Trinity Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Sermons 

Title: "Amazing Faith"

Text: Matthew 1:18-25

how would they appear in your mind’s eye?

I nearly always picture them

as part of a nativity scene . . .

both, just a couple of feet away from the manger and the baby,

looking adoringly at the Christ child.

Maybe like in some of the nativities in the Fellowship Hall …

Mary’s face is calm and peaceful . . .

she never looks like she’s just been through labor!

Joseph also is serene –

no questions etched on his face about

just where did this child come from,

and how will I know how to raise him.

For many of us, I think,

Mary and Joseph are kind of

locked into those positions.

Important people, but, ultimately, bystanders

in God’s coming to earth as a human person.

Just the instruments by which God’s will was accomplished.

Sometimes we forget that

the most important things they did

probably were those that came before that nativity scene.

I think it was Martin Luther who said that

two miracles happened at Christmas.

The first, of course,

is that Christ was born,

and God took on human flesh.

The second miracle

is that Mary believed.

And, said Luther,

that second miracle is the bigger of the two.

Mary believed.

Mary trusted that somehow,

what God had in store for her future,

was going to turn out for everyone’s good.

And so Mary obeyed.

I suggest that there was even a third miracle,

which Luther doesn’t mention …

Joseph believed.

I mean, imagine how he must have felt

when he first learned that Mary was pregnant,

before he and God had their little talk.

Tradition has it that Joseph was much older than Mary,

a widower, perhaps. . .

Did he assume that she simply didn’t want to be married to the old man,

and must have had a boyfriend somewhere?

Did he feel betrayed . . . angry . . .

or maybe disappointed and sad?

Joseph graciously resolved to let her go quietly.

Gracious, because,

according to the law, he could have had her put to death.

But then the angel talks to Joseph,

as if to say,

"It’s okay, Joe, I know how you must be feeling . . .

and I know this is strange,

but you’re going to have to trust me on this one.

That baby belongs to God.

So go ahead and take Mary as your wife.

And name the baby Jesus,

because he will save his people."

And Joseph obeyed;

"he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him."

Maybe he had already heard about what happened to Zechariah …

you know, the husband of Elizabeth, Mary’s cousin,

who at this same time is pregnant with John the Baptist.

Zechariah had the audacity to argue with the angel Gabriel,

"just a minute here, Elizabeth and I are both old;

just how is it that you think she’s going to have a baby?"

Gabriel tells him, God can do anything;

and since you ask too many questions,

you now aren’t going to get to speak until after the baby arrives.

Anyway, Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him:

He married Mary,

and when the baby arrived,

they named him, not Joseph,

as you would often name a first-born son after his father,

but Jesus.

Just think –

if Mary and Joseph had not been believed –

Christmas would be quite different

from the way it is now.

If there was even a Christmas at all.

Mary and Joseph

prepared the way for Christ to come

by trusting and obeying God.

And in these last few days of Advent,

that’s how we also need to prepare ourselves.

It’s so easy to fall away from

a strong reliance on God . . .

We generally don’t have angels appearing to us,

in real life or in dreams,

to give us direct orders from God!

Furthermore, we are surrounded by many voices

making demands on us,

and insisting that we can trust them.

So it is appallingly easy sometimes

to lose track of God’s will,

and to begin trusting, obeying, having faith in

someone or something else.

 

Most of us, for example,

are very good at having faith in

our own selves!

Often, we have more confidence in ourselves

than in anyone or anything else.

We grumble about how,

"if you want something done right,

you have to do it yourself,"

and to a large extent we really believe it.

We come to believe that,

at least in some areas,

no one can do what we do as well as we do it!

Among my generation of parents,

there is a surprising number who will never

leave their child at home with a babysitter,

or let the child spend the night at another child’s home,

because they don’t trust anyone other than themselves

with their child.

Or – and ministers are particularly bad about this one –

people who will never take a vacation

because they are afraid everything will fall apart

if they aren’t there to hold it together.

Or, those of us who can’t admit when we need help,

because to ask for help is to acknowledge

that we are not self-sufficient.

We are ever so good at

trusting ourselves, and obeying our own directives.

And we human beings have a remarkable ability to convince ourselves

that what we want is what God wants.

And so we go off and follow our own ideas,

and our own reason, our desires, our prejudices. . .

and we persuade ourselves that it’s God’s will we’re obeying.

Now in some cases, it may be!

But probably not as often as we’d like to think.

Others of us, though,

aren’t so much into having faith in ourselves

as we are, trusting and obeying other people.

Particularly prone to this temptation

are people without a strong positive self-image.

One of my college roommates was like this with the men she dated –

every one of them, and for a while there were many,

became almost god-like to her.

He would be the one to take care of her,

his word was truth,

anything he wanted, she would do.

Needless to say, they would always end up breaking up

either because she would discover he wasn’t perfect

or he would get tired of trying to live up to her expectations!

Another dangerous tendency for people in this category

is the temptation to offer blind obedience

to a religious leader.

Especially since you can usually find at least a quasi-religious leader

all too willing to give orders and demand service.

Applewhite and the Heaven’s Gate cult . . .

David Koresh and the Branch Davidians . . .

A less extreme manifestation of this,

and very common, although not in this congregation,

is folks who tend to treat ministers as though they are

just barely a step below God,

and who become very bitter and disillusioned

when their pastors turn out to be

just plain human beings like everyone else.

Now, I don’t mean

that we should never have faith in other human beings,

or that we should never trust or obey

our own selves, and abilities, and intuitions.

Only that, we need to be careful

never to make idols of either of these.

Our ultimate trust, and our ultimate obedience,

belong only to God,

who is over and above all.

And it seems to me that Advent is a good time

to examine ourselves in this regard.

I know that it’s "traditional" to take a look at ourselves at New Year’s,

and perhaps make a resolution or two.

Sometimes we evaluate ourselves at birthday time:

Another year older,

what do I have to show for it?

But it seems to me that Advent

is a uniquely appropriate time to take a look at ourselves.

I know it’s a busy time of year,

and there is precious little time to sit still and be quiet

and just think.

But as we get ready to welcome the Christ child,

an important question to ask ourselves is,

are we ready?

Will his coming be welcome,

or will it be an intrusion,

or maybe a little of both?

Do we trust in . . .

do we have faith in …

are we willing to obey . . .

a God who loves us so much

that God came as one of us?

One author asks it this way:

"We are called upon to trust him,

though at times we do not fully understand him. . .

Are we prepared to follow his lead

at the cost of our pet prejudices?

Are we ready to change

from what we are or have been

and strive to become what we really could be?

Our faith in Jesus Christ is often served best

by the puzzled head with a steadfast heart."

I like that: "puzzled head with steadfast heart."

Because sometimes, God does ask us

to trust or obey things

which don’t seem to make a whole lot of sense.

Like the whole unlikely Christmas story, for example!

Angels and shepherds and wise men

and a star and a manger

and a baby who turns out to be God.

None of that is the least bit logical,

at least according to any human system of logic.

And yet, how true it is.

Puzzled, yet trusting heads . . .

combined with steadfast and obedient hearts.

What a wonderful gift

for us to offer the Christ child!

Come, let us prepare it. Amen.

© 2004 Julie Adkins (e-mail: DrJAdkins@trinitypresdallas.org)