Tuesday, December 29, 2015


The Journey, the Manger

Luke 2:8-20

December 24, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

Consider the Shepherds in our gospel lesson.

One would think that to announce the birth of the Son of God, the King of Kings, in the manger of Bethlehem, that the angels would have visited a poet, like the Romans always had who would write a verse for the new emperor.  The angels should have told an orator like the Greeks always used at the birth of a king, to give a stirring speech to the public.

But the angles came to a group of shepherds.

In recent centuries we have romanticized the shepherds of the Christmas story.  The figures in our crèche scenes, the characters in our plays and movies, depict the shepherds as a pious, clean and respectful bunch.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

Adult shepherds in first century Palestine were pretty much a gang of thugs.  The orthodox said shepherds were just as bad sinners as tax collectors and prostitutes.  The religious folk of the day wouldn’t even eat with shepherds at the same table.

If one couldn’t do anything else to get by, one became a shepherd.  The pay was low, no pensions or coffee breaks.  Being outside all of the time and up most of the night gave shepherds ample opportunity to liberate other people’s property and animals.  They had the reputation of being thieves. 

Most people feared shepherds.  They were usually armed with blade, slingshot or rod [heavy sticks, bigger than a baseball bat].   They had to be armed in order to fight off threats to the flocks they were protecting, from wild animals or other thieves.  They had plenty of idle time to perfect their use of such weapons, as we learn from the example of the young King David and his prowess with a slingshot (I Samuel 17). 

The angel gives the greatest announcement of history, the birth of God into our world as one of us, to a group of low life, profane shepherds.  Just as amazingly the shepherds follow through.  They travel to Bethlehem, share the good news with all who will listen, and return not in fear, but in joy.

Rejection, suspicion and isolation were not the last words in the shepherds’ lives.  God uses the most unlikely of candidates to fulfill the divine promise of a new day, a new way in history in the most unlikely of ways.

Bethlehem at Jesus’ birth was a Palestinian town occupied by foreign troops enforcing the decrees of an oppressor state.  But the state sponsored terrorism of Caesar Augustus would not be the final word in Bethlehem’s fate.  In the midst of its poverty and fear, we will find divine incarnation born there in one of its mangers.  God uses the most unlikely of places and people to do the most important work.

For example, consider William Wilberforce (1759-1833), one of the parliamentarians who lead the movement to abolish slavery in the British Empire during the 18th - 19th centuries.   Born a sickly child to a wealthy mercantile family, as a teenager Wilberforce was exposed to the Methodist passion for personal spirituality and social responsibility [See what happens when you hang out with Methodists!].  That passion framed his adulthood.  Along with abolishing slavery, he was also one of the founders of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA).   Wilberforce’s experiences of the Christ as “the Prince of Peace” lead him to oppose all forms of violence in the most surprising ways.

Is Bethlehem of 2015 much different than 2000 years ago?    Don’t we still yearn to see the promise of the Prince of Peace?  How can we see the light shining in our darkness to lead us beyond the present’s doubt and fear?

Remember that just because we can’t see the solution right now doesn’t mean there isn’t one. 

Only faith can dispel doubt and fear.  And whether we understand the Christmas story as history or metaphor or a combination of both, the basis of our faith is the conviction that love, peace and justice get the last word in life not the agents of power, greed and death.   Such love and light is born in the most surprising of places to the most unexpected people.  The likes of shepherds heard the angels sing and shared their good news with the world. 

Can we?  

May your Christmas celebration be full of the joy that cannot be kept quiet, that must be shouted out, and that comes with the knowledge of God’s gift received.   You see, the hopes and fears of all the years were met in him that night.

Amen.




Wednesday, December 23, 2015


The Journey, Nazareth to Bethlehem

Luke 2:1-7

December 20, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel

The gospel writer of Luke dates the events of his writing by naming the powerful and famous people in charge.  Many other writers of the time did the same thing.  In Luke chapter 3, when Jesus cousin John son of Zechariah comes out of the desert to proclaim the coming of the messianic age, Luke writes:


It was the fifteenth year of the rule of Emperor Tiberius; Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was ruler of Galilee, and his brother Philip was ruler of the territory of Iturea and Trachonitis; Lysanias was ruler of Abilene, and Annas and Caiaphas were high priests.  At that time the word of God came to John son of Zechariah in the desert(Luke 3:1-2)


What a way to start a story!  Who cares about these guys?  Where the heck is Iturea and Abilene?  Why bother with such detail?  For the gospel writer Luke, God was in the details.

