Sunday Sermon
Matthew 1:18-25
When I was 12 my sister took me on my first
roller coaster.
The coaster she had chosen was called “the
American Eagle” and it looked to be the most terrifying of all the roller
coasters at the theme park.
It was this enormous old wooden roller coaster
that that I had serious misgivings about.
Still, I didn’t want to be a coward, so I
went.
I remember quite vividly those moments before
the ride started.
There was no shoulder harness, just rickety
metal lap bar which only went down as far as the largest person in the two
person car, so needless to say it did not fit snuggly across my lap.
There was a handle bar in front of me that I
could just barely reach and so I stretched my arms out as far as I could and
gripped that handlebar for dear life.
And from the moment that car started to move
to the time it stopped I clung to the handlebar, with my eyes tightly shut and
I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Once the ride stopped I realized it really
hadn’t been that bad after all.
The problem is of course I hadn’t really let
myself experience the ride at all.
I did
everything I could to distract myself from being scared only to discover that I
also distracted myself from anything exciting or fun about the ride as
well.
And while I can say that I rode the American
Eagle that day, I can’t really say that I was courageous about it, or that I
had truly experienced the ride at all.
This, I think is very close to our general
reaction to the unknown, if we can we avoid interacting with what might be
considered as scary. We do our best to
control our environment by holding on to what we think is secure and by trying
not to see or hear those unknown things that we fear.
In today’s Gospel Joseph is challenged by God
to face the unknown with faith and courage.
There is a reason that every time an angel
appears in the gospel we hear him say “do not be afraid”.
It is not just that an angel is a rather awe
inspiring and terrifying figure to behold, though surely that is true.
But the message he brings is sure to be
something that requires courage.
If an angel ever approaches you and the first
thing he says is “do not be afraid” be prepared to be taken on the ride of your
life.
Both Joseph and Mary discovered this when God
chose them to be his human parents.
I am sure they had their own plans, plans to
consummate their marriage in the normal way, plans to live a normal life in
Nazareth with normal children. These plans
probably did not include an ill-timed pregnancy and potential social
disgrace.
But God does not play by our rules. He is not
bound by our social expectations.
God has his own timetable, and he knows what
is truly important in this world, and he knows what we are truly capable of
doing.
It is for us to answer God’s call.
But as we all know, this is not really all
that easy to do, because it means giving up our illusions that we are actually
in control of our own lives.
There is something about us that desperately
wants to be able to know what is going to happen.
We want to plan out our own future, we want to
be in control of our own destiny.
And yet there is a part of all of us that
knows, deep down that we are not really in control, that God is calling us out
of our comfort zone and into the unknown, and that can be truly terrifying to
come to terms with.
So we try to distract ourselves, we close our
eyes so we cannot see what God is actually showing us, we make as much noise as
possible in order to block out God’s call, and we hold on as tightly as we can
to our own power, our own agendas.
What makes Joseph so wonderful is that, like
Mary, he said yes to God.
He had to have been afraid; by staying with
Mary he was risking his own honor and reputation.
Marriage was a very public act.
It would have been pretty easy for their
community to figure out that Mary had gotten pregnant before Joseph had taken
her into his house.
As good, pious, first century Jews this would
have caused them a scandal.
So, I’m sure Joseph had misgivings, but when
God called to him in his dream, Joseph did not plug his ears, or look
away.
He trusted that, even in the midst of
uncertainty, shame and fear, the divine presence is always going to be there,
that God’s love will prevail.
Imagine the wonder and amazing joy Joseph must
have experienced when he made that choice, that simple and yet courageous
choice to say yes to God?
To be there guiding and protecting Jesus as he
grew into a man, to be the earthly father of both his and our God made
incarnate in the world – Joseph could never have planned or foreseen such an
amazing future as the one God had given him.
Eventually I got back on that Roller Coasters
and other ones as well, as the roller coaster starts I still get scared, every
time, but eventually I learned to open my eyes, put up my hands and enjoy the
freedom and excitement that comes with simply letting go.
And I will admit to you that there is nothing
more joy inducing for me than a ride on a roller coaster.
The question is, can we do this with our
relationship with God? Can we let
ourselves experience the unknown that God is calling us to experience?
Can we follow Joseph’s example and despite all
of our misgivings say yes to God?
It is unlikely that we will be approached by
an angel, but God is still asking us to do something new in the world. Perhaps it is something as simple as
involvement in a charity, or it could be a call to completely change the
direction of your life. The small voice
inside that we try to ignore, the one that wants to disrupt our comfort and
make us get up and go and do something new, something different, that is the
angel of the Lord.
Like a roller coaster ride, a relationship
with God can be terrifying, it is filled with twists and turns and we do not
get to choose where the ride goes, but it also promises an overflowing of joy
unlike any we could possibly imagine.
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