Joseph the Forgotten Man - December 23, 2007

When we listen to the Christmas story, Joseph often plays a rather minor role in the background. Most of the time, people focus on Baby Jesus, Virgin Mary the mother, angels, shepherds and the three wise men. However, especially in Matthew’s narrative, Joseph did play an important part, leading up to the birth. Today, we have just heard it from Matthew 1:18-25.

Matthew begins his narrative with “an account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.”(1:1) The word he uses for genealogy literally means “Genesis”! This is a new book of Genesis, just like the first book of the Scriptures. Matthew intentionally uses this word to indicate a new beginning and a new creation with the birth of Jesus. The same God who created human beings at the very beginning is now also creating humanity anew with a miraculous birth.

After tracing the genealogy, Matthew explains the story by saying, “Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.”

Many commentators observe on this text that it is as much a miracle to talk about the virginal conception as the way how Joseph changed his mind on the matter. Some call it “Joseph’s conversion”. In the first century Palestine, marriages were obviously still arranged. Joseph and Mary may have been arranged to be married by their parents when they were still young. Such arrangement was more than an engagement as we understand it; it was legally binding as in a marriage, even before the wedding took place. Therefore, when Mary was found to be pregnant, Joseph had every right to divorce her. That was exactly what the law and the custom of the land expected him to do.

Even though Joseph seemed to have concluded that Mary must have committed adultery, yet he was unwilling to shame her publicly by dragging her through the courts. Perhaps it was out of compassion that he would quietly dismiss her instead. He was a “righteous man” in two different ways: he followed what was required by the law and he had compassion for Mary.

It was also suggested by other commentators that by divorcing Mary, Joseph also offered the real father the opportunity to raise his child by marrying Mary instead.

Like the Joseph of the old Genesis story (ch.37), this Joseph also found out God’s purpose for him in a dream. An angel or messenger of God came to him, not only this time but a few more times later, to instruct him what to do and explain to him about this child Mary was carrying, and the significance of his birth.

For Joseph to change his mind, it could have been a very difficult decision. What if he were one of those stubborn people who believe that they are always right? What if he were one of the self-righteous ones who cannot possibly accept anything that is not right according to the letter of the law? Was he reluctant to change his decision before the angel’s appearance?

Furthermore, the angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife. Why should he be afraid? In the earlier description that “Mary was found to be with child”, is it possible that others had found out about this pregnancy too? Who else knew about her condition? Was she beginning to show? Was he afraid of what the neighbors might say about his betrothed wife? Had the rumors already started in the neighborhood and appeared in the headlines of the community gossip columns?

How often is our action governed by our sense of self-righteousness? Do we look down on those who are obviously worse sinners than us: pregnant teenagers, prostitutes, drug addicts and their suppliers, drunk drivers, homosexuals and others whose lifestyle we don’t approve? How often are we influenced by the fear of what would others may say or think? Does that control us and our behavior more than what God wants us to do? How often do we follow a dream, and dare to believe in it? Or, is it easier just to awake from a dream and dismiss it as something simply unreal and not believable?

God broke through the barriers of fear and insecurity to reach Joseph, and a conversion took place! He took a real step of faith to believe in the message of the angel that the child was from the Holy Spirit, and not from another man. Not too many “real men” would end up doing what he had done. In the end, he took Mary as his wife, in spite of his fears and claimed the son as his own by naming him Jesus. In fact, by naming the child, Joseph acknowledged Jesus to be his own; therefore he became the legal father of the child. According to Raymond Brown in the Birth of a Messiah, Jewish custom was clear on that: “If a man says, ‘this is my son’, he is to be believed”. Since they did not have modern technology to determine paternity in those days, a man’s acknowledgment was accepted as good enough ground; for normally a man would not acknowledge and support a child unless it’s his own. That’s why in Matthew’s genealogy, although Joseph did not beget Jesus; Jesus is still a descendant of David through Joseph, because of legal paternity rather than a biological one.

