Big Churchy Words: Justification

I have wondered how we might use this word, “justification”, in a normal sentence. I use it as a teacher, because I ask my students to write their essays using left justification only, with a ragged right margin. Some of you aren’t sure what I just said, because that’s still a fairly technical use of the word, even if it’s not a churchy word. [To illustrate: I typed this sermon “left-justified”.]

I gather (thanks to the resource of Wikipedia) that “Justified” was also a TV show that aired on American TV from 2010 to 2015, based in contemporary Lexington, Kentucky. Its basic idea was to dramatize the exploits of a US Marshall, Raymond Givens, who made his name through shooting a mob hit man in a “controversial but justified quick-draw” contest. From the story arc, we can guess that the show wrestles with the idea that bad and violent actions are sometimes justified by the good results they bring.

This show introduces us to several basic ideas in the word “justification”.

• Justification assumes the rule of law, in which people are either just – righteous (or good) people, or unjust – bad people.
• Justified is a legal term, indicating that someone has been found to be in compliance with the law.
• Behind the rule of law lies a further idea – that we should want to be just or righteous people, i.e., people whose lives fit with the good.

When we start to speak theologically, we go deeper and further. Consider the passages we read from Genesis and Romans.

Genesis 15

Abram’s encounter with God is one of a sequence of encounters in which God promises that Abraham and Sarah will have many descendants – God said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them. So shall your offspring be.” The point of the passage for our purposes comes in the final verse: “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.”

I chose this passage because Paul uses this verse in several places to invite people to trust God. Romans 4 and 5 use this verse to help us understand what the church means when we talk about justification. (See Romans 4: 3 and 22.)

Romans 5

•           Verses 1 to 5: Paul notes that we are “justified by faith.” On another day, we could explore the way that God’s people experience trouble in this life. “Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, and character hope.” That is to say, the troubles of our lives lead to God’s glory revealed in us as God’s Spirit cares for us. Today, we note simply that “justification”, whatever it is, comes through faith.
•           Verses 6 to 8: We were powerless and “ungodly”, but Christ died for us. This “for us” assumes a substitution in which we face death, but Jesus dies in our place. What exactly that “for us” means is part of what Lee explored two weeks ago as he preached on atonement. Whatever else it means, Jesus’ death demonstrates God’s love for us. Our care group was studying a book some time ago in which we read about two American soldiers in Iraq. They were close friends throughout the war there, until one day when a grenade was thrown into the place they were sitting. The one closest to the grenade looked at his friend and smiled, then threw himself on the grenade. He was killed instantly, but his friend lived. The author used that sacrifice to remind us that God loves us so much that he “threw himself on the grenade that would have killed us”. How that exchange works belongs in further conversations about “atonement”. For us this morning, it is enough to say that God loves us and that we live because God loves us.
•          Verses 9 to 11: Sin has made us “enemies of God”, and we can expect God to destroy God’s enemies. In that dangerous situation, God saves us through Jesus and makes us God’s friends – “reconciled with God”. Next week, Lee will take us into the waters of reconciliation, so I say no more here about that. Only this: That, being “reconciled with God” and therefore God’s friends, we have real life!
•          Verses 18 to 21: At the end of the chapter, Paul locates our enmity with God in the way that we share in Adam’s sin, and he locates the saving action of God in the work of Jesus. All of which we receive by faith, like Abraham – trusting God to make us what God wants us to be.

Justification, then, is the story of God making us right when we went wrong. God justifies us through the work of Christ. This we call “God’s grace”. We receive this grace by faith. Faith is our response to God’s grace at work in our lives. And Paul promises that “where sin increases” – that is, wherever human rebellion makes life destructive and horrible – “God’s grace increases even more.” [Notice that this story is the opposite of our world’s story, in which we have to “justify ourselves”. We cannot make ourselves “right with the good”, “consistent with the reality of God’s creation.]

Do We Get It?

There’s a problem here. As I look around the congregation this morning, I see people who are for the most part good people. We have been tried in the fire, and God has reshaped our lives. Can Paul’s description apply to us? Do we feel as though we live “where sin increases”? God’s grace has increased in our lives, and we thank God for dealing kindly with us. Do we even need “justification”?

