The Courage of Joseph

Pastor Meyer's Sermon

Sunday, December 3, 2006

[Video Clip] “And you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who has set His people from the sin. I know, Mary. God showed me. An angel came to me in my dream.” “You believe me?” “I believe you.”

My Friends, that Joseph, that was a courageous thing for him to do. You see, he had his life all planned out. He was a carpenter. He had trained in carpentry. He knew he would be able to provide for himself and for a future family. He was betrothed to a woman named Mary and he knew, within a year or so, he would exchange vows with her and they would be able to come together and start a family. Yes, Joseph had his life planned out.

But then there was a monkey wrench thrown into his plans. It's right here in Matthew 1. “Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph but, before they came together, she was found to be with child.” And the question for Joseph was, “Now what do I do after I have found this out?” He knew the child was not his and he was faced with the decision. “Should I divorce Mary or should I go ahead and marry her?” And everything we know about Joseph is every decision he made or the way he conducted his life was done so as a righteous man. It says right here in scripture, “Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man.” So if a decision needed to be made, Joseph's first thoughts were, “What was the right thing to do?” And the world was telling him the right thing to do was to divorce Mary quietly. There's no need to go and have her stoned. That's their prerogative according to Jewish law. There's no need for you to go back to Mary's family and ask for the dowry money back, that money you had paid when you entered into a betrothal with Mary. No, Joseph wanted to be merciful. He just wanted to keep the whole thing quiet. And, according to the world, that was the right thing to do, to divorce her quietly.

Have you ever had to make a decision and wondered, “What is the right decision to make?” Maybe this past week you had to make a decision while you were Christmas shopping. You were walking along in the store and you were looking at different items that were interesting to you. And you found a particular item had been marked really low and you realized this item has been mis-marked. There is no way this item could be this low in price. The question is what do you do? Do you go up to the clerk and do you ask the clerk, “Is this the right amount because I want to be sure to pay the correct amount?” Or do you go ahead and just scan it through and go ahead and pay that ridiculously low price it was marked down to? Well, the world would say, “It's not your fault. It's the store's fault for mis-marking it in the first place. It's not your responsibility to go into the store and make sure everything is marked correctly. It's the store's responsibility. After all, you're the customer. You're not the one who is working there at the store. So go ahead and buy it. It's the store's fault. It's alright.”

Or maybe we have a decision on a much larger scale. Maybe you and your boyfriend have been dating for quite a while and the topic of living together has come up. And so you're faced with a decision of should we continue to live in separate places until we're married or do we go ahead and live together? The world would say, “That's alright. It's the thing to do. It's the ‘in' thing to do. After all, it's more economical. We're just living in one place. We can share the rent and we can share the utilities. Plus, in society today, it's more accepted to do it. In fact, it's even more expected for us to do it. After all, we need to try out the arrangement first to make sure it will work out and, if it doesn't, well, you know, that's sad but at least we found out beforehand. Yeah, living together is the right thing to do.”

But in the story of Joseph, it has an interesting twist. In Matthew 1, “But after he,” that is, Joseph, “had considered this,” meaning he considered divorcing her quietly, “then the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.'” We know Joseph was concerned about doing the right thing and it seemed that divorcing her quietly was the right thing to do in the eyes of the world but we see here, in the eyes of God, it was actually the wrong thing to do. So Joseph went against what was viewed right in the eyes of the world to do what was right in the eyes of God. Scripture says it here, “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife.” My Friends, that was courageous. Joseph had the courage to do what was right in the eyes of God even though he knew it would be wrong in the eyes of the world. And despite all of the pressures he would have faced, he decided to do what was right in the eyes of God.

And the question is what about us? Do we have that same courage? Do we have that same courage of Joseph? Do we have the courage to go to the clerk and say, “I would like to pay for the right amount for this mis-marked item because I believe we should not steal.” Do we have the courage to go against what is generally accepted in this world and say, “No, we shouldn't be living together until marriage because scripture says that a man will leave his mother and father and become united with his wife.” Do we have that courage? I say yes, we have that courage because that is what believing people do. Joseph got the courage when he heard God's Word, knowing what His plan was for him and Joseph trusted in God and believed His words to be true. And that's what Christians do. We are believers in Jesus Christ. We have been redeemed. We have been made righteous because of His blood. And we know God's plan for us because of scripture, and we trust in Him. And as Christians, we have been given the gift of courage, that same courage as Joseph had. The apostle, Paul, tells us in 1 Corinthians, “Be on your guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be people of courage. Be strong.” That, My Friends, is what Christians do. We strive to do what is right in God's eyes even though we know it may be wrong in the eyes of the world because of the results. What were the results for Joseph? It says it right here. “She will give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins.” That infant he welcomed into his family, into his household would eventually grow up to die on a cross and save us from our sins, from all those times we have trouble doing what God would have us do and all the times we follow the ways of the world, our sins are forgiven.

But what about us? What are the results for us? For us to do what God would have us do? The result is we become a witness to those around us. If we do what is right in the eyes of the world, how can anyone see we are different? God gives us the courage of Joseph so people can see we are Christians.

Just recently, a member came up and shared a story with me about her daughter and Kindergarten. She was beaming throughout the whole time she was telling me. She said her daughter came home from Kindergarten and told her the story about how her day was going. In the beginning of the day, she had an opportunity to go up and draw on the white board. So the daughter had gone up to the white board and she decided, “I'm going to draw a cross and I'm going to put Jesus on it.” And it was even complete with a crown on His head. And one of the kids in the class said, “Is that the same crown that's on the Statue of Liberty?” And she said, “No, that's a crown of thorns.” And another kid in the class said, “I know Jesus.” And the member was telling me, while she was hearing this story from her daughter, she was wondering, “Oh, no. I'm going to get a call from the principal or I'm going to get a call from the teacher,” because, you see, this is a public school and you're not supposed to be talking about Jesus in a public school. And then she went on to tell me the rest of the story that her daughter said there was another little girl in the class who asked her, “Do you know Jesus?” And she said, “Yes, I know Jesus. Do you know Jesus?” And the little girl said, “Yeah, but not very well.” And so the daughter went over and started telling her about Jesus. And the daughter ended the story by saying, “And she became a Christian.” Now the member was telling me this because she said, “I didn't know whether I should discourage her because, you know, it is a public school or should I encourage her? And I decided to go ahead and encourage her. And if that principal or that teacher called, we'll deal with it then.” That, My Friends, is the courage of Joseph. And that's the courage we have and we can show because that is what Christians do. Amen.

Copyright 2006 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church