Caesar Tiberius would die quite insane, isolated and alone on the island of Capri in the year 37CE.  The news of his death would be a great relief to the people of the Roman Empire.  Herod and Philip were sons of Herod the Great, the corrupt and immoral tyrant, friend of Mark Anthony and conqueror of Palestine.  Herod Antipas would be banished to France in the year 39 by his half-brother Agrippa for incompetence.  Philip would marry Salome, daughter of Herodious, who danced for Herod and received John the Baptists head on a platter at her mothers request.  Annas and Caiaphas would be the Jewish leaders overseeing the plot to kill Jesus (John 16).   Pontius Pilatewell we know what he would do.


The gospel writer of Luke wants us to know that in the years when murderers and tyrants reigned, when immorality and corruption were accepted as business as usual, that when the holy and pious men who would put the son of God to death were in chargeit was in that yearthat Gods word through John the Baptist came about the salvation of all people.

The writer does the same thing with the birth of Jesus in our text for this morning:


In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.  This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria


The Son of God wasnt born just anytime; he was born at the time of Caesar Augustus.  The word to announce the coming of the Messiah wasnt given at just anytime; it was given in the time of Quirinius governor of Syria.


These people had names.  They had history.  Some were ruthless and corrupt.  Some were heroes.  Some would see their world turned upside down by the birth of that tiny baby in a stable.  Some would fight his message of love with their last breath.


Lets not forget the name of David, the great and glorious King who one thousand years before Jesus united the twelve tribes of Israel into a nation, settled Jerusalem as its capital and contracted for the construction of the Temple of Jerusalem, Mt. Zion the dwelling place of God on earth.  King David, the Messiah of Israels glory days would become the model for Israels hope of redemption.  During their centuries of failure, war, captivity and exile the people of Israel dreamed of and prayed for the return of a Messiah like David to restore Israels righteous and secure its future.


When Luke describes the time of Jesus birth the writer wants us to know that the Savior is born in the family of David and in the town of Davids heritage.   Luke wants us to know that Joseph and Mary arent anything like the people of power and wealth of their day.  In fact, unlike the named heads of governments and armies, the holy familys credentials for being actors in Gods redemption of history is their faithfulness and courage.


Just consider their journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to give birth to Jesus.  No scripture mentions that Joseph had Mary on a donkey for the journey although its inconceivable to suggest that a young woman in the ninth month of her pregnancy would walk the whole way. 

The 90 mile route that Joseph and Mary took from Nazareth to Bethlehem was probably along the Jordan River Valley, through the territory of Samaria.  It was the same route taken by Abraham and Sarah when they came from Haran in the North to settle in the land of Canaan as promised by God 1,600 years before (Genesis 12:1-f).  It was the same area where Jacob fathered twelve sons who would become the twelve tribes of Israel.  Jacobs well is there, where Jesus will offer living water to a Samaritan woman (John 4).  It was the same route taken by the armies of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar when he destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BCE and scattered the Hebrew nation into exile.   They would have passed through the Jezreel Valley where so many wars in Israels history had taken place that the writer of Revelation envisions the apocalyptic battle between good and evil at the end of time taking place at the hill of Megiddo, one of the principal cities of the valley.  It is translated from the original language as Armageddon (Rev. 16:16, 19:11-16). Adam Hamilton in his book The Journey (Abingdon, 2011. 89-91) suggests that this route was not taken by accident but was part of the fulfillment of Gods 1,600 year promise of salvation in the birth of the new Messiah, Jesus, in Bethlehem.

This new Messiah born in the lineage of David will not bring an army to vanquish the Roman occupation armies.  The new king of Israel will be born in a barn to unwed parents about to become undocumented refugees.  He will learn a trade and make his living as a carpenter.  He will be tortured and nailed to a cross.  His power will be in unconditional love.



At his birth Joseph named the baby Jesus.  In spite of fear and doubts Joseph went ahead with the angels instruction, stayed with the unmarried and pregnant Mary, and named the baby Yeshua, which in the original language means Yahweh delivers, saves or rescues (Matthew 1:21, 25).  