Go back to the TV series, “Justified”. The US Marshall at the centre of the series appears to be a generally good man, truly desiring justice – “law and order”. He does some things that are questionable on the way to stopping the bad actors from doing bad things. His actions are justified by their results, but he remains a person of questionable character. In North America, we worship power and success, so we are often willing to justify bad actions by their (apparently) good results.

That kind of thinking is wrong. The whole of Paul’s argument leading up to this chapter has been to show that all of us – Jews and Gentiles, men and women, religious and irreligious – all of us “fall short of God’s glory”. We fall short of what God wants us to be. Which brings me back to my comment a moment ago, wondering if we really think we are that bad, wondering if we believe that we fall short of what God wants us to be.

A Brief Example

Some time ago I was at supper with some friends, and one of them was describing a recent event in his life and then burst out, “I was surprised at how I reacted! I didn’t know I was so vindictive!” I would not describe my friend as vindictive. He works hard to show care to other people, but in the case he was describing, something in his character surfaced. I admire his willingness to name it.

The truth is that such feelings lurk beneath the surface for most of us. (I would say: “all”, but I am not the judge of all people.) This week as I was cleaning out the coffee maker, the lid slammed down and cut my hand. I was alone at home, and the shouting that followed reminded me that an uncomfortable level of anger lurks beneath the surface within me. The part that scares me is how easy it is for me to fail to see what lies in my subconscious. [This kind of thing happens often enough to let me know there really is a problem. I say no more here: My job is to work that out elsewhere.]

Have you experienced depression or despair? Depression can be anger turned inwards against one’s own innermost being. Do you find yourself wishing that God would remove someone from the face of the earth? Hatred of others can grow out of hatred of evil. I don’t want to preach about politics, so I will say no more, except to say that only by God’s grace is sin removed from our lives.

God loves us, and so Jesus died for us. His self-sacrifice “justifies” us – something we could never do for ourselves. Marshall Givens in the TV show is not truly “justified”. He remains a man who has killed other people. He remains someone who is separated from God by his own choices to act violently. Only God can justify him. And God will do so, if – like Abraham – he believes God and receives God’s grace, making him righteous, making him the person God wants him to be.

Without God’s grace, every one of us is separated from God and deserve death. Through God’s grace, we are reconciled with God and receive life. God makes us right. That’s justification!

What Do We Do? The role of sanctification

From this description, justification is all God’s work. God makes us the way that God wants us to be. The Bible uses many images to describe this new way – “new birth” or regeneration is one of the most common. The point is expressed in 2 Corinthians 5: “If anyone is in Christ, he/she is a new creation.” We become new people when God makes us new. Obvious, when you put it that way! Just as we become new people when we are born again.

Making us new is God’s work, but we have a part to play – the part of response. “Abraham believed God, and God ‘justified him.” We believe God. We live into the new person God has made us. We open ourselves to the fullness of God’s Spirit at work in us. This is what we call “sanctification” – being made holy, filled with God’s Spirit.

In Romans 6 and 7, Paul explores the way that our tendencies to sin that lurk beneath the surface struggle with the new person God has made us. He finishes his description thus, “Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!” Then come his stirring words: “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

For this morning, we note just this much from Romans 8: God “justifies” us – makes us righteous – so we live that way through the presence and power of God’s Spirit within us. This “sanctification”, then, is our response to God’s work in us. We embrace God’s Spirit and open every door of our life to God.

I have heard described this way. Your life and mine is like a house. When we choose to follow Christ, he saves us and we give him the key to the front door and the title to the house. That’s justification. But this house has many rooms, and there are doors down dark corridors that we have never explored. Whenever we find another one of this unexplored rooms, we fish out the key and open it and give it to God’s Spirit to clean up and live in.

Conclusion

Big words: justification and sanctification. A simple core at their centre: God loves us and we grow in God’s love. Paul understood this. He ends the long section (chapters 1 to 8) in which we find our passage this morning with a soaring description of God’s love: “What can separate us from the love of God? Nothing! Absolutely nothing! (Romans 8: 31 to 39) No matter what happens to you in this life, God has your back. We give ourselves to God completely, and in return God gives us life to the full.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

2 February 2020

Genesis 15: 1 to 6

Romans 5: 1 to 11, 18 to 20

Genesis 15: 1 to 6

The Lord’s Covenant with Abram

15 After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.”

² But Abram said, “Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” ³ And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”

⁴ Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” ⁵ He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.”

