The Very Rev. Anthony R. Pompa
Matthew 1:18-25
Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set they people free,
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
These are the words of the hymn we sing in the season of Advent, the bringing of our hopes to the lips of our song. Come thou long EXPECTED Jesus. Set us free from fear and sin so that we might find our rest in thee.
Have you been pondering Archdeacon Cluett’s words of last week? If you missed his sermon from last week, his words challenged us to think about what exactly it is we EXPECT of this Jesus our voices raised in song and longing for. He reminded us that when it comes to God’s story, we best be careful about our expectations.
It is the unexpected things of Jesus I want to explore with you today. I’d like to open them with you like gifts that have been left for us under a tree. As we open these gifts of the unexpected Jesus, I would like to invite you to join me in examining the mantra of small children all over the world and see if the same spirit rises up in you when you open these unexpected gifts.
You know the mantra I speak of. It goes like this; “Oh, oh, oh, oh, look, look, look. I got it, I got it, I got it. I got just what I wanted! Thank you, thank you, thank you. How could he have known?”
We turn to the story in the gospel according to Matthew to discover these unexpected gifts. I don’t believe it takes great scholarly surveillance of this scripture to understand that Joseph’s initial response to the news that a child is about to be gifted leads to the “Oh, look, look, look, look; goody, goody, goody, goody; I got it, I got it, I got it. It’s just what I wanted. How could he have known?”
Instead, what we glean from the story today are the unexpected gifts that are all wrapped up in this story of this God event. It is no stretch, whatsoever, to say that this is not the way Joseph had imagined things going. It is safe to say the same is true for Mary.
I believe the unexpected gifts that are present for them and for us in this story are a loss of control and a loss of power. Let us further unwrap this idea to explore just how I might suggest a loss of control and a loss of power could, indeed, be spiritual gifts.
Whatever plans Joseph may have made in his engagement with Mary, whatever expectations they may have shared about their life together, certainly had been dashed. We can say for certain this is not the way he had planned it. If this story is going to be more than just a story of humble beginnings for a young Jewish family and become instead a profound act of God in a specific time in history, then Joseph would need to yield whatever control he had left in this situation. This yielding of control would be most important. Joseph has a choice to make in this story. Joseph easily could have been within his rights to exercise the control given him under the law and separated himself from Mary without any obligation. His instinct, of course, was to exercise that control and walk away from Mary. This, it seems again, was his plan until, with a little visit from a friendly angel in a dream, he yields his control and instead chooses to follow an uncertain, but Godly path. This yielding would lead him to be there as a helpmate on this journey of God’s salvation. This important yielding would have Joseph then present, leading Mary to safe harbor where God’s promise would take on flesh, born humbly on a cold night in a stable, or perhaps even a cave. This important yielding would keep Joseph by Mary’s side and following his prompter, the angel, he would usher his new family to Egypt, to safe harbor from the evil intentions of Herod. Though the scriptures do not give us great detail from this point forward, we believe, of course, that Joseph would continue to be present, raising this child, nurturing him with his mother, and teaching him the family trade.
I contend the gift delivered to Joseph by an angel of the Lord is permission to “lose control.” Might there also be a gift for you and me here? The human instinct, of course, is to be in control, to plan life, execute life, and be masters of our destiny. It seems this God thing unexpectedly asks us to let go at times. I might suggest that it is in those particular times, when our instinct is begging us to swim harder against the current, that we might be missing the gift to “lose control,” that is to let go and let the current take us. Certainly Joseph’s intuition strongly encouraged him to exercise control, divorce Mary, and move on with his life. Instead, he yielded, and teaches us how to follow.
It is worthy, then, for us to consider the unexpected things in life that might offer us a gift of “losing control” and an opportunity to explore how it is we follow God. How is that mantra feeling to you right now? If the gift of losing control is about our learning how to follow God, then the gift of “loss of power” is about learning how God follows us. This is the next unexpected gift I would like to explore with you.
What do we expect of power? We are powerful, educated, self-sufficient, and competent. We are citizens of the most powerful country in the world, economically, politically, militarily. I offer this with no judgment, no good, no bad, just as a statement of fact. Certainly our living with this reality informs the way we expect to experience power! Certainly what we do not expect of power is to lose it.
Joseph and Mary, in their time, certainly had a different expectation of power. Being of a challenged economic class, they understood who had the power – Rome and the religious establishment of the day. They, themselves, may not have been powerful citizens economically, politically, and certainly not militarily. However, Joseph understood the power of the law and the promises of the prophets. Their expectation of power from the God they followed could also have been consistent with the hope of a powerful messiah who would set them free militarily, economically, and politically.
What we learn from the story, however, is that what God is up to in this drama is something they never could have expected in a million years. God would reveal power in a new way, humbly wrapped in swaddling clothes, the hope of the world enfleshed in a babe would begin from that day forward to reveal a power of God’s advocacy that would give birth to the most transformative movement in history. The name of this advocate is Emmanuel, God is with us!
So, let us open our gifts: loss of control and loss of power, and see how it is these things can be for us a gift of opportunity to follow and be followed so near with God.
Many among us know an experience of being completely at the mercy of circumstances that seemingly render us without control or power. Some of us may not have had an experience like this yet. In fact, some of us may fear it greatly because we are conditioned by the culture that helplessness may come because of our lack of effort. The truth of the matter is that there comes a time for all of us when we are without control and power. There is no employment coming quickly, no matter how hard we try. There is no cure for a disease from which we may suffer. There is no crop that can come from a dry or barren land. There is no control over the minds and actions of dictators or leaders of countries where a lasting peace seems to be their last desire. There is no control over an addiction that has gripped us. There will always be a time when our organs will stop working and death will be ours. There is no bringing back to life one whom we loved and have lost in death. There are times when we are truly without control or power.
It is then, in that very moment or circumstance, that perhaps we can unexpectedly begin to understand Emmanuel as an advocate. That is when someone or something bigger than us stands with us profoundly in our brokenness. That is when someone or something bigger than us cries out on our behalf when life has muted our hope, and will pick us up and carry us when our legs and feet succumb. That is when someone or something bigger than us will hold onto our faith until we can hold it again for ourselves. Powerless and without control, when we know we cannot go it alone, we may find new ways to follow and be followed.
Come thou long expected Jesus,
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Amen.