More than the four weeks of Christmas celebrations, during Advent we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ.  We open our hearts and minds to dreams for the future and God’s dreams for our world.  All we need to do that is to commit ourselves to the journey.



During worship these weeks we’ve been concentrating on the journey to Bethlehem by the characters of the New Testament nativity story.  Whether we understand the drama of Jesus’ birth as history or poetry, it’s an opportunity for each of us to evaluate where we are in the journey of life, the faith that we bring and our dedication to the things most important in life along the way.



In Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet, Juliet asks, "What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." (Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, II, ii, 1-2)



Our names can often define our journeys in life.  Of former heavyweight boxing champion George Formans ten children, five of his sons are named George, one daughter named Freda George and another named Georgette.    I hope Mr. Formans children are doing well in their journeys in life!  



I am the only male in my mothers side of the family who has children.  It was important to Bonnie and me to name our first son Daniel Stewart Bollwinkel so to keep the family name Stewart alive for another generation. 



Today those with African, Hispanic or Asian surnames are often assumed to be immigrants by the dominant culture, when 150 years ago those with German, Irish or Italian surnames were considered newcomers to the USA in a land where the English, French and Spanish had been pushing out the indigenous for years.



Whats in a name can be a powerful thing.



The gospel writer Luke wants us to know the names of those in the journey to Bethlehem as a way to set the date and as a way to set the context of that journey.   Emmanuel was born to him, in his time and place; just as Jesus can be born to us now, in our time and place, not just any time.



Therein lay our hope and the reason for this seasons celebration in the first place.  The names along the journey of Christmas describe a divinity born to us even when there is no room in the inn, when everything isnt neat and tidy, in fact born to us in the midst of brokenness and pain.



God does not enter history keeping a safe distance or remaining contained in our academic debate.  The word of God announcing the coming of Jesus doesnt appear in a Hallmark card with Perry Como singing in the background.  Jesus is born in a world of violence, injustice and betrayaljust like ours.  Jesus is born in a world of pregnant hope, just like ours as well.


The prophet Zechariah foresees the messianic age as a time when the hopes and fears of all the years will be met; when the fortunes of the masses will be reversed and everyone will have enough.   He writes; Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore you double. (Zech 9:12)  


O prisoners of hope!


Nelson Mandel was a "prisoner of hope" spending 27 years in a South African jail to lead his nation to democracy as its first indigenous President without a word of vengeance or retribution.  Bishop Leontine Kelly was a "prisoner of hope", a divorced young mother, going on to earn her theological degrees, ordination as a United Methodist pastor and then elected the first African American women bishop in our denomination's history.   My friend Art Kess in Reno, Nevada was a "prisoner of hope" continuing to live with cancer four years after the doctors gave him nine months to live.


Would that each of our names would include the title, "prisoner of hope". 


Few of us have enjoyed a trouble-free life journey.  Many of us know all-too-well the struggle to keep faith and hope alive in the face of health, financial and relationship challenges.  Maybe you are in such a time right now. Advent and Christmas isnt just about the memories of holidays and loved ones in the past.  It is about embracing the God with usEmmanuel.  Pastor Hamilton writes:


We are all called to be prisoners of hope, captured by hope, bound by it, unable to let go of it.  Hope is a decision we make, a choice to believe that God can take the adversity, the disappointment the heartache and the pain of our journeys and use them to accomplish his purposes. (Hamilton, p. 102)


For Luke the birth of our Lord is not a sentimental story of the past but the specific and real intrusion of God into our midst, our world, our time.   Jesus can be born to us as Savior and as Lord in the year when Jerry Brown is governor, when Syria fights for its future and freedom, when the San Francisco Giants are planning to win their fourth World Series in seven years.   Jesus can be born to us in our midst, our world and in our time.


How many of us remember the names of Caesar Augustus or Quirinius governor of Syria?   And who will ever forget the names of Mary, Joseph and Jesus?  Two thousand years later we are still talking and singing and thinking about the lives of these peasants from Galilee who left history forever changed.  Not by military might or physical wealth but by the power of God's unconditional love.


Amen.