⁶ Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

Romans 5: 1 to 11, 18 to 20

Peace and Hope

5 Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. ³ Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵ And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

⁹ Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! ¹⁰ For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! ¹¹ Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

…

¹⁸ Consequently, just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people. ¹⁹ For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. ²⁰ The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹ so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Questions:

·         What does justification mean?

·         Why do we need to be “justified”?

·         How does justification happen?

·         What does justification lead to?

·         What does it look like every day?

Bonus Questions:

·         Can you think of hymns that help us sing about “justification”?

·         How does sanctification fit into the picture?

·     I said that “God has your back” when bad things happen. How do we experience God’s love when life falls apart?

It Was the Best of Times; It Was the Worst of Times

The New Year provides a time to reflect and project. We reflect on the past and project what we hope for the future. Last week, Lee led us in looking at who we will be in the coming year by reflecting on the “wise men from the East”. We are engaged in a lifelong calling to become who God wants us to be. We are engaged in a lifelong quest to worship God fully. We are engaged in a lifelong effort to find faith – faith in God, a faith that we find most fully in the pain and suffering of life. [Lee posed these three questions: Who are you going to be? How is God present in your life? Where do you find faith as you travel in paths unknown?]

We read two passages this morning, one from Isaiah and one from Matthew. These were taken from the lectionary, and I have included the lectionary reading from Acts 10 as well, as we also look towards the future and ask who God wants us to be. We begin by considering the biblical texts, and then we ask what they have to say to us as we also reflect on our lives and project what we wish for the coming year.

Isaiah 42

These verses comprise one of Isaiah’s “servant songs”, referring both to Israel, who was to be God’s Servant in their world and to the coming Messiah, who would also be God’s Servant.

In this Servant Song, Isaiah tells us that:

·         God’s Servant brings justice with gentleness and peace.

·         The Creator will not rest until the Creation is filled with righteousness (another word for justice), freedom, and Shalom. [Isaiah does not use the word, but he clearly has this concept in mind.]

·         God resists all human efforts to take God’s place.

We see, then, that hope for the future comes through God’s Servant – both through Israel as God’s People and through the Messiah. In today’s context, our hope for the future rests in Jesus the Messiah and in the Body of Christ, the Church.

Acts 10

We did not read this passage earlier. Verses 34 to 43 come in the context of Peter’s vision, showing him that he can eat freely of any food – “Don’t call unclean what God has made clean.” Cornelius was a Roman centurion, who prayed regularly to God. He also had a vision, in which God told him to send for Peter. He did so, and Peter came and spoke to the people in his house.

Peter said, reflecting on his dream of clean and unclean animals:

·         Clearly God wants all people as God’s own – there are no favourites in God’s Realm.

·         God’s call rests on the death and resurrection of Jesus [you/we killed him; God raised him from the dead].

·         Jesus has sent us out to preach “forgiveness of sins”.

This term “forgiveness of sins” reminds us that God’s desire is for all people to live in the peace and harmony and justice that Isaiah had described, but humankind has rebelled against her Creator. God wants peace and justice, therefore God sent God’s Son into the world, but we rejected him. As John’s Gospel puts it: “He came to his own, but his own did not accept him.”

We are in the season of Epiphany, the light shining on our celebration of Christmas. We sing the Christmas Hymns, rejoicing at the birth of the Baby Jesus – it is indeed the best of times. In this time of joy, we listen to the news. There is conflict building in the Middle East. In the country of my youth, Zimbabwe, the shelves are bare and the electric and water power off. Australia is burning, without hope of relief. The problems all around us tell us that today may be the worst of times. The problems we face all come from humankind’s rebellion against God. We want to be in control of everything around us, and our efforts to take God’s place separate us from God.

