4 Advent A—12/18/16
Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7,17-19; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25
Pr. Scott Kramer
So, how did you sleep last night?
Over the past three weeks of Advent we’ve heard a lot about the need to be wakeful, and we hear it again today. Be alert! Be aware! Pay attention to the unexpected ways that God shows up among us!
But there is value in sleep. We need sleep, right? And here, on the final Sunday in Advent, Joseph is sound asleep! How he was able to sleep I have no idea. He’d just found out that his fiancée was pregnant. What to do?
Joseph’s life is suddenly out of control. Some of us who come here this morning may likewise feel that life is out of control. Anxiety, uncertainty, fear. Sudden change in circumstances or recent loss. Things haven’t played out as planned or wanted, and you may feel like there’s not a lot you can do about it.
But whether or not you feel in control of things, what we all have in common is that at least up to a third of our lives is out of our control. Like Joseph, at some point in each day we sleep! Everyone has to sleep and sleeping means that at least temporarily we have no control over our lives. When we sleep is when we are most vulnerable.
This was true for Joseph: A crisis strikes. Joseph chooses an unexpected and courageous way of confronting that crisis. He “plans to dismiss Mary quietly and resolves to do this.” To have a plan and to be resolved indicates that Joseph felt some control. And then…he falls asleep. And while he sleeps, Joseph has a dream.
An angel of the Lord appeared to him…and said, “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.”
Now, on the face of it, this seems like a private spiritual experience. An unusual experience, yes!—but a personal experience between God and Joseph.
That is how we are used to thinking about religious faith. Sure, we may gather once a week with other Christians for worship but our faith, we believe, is a private matter. It’s nobody else’s business. It’s just between “me and God.”
How different from the dream that Joseph experienced! Listen again:
An angel of the Lord appeared to him…and said, “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.”
Just “me and God”? Joseph’s dream is crowded—crammed full of other characters! Suddenly, what he personally had planned and resolved to do was completely thrown into disarray. This is more than just a personal spiritual experience, more even than just a private family matter! Joseph is part of a story that brings together past (King David), present (Mary) and future (a child); plus Father, Son and Holy Spirit—not to mention the angel who brings the message—all of these are part of Joseph’s dream!
A private matter? No! There is nothing less at stake than the salvation of the world. Any faith that is primarily a “private matter” should be viewed with suspicion.
In Advent we are urged to be wakeful. I wonder what would have happened if Joseph had ignored his dream? What if he had gone ahead, determined to carry out his plan to simply do what he thought was right?
Like Joseph, each of us has dreams for our lives. Simple dreams, lofty dreams. But no matter what our dreams, human dreams are bound to disappoint—not because our dreams are too great but because they’re typically too small!
Apparently, it’s always been this way. In today’s first reading, according to the prophet Isaiah, the Lord spoke to King Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign of the Lord your God; let it be deep as Sheol or high as heaven. But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, and I will not put the Lord to the test. Then Isaiah said…”Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also? Human dreams are always smaller than God’s dreams and according to Isaiah, we typically ask so little as to risk boring God to death!
Following his own disappointment, Joseph did something unusual. Instead of justice or revenge, Joseph chose compassion and determined to “dismiss Mary quietly.” And yet, Joseph discovered something bigger than his own dreams. He discovered that he was part of God’s dream.
To awake from sleep means to see that our relationship with God is not a private thing. It is bound to our spiritual ancestors over thousands of years. To awake from sleep means to see that our relationship with God is not tied to one race or one religion or one people or one nation.
To awake from sleep is to realize that our human dreams cannot save us. Our dreams are sparsely populated with people and cultures from our own time and of our own choosing. But God’s dream is not private, and it’s certainly not sparsely populated. It is crowded with people and cultures from all times and all places, as in today’s second reading where St. Paul proclaims that God’s dream even includes non-Jews…like us! Funny how we still haven’t learned that lesson; today, for example, we too often see our Muslim brothers and sisters as enemies, rather than brothers and sisters who are also part of God’s dream.
To get on board with God’s dream is to participate in nothing less than the salvation of the whole world, not according to our sparsely-populated stories but according to God’s story, which is: God’s expansive love for all people and all creation.
Today we draw one day closer to Christmas. Christmas is a sign of God’s dream for the world, and we are left to ponder this question: What are your individual dreams? Whether those dreams are fulfilled or not, where is the Holy Spirit at work, inviting you, like Joseph, to let go of personal dreams for the sake of God’s dream–a dream for which you and I and all people have been created and prepared?
Joseph awoke from sleep and got on board with God’s dream. Let it be likewise with us. Dear friends in Christ, even as you dream–keep awake!
AMEN
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