Tuesday, December 15, 2015


The Journey, Marys Visit to Elizabeth
Luke 1:39-45
December 13, 2015
Mark S. Bollwinkel

The journey to the manger of Bethlehem begins in a dry and dusty village in the middle of nowhere called Nazareth.   It is the home of a righteous and faithful carpenter by the name of Joseph, the kind of man who will do the right thing even at great cost.   The journey travels through the life of a young girl, Mary, betrothed to Joseph and impregnated by God with the Savior of the world.

The angel Gabriel visits Mary one night and explains why she is pregnant.  She asks, But how can it be...?  The angel answers that the life within her womb will redeem humanity.  She is a part of Gods ultimate act of salvation.  Faithful Mary answers the angel, Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.

But as we can imagine she's got to talk to somebody about all of this.  She's a young teenager, she is pregnant out of wedlock through no fault of her own.  She's got angels waking her up in the middle of the night.  She's got to talk to somebody!  [Who do you talk to when angels come calling?  Do you have someone in your life you can talk to, really talk to?  Someone who will listen without judgment?  Someone who cares about you even when you've blown it?   If you've got that kind of someone thank God and treat them with care!]

For Mary, just such a person is her cousin Elizabeth.  Off she rushes to the hills of Judea, to meet with Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah.  Traditionally considered the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah, the Israeli village Ein Karem is today the location of a variety of shrines and churches that honor Mary's visit and the birth of John the Baptist.  It is 80 miles from Nazareth.   Mary while pregnant would have walked nine days over three hill ranges to get there.  That is how important it was for her to have a trusted someone with whom to talk.

Elizabeth, an older woman, is pregnant herself, with none other than the future John the Baptist who will announce the beginning of Jesus ministry and who will baptize Jesus in the river Jordan.  Like Abraham and Sarah (Genesis 18:9-f), and Elkanah and Hannah (I Sam 1:1-f) Elizabeth and Zechariah have become pregnant long after all previous efforts had failed.  They are too old to be having children yet God has intervened for them to become parents.  

Remember that in those days to be childless was to live with and in shame.  God's covenant promise to the children of Israel was that their nation would as numerous as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the beach (Genesis 15:5-6, 16:10, 17:2).  Childbirth equaled righteousness.  To be without children was considered a curse. 

While the priest Zechariah is on duty in the Temple of Jerusalem, an angel comes to explain that Zechariah's wife Elizabeth will have a child that will become the herald of the new messiah (Luke 1:5-f). Considering his station in life and the place of such an announcement one would think that the priest Zechariah would be pleased to hear such news but his response is just the opposite, "Are you kidding me?!" or words to that affect.   Can you imagine a male priest with doubts about a message from God?   For such insolence, the angel strikes Zechariah speechless.

When Mary finally gets to Ein Karem she enters the home of Elizabeth and Zechariah and the baby in Elizabeths womb jumps for joy.  Unlike her ordained husband in the face of such news, Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit.  She praises Mary and God.  Three times she calls Mary "blessed" because the predicament in which she finds herself will result in the transformation of history itself.

In response Maryin all of the mystery and confusion of these eventsthis Mary sings.

We hear the lyrics of her song in these verses of Lukes gospel (1:46-55).  Tradition has termed it the Magnificat, Latin for the first word of this text magnify.  It has been the inspiration of musicians and artists for 2,000 years:

My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
   and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
   and sent the rich away empty.

This is the song sung by Mary to Elizabeth and Zechariah, praising God for the work of salvation in her life.  The song echoes Hannahs song over the Prophet Samuels birth a thousand years earlier (I Sam 2:1-10).  Much of what she says recalls the psalms of the Hebrew scriptures  sung in the Temple of Jerusalem that celebrated Gods victories (Ps 111:9, 89:10, 13).

The four weeks of the Advent Season before Christmas are to remind us of Israel’s faithful waiting for a new Messiah.   The people of Israel yearned for the fulfillment of God’s promises for the future, a world governed by peace, justice and love.  A new Messiah would usher in such a history and restore humanity’s relationship to God and to each other. (Isaiah 2:2-4, 9:2-6)

More than the four weeks of Christmas celebrations, during Advent we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ.  We open our hearts and minds to dreams for the future and God’s dreams for our world.  All we need to do that is to commit ourselves to the journey.

