Matthew 1:18-25
“Do Not Be Afraid”
December 11, 2022 Third Sunday of Advent
“Yet in thy dark streets shineth the everlasting light; the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”
These words were written in 1868 by the prolific writer and great preacher Phillips Brooks just three years after the end of the Civil War.
Generals Lee and Grant had signed the papers bringing the war to a merciful end at Appomattox.
The weapons were put down and the soldiers made their way home but half the nation was destroyed and President Andrew Johnson was trying his darnedest to get rid of the rights of the former slaves that the war had won for them.
So many families were left grieving as 620,000 soldiers were killed – more than the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, World War I, World War II, and the Korean War combined.
The loved ones considered themselves fortunate if their brother or father returned missing a leg or suffering from what we now call PTSD.
Rev. Brooks had visited the Holy Land before the war and spent Christmas Eve worshipping at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, thought to be the spot where Jesus was born and wanted this song, O Little Town of Bethlehem, to evoke the memories he had of that sacred space.
He asked his organist and music director to set the words to music that would be easy for children to sing.
Hopes and fears – the nation at the time was struggling to rebuild and many Americans found great comfort in the words that evoked an image of the two coming together and that hope eventually wins the day.
Once again, an angel, this one coming in a dream to Joseph who was on the verge of walking away from the pregnant Mary, utters the words “Do not be afraid.”
Joseph had plenty of fears for Mary, pregnant without a husband, she would have been subjected to intense cruelty.
Joseph in his righteousness follows Jewish law carefully.
Hearers of Matthew’s Gospel learn of the impending birth of Jesus not through the angel that appeared to Mary in Luke’s Gospel but through the appearance of an angel instructing Joseph that he should put aside his fears about his pregnant, but not by him, fiancé.
This child will be a savior and is to be given the name Jesus.
Matthew’s Gospel was directed toward those Jews who were Jesus followers and had been expelled from the synagogue, just as Jesus had said they would and they were straddling the two identities.
They, too, would most likely be living lives of fear.
Matthew’s approach throughout his Gospel, beginning with the angel’s appearance in Joseph’s dream is to emphasize the ever-present God with us, Emmanuel.
And that is hopefully where all those fears begin to make the turn toward joy.
But that is not to say that a life in love with God will also not experience fear.
The joy we hope for with every Christmas must first go through the story of that first Christmas, starting with the words of an angel that Joseph woke up and lived into.
That had to be terrifying.
But what Joseph, the one who knows well the letter of the Law but is encouraged to also live into the heart and spirit of the law.
This will be Jesus’ teaching technique throughout his ministry. He will cite the law and then offer the loving response. If its not loving toward God and/or neighbor than its not living into God’s intention for us.
This will also not be the last time a dream figures into the early Jesus story from Matthew.
The magi who come to pay homage will have angels visit them with the warning not to go back to the cruel despot Herod and they, too, listen, and return home by another way.
And there will be yet another angel appearance for Joseph when he is warned of Herod’s evil intentions and is turned instead toward Egypt where they become refugees.
We never do hear Joseph’s voice, just as we won’t next week in our pageant.
What we instead witness are his actions, motivated by the words of an angel and love.
On this Gaudete Sunday, this Sunday of joy, this halfway point of Advent with our eyes turned toward the birthday we will observe in two short weeks, where is the joy?
In the mad dash to get everything bought and wrapped, all those cards sent and cookies baked and the decorations up – all intended to symbolize joy – there is a certain amount of FOMO – fear of missing out.
This season, in spite of the carols and merchandise that comes out around Halloween, is a brief light in this dark season.
Blessedly, we have the timeless story of working up to and through Jesus’ birth.
Just as I’m often asked how people without faith in God get through the death of a loved one which provides so many of us with the strength to hold on and keep going, so, too, the joy that comes from the knowledge of this story, the details of which will be right before our eyes and ears next week during the Pageant is intended to give this season its light.
And so balancing our fears and joys, we will sing as our closing hymn today and again on Christmas Eve before heading out into the darkness, of the joy that comes with the birth of a Savior Jesus where we “repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy.”
It’s a joy that doesn’t come neatly wrapped with a bow, and doesn’t eliminate fear.
Rather it makes it possible to face fear and move beyond, with the knowledge that we are loved deeply by our great God.
That’s joy that lasts.
“Let every heart prepare Him room.”
Let’s make room, once again, for Jesus. Amen.