The Promise of Advent
Fourth of Advent A, Sunday, December 18, 2022
There was once a preacher who ran through the streets of the city shouting, ‘We must put God into our lives.
We must put God into our lives.’
And hearing him an old monastic rose up in the city square to say, ‘No, sir, you are wrong.
You see, God is already in our lives.
Our task is simply to recognize that.’ *
Today’s assigned gospel reading begins at verse 18 of Matthew Chapter 1, but I’d like to read to you the first verse of Chapter 1 which begins the entire New Testament:
‘An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.’
If you have a bible with you, open it to Matthew chapter 1 verses 1 to 17 ~ the genealogy of Jesus.
Some of these people are biblical greats, both men and women.
Some are scandalous or surrounded in scandal.
Others are simply unknown.
Yet God has worked through their lives.
The authors of Matthew and Luke see in Jesus’ role, the embodiment, the fulfilling of God’s salvation history.
God has been at work in creation from the beginning.
Hear again Paul’s words to the Church in Rome (Romans 1:3-4) ‘Born the seed of David according to the flesh; designated Son of God in power according to the Holy Spirit as resurrection from the dead.’
Matthew and Luke give us two Infancy Narratives identifying Jesus as both son of David and son of God.
Yet even at his birth we see the shadow of the cross.
Some receive the good news of his birth; others fear the news, rejecting it, seeking to destroy it.
Today’s story of the Annunciation (the Angel of the Lord’s message) to Joseph in a dream gives us the name Jesus ~ Greek for the Hebrew name Joshua which means ‘God saves’.
Matthew’s telling of the birth of Jesus describes the child as Son of David (all those ancestors) and Son of God.
As the prophet Isaiah said, Jesus is born Emmanuel, God is with us.
Jesus’ final words in Matthew’s gospel as he dies on the cross are ‘Remember, I am with you always to the end of the world’.
‘We are never alone,’ is, I believe, the message of Advent.
Despite the days that challenge us, when fear tries to overcome faith, remember the promise of Advent heralded by the prophets, the Lord’s angels, and generations of God’s people good and not so good, God is with us.
Our role is like Joseph’s in a way.
Trust in God’s presence.
Be alert, aware of God’s guiding hand.
Have courage to follow despite the criticism of others.
Joseph is a faithful man.
Mary’s pregnancy would have been considered adultery at the time in that place.
She could have been put to death, yet Joseph decides to divorce her privately rather than a public judgment.
He did not want to bring her shame.
Thing is, Joseph discerns God’s will in a dream. Matthew often uses angels and dreams as messengers of divine guidance.
Despite the law, Joseph trusts God and takes Mary into his home in Bethlehem.
God comes to us in unexpected ways, unexpected people, at an unexpected hour.
Yet God comes to us.
That is the promise. * Joan Chittister, Wisdom Distilled From The Daily, Harper One, New York, 1990, page 206-7.