During worship these weeks we’ve been concentrating on the journey to Bethlehem by the characters of the New Testament nativity story.  Today we are considering Mary and Elizabeth’s role in the salvation drama.

Whether we understand the drama of Jesus’ birth as history or poetry, it’s an opportunity for each of us to evaluate where we are in the journey of life, the faith that we bring and our dedication to the things most important in life along the way.

There is a lot of singing in the Bible.  Moses sings (Ex 15:1).  Miriam sings (Ex 15:20-21).  David sings (2 Sam 22).  The prophets sing (Isa 5:1, Jer 20:13, Zec 2:10).  The apostle Paul sings (I Cor 14:15).  In Revelation we are told that every creature in Heaven sings along with the angels and the martyrs (Rev 5-6).

But why does Mary sing?

She is 13-14 years old!  She has been woken up in the middle of the night by angels.  She has become pregnant as a virgin.  She has threatened to disgrace her family and her future husband Joseph.  She is a nobody, from a nobody little town, in the middle of nowhere.  Her relatives are praising her and prophesying about her that she is about to give birth to the savior of the world.

Elizabeth calls her "blessed" but such blessings will include Herod's order to kill every male infant in and around Bethlehem, 2 years old or younger; Jesus, Joseph and Mary will become refugees to Egypt as a result (Matthew 2:16-18).  The gifts of "gold, frankincense and myrrh" (Matthew 2:11) that the Magi will bring are veiled references by the author and redactor of the gospel Matthew that this baby is born to die the death of a martyr; the three gifts each with death and burial traditions.

Mary's "blessedness" will include watching her son tortured and crucified by the men of Roman governor Pontius Pilate.   Mary's "blessedness" will include her son's tomb.

And she sings?!

Most of us have a very different concept of "blessing".  We thank God for our health and our wealth, our nationality and comfort as the basis of our blessings.  Its only natural to do so.

Our Christmas gift giving traditions are supposed to be an exchange of blessings between family and friends.   It is estimated that we will spend $ 450 billion on Christmas this year, $854 per person (American Research Group).  If a family of four were to buy their estimated $ 3,400 Christmas on a credit card with a 10% interest rate and pay it off with the minimum monthly payment, it would take 17 years and five months to do so and that $ 3,400 would end up costing $ 5,467.27.   Those Christmas blessings would then become a curse.

The blessing that Elizabeth proclaims and of which Mary sings is the privilege to be a part of God's dream.  The Hebrew prophets foresaw the coming of the messiah as the day that love, peace and justice would govern the human society, as Jesus quoted Isaiah in his first sermon:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lords favor. (Luke 4:18-19)

Jesus' vision of the judgment day suggests that the blessings of our lives will be much different than the totals in our bank accounts, stock portfolios or the equity in our homes:

Then the king will say to those at his right hand, Come, you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me. (Matthew 25:34-36)

God's dream for our future is a world where everyone has enough, where everyone counts, where all children are safe.   To be a part of that dream is a blessing indeed.  Which is why the baby leaps for joy in Elizabeth's womb, why Zechariah can finally speak after Mary arrives, why Elizabeth calls her blessed and why Mary sings.

Don't be afraid of the proclamation in Mary's song that "the rich will be sent empty away".  Oh, we're "the rich" alright, anyone living on more than the average earthling's income of $ 2,000 a year are "the rich"; almost half the world, 3 billion people, live on less than $2.50 a day (World Bank).  The God's dream for the future envisions a reversal of fortunes where everyone will have enough, in other words we will all will be rich with access to abundance of God's creation (Mt 20:16, 26, Luke 14:8-11, James 4:10). Rather than fearing our loss we can rejoice and participate in God's dream that "...the hungry will be filled with good things..." (Luke 1:53).  

Here lies the wonder of Advent and Christmas.

There is nothing spectacular about Marys family tree.  She is not chosen to be visited by an angel and impregnated by God because of her piety.  She comes from a nothing little village, in a nothing little providence, in a nowhere place.  She is not rich or powerful or famous.  She has no education.  She has done nothing to deserve this visit by God and the blessings and honor that she will receive as a result.

She is a typical citizen of a world that had done absolutely everything to deny and avoid Gods love since the very beginning of time. A world just such as ours.