Different parts of the Christmas story all invite us to have faith. It conveys to us how God has come to change the world and to change each one of us. The story does not invite us to simply believe in the historical accuracy of the virgin birth or a tiny baby born in a manger. But the story proclaims the truth of Emmanuel – God with us!

There is a legend about the Cherokee Indian youth’s rite of passage. According to this ritual, his father would take him into the forest, blindfold him and leave him alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, the boy is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrifying night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him a few yards away. He had been there watching him the whole night, protecting his son from harm. That’s the secret! To every boy’s surprise, his father never left him.

In the same way, we are invited to believe in a messiah whose name is Emmanuel, God with us! Perhaps spiritual maturity comes from sitting seemingly alone in the dark night of the soul only to discover the presence of God when light finally shines through. We are asked to trust in God, who stays by our side all through our life journey. The secret is that we are never alone! Even when we are not aware of it, even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God is always with us! Therefore, we do not have to be afraid! Indeed, God is with us today, removing the barriers of our self-righteous attitudes and moving us beyond our fears and insecurity to faith! Yes, even a deeper and more mature faith!

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Fr. Victor +

Church of St John the Divine (www.stjd.ca)

A Spiritual Check-Up: December 9, 2007

I went to the doctor for my annual check-up this week. It interrupted my daily routine, since I could not eat for 12 hours before the appointment, and made me consciously think about my health. From day to day, week to week, we usually just go on auto-pilot and seldom think about our health, unless something wrong makes us aware of the lack of health and the danger of illnesses to our body. Threats of disease and symptoms of something may be wrong with our health are truly wake-up calls that rudely remind us of our mortality. Julia (my wife) has gone through a similar scare, when she went through a biopsy few weeks ago. As it turns out, we are thankful that there is nothing wrong with the cells in question. Regular check-ups and preventative measures are very important to our health.

Similarly, twice a year, more like our dental check-ups, we are reminded to have a spiritual check-up. The seasons of Advent and Lent call us to take a reality check on the spiritual condition of our well being. Spiritually, are we healthy enough to go on, or should we do something to restore our health and wholeness? Is our heart at the right place? Or, are we preoccupied and obsessed with the wrong things and priorities in life? Should we do a “gut check” before we face the challenges of another new year?

The familiar story of John the Baptist (Matthew 3:1-12) focuses on his message of repentance and the practice of the water baptism. You have probably heard many, many sermons on repentance and forgiveness of sins. Perhaps I will try a somewhat different approach today. First of all, when we talk about repentance, we need a GPS! For those who have not heard of what is a GPS, it is called Global Positioning System, a navigational device that provides signal of your precise location on earth, with the help of satellites. It is probably one of the more popular adult gifts this Christmas, judging from the advertisements of the different electronic stores and departments. Some of my friends need a device like GPS, because they lack a good sense of direction and they are not good at reading maps. We need a GPS to tell us exactly where we are, and which direction are we going. Then, we can find out whether we are heading the right way or not. Repentance, simply put, involves a turning around, when we find ourselves going the wrong way. When you go down a one-way street against the direction of the arrow, unless you do a U-turn, you won’t be able to avoid the risk of a head-on collision and travel at the right direction again.

Prophets like John the Baptist are similar to GPS, telling us where we are located spiritually, that we are facing the wrong direction and need to turn around to face the right way. In repentance, we move from point A to point B, out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of darkness into light; out of death into new life. Our Christian mission and calling is to bring people from afar closer to God, spiritually dead or dormant to the state of being spiritually alive and awake. We invite people to this process of transformation. Like the prophets, we prepare the way by pointing to Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life!

Any process of transformation always involves an ending, a transitional stage, before a new beginning is possible. To repent is the first step of making an ending to the old before the new is made possible. Many people long for new life and new beginning! You can ask anyone who has an addiction problem, and they will tell you that they desperately want a new life. They want to change their ways very badly! But the problem for them is not so simple, especially they find it so difficult to end their old way of life, and free themselves from whatever bondage which enslaves them. Putting an end to the old life, old habits and addictions is not as simple as it sounds. New life is not possible until they can break free from the old.

