St. Paul's On-the-Hill Episcopal Church

The Rev. Stephen C. Holton, Rector

December 23, 2007; Advent 4

Romans 1:1-7

Matthew 1:18-25

COURAGEOUS LOVE

Love that Opens the way to eVery Expectation

In a few minutes, right after the service, the play - “The Christmas Gazebo” - will start in the parish hall. And I urge you to see it – for it is the product of people who faithfully gave themselves to the possibility of embarrassment, to tell a story larger than themselves.

Today is a day for people who did not know what they could do, but went ahead and tried to do it anyway.

It is a day for the Gentiles of Rome, not the Children of Israel, not God's anointed; just simple folk who believed in the gospel – slaves, powerless freemen, like us – gathered for strength in an overwhelming world because they found strength in Jesus and his Gospel as preached by St. Paul.

And Paul said you are not just called to have courage. You are not just called to survive. You are not just called to be slaves. You are called to be saints.

You can be saints.

I don't care what the world thinks of you, says Paul. I don't care if you're born in all the wrong places and are fated to be nothing at all in the world.

You are called to be saints. God can make you saints.

What a calling for those who aspired to nothing at all, if they are but faithful to the message and to the lover of their souls – even Jesus Christ who came and lived and died for them, and loved them.

Today is a day for Joseph, as well as Mary.

Mary was the center of attention. Mary had received the message of Gabriel.

Joseph didn't know what was going on. He was a deer caught in the headlights. He just knew Mary was with child, and it wasn't by him, and they weren't even married yet. There was no way to escape shame and the end of their lives as they knew it.

But Joseph was a righteous man, it says, an honorable man who cared for Mary and his relationship with her. Righteous means relational, loving, caring, determined to fulfill God's law of love and care.

So Joseph was determined not to cause Mary shame, because he cared for her. He was determined to put her away quietly, not to make a big deal of it, not to defend his honor, but to preserve her honor, if at all possible.

Into this atmosphere of righteousness, into this atmosphere of – shall we call it, courageous love – the angel comes. We cannot call it heroic love, for Joseph does not want to marry her. He determines to put her away quietly, to protect her honor and his. But he is not heroic.

He is like us at our best. Not quite a saint, but determined to be a good person even if its difficult. He may cause some shame to himself, but not too much.

So he will do the right thing, even if its the difficult thing. Not the heroic thing, but the right thing.

Into this context the angel comes.

The angel of the Lord can work with us if we're trying to do the right thing, even if its not the heroic thing. The angel of the Lord can work with us if we're doing our best – even if we're not better than anyone else.

The angel of the Lord can work with us if we're a Joseph, even if we're not a Mary.

And the angel of the Lord comes to Joseph and says: “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife – 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, for he will save his people from their sins.”

Courageous Joseph has a job to do. It is to marry Mary – and not to be afraid. The commandments of the Lord always come with the injunction not to be afraid. Maybe that's because the commandments of the Lord will always get us into trouble with the authorities, or at least lead us into embarrassment.

Do not be afraid.

You have another job. Name the child. Perhaps it was always the father's job to name the child, even if the mother got to bear him and the Holy Spirit got to conceive him.

Joseph has a role too. The father has a role too. The courageous one, not the heroic one, has a part to play.

You have a part to play. We all have a part to play in this whole world in the plan of God.

You may be the heroic one, Mary, who can submit to the amazing plan of God in your life that will benefit the whole world.

You may simply be the courageous one, like Joseph, not the central actor but the best supporting actor – if you will – who supports the central actor, without whose help the central actor could do little or nothing. They would still take a central role in the drama of life, but with so much more shame, and so much less help.

I like best supporting actors. I like Sam as much as Frodo in “The Lord of the Rings.” Frodo has the great vision of what he's going to do and how its going to alter the fate of the world, and knows he will probably die in the great cause.

Sam knows nothing of the fate of the whole world. He does not have the vision. He does not understand the Ring. He loves Frodo. That's why he follows him and helps him and risks almost certain death – because of Love, not heroism.

This is the kind of Love that grits its teeth and ties on its boots and walks through the night because it does not see the light. It only sees the one it loves. And if the one it loves is walking through the night, well, it ought to go too, even if it does not know the way.

This is the love that goes to work even though it does not know why and has long since forgotten the vision that got it started on the job.

It is the love that puts up the Christmas tree even though it does not feel like it, and buys the presents and puts them under the tree though it is not sure why it matters.

It is not the love that changes hearts. It is the love that keeps on going even though it no longer has the heart to do it.

This is the love that God can work with, for God can work with human things as well as divine. God can work with human faithfulness, and righteousness.

It is the love of Joseph – to whom God entrusted the safety of Mary, and of his only begotten son, a human love, a human faithfulness, without which Divine Love would have been lost.

So I wish you the love of Joseph in your life, that love that was good enough even if it wasn't perfect, without which perfection might not have survived.

I wish you faithfulness to follow through when you don't feel like it, just because its the right thing to do, the righteous thing to do, the relational and loving thing to do.

God follows through too. And when we make a home – and a Christmas – for him by sheer grit, God shows up. He would have anyway. He would have been born to Mary anyway. But we get to name him, and worship him, and adore him up close and personal.

And we get to feel his love up close and personal because we hung in there. We don't know why. We don't know how. We didn't have the vision or the sanctity. But we had the courage.

And that is all God needed.

Amen