And to one such as Mary does God give the most precious gift.  Not to the powerful, nor the pious, but to a nobody just like you and me, does God give the Son. To people like us, who struggle and fail and falter comes the gift of Gods salvation.

The implications of this grace are almost incomprehensible.

Nobodies become somebodies with Jesus.

Darknessany darknesscan be shattered in the light of Gods love.

And the world has never been the same since.

It is a blessing worth singing about.



Amen.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015


The Journey:  Joseph

Matthew 1:18-25

 December 6, 2015

Mark S. Bollwinkel



The four weeks of the Advent Season before Christmas are to remind us of Israel’s faithful waiting for a new Messiah.   The people of Israel yearned for the fulfillment of God’s promises for the future, a world governed by peace, justice and love.  A new Messiah would usher in such a history and restore humanity’s relationship to God and to each other. (Isaiah 2:2-4, 9:2-6)

More than the four weeks of Christmas celebrations, during Advent we prepare ourselves for the coming of the Christ.  We open our hearts and minds to dreams for the future and God’s dreams for our world.  All we need to do that is to commit ourselves to the journey.

During worship these weeks we’ll concentrate on the journey to Bethlehem by the characters of the New Testament nativity story.  Today we’ll consider Joseph, a righteous and compassionate man who will defy social convention and dutifully play his role in the salvation drama.

Whether we understand the drama of Jesus’ birth as history or poem, it’s an opportunity for each of us to evaluate where we are in the journey of life, the faith that we bring and our dedication to the things most important in life along the way.

An angel comes to Joseph in a dream.

            It doesn’t appear that Joseph is afraid being woken up in the middle of the night by a spiritual being.   Rather he may be afraid of what to do with his wedding.

Joseph is a just man, a “righteous” man.  The original term suggests that the community recognized such a person as someone who did things right by his faith and by his neighbors.

            Joseph was a compassionate man.  In his society it was a disgrace for one’s betrothed to be pregnant before the official marriage was consummated.  He had every right to divorce Mary without any questions asked but he was “unwilling to put her to shame”.  

We all know people whose compassion defines their living, even to their own detriment.  Joseph was such a person.   In modern terms, these might be the most unlikely pair to start a family.  A mature and respected man publicly recognized for his faith; a juvenile girl, unknown, unwed.  Consider the courage it took for them to go ahead with this marriage.  What would others think, after all?  In the end, Joseph would risk his own reputation out of compassion.  He would not put Mary to shame.

            Joseph was a faithful man.  Twice more he will receive heavenly visitors.  An angel comes to warn him of Herod’s threat to kill the Christ child and directs the family to flee to Egypt (Matthew 2:13-15). Then an angel tells him it is safe to return to Nazareth (Matthew 2:19).  Joseph listens to and obeys the commands of angels even in his dreams. 

            It was very important for the gospel writers to point to the fulfillment of Hebrew prophecies that the Messiah would come from the “house of David” in order to prove Jesus’ divinity.  Both Matthew (1:1-17) and Luke (3:23-28) include long genealogies to show Jesus’ lineage back to the greatest king of Israel’s history.  David is the ideal for what a Messiah was supposed to be.  Joseph is of the “house of David”.

            But Jesus is born divine and of a woman.  Modern logic might find contradiction in a text that argues that Jesus had human and heavenly fathers at the same time but the gospel writers and listeners didn’t.  Such drama was very common in the religious heritage of the Ancient Near East.

            When Joseph is listed in Luke’s genealogy the writer puts in parentheses, “Jesus…the son (as was supposed) of Joseph” (3:23).  Jesus is the Son of God after all, and Joseph is but a bystander.

            Luke will mention Joseph only once more when the hometown crowd at Nazareth tries to throw Jesus off a cliff, rejecting his message.  They scorn Jesus saying, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” (4:22). The gospel of Mark doesn’t mention Joseph at all.  In all of his preaching neither does the apostle Paul.  The gospel writer John cites his name only twice.

            Only our gospel lesson this morning from Matthew gives a description of the man.   He was a man of love.

            I am blessed to be the son of Calvin Arthur Bollwinkel.  My grandfather named my dad after his favorite President, Calvin Coolidge.   My father was a successful radio and TV professional working from disk jockey to operations manager when he finally retired from the work he loved.     Gifted with a beautiful baritone voice, every church we were ever a part of asked him to read the Christmas scriptures each year.  He was an active community volunteer throughout his life.  He chaired the Sacramento Area American Cancer Society.  Even toward the end of his 88 years, he volunteered for Books for the Blind, reading books on to disk for those who cannot see.