However, on the other hand, a proper ending paves the way for a new beginning. The fulfillment of a promise is also the end of the old and the beginning of the new. Today’s Old Testament passage from Isaiah 11:1-10 talks about a king from the line of David who will represent the fulfillment of the hope for a messiah. He will be shaped by the Spirit of the Lord. That divine Spirit will equip the king with the gifts necessary for just rule. His administration will be marked by justice – that he will make sure the poor and the vulnerable, i.e. those least able to protect themselves, have full rights before the Law.

The coming of this messianic king also brings about a transformation in the natural and cosmic sphere. Natural enemies in the animal kingdom will live together in peace and harmony. There will be no more violence, and no more fear! There are echoes of a return to a world without violence among creatures, such as that of a paradise as described in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. This is a truly magnificent vision of cosmic peace. If you do not have a particular vision of what heaven may look like, try this one: the peaceable kingdom where human beings and animals do not have to live in fear!

In fact, we are told that a defenseless little child shall lead them in that kingdom. That little child, and the nursing child and the weaned child all represent human beings at the most vulnerable stages of life. Perhaps we can learn from such kind of leadership and the child-like quality involved.

Jesus said, “Unless one turns and becomes like children, one will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” What kind of quality does a child bring? We are not asked to be childish and immature in our ways. To be child-like is to be marked by innocence, trust, simplicity and frankness. An infant is totally vulnerable and dependent, open to the possibility of being wounded, and open to attack or damages. Such a child is powerless, or at the mercy of other adults. Yet, the child is also very powerful, as he or she is connected to a very fundamental life force. We, adults, have very often lost touch with that kind of life forces. Adults who abuse children do so by taking advantage of their vulnerability. They exploit their innocence and trusting nature. In that sense, all forms of abuse exploit the vulnerable of the world: the weak and the poor, the sick and the powerless, the elderly and the young who are dependent on others. The abusers, the ones who rely on macho power, strike out in fear, anger and aggression. That’s why we are taught not to be vulnerable, not to leave any opening for others to attack us, and not to leave our security to chance.

In a world that believes in the survival of the fittest, the victims of violence and injustice do not really count! There is no place for orphans and starving children in many parts of the world -- people want them to disappear! However, can you imagine a world without children? Then, we simply do not have a future! We simply do not have hope!

Perhaps repentance has to do with getting in touch with the child within all of us, accepting our vulnerable child and finding healing for that child! It may have to do with recovering that pristine and uncontaminated quality of the child that would lead us to the kingdom of God – to recapture the lost awe and wonder of our childhood, to reclaim the trusting nature, the playful creativity and the magical imagination that have been long buried by our cold, logical adult world. Far too quickly, young people are taught to be crafty and cunning: on what they can get away with in life, as long as they don’t get caught!

Being born anew is likened to returning to the womb, being re-connected with the source of life, totally trusting in the mother of all goodness, being truthful with God, with ourselves and with others. Repentance requires that honesty and truthfulness.

John the Baptist preached a water baptism of repentance, but the One for whom he prepared the way would be baptizing with the Holy Spirit and fire. There is a very strong hint of judgment in that second kind of baptism. However, with the coming of Jesus, the baptism of the Holy Spirit also brings about power, and empowerment for his followers: power to live the Christian life, power to repent, power to end injustice in the world, and power to make peace possible!

There is a voice in the wilderness crying for us to repent, to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming King. Are you willing to make room in your heart for Christ amidst the busy preparation for Christmas? Are you willing to prepare our world for the Prince of Peace, to usher in his peaceable kingdom, and so transform our world? Are we willing to be part of that transformation by first repenting ourselves?

A few more questions for you to ponder:
What would inspire you to be a better Christian? What would draw you closer to God? How can we encourage you to live a life worthy of God’s unique calling for you?