When Jesus was born, the wise men brought myrrh (among other gifts), reminding us that Jesus was born in order to die for us. We [all humanity] killed him, and God raised him from Death. God heals the rebellion of our world, and God sends us out to preach this healing, “the forgiveness of sins”.

Matthew 3

We come to the gospel reading from Matthew 3, which describes the baptism of Jesus. Some weeks ago, Lee preached on this passage, pointing out that the baptism points us to God’s sovereignty, God’s rule in this world.

These verses answer the question that John himself asks:

·         Why? “To fulfill all righteousness.” This note of righteousness connects to the passage from Isaiah, in which the Servant brings justice/righteousness and peace.

What happened when John listened to Jesus? God appeared and approved. This event celebrates and seals the appearance of God in the world in the person of Jesus. Jesus is Lord!

Synthesis

At the beginning of a new year (and, according to some, the beginning of a new decade), we face a time full of trouble and reasons for despair. What about hope? Where does hope come from? What can make our future full of peace and justice?

·      In Isaiah, hope comes through God’s Servant – through God’s People and through the Messiah.

·      In Acts, hope and salvation really are for everyone, through Jesus’ death and resurrection.

·      In Matthew, hope begins with listening to Jesus.

We face a choice. Will we seize the New Year and force everyone to do what we want? Or will we submit to the presence and person of Jesus and receive the justice and peace that come through embracing his death and resurrection?

Synthesis Expanded

As I reflected on this basic idea, bringing the texts together, my thoughts took a direction I didn’t expect, stimulated by current events in the Middle East. I don’t quite know how to develop what I am going to say now, but I hope we can work at that together in the Going Deeper time. Here’s the thought. The USA government killed an Iranian military leader on January 3. The Iranian government responded with grief and outrage, culminating in a series of rocket attacks last Tuesday. On Wednesday, a rocket fired by Iran may have been the cause of the crash of the Ukrainian flight 752, killing 176 people, including 63 Canadians.

I have no interest in discussing the rights or wrongs of American or Iranian or Iraqi actions this morning. I mention this series of events because of how clearly they illustrate the normal way that human beings act. We want control of our lives, and we are willing to use any level of force to exercise control. Although both the American and the Iranian governments say they do not want war, no one related to this conflict considers the act of becoming a servant as part of the path to peace and justice in the Middle East.

Governments use lethal force, but we are not so different in our own ways when it comes to life in Steinbach, politically or individually. We normally use power to get what we want. This use of power is not bad; in fact, without it, nothing good can happen. For example, when I take my car to the garage, my willingness to pay for the repair is a form of power. Without my payment, the garage would go out of business, so I have leverage to get the service I need. Similarly, the mechanic identifies the repair that is needed. The mechanic’s expertise gives the garage leverage to compel me to pay to get my car back.

This is an ordinary use of power, the sort of thing that we do all the time. It is good and it is necessary. The problems begin when one of the parties involved in the exchange feels cheated. If I begin to mistrust my mechanic, I may think that I am being overcharged. I may use words like “cheated”. As I spread the word that my mechanic cheated me, I exercise the power of the consumer to hurt the business.

We could go through similar scenarios in the political realm and in the educational realm; in fact, in every area of life, we use power to get what we want. In this context, we hear Isaiah’s language of the “Suffering Servant”. A servant is defined by the lack of power. We hear also Peter’s language in Acts 10, in which he tells us that the opportunity to become one of these powerless servants is available to everyone. Finally, the gospel reading portrays Jesus taking the step of baptism, signifying his complete submission to the will of God.

We are servants. We cannot avoid the exercise of power, but we use power as servants, as people who are not in control of what will happen. As illustrated in the killing of the Iranian general, the human desire is to be in full control. We want to take control of the process and impose our will on others. We find it really hard to give up control and wait for orders from someone else. I know I am this way. I have taken personality tests that remind me of my deep resistance to authority – if someone tells me I must do something, I respond almost automatically with “No!”

What Do We Do?

You may wonder if I am making too much of the fact that Isaiah refers to the “servant of the Lord”. Is this just a title, rather than a description of who we are to be? In the passage from Acts 10, Peter clearly goes against his own understanding of who belongs in God’s kingdom. He obeys the voice in his dream, because he obeys God as king. In the baptismal passage, Jesus also demonstrates obedience for the sake of all his followers.

