Sermon for Dec. 23

Sermon-Year A- 3Advent Dec. 16, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
Did you all hear the story a week ago about the Dunkin’ Doughnuts employee who was being robbed, and the clerk started hitting the robber with a tin cup? Did you hear about it? The clerk said that he fought back because he knew the robbery would be YouTube : "What was going through my mind at that point was that the security tape is either going to show me run away and hide in the office or whack this guy in the head," the clerk said. "
We live in a world where we EXPECT to get our 15 minutes of fame. Even in the middle of a robbery, people are thinking, “wow, how will I look on tv? And the clerk, “declared that he planned to upload the video on YouTube, a video-sharing website.
"There are only a few videos like that on YouTube now, so mine's going to be the best," the clerk bragged. "
That’s the world we are in.
I’ve told you that we read the Bible on a three year cycle, which means that every third year we hear this morning’s gospel. I’ve told you this before, but two out of those three years we hear all about Mary. But in year A, only in year A, we hear something that we only hear once. It never comes up in the other gospels. We hear about Joseph. The next two years on the 4th Sunday in Advent we’ll hear about Mary, but in year A we are reading the gospel of Matthew-and Matthew is the only one who talks about Joseph. In Luke’s gospel Mary talks with the angel-but in Matthew, Joseph has dreams-and the angel talks to him in a dream. And what does the angel say?
“…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-1-
And so Joseph does what he is told. And he doesn’t get his 15 minutes. Mary is worshipped and revered. Joseph, if you notice, doesn’t even get to talk. Joseph is the forgotten man, the “foster father” as one scholar refers to him. In theological circles Mary is called, “Theotokos” Greek for “Godbearer.” You know how Joseph is known? He is the Patron Saint of a Happy Death. There’s a big chasm between these two titles.
We know almost nothing about Joseph. The last time he is mentioned in the gospels is when Jesus is 12 and it says that Joseph and Mary take him to Jerusalem. And then Joseph disappears. There is a story about Joseph from one of the gospels that didn’t make it into the Bible, one of the apocryphal gospels, that goes like this:
(from Catholic Encyclopedia) “When forty years of age, Joseph married a woman called Melcha or Escha …or…Salome. They lived forty-nine years together and had six children, two daughters and four sons, A year after his wife's death, as the priests announced through Judea that they wished to find in the tribe of Juda a respectable man to espouse Mary, then twelve to fourteen years of age. Joseph, who was at the time ninety years old, went up to Jerusalem among the candidates; a miracle manifested the choice God had made of Joseph, and two years later the Annunciation took place.
No wonder Joseph didn’t live long enough to see Jesus’ ministry-he was over 100 years old when he died. According to legend.
We know so little about Joseph. Here is what we know-he did the right thing-he did his job. He wasn’t called to be famous, or to do anything spectacular-he was simply called to do the hard thing at the right time, Joseph had to decide to allow Jesus be born-to come unto the world. He had to step out in faith, even though it cost him his reputation and honor and pride. Theologian William Loader writes: … Matthew describes Joseph as "righteous". He is righteous because, faced with two possible applications of the Law, the one severe, the other compassionate, he chose the compassionate option.
Joseph wanted to run away. He wasn’t going to expose Mary to scandal, but he wasn’t going to marry her either. Until he had the dream. Can you imagine how hard that had to be for Joseph? He was known as a righteous man, a good man, he had a reputation in his community-and here he was going to have to live with a woman that everyone knew was pregnant with someone else’s child. When you think about the birth of Jesus every person in the nativity story is carrying a burden. But few more than Joseph. He has to marry a young girl who tells a fantastic story, who talks with angels, who is pregnant with “God’s child”. And he has to do all this secretly and honorably. He has to let the Christchild be born into his life, too.
So Joseph does his job. He becomes a husband to the girl, he raises the boy as his own, he gives him the name that the angel gives him-not his own name. Joseph does what he is told to do. And how hard that had to be. Theologian Loader goes on to write that in Matthew:
(Joseph) becomes a model … obeying the… (Law) with the focus on compassion.”
With all the focus on Mary at this time every year, her obedience, her trust, her faithfulness, perhaps we can take one day every three years to honor and learn from this almost forgotten man, this patron saint of the happy death.
Joseph had a terrible responsibility -a child to raise, a wife to support, a murderous king to avoid, a barn to find, shepherds and wise men to entertain, and dreams to bear. How tough it had to be, to be a man who just wanted to put his betrothed aside and get on with a righteous life. There are a million things at Christmas we do that are hard. Perhaps the hardest of all, is the million ways we are called to let Jesus be born into our lives-especially when we don’t want to. As one author described it, Peter could have take “the geographical cure” (meaning, that he could have run away) or he could wed Mary. It is always a challenge to let Jesus be born in us. But we have this wonderful role model, this righteous man, who overcame every instinct and inhibition so that a child could come into the world. The next time that Christmas is hard for you, and that means sometime today or tomorrow, remember this forgotten saint, who gave up so much so that his dream could come true. A righteous man who obeyed the law and focused on compassion.
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We won’t be on YouTube for being righteous and compassionate. We will do it because it is what Christmas brings out in us-a focus on compassion.
Matthew 1:18-25
1:18 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.
1:19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
1:20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
1:21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
1:22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
1:23 "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
1:24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,
1:25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

An employee who fought back against a robber admitted his heroic deed was prompted by his concern of how it would look on YouTube if he did not. Dustin Hoffmann, a Dunkin' Donuts employee, was reported to have whacked a robber on the head with the store's tip cup, after the thief attacked him and started taking cash from the register.
"What was going through my mind at that point was that the security tape is either going to show me run away and hide in the office or whack this guy in the head," Hoffmann said. "So I just grabbed the cup and clocked that guy pretty hard."
The thief, according to police, came in after 5:30 p.m. Sunday, and ordered a blueberry cake doughnut, handing Hoffmann a dollar bill. As Hoffmann opened the cash register, the robber lunged at him and started emptying out the cash register.
Hoffmann then grabbed the robber's wrists and started repeatedly hitting him over the head with the metal cup.
The AP reported that according to Police Chief Donald Ingrasselino, the thief managed to escape with some cash, but lost his baseball cap. Police intend to use it to retrieve possible DNA evidence.
Hoffmann declared that he planned to upload the video on YouTube, a video-sharing website.
"There are only a few videos like that on YouTube now, so mine's going to be the best," Hoffmann bragged. "That'll teach this guy."
The Record reported that police suspected the robber to have been responsible for two other Dunkin' Donuts robberies that occurred in the last two weeks. The thief robbed a store on Route 10 in East Hanover, and another on Route 46 and Parsippany, from which he managed to make off with $1,500.