May this Eucharistic meal strengthen and empower us with the courage of Jesus, to take on the first step of transformation! Thanks be to God. Amen.

Fr Victor
Church of St John the Divine (http://www.stjd.ca/)

An Advent People - December 2, 2007

“You know what time is it?” (Romans 13:11-14) Let’s say:
It is ten minutes before midnight. The lineup has been there since mid-afternoon. Some has brought lawn chairs, some are warming themselves with fresh coffee; others are entertaining themselves with books, i-pods, portable games and connecting with others talking on the cell phones. They know that for ten more minutes and the wait will be over. What anticipation! What excitement! What are they lining up for? The answers in multiple choices are:
a) To be first in line for tickets to a Rolling Stones concert?
b) To be first in line to buy the latest offering from Microsoft, Sony or Apple?
c) To be the first ones to get into the stores for Black Friday sales after the American Thanksgiving?
d) To be the first to get into the Church for mid-night mass on Christmas Eve?

Well, how likely is the answer d)? People in our consumer culture anticipate in excitement for the latest thrills and toys, based on what is new and exciting. The happiness and thrill do not last long, usually until the promotion of the next in-thing comes along. Marketing and advertising determine fashion and wants. We, with the rest of the ordinary people, live our lives according to the whims and devices of the marketing genius and their latest gimmicks. Spiritual hunger, however, needs something more profound than what material satisfaction can supply.

In the middle of the commercial shopping season called Christmas, we in the Church try very hard to observe a forgotten and ignored season called Advent! We swim against the current and oddly wish one another a Happy New Year today! “On the second day of December?” you ask. Yes, indeed, it is odd and out of step with the rest of the world. Is it important to be different? Or, should we try blending in all the time? Today’s scriptural readings provide a few clues about who we are and to whom we truly belong.

In Isaiah 2:1-5, we get a vision similar to the scene I described at the beginning of this sermon. Throngs of peoples are going up the hills to Jerusalem to worship God. As in high festivals, people are in fact lining up and they start singing hymns. These are psalms of ascent, like Psalm 122 we read earlier, that pilgrims and worshippers sing on the way up the hills into the holy city. They pray for peace and prosperity. Similar to the prophet’s vision in Isaiah that: “they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.” -- Those are the famous words often quoted by pacifists who preach peace and peacemaking instead of making war! Instruments of war and violence are being converted into peace-time utility tools. Such is the longing of the people of the world, that peace and prosperity will be possible among the nations. Yet, for centuries, especially in the place they call the Holy Land, peaceful co-existence is still a dream not yet realized. They are not anywhere closer to peace today than a century ago.

If Christians are Easter people as we labeled ourselves, can we be also an Advent people? To re-discover our lost identity in a world that has no room for the Advent season, perhaps, the first thing we know about an Advent people is that we are a peace-making people! After all, we wait for the coming of the Prince of Peace – another Isaiah vision fulfilled at Christmas. The conversion from making war to making peace is a different kind of conversion than the one we usually associate ourselves with, but nonetheless, a practical and important one for us to consider.

Secondly, what time is it? St Paul said that “it is now the moment for us to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.” As Advent people, we are called to be children of the Light, to walk in the light of the Lord! We are to wake up to a new day, a new sense of time, another era or period in God’s history. We are called to be prepared for this new age of Christ, not because we know when, but because we know what it means. For us, it is the fulfillment and culmination of our salvation!

We are called to a transformation from Darkness to Light, just as we change from our pajamas or night cloths into what we wear going out during the day. We are asked to cast away the works of darkness and to put on the armor of light. I remember as a child, we had to wear school uniforms in Hong Kong. As we moved from warm season into cold weather, we went through a change of uniforms for the different season. We put away what we don’t wear and store them until the next year. Similarly, we go from green to the color purple in our liturgical decoration today, reflecting the symbolic change in seasons, themes and emphases. St Paul asks us to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, just like putting on our winter coats in the last few days, in order to keep warm and be protected from the elements. This symbolic “putting on Christ” means a change in our behavior, our values and outlook on life. We are part of the new creation in Christ, as Paul said elsewhere: any one in Christ is a new creation! We repent and turn our lives around to reflect the new reality in which we live!