Two other passages from Paul’s letters state this way of living clearly and directly. In Ephesians 5: 21, Paul says, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” He illustrates this mutual submission by considering the way that wives submit to their husbands, the way that husbands love their wives, the way that parents discipline their children, the way that children obey their parents, the way that bosses rule their workers, and the way that workers serve their bosses. In all these situations, filled with power dynamics, Paul counsels mutual submission.

In Philippians 2, Paul says, “Be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others.” The last line suggests a simple and practical way forward; it is also difficult. “Don’t look out for your own interests, but look out for the interests of others.”

Earlier, I used the example of taking my car to the garage. This principle means that the garage owners and mechanics place my interests as the car owner above their own interests in the garage. Similarly, as the customer, I place the interests of the business above my own. I suspect that many of us say “Yes!” the first and grimace at the second. How do we do that? Come to the Going Deeper time to find out! I’m counting on the combined wisdom of the group, because I don’t think I can answer the question fully.

Conclusion

This is a new year. It may be “the best of times”; it may be “the worst of times”. Our future is not in our own hands. The choice we have is whether or not to live intentionally as servants of God and servants of each other. We may find that the same events are both the worst and the best, and God gives us joy and strength to live well when our circumstances are hardest.

The peace and righteousness/justice that our passages describe are a further theme, and I believe that the kind of commitment I am describing leads to greater Shalom in our world. I might suggest that the best path to such a world, filled with justice and peace, is the path of the servant. That would take another sermon, and for this morning I invite you to join me in living a life of service to God and service to each other, submitting to each other and looking out for each other, as together we serve God, in whose hands all our days rest. Amen.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

12 January 2020 

Texts

Isaiah 42: 1-9

Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations. ² He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; ³ a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. ⁴ He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his teaching.

⁵ Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: ⁶ I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, ⁷  to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness.

⁸ I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to idols. ⁹ See, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.

Acts 10: 34-43

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak to them: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, ³⁵ but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. ³⁶ You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. ³⁷ That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. ³⁹ We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; ⁴⁰ but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, ⁴¹ not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”

Matthew 3: 13-17

¹³ Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. ¹⁴ John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” ¹⁵ But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he consented. ¹⁶ And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. ¹⁷ And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”

Going Deeper Questions:

1. How does a real servant act?

2. How can we act as real servants in our church community?

3. How can we act as real servants in our community and world?

4. Mennonites don’t like to exercise power (at least, we don’t like to admit that we are using power), but the use of power is simply a reality in daily life. How can we use power appropriately as followers of Jesus?

A Fork in the Road

Fourth Advent. The final Sunday in the Advent Season before Christmas Day. Waiting is almost over. Celebration is near. Our theme for this morning is the sense of hesitation and uncertainty that goes with our long wait for the Messiah. We have looked at the dark side of waiting: Frustration; Impatience; Despair; Hesitancy (or Anxiety and the necessity of choosing). These parallel the usual four candles in the light side of waiting: Hope; Peace: Joy; Love. Both the light and the dark are normally present.

In the children’s time, I described my sister’s experience of waiting for me to be born. A five-year old’s understanding could not grasp what was happening, as she waited in the African night for her mother or “Aunt Verna” to return. When Verna Ginder did remember her and bring her into the hospital, she found out what she had been waiting for: Me.

I am quite sure that my parents had actually told her about the baby she was waiting for, so at one level she must have known. At another level, in the darkness and uncertainty of the night, waiting all alone in the 1948 Ford Pickup, she felt a real uncertainty as to what the future held. Who knows how all of that shaped our relationship over the years? (It’s a good relationship!)

Psalm 80

Our responsive reading earlier was based on Psalm 80. Verses 1 to 3 call on God to restore God’s people. They are in trouble – probably during the time of the divided kingdoms and possibly written in the northern kingdom of Israel. (Of course, the historical context of the Psalms is often difficult to assess.) They are oppressed. They see little or no hope except for God, so they call on God to save them and restore their own country. Verses 4 to 7 locate the source of Israel’s trouble in their rebellion against God and thus also in God’s judgment on their rebellion. The Psalmist asks again for mercy and God’s salvation.

