The Call of Emmanuel: Matthew 1:13-25 - Fourth Sunday of Advent

38\365 by Mando Photo on Flickr. CC BY-SA 2.0

¹⁸Now 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. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But 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. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” ²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
 ²³“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
  and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.”²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. (NRSV)

The other day, our daughter asked about this magnet on our refrigerator.

At one time, I had about a dozen of these—because they were being handed out like religious tracts on my college campus.

The man in the picture is the retired professional wrestler and 80’s television tough guy Mr. T, who’s advertising 1-800 COLLECT.

I entered college just prior to the proliferation of cell phones. So for us, if you wanted to call home, you had three choices: you could pump quarters into a pay phone; use a prepaid calling card; or, call collect.  You dialed 0, or an 800 number to a collect calling service, stated your name and the number you’d like to call, and the system would dial the number, giving the person you’re dialing the option to accept or decline the charges to receive your call.

God is not like 1-800 COLLECT. You don’t get the option to decline a call. Anyone who does ends up in the belly of a whale.

Mary and Joseph are two in a long line of persons dating back to Genesis who are called by God to essentially carry the weight of God’s salvation upon their own shoulders. (Or, in Mary’s case, inside her own body.)

And I have to say, I feel for this young couple. They’re about to enter a marriage that would’ve been arranged for them. In those days, marriage was not about love but about obligation. There’s a very real possibility they may have barely known each other. They may not have even wanted to get married.

At the very least, they had some sense as to what the future held—until an angel visited Mary at night. I can’t imagine how frightened Mary must have been—and how shocked and horrified Joseph must have been. Joseph had made up his mind to quietly divorce Mary, until an angel intervenes. Joseph ultimately takes Mary as his wife and names the child Jesus.

And we all know what happens next—the long journey to Bethlehem, the birth in the manger, the years of living as refugees in Egypt; not to mention the gargantuan responsibility of nursing, feeding, housing, raising, protecting, and educating this child “who will save his people from their sins.” God laid the weight of the world’s salvation in the arms that held this tiny, fragile, helpless baby.

Still, you wonder: why Mary and Joseph? Weren’t their lives complicated enough? Couldn’t God have found a better and easier way that wouldn’t have turned their lives upside down? Couldn’t God have called someone else who was already married, for whom this duty wouldn’t be such a burden? Like I said, I feel bad for Mary and Joseph.

And why come to earth as a baby? Couldn’t God have just dropped Jesus on earth as a full-grown adult? And finally, couldn’t have God found an easier way to save people from their sins besides Jesus dying on a cross?

In Mary and Joseph, we see how costly God’s call can be. God has a way of interrupting lives and calling people to bear extreme burdens and make extreme sacrifices. There are always risks, uncertainties and dangers—and God never sends people down the path of least resistance. You have no say in what you will do or how you will get it done.

Furthermore, God always calls the people you’d consider to be least qualified for such service. Mary and Joseph are no exception. Sure, we are told that Joseph is a righteous man—and we know that Mary is eager to do God’s will. But the Bible isn’t telling us how good and faithful Mary and Joseph were. This is a story about how good and faithful God is. Before Christ was conceived in Mary’s womb, the Holy Spirit conceived faith in her heart—and Joseph’s heart. This is why, despite their shock, their confusion, and their fear, they obey. It is the Holy Spirit who creates the obedience of faith, through which God acts.

God doesn’t call you to test your faith and make you prove your worth. When God calls you, and you obey that call and trust in God’s faithfulness, you will see how good and faithful God is.

No one can do anything of importance to God without God’s help.

Mary and Joseph are at the start of a roller coaster ride that will take them all the way to the cross and the empty tomb. And I’m sure, because they are human, they’re going to be scared; they’re going to have doubts; they’re going to feel like God has failed them. But the ultimate gift of God’s call is summed up the name Emmanuel—God with us; and the name Jesus—God saves. Trust and obey, and God will be all these things.

God’s call is more than just obeying orders; it’s a call to go with God and be with God as God saves. It’s a call to both live in and live out God’s mercy, forgiveness, and grace. It’s not a life of riches or glory, but a life of hope.

In the same way that God called Mary and Joseph, God calls you so that God can be true to who God is in Christ: God with us, who saves. The obedience of faith: trusting in who God is, looking forward to who God will be, and moving forward in confidence and hope.

God calls you through your longings; through your pains; through your heart’s desires for what only God can give you. God calls you where you see pain and suffering in the world, and you feel that pull to do something. Even when your faith is as small as a mustard seed—and you’re willing to hope against hope that God’s love must win, and you believe that with God’s help, God can make it happen. The God who is with you will be the God who saves.