The message of today’s Gospel (Matthew 24:36-44) is simply: “Be Prepared!” Jesus uses 3 dramatic images to describe the suddenness of the coming of the Son of Man: a flood, a kidnapper, and a thief. These sharp and disturbing analogies are meant to call us to be alert and watchful. He clearly states that no one knows when the second coming may occur, only God knows! But repeatedly, people in the world, doomsday prophets and other cult leaders always immerse themselves in the game of predicting and calculating dates and time, waiting for the world to end. Many American Christians subscribe to the Rapture theory of the end of the world, using the image of one taken and one left behind, similar to Jesus’ parable employed here. Unfortunately, they preach dangerously a gospel of fear and hatred.

Former U.S. President, Jimmy Carter in his book Our Endangered Values has this to say about the so-called “Left behind” literature and theology:

“Almost everyone in America has heard of the Left Behind series, by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins, twelve books that have set all-time records in sales. Their religious premise is based on a careful selection of Bible verses, mostly from the book of Revelation, and describes the scenario for the end of the world. When the Messiah returns, true believers will be lifted in heaven, where, with God, they will observe the torture of most other humans who are left behind. This transcendent event will be instantaneous, and the timing unpredictable. There are literally millions of my fellow Baptists and others who believe every word of this vision, based on self-exaltation of the chosen few along with the condemnation and abandonment, during a period of ‘tribulation’, of family members, friends, and neighbors who have not been chosen for salvation.” (pp. 113- 114)

The frightening aspect of this type of literature and theology rests in the fact that many fundamentalist Christians have come to believe it as sacred truth, one and the same as Scriptures, not as novels and fictions the way they were written. They try to fit these fictional plots into their reality of life. Secondly, this type of thinking have gravely influenced certain American politicians who shape their foreign policy, especially in the Middle East, dangerously promoting wars and confrontations in order to hasten the fulfillment of their articulated prophecies and the coming of this Rapture!

As Advent people, we do not stray away from the whole of Scriptural teaching to narrowly focus on the doctrine of the End Time, especially one that is distorted and misleading when held up against other teachings of Jesus. In my younger days, I have heard many preachers going on endlessly about the Rapture, which is at best misguided and speculative. However, to those who are fascinated by it, they are addicted to the details to the exclusion of everything else. In the season of Advent and the rest of the year, we are called to be prepared, but not to be totally obsessed or preoccupied with the wait. I used to live in a rectory down the road from the Church in Whitby. I tried not to leave the place in a mess, at least not the living room and the study, just in case we had people dropping in. That is being prepared. However, I did not stop doing everything else and waited at the door for the unexpected visitors. I did have a life; I was not constantly worried about intrusion. I carried on living a normal life, doing what I needed to do. We should have the same attitude as an Advent people. We live as children of light, bearing witness to the light of Christ coming into the world. As we gather for worship, we invite God into our daily lives, so that we live a holy, responsible and grounded life, ready to welcome our Lord and King, whenever his kingdom or reign will begin anew.

So, Happy New Year! What is new? We start off another new Christian year, preparing for new life in Christ. Advent is a season pregnant with hope, the same way Mary was carrying the Christ child within her. The blessings of new beginning, albeit small and insignificant ones, will be able to lift us up and allow us to rise above the ordinary, mundane parts of life. In worship, we join millions of other Christians in the world longing for and expecting the salvation of Jesus Christ to be fulfilled, not only in the second coming of Christ, but in the reality of grace established since His first coming. It is in this “here and now” reality that we live joyfully and celebrate God’s presence in our midst!

Thanks be to God. Amen.
Fr Victor +
Church of St John the Divine (www.stjd.ca)