There is much here and in the rest of the Psalm that we do not consider today. For the moment, we note only that life is hard and dangerous. We all experience that, if only in the physical weakness that we experience as we get older. Like the Psalmist, we recognize that our only hope for eternity lies in God’s saving action, which is then described in the Gospel reading.

Matthew 1

The story of Joseph is brief. Joseph has no lines. He comes on the scene as a young man with a woman “pledged to be married” to him. We are given no details, but we can assume that their families had more to do with the choice than they did. Evidently, they did have the choice to reject the families’ decision – so we may assume that they could also accept the families’ choice of a mate. But their marriage set-up is quite different than how we do things today.

Joseph is looking forward to joining his bride-to-be. He imagines their wedding night and the children that would follow. Instead, he discovers that Mary was pregnant. He knows he is not the father, so he could conclude only that she had another lover. As an honourable man, he does not want to disgrace her, but he also cannot marry her, so “he had in mind to divorce her quietly.”

Then the angel shows up. We’re not told which angel. Luke tells us that Gabriel came to Mary to announce her impending pregnancy. Luke gives much more detail in the announcement than Matthew does. One senses that Joseph was almost an afterthought; he just wasn’t as important in this whole process as Mary.

Yet he was important. His decision to “divorce her quietly”, however honourable and kind, is a problem, so the angel came to him and said, “Marry her.” The angel adds that Mary was carrying a baby from God, however improbable that seemed to him, and that the baby would be named Jesus, which means “he saves”. He would also be called Immanuel, which means “God with us.”

So the baby in Mary’s womb would save Israel – indeed, the whole world, because in this baby Jesus God invades our world for our sake. All Joseph had to do was wait.

Waiting

Joseph agrees, just as Mary agrees. They both say, “Okay. I’m in.” Mary says it eloquently, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” (Luke 1:37) Joseph says it silently; he just does it. We never do hear Joseph speak; we just see what he does.

They agree to take part in God’s action, and then they wait. We have used different words for that time of waiting: frustration; impatience; despair; and hesitancy. Waiting is hard work. I know this to be true from own personal experience.

Lois and I lived in Pennsylvania for five years, when I was pastor of a small church in Lancaster County. From there we went to Kentucky to the ESJ School at Asbury Seminary, where I trained for an advanced degree in mission studies. My dream was to continue to work with the mission of the church and to teach missionaries-in-training in a seminary setting. My dream was in fact exactly what I have done for the past 22 years at Providence.

We also spent four years in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Then the day came that I finished my mission studies. May 1993. I started looking for a teaching position where I could apply what I had learned at the ESJ School. I sent out applications. I had some responses and made some telephone calls. In 1995, I was invited to teach a missions theology course at the MB seminary in Fresno, which I did. The trouble is, they weren’t hiring. I taught a few courses at AMBS, but they weren’t hiring either. I took a church in Indiana as a half-time pastor from 1993 to 1997.

We learned a lot about waiting, and I can tell you that it is hard work. We experienced frustration, wondering why I had done three years of difficult advanced study, just to return to pastoral ministry. I already had my training for pastoral work from AMBS. I could have kept on working within the church. Why had we worked so hard, just to wait?

We experienced impatience. It’s time for God to open a door for us to go forward! I don’t think I felt despair – God provided us with jobs and a place to minister and a home in which to live – but I know what despair looks like! Hesitancy? I wondered if I was on the right path. I had joined in missions in response to God’s call on our lives, and I had trained as a missiologist as part of that call. Had I been wrong? Should I give up and do something else completely? We knew what anxiety feels like, and we were at a fork in the road of our lives, forced to choose.

Look at Joseph

Joseph had it worse than I ever did, and I notice two simple things in his example.

1) God always had the initiative. Sure, the Saviour of the world was coming, but God did it. God did the work of bringing the Messiah.

2) Joseph’s part was to play along, to cooperate. All Joseph had to do was accept God’s control and live his life waiting for God to act.

