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Considering Joseph                           Matthew 2: 13-23                      December 30, 2007

Two thoughts spring to mind during this relatively slow week between Christmas and New Year's Day. The first is the fact that we are fond of looking back, as the year draws to an end, and the second is that our review of the year that has just passed us by is almost always a review of the big, powerful important people that appear to have made a difference in the world.

If you read People magazine's year-end review, celebrities shaped the year. Mostly the ones that only need one name to be recognized like Jessica and Angelina and Britney.

On the other hand, if you read one of the major news magazines, you learn that Nancy Pelosi, Alberto Gonzales, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Vladimir Putin and most recently, Benazir Bhutto are the ones who have made a difference during the year.

And, finally, if you read the official White House year in review, you learn - and this is a direct quote - that "The American people are benefiting from the effective leadership by the President and his Administration in 2007." I'll resist a comment.

But politics and pop culture aside, we are naturally tempted, this time of year, to think about "movers and shakers." The bit parts played by regular people - people like us - if thought of at all, quickly fade into the inner recesses of our memories. Drowned out and overshadowed by the larger-than-life stars, whether or not the stars are positive or negative.

Our text for today takes us in an entirely different direction. When we read the Gospel lesson from Matthew chapter two a few minutes ago, the name that we read, repeated over and over again, is not that of a celebrity. Or a "mover or shaker." On the contrary, it was the name of Joseph.

And Joseph, in the Gospel accounts, was apparently somebody just like us. He was a member of the supporting cast in the drama of Jesus' birth. One of the faces in the background, Joseph was generally not at the center of what seemed to be happening.

He is, in fact, mentioned only a few times in the Biblical record.

Mark, the author of the earliest Gospel record, never writes a thing about Joseph. Not even once. And while John uses his name twice - both times in a reference to Jesus - he never tells us anything about him.

Everything we know about Joseph, we learn from the accounts of Jesus' birth and infancy.

He is introduced to us the first chapter of Matthew's Gospel as the husband of Mary. In fact, it is probably safe to say that the reason why we know Joseph at all is because of his connection to Mary.

Matthew describes him as a righteous man - one who is willing to do the right thing. We know this about him because, according to Matthew, even after he hears terrible news from Mary that she is pregnant, he tries to handle it in such a way that it won't expose her to public disgrace.

When you think about it in context, this is a big deal. Joseph's fiancee is pregnant. His dreams are shattered. The future is gone. He is open to public disgrace. But still, after Joseph discovers this pregnancy and carries the horrible reality of it around with him all day, he finally goes to sleep and, when God speaks to him in a dream, he wakes up and does what the Lord tells him to do. Joseph goes ahead and marries Mary despite the public shame and embarrassment it brings him.

Joseph is also mentioned in the familiar birth story found in the Gospel of Luke, where, as you'll remember, he leaves Nazareth and goes back to Bethlehem, the town of his ancesters, to participate in the census, and can't provide a place for his wife to have their baby.

And then, finally, in Matthew, chapter 2, our text for today, we again read about Joseph. As the story unfolds, God speaks to Joseph twice more in dreams, telling him "Joseph, it's dangerous. You've got to take your family, including that new baby boy, and go to a foreign country, a place where you don't even know the language, live as a refugees until further notice." And then, later, God says: "Joseph, the danger is over. Get up again and go back to Israel." And what does Joseph do? He gets up and he does what God tells him to do. Again and again.

A remarkable person, this Joseph. Particularly when you recognize that he was a young man when all this happened. We don't know exactly how old, but he was probably in - or just out of - his teens.

Still, God somehow feels like he can ask this young man to do something significant. Even though we normally don't think of "teenager" and "responsibility" in the same sentence.

Beyond this, we don't know much about Joseph. He is never so much as mentioned once Jesus begins his public ministry, so it is possible, as some scholars believe, that he has died before that point.

What we do know is that Joseph doesn't write a bestselling book about "Raising the Messiah in Galilee", nor does he start a new sect. There are no miracles that follow him in his life. He simply goes on being an average person swept up in to the activity of God and God's intervention in history.

Which is exactly why I think we need to look at Joseph, at this year draws to an end, and see if there is a lesson or two for us.

Lesson number one, I think, is this: there is no such thing as an unimportant follower of God. If God could use Joseph, a teenage carpenter from Nazareth, to provide the foundation for the fulfillment of the prophesy of the coming messiah - to be the caregiver and role model for the incarnate God - what do you suppose he can do with a teacher and a nurse and a mechanic and a bus driver and a homemaker from Riverside or Delran or Delanco?

The only special thing about Joseph was his willingness to listen when God called. Something that is within the reach of every person here today.

The second lesson we can learn from the example of Joseph is as simple as the first: God may very well interrupt your life routine when you least expect it.

It is tempting for us to believe that God's call is only issued to a special few - to full-time ministers or missionaries, for example. That the calling of God is not for people who work at ordinary jobs for a living.

Well, one of the things that we learn from the life of Joseph is that this is not a valid assumption. God spoke to Joseph, an ordinary working man, and stretched him and called him, when he least expected it to happen, to do something that he never, ever expected to have to do.

And over and over again in Joseph's life he got up and did what God called him to do. He rose to the occasion and God used him.

In much the same way, God might just decide to come into our situation and call us to something more. Something out of the ordinary. Something we never expected, when we least expect it to happen.

For Joseph, God appeared in a dream. That was the first century way of describing things. For us, God might come in a pink slip, or an offer for a new job. God might come with a new neighbor, or in the trusted counsel of an old friend.

Fact is, we never know when it might happen, but the time may come in any one of our lives that God calls for omething from us. Perhaps God will call for a step of obedience we didn't necessarily expect to take.

Joseph, you remember, was just minding his own business, and suddenly his life was turned upside-down. Something happened and within 24 hours he had a whole new direction in his life.

The same thing might just happen to any one of us.

When I look at this congregation I see a lot of Josephs. Normal people. No celebrities. No one likely to be featured in the year-end edition of People or Time or Newsweek.

But I also see a whole lot of people who are striving to stay in touch with God. People who strive to listen and be faithful.

The message of the Gospel is that for God, celebrity means absolutely nothing. If the biblical record is any indication, God intentionally chooses unlikely people to do God's work.

You and I might be doing the same thing today that we were doing yesterday. Raising kids, working hard, studying, whatever it is.

Routine stuff.

My prayer, though, is that in the midst of our routines, each one of us is also open to a new call to new obedience. My prayer is that Like Joseph, you and I are the kind of people who hear what God is saying to us and, like Joseph, we will prove to be faithful and obedient and willing to do God's work. Again and again.

Nothing could bring more promise to the New Year than that.

                                                                             AMEN, and Happy New Year