The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for December 23, 2007

Texts: Psalm 139/Matthew 1:18-25

Title: “Emmanuel”

              I wonder if the evangelist Matthew who gave us the gospel, from which our morning’s lesson comes, had any familiarity with the gospel the evangelist Luke prepared.  Judging from the amount of information the two gospels hold in common it is very likely he did. More significantly, however, is the major point the two gospels want to make, and that is that Jesus is Lord.  That claim is made by both gospels without any equivocation.

              It is interesting, however, that while the two gospels both treat the birth of Jesus, the two gospels of the four that do so, Luke and Matthew identify two separate persons as the primary recipients of the news that the Savior will be born.  If you were listening as our second lesson was read you already know that Joseph was one recipient of the news.  But what about the Gospel of Luke?  If you said “Mary,” you got it right.

              While it is unlikely that the issue of gender equity ever arose for Luke or Matthew, the fact is that Mary has principal billing in Luke, while Joseph enjoys that status in Matthew. Yet though each gospel gives one or the other equal billing, Mary, by virtue of giving birth to the Lord, enjoys special standing in the church, particularly among our Roman Catholic friends who treat the mother of the Lord with reverence unmatched within our tradition.

              Mary’s visitation by the angel in Luke’s Gospel changed her young life for good, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus.”  In Luke’s account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth, Joseph occupies a place similar to the one occupied by Prince Phillip in relationship to his wife, Queen Elizabeth.  His name may be linked to hers.  He might stand at her side.  He may well have been the father of her children, but no two ways about it, wherever the two may travel the queen is the center of attention.

              Review with me now Matthew’s accounting of how Jesus’ birth was announced.  Mary’s honor and reputation as a woman, her very life hinged on how Joseph would respond to the news that his soon to be wife, Mary, was pregnant and he had nothing to do with it.  Matthew informs us that Joseph, was not only a “righteous man,” but that he was also unwilling to “expose [Mary] to public disgrace, [preferring] to dismiss her quietly.”

              Before Joseph could act on that intention an angel appears to him, counseling him, as an angel counseled Mary in Luke’s Gospel, “Do not be afraid.”  “Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus.” As the angel had instructed Mary in Luke’s Gospel, so Joseph is instructed to name the new born, Jesus.                 

              Now Matthew appends two important points to the announcement of the impending birth.  First, Matthew tells us that birth fulfills Isaiah’s long-standing prophesy, “The virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”  Second, Matthew tells us that this soon to arrive “son,” whom Mary and Joseph were instructed to name Jesus, “will save his people from their sins.” 

              Mary and Joseph were each the recipient of a vision.  Some of us who have met with Tom Bandy, the primary consultant in the transformation project underway in our church, is fond of saying that visions come to individuals, not committees.  Consider the fact that a committee rather than Mary or Joseph had heard the angel’s announcement.  They might well have argued, first of all, over what they had heard.  They might well have argued about how they would act on what they heard. Committees do that sort of thing.

              No, Joseph alone was recipient of the vision in Matthew’s Gospel, and more importantly, he was obedient to the vision, following the angel’s bidding by doing three things: he took Mary as his wife, he had no sexual relationship with her until the child was born, and he named the boy Jesus.              

              Joseph was obedient to the vision, which was important, even decisive, but Joseph was merely one actor in the drama of salvation over which God presides.  Its God show, friends.  Visions do come, gifts of mind and spirit are conferred so that people like us might live out the drama of salvation, but nothing is possible unless God wills it.

              God willed the birth of Jesus, and did so for a very specific purpose. God sent Jesus to “save his people from their sins.”  And this was not some new idea that God concocted when Mary and Joseph happened onto the scene.  Matthew reports that the coming of Jesus was in God’s plans at least as far back as centuries earlier when the prophet Isaiah foretold that “a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us.’”      

              What gets lost as the gospel accounts of Jesus’ birth are retold, and we have grown up fascinated and captivated by what Matthew and Luke share with us, is that Jesus’ coming to earth announces that God himself is entering human history in the flesh.    “Emmanuel, God is with us,” does not imply that God was ever absent, but that God was choosing to act in a new way, and for a distinct purpose, “to save his people from their sins.” That promise of salvation, of course, has been constantly renewed throughout history in the experience of people just like you and me.  But even before the coming of Jesus, God’s commitment to his people was steadfast, a source of strength and encouragement to Israel who called on him often, but also to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and on and on.

              In the birth of Jesus we celebrate the constancy of God’s love over generations, a love expressed not merely in God’s act of creating all that is, but a love that is a consistent and persistent love, that was, and is, constantly being reasserted by God in the day in and day out highs and lows that mark the human experience here on earth.

            “Emmanuel means God is with us,” but the psalmist said it best, “Where can I go from your spirit?  Or where can I flee from your presence?  If I ascend to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.  If I take the wings of the morning and settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me fast.”

              “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  “Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble with its tumult.”

               “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

              “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  “The lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  He makes me lie down in green pastures; he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.  He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.”