            In fact, one of the things I most admired about my Dad was his history of volunteerism.   Since my earliest memories and in spite of the demands of work and home, my father served volunteer organizations where ever he lived.

            A World War II veteran in the Pacific war, a cancer survivor himself, he was most proud of his four children and his 64 years of marriage with my mom, Julia.

            When I think of Joseph in our story from Matthew…righteous, faithful, compassionate…I think of my Dad and how blessed I have been because of his steadfast love.

            If you had or have a loving father, or if you have the chance to be one, thank God for the privilege.   Not everyone does.

            According to the US Census Bureau, 26% of all of the children in America grow up in a single parent household, about 21 million children.   Their parent is usually a women (84%), employed outside of the home (79%) and is not poor (27.7%) nor living on public assistance (31%) [“Single Parent Statistics”, Jennifer Wolf, about.com].  Such courageous and strong people!

Just because dad doesn’t live at home doesn’t mean that children don’t have a loving father.  Today we know that just having a mom and a dad at home is not enough to make a successful family.  Thank God that most families are places of nurture and loving relationships, but they can also be the home for victims of violence, neglect and abuse.

            What makes a family “good” isn’t just having a mom and a dad and kids.  What makes a family is the love its members share.  Single parent families, blended step-families, same gender households, adults without children, kids being raised by grandparents, single unmarrieds adopting, elderly singles living independently from their children, and the traditional two parent family, all kinds of shapes and sized of families are good, when love rules their life together.

By our culture’s standards, it took real courage and faith for Mary to do what she was called to do.  The same is true of Joseph.  He was willing to go against the odds and the expectations of his neighbors to love Mary and her son Jesus.

            Shouldn’t love be the only measure by which we judge some else’s family?

In W.H. Auden’s brilliant Advent poem, For the Time Being  (1944), Joseph and the angel Gabriel have an intense dialogue about the dilemma in which Joseph finds himself, having to decide to honor his commitment to Mary or to leave her as he was entitled to do.  The angel explains that Joseph should stay with Mary because it’s all a part of God’s plan: 

Joseph:          How then am I to know
                        Father, that you are just?
                        Give me one reason. 

Gabriel:         No. 

Joseph:          All I ask is one
                        Important and elegant proof
                        That what my Love had done
                        Was really at your will
                        And that your will is Love. 

Gabriel:         No, you must believe;
                        Be silent, and sit still. 

Sometimes all you have to go on is faith.   Because of Joseph’s faith and dignity he put his own needs aside, loved his betrothed and refused to shame her.

            You see when you are the kind of person that listens to angels…the kind of man for whom God really matters and for whom love is a way of life…you stand out in the world, you stand over and opposed to the popular culture of the day.  And when the crises of life come to you, as they inevitably do for us all, you have resources on which to draw.  Resources that guide you through the tough times to make the right decisions and do the right thing even if all you have is faith to go on.

            In spite of the theological awkwardness of Jesus’ two distinct fathers, at the heart of the Christmas story is the conviction that at a particular time and place…in a way that supersedes the normal course of human events…God acted in history for our salvation.

            God’s steadfast love, his urgent willingness to forgive and love us, becomes flesh.

            Our Christmas story is full of such grace.  In Mary’s courage.  In Elizabeth’s praise.  In the Magi’s searching.  In the Shepherd’s proclamation.  Celebrate its wonder and glory in the coming weeks.  Let its hope and opportunity be born again in our hearts.

May God make us men and women of honor, who in all we do and say, let righteousness, compassion and faith guide us.

            And don’t forget the carpenter Joseph, even though he is merely a footnote in the records of history.  He risked social scorn and humiliation to follow the command of God, to love his wife to be, and stand by her when he could have run away.

Joseph is a man of love.   He is in our crèches scene because righteousness, compassion and faith are never forgotten.  And because he names the baby “Jesus”, which means “God Saves”.

The story of Christmas is the story of light breaking into the darkness of human fear and longing.  And that light is the power of love.

After all isn’t that what we are waiting for this Advent?

  

                        Amen.