December 18, 2016, "A Father's Anxiety"

Isaiah 7:10-15 Matthew 1:18-25 When I was at Seminary, there was a Theologian in Residence named J.M.Lochman, who lived in the Czech Republic until the Communists invaded, and he escaped to New York. Lochman described that Communism and Capitalism each foster one-dimensional views of reality. Truth is reduced to facts, fit together to support the power structure, with corresponding ways of measuring and controlling realities. Christian faith requires a multi-dimensional grasp of truth with imperfections and anxieties that do not fit. The Gospel of Mark describes Jesus was baptized by John, and Baptism caused him to go to the Wilderness to begin the journey toward becoming Messiah. Mark’s Gospel touches on what it means for a human being to be the Messiah. The Gospel of Luke contains the images of Christmas we are most familiar: Mary’s Magnificat, traveling to Bethlehem for the Roman Census when Quirinius was Governor of Syria, the Stable, the Manger, shepherds in the field. Matthew’s Gospel is told from another perspective, from Joseph, rather than Mary. When the Gospel of Matthew was written, questions had been raised whether Jesus was a human being, or if the Christ was God masquerading as a man? The distinction is important, because a god cannot die, so then there was no incarnation, no resurrection, no atonement for our sins. How do you display the truth, to prove that someone has been a regular, ordinary human being? That our sins are forgiven? That God truly became incarnate as a human being, and is One with us? Matthew begins with a Genealogy, assuming that our ancestors gave personality traits. On my Christmas list this year, is not simply to research my Family’s heritage but a DNA test to identify the markers of my grandfather and great great great great grandfather. What was vital to any Jew was a lineage traced back to the greatest and worst events defining Judaism. We allow the words to slip off our tongue that “Israel is Elect, the Chosen Nation of God” but the multiple dimensions of what that means is having endured and been present with God at all the vital moments God was present with Israel. Was your family at Babylon? Do you have the blood of David the King? Were you descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? But also, a genealogy would not only claim lineage from kings, but very human characters along the way. Part of the fun for Judy and I living in Onondaga County has been learning my ancestor and his brothers discovered the largest and purest Gypsum deposit in the Colonial States, in what is now Camillus, NY, and my great great grandfather created the first tavern in Camillus. Directly tied to the heritage of Israel, also among Jesus’ ancestors, were: an illegal alien, a woman caught in adultery, a prostitute, a victim of incest! And yet this genealogy ends with Joseph, strangely identified as “the husband of Mary the mother of Jesus.” After such a buildup, there is a void needing to be filled. With as long as people have been having babies, you might think it routine, but all of us have stories of when we were born, or our children. When our firstborn was ready to be delivered, I performed the delivery with Beatles tunes and fireworks. Part of being a father is experiencing anxiety. While I have forgotten most the rest, what I recall from our LaMasse classes was one couple were building a house; another had just lost employment; a third had tried everything to get pregnant and another had had their parents move in with them. At the event we most plan for, when everything is thought to be stress-free and smelling of baby powder, life happens, and while Fathers no longer pace the Waiting Room, there is anxiety. In 32 years in ministry, 20 here, I have officiated at about 500 weddings, and every one has a story, something which sets it apart, that brought anxiety. One, in which the father of the bride died immediately after the wedding was over. Several where the family asked the State police to be present. A couple of weddings, with dogs as ring bearers. Two where they were unable to get the Marriage license in advance. A few where we decided they were not ready. One, where I told the mothers of the bride and of the groom to back off and allow the couple to live their own lives. We have done a terrible thing to the beauty of marriage; we have taken three unique celebrations of commitment before God, and we have merged them into one, fifteen minute to half-hour service. In earliest memory, all the single men of the community were seated on one side of the Sanctuary, and single women on the opposite, with those married and with children separating them. When a man was smitten, along with his benefactor or best friend, he came before the Session of the Church, as did the woman’s family, and they publicly negotiated the dowry as an act of Betrothal. What is the worth of your daughter: $20,000-100,000? Later, when a chaperone declared they were prepared for marriage, the whole Village and Township came to hear their sacred Vows before God, and to share in the marriage feast. Years later, when they could afford to purchase gold and had children, they returned for the blessing of the bands and baptism of children. Now imagine, that after payment of a dowry, after public declaration of your love, but before confessing your vows to God, before sharing the feast, living together, if the woman was found to be pregnant? According to the Law, because of the shame on the community, Joseph had responsibility to have Mary stoned to death. But stating that “he resolved to divorce her quietly” Matthew has Joseph resolve to allow Mary to keep the dowry, that he alone would bear the shame of the community, that he had been cuckolded, and he would call off the marriage as his fault. The most wonderful part of this passage comes at the very end. For the name given to Joseph for the baby in Greek was “Jesus”, in Hebrew would have been “Joshua,” meaning “Savior” and this one whose name means Savior shall be called Emmanu-el “God with us”. And for Joseph, this resolved all his anxiety and fears. Now as anxiety-producing as Marriage and child-birth, try to imagine that the Father is God, sending your child into a hostile world. Not only a world with Nuclear weapons, famine, disease, perpetual war, gangs and drugs, with an infrastructure that may kill you, drunk drivers, racial prejudice, fear of people because they wear a uniform, or are male, but where your child, this child is God’s Savior of the world!