Joseph Has a Dream: Last Sunday's Sermon

The Gospel

Matthew 1:18-25

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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 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. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.” When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

The Sermon

The birth of Jesus

We have been waiting for weeks for the birthday of Jesus. Waiting is not easy for many of us. Just imagine the stress of waiting that Joseph and Mary must have experienced and the drama that came with the birth of Jesus. Joseph is in a quandary. He finds out Mary is pregnant and he is not the father. I can just imagine the conversations that took place.

Then Joseph has a dream. In the dream an angel appears and tells Joseph that a wonderful event is to take place. The child to be born is the son of the Holy Spirit. Now, that is a lot to take in. The angel even tells him what the name of the child will be, Jesus.

In today's world, science looks at dreams differently. Science sees dreams as kind of a mental decluttering. Dreams are seen as synapses randomly firing and sort of cleaning house.

The people of the first century and many of us today look at dreams through a different lens. We often see dreams as a bridge between our world and the spiritual world. I can recount for you many times when I have had dreams that seemed to relay a message that was other worldly. And, I paid attention to them.

As I said earlier, great power was attributed to dreams in the first century and Joseph clearly believed he was being sent a heavenly message. It changed everything for him.

Jesus would be born and Joseph would treat him as a son. Joseph would nurture Jesus and do what he could to protect him as any father would. I have no doubt that the child Jesus would be a handful. We hear no more of Joseph as Jesus grows into adulthood so everything is speculation.

Joseph listened to a higher power. His message came to him in a dream. I believe that same higher power nudges us along in life as well. Can you think of a time when God gave you a nudge. When God spoke to you in some subtle way. Sometimes, I think God speaks to us through the people in our lives, maybe it's our friends and relatives, or maybe it is someone in line at the grocery store. It may be the spiritual inspiration we get from a news article, or a book, or movie.

At Christmas time I have rituals I follow that get me in the Christmas spirit. One of them is watching the movie, The Bishop's Wife. I would attempt to explain the plot and incidentals of the movie but I will just tell you that it's message for me is that I need to be mindful of how easy it is to get lost in the humdrum of the worlds events and lose sight of the reason I have been put on this earth.

The angel did that just for Joseph. Gabriel gave Joseph a very clear mission to raise a child who would be the savior to the whole world.

This year I plan to listen to God's message, whether it be reading scripture, paying attention to dreams that may come my way, or possibly getting a spiritual nudge by the person ahead of me in the grocery line.

Amen