              “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  The psalmist from whom I quoted probed the depths of the human experience with God, offering testimony after testimony to the convictions aroused in people like us who have experienced the fullness of God’s love and constancy.

               “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  Out of his experience of God present with him the psalmist lived his life with confidence knowing that he and God’s love were inseparable.  There was no place he could go, be it heaven or the depths of the underworld where God was not with him. 

                 “Emmanuel means God is with us.”  Worship is the very intentional act in which the people of God gather together to celebrate through the inspired word, Holy Scripture, but also through prayer, song, confessions and creeds the ways in which the triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, was present in the lives and events of the children of Israel, and later the followers of Christ.  In worship we consult the ancient story, and seek to learn from the God revealed there, where God may be active in our lives today. 

                In the normal format we follow here Sunday to Sunday I assume responsibility for attempting to apply the lessons learned in the ancient story to the lives we live today. On many occasions that works out to suggesting some of the ways in which God reveals himself to be with us today. We seldom in worship, however, make time for your thoughts on the subject.  That is an omission we will attempt to correct this morning. 

               At the beginning of the service I asked you to take some time while Lantz was playing the prelude to complete the following phrase, “I know God is with us because...” [Frank and Jim] picked up those sheets along with the prayer requests. This is an opportunity to acknowledge God’s presence here from the perspective of each of you who returned a response.  Andy and I are going to give you time to ponder the responses many of you made after it is read. Listen for how your family member, friend, or neighbor experiences God present with us. [begin to read]   

               "Emmanuel means God is with us.” Even as we have spent these four weeks of Advent watching and preparing for the coming of the Christ, we watch and prepare not to see if Christ will come, we already that he has come, and that he will come again.  The reason we watch and prepare is to identify the new ways God in Christ may be breaking into our lives today, this month, this year.  We can learn much from listening to the neighbor on that score, and our neighbor can, in turn, learn much from us.

                 A special vision came to Joseph.  His wife, Mary, would bear a son, Jesus, who would save his people, [and who are “his people?”  Us friends] who would save his people from their sins.  The vision reaffirmed God’s steadfast commitment to his people, and that commitment, friends, is still in force.  To that reality you and I have collectively witnessed this morning.  “Emmanuel means God is with us.”

PRAYER   

              Almighty God, the proclamation of Holy Scripture is clear; you have chosen to dwell in our midst onto the end of the age. May your nearness give us confidence in the living of these days, confidence to place our lives in your hands at all times, particularly when there is no light to illumine the path before us. Even as Joseph was obedient to the vision you sent him, may we also be obedient when our name is called, trusting that you have not called us to any task for which you have not already prepared us.

              The liturgy we follow in worship has been defined as “the people’s work,” to which you, O God, are the audience. Help us, O God, to find new and creative ways to make our worship truly an offering of the people. Prosper the effort we have made today to be more inclusive, and may the response of your people encourage more conversation and dialogue around important issues pertaining to the faith.

              Lord, even as the globe is fast shrinking, not so the gap that separates the world’s “haves” from the “have nots.”  Even as we anticipate the particular pleasures that the holidays afford, many around the globe have no stake in the world’s bounty.  We would ask, O God, what you require of us pertaining to the marginalized brother or sister, but we already know. With the empathy that the pictures of suffering and deprivation so often arouse in us, may there arise a conviction across the church that we have all the resources necessary to make a difference in the lives of all who are lagging behind.

              O God, we pray for healing for those who have special needs this day.  And so we pray for Pam and Rudy…..Abide with those who have arrived at the crossroads at life, the young person deciding upon a vocational path, the newly retired unpracticed in constructively using her leisure.  Be with those contemplating marriage, or those struggling with a decision to end one.  Challenge those who are poised to make a decision that will jeopardize their happiness, and grant consolation to those who have already made a decision they regret.

              Lord, reveal your will to those charged with important decisions bearing on the future of this city and region.  We pray for our mayor and city council who have so recently come under fire for decisions they have made.  We pray for our newly elected governor as he assembles his staff and division heads.  Elected for offering a new vision for what Louisiana might attain, may he blessed with wisdom and courage as he and his administration attempt to enact the vision.

              In this holiday season separation is particularly poignant.  Posted around the world, our soldiers, airmen, and sailors, our foreign service officers, missionaries of the gospel and others will be deprived of the loved ones and traditions that have given the holidays their special meaning in the past. Their absence will leave a void for those who will gather without them.  In your mercy protect those from whom we are separated, and may that abounding love that is ours to share across the table continue to hold us together though we may be separated by continents.

              O Christ, you come to us in so many ways.  Even as we prepare to celebrate your birth, be born anew in us.  Defeat all that is within us that would deny your claims upon our lives.  May the realization that our baptism has purchased our freedom from sin and death strengthen us against all powers that would seek to subvert and control our lives.

              We gather as the church, and we pray as the church calling upon Christ, O God to pray through us in the prayer he taught….