Both of these are useful models for us to imitate. We cannot save ourselves – in any sense of the word “save”. Only God can save us – physically, spiritually, mentally, emotionally. We wait for God to act in our lives. We invite God to come in. We prepare ourselves as well as we can, and we wait.

When God acts, we have a choice: We can go along with God’s movement in our lives, or we can chart our own path and do what we want to do.

I remember a crisis point early in 1997, after three and a half years of waiting at Christian Union BIC Church. I had not had any real offers, and I saw no real way forward to find a teaching position. I remember wrestling with God in prayer, asking why I could not find a place to use the gifts and training God had given me.

I had the opportunity to go to Zimbabwe that January and spend three weeks there working with the church. I remember agreeing with God that I could continue as a pastor, with occasional trips to work with the church in Zimbabwe, and that it was okay if I did not find a teaching job. Giving up my dream was hard [or giving up my version of what I thought God's call meant], but I was agreeing to walk the path God had for me.

Three months later, I got a call from the Dean of Providence Seminary. A month after that, I interviewed for the position of missions professor, and three months later we moved to Steinbach. The door that had been locked against us was suddenly open. The long wait was over. We had a new home, a new job, and all the opportunities that followed.

Hesitancy and Choice

This morning’s word is “hesitancy”. In the uncertainty that we experience in life, we hesitate between living God’s way and charting our own course. Like the Psalmist, we may be aware that only God can help us, but we are a self-reliant people. We want to find the right way forward ourselves, rather than waiting for the path God sends. So we hesitate between God’s way and our own way. In the problems around us, we begin to doubt God’s guidance, and we wonder if we are on the right path or should do something else. The story of Joseph shows him hesitating between divorcing Mary quietly or embracing her disgrace as his own.

Joseph’s example reminds us of that God is the only one who can save us. Our part is to wait for the Lord and to cooperate with what God does. 

Are you worried about the politics of the country? Maybe your party’s leader has just resigned, and you wonder if you should take strong steps to save the country. Remember that you cannot save the country; only God can. God gives you a task to do, a place to be. Sit there. Cooperate with God.

Are you worried about the future of the planet? Maybe you have heard about the melting ice in the Arctic and you wonder if you should take action against the worst polluters. Remember that you cannot save the planet; only God can. God tells you how to live. Live God’s way. Cooperate with God.

Are you worried about the future of this church? Maybe you have looked at the growth chart, and you wonder if you should try to fill the pews with some dramatic action. Remember that you cannot save the church; only God can. God calls you to come together with your sisters and brothers and to worship here – to take communion together; to sing our praise together; to pray together and to love each other; to do your part. Live God’s way. Cooperate with God.

I can tell you from my own experience that waiting is hard, but God is waiting with us: “Emmanuel” – God is with us. I can tell you also that Jesus comes in God’s time, and when Jesus moves, our job is to join in and move with him. When Jesus comes, we receive a gift far better than the gift my sister received that cool dark African night as she waited in the Ford Pickup. She got a baby brother, which is pretty special. We get even more; we receive God’s presence and God’s life both here in our lives today and forever in God’s eternity.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

22 December 2019

Texts

Psalm 80

¹ Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth ² before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh.
Awaken your might; come and save us. ³ Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

⁴ How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people? ⁵ You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears by the bowlful. ⁶ You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us. ⁷ Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

Matthew 1

Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son

¹⁸ This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹ Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

²⁰ But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”

²² All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: ²³ “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”).

²⁴ When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. ²⁵ But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Focus: What am I waiting for? When I call out to God, God hears me and restores my soul. I am a child of God, called beloved, and redeemed by grace.

Thought-provoking Question: Why is it so hard for us to trust God to take care of us in every situation of life? Why do we want to choose our own response to life’s crises?

Going Deeper Questions:

1. Joseph had a choice and accepted the path that made less sense on the face of it. What kinds of choices do we face? Are they at all like his? At one level, I don’t think they are, but the text implies that we are to do as Joseph did. Why?

2. What kind of control do we have when we face a crisis? Loss of control is a fact of life for all of us, and we don’t like it. What is left for us to do?

3. What is the social dimension of these questions? It is easy to personalize them and deal with our own individual crises, but Joseph’s choice was made on behalf of the world. How do our choices affect the larger society around us?