow by providing for things that nurture our communion with Christ. Also, we can protect this process of growth, especially when it's new or weak or in other ways vulnerable.

In one of our Christmas hymns, we sing, 'O holy child of Bethlehem, descend to us we pray. Cast out our sin and enter in; be born in us today.'
But that sounds more like how Mary received him, and maybe you can't relate to the way Mary made space for Jesus. Maybe you're more like Joseph. In that case, here's a verse from a different hymn, with substantially the same meaning but a different image. 'let each heart prepare a home where such a mighty guest may come.'

There's a much more modern country and western song by Emerson Drive called 'A Good Man,' and the chorus goes like this:
I wanna be the one, when all is said and done,
who lived a good life, loved a good wife,
and always helped someone in trouble.
On the day they lay me down, I want everyone to gather ‘round
and say, 'He was a father, brother, neighbor and a friend. He was a good man!'
I was thinking that, if Joseph did die while Jesus was still a teenager or a young man, this would be the kind of thing Jesus might have said about his step-dad, the man who claimed him, made a place for him, and provided for him and his mother... "He lived a good life, loved a good wife, and always helped someone in trouble...he was a father, brother, neighbor and a friend - he was a good man."What more than that would you need?
Would it matter whether he was a pipe-fitter, a police officer, a professor or a priest?
He was a good man, and he obeyed God.
That's an excellent pattern to follow.

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
Dec. 23, 2007