Sermons
23rd December 2007 - Advent 4
‘Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way’ says the gospel of St Matthew, and then proceeds to tell us virtually nothing about that birth. We get a good deal about Joseph, about the legal relationship between him and Mary, and, as so often with Matthew, some proof from the Old Testament that it was all supposed to be this way.
After the birth, we get the wise men’s journey and rotten King Herod, and the flight to Egypt, and more proof texts (those little quotations from the prophets that explain why everything is happening – you can tell when one is coming by a little phrase such as ‘all this took place to fulfil what had been spoken through the prophet...’). In Matthew we get no shepherds or angels praising God, and no over-crowded inn as in Luke. And despite promising to tell us the way in which this birth took place, no reflection on the birth itself. The reason for this absence is not reticence on the part of an embarrassed male author, it is rather that Matthew chooses those things to tell us which are most important to him and the Christian community he lived in, he tells us those things that they had to preserve to keep alive the truth that this birth was the central action of God in history.
So what is important to Matthew and why? Conception and naming. First, conception. Despite the quite appropriate emphasis the church has placed on the virginity of Mary, the story of the conception of Jesus in Matthew’s gospel, is told entirely from Joseph’s point of view, a righteous man caught in a desperate situation. In Jewish marriage customs of the time betrothal was taken very seriously. A ceremony would take place at the bride’s father’s house at which the groom would present the bride-price and enter a legal contract with the bride’s father. By our standards the ages were very young, often 12 for the girl and 13 for the boy. After this ceremony the bride would continue to live with her father for up to a year, and visits from the groom would be tolerated. No doubt many grooms found this all somewhat frustrating. During this time of anticipation which must have see-sawed between high tension and waiting around, the danger of the groom losing his patience was acknowledged in the severe penalties that were imposed on any pre-marital pregnancy. The penalty against a would-be bride found to be pregnant was death, and if she had been made pregnant whilst in the town (where the law suggests she ought to have cried out against attack) her lover would have been put to death as well (whether he was the betrothed or some other interloper).
So when Joseph discovered that his beloved was pregnant he was placed in a desperate situation. If he exposed her she would face the full penalty prescribed in the law and he would lose his bride, but the only escape from this was to end the contract between them and release her from her betrothal, at which he would also lose his bride, ‘heads I win, tails you lose’. But Matthew tells us that Joseph was an honourable, righteous man, who therefore decided to put Mary away quietly, releasing her from her contract with him and thus ensuring her escape from a grisly death. His composure in the situation is particularly to be commended as he was also presumably aware that he was not the father in this pregnancy, and therefore entitled to some feeling of displeasure at the situation. If he wasn’t the proud father who was?
The answer to that question is of course at once the most astounding fact in human history, and also the central thesis of the Christian religion. That Jesus Christ was the Son of God by the Holy Spirit. And this is what Matthew is keen to tell us about. He wants us to know that this conception is an utterly fresh divine act, a unique and unparalleled physical intervention which places at the centre of human history a little baby who is like every other human baby in his humanity but without sin, and unlike every other human baby in his divinity through which the sins of all people can be forgiven. ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’. And as we look towards the celebration of Christmas over the next few days it is those central facts of our faith that we celebrate. Jesus is born, fully God and fully human. There is a sense in which the shepherds, and the wise men, the flight into Egypt, and the proof texts from scripture and all the rest of the Biblical decoration that surround the story of the incarnation are in danger of distracting us from what is going on.
In the same way I wonder if our own preparations for Christmas might distract us from what is going on. For what is your most ready answer to the question ‘are you getting ready for Christmas then?’ What springs into your mind? Shopping, wrapping, writing cards, putting trees up, cooking the mountains of food, preparing to see those relatives that you don’t really care for. There is every danger that we get to Boxing Day and think, thank heavens that’s all over with for another year.
So this Christmas try to find a moment or two to reflect on what it is all about. A young girl finds herself carrying the future of all of us within her womb. A young betrothed couple find themselves suddenly caught up in the greatest events of history and saying yes to God’s astounding invitation. ‘Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us’.