The Perfect Christmas

The Rev. Dr. Whitworth Ferguson III

Manassas Presbyterian Church

Manassas, Virginia

December 19, 2010

Fourth Sunday in Advent

The Perfect Christmas

Matthew 1:18-25

An extremely clever YouTube video I watched this week

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkHNNPM7pJA)

raises the question of how the story might have gone

if Joseph and Mary had had the technology we have today:

Would Gabriel have texted his annunciation to Mary?

Would Mary have e-mailed Joseph with a message

marked “high priority” telling him,

“We’ve GOT to talk!”

Would Joseph have posted on his Facebook page,

“We’re going to have a baby!”

Would he have used Google Maps for directions

from Nazareth to Bethlehem?

Would the story have been different

if Joseph had used Priceline.com to find a room?

Would Mary and Joseph have uploaded video

on their Facebook page showing visits

from the shepherds and the wise men?

And of course, how many people would have

sought to “friend” Joseph and Mary after Jesus was born?

With all the smartphones, iPads, notebooks,

Facebooks, Youtubes and everything else we have these days,

it seems so quaint to open up a book

and read from it;

to let words written two thousand years ago

settle on us, settle in us.

To read words printed on a page

with no multi-media presentation to go with them,

not even a single emoticon,

seems so antiquated.

Yet, there is no better way for us to share the Christmas story.

No better way than opening the Bible

and reading from pages both ancient and timeless,

reading the story of the birth of our Lord

as it comes to us from the Gospel according to Matthew,

and the Gospel according to Luke.

A story that begins, if we listen first to Luke,

with an angel, the angel Gabriel, visiting Mary,

appearing before her, face-to-face,

standing before the young woman,

and telling her she was about to conceive and bear a child,

and that she will name the child Jesus.

                 

Mary – such an otherwise ordinary young woman –

not from a prominent family,

didn’t come from wealth or power;

She was a woman chosen by God for her faith,

her calm, grounded faith,

summed up in her response to Gabriel,         

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord;

let it be with me according to your word.”

(Luke 1:38)

                                   

Matthew’s version of the birth story

is so surprisingly different from Luke’s.

The main character in Matthew’s narrative

is Joseph, not Mary.

The story begins with Joseph learning that his fiancée is with child;

how he learns we don’t know,

but the fact that Mary was pregnant before their marriage

was scandalous.

Joseph had an easy remedy under the Levitical code,

the law in scripture was very clear:

he could divorce Mary,

divorce her publicly, before the leaders of the synagogue,

shaming her for such an outrage.

But before we even get a hint of Jesus,

we learn of Joseph’s gentleness,…his grace,

his sense of righteousness.

The law gave him a clear remedy,

but he let his heart guide him and tell him what to do:

“dismiss Mary quietly”,

without exposing her to “public disgrace.”

It is only then that the story kicks into high gear,

with an angel speaking to Joseph,

speaking to him in a dream,

reassuring him about Mary, saying to him,

“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.”

(Matthew 1:20)

Without hesitation, without question,

Joseph does just as the angel instructed him,

responding as though he, not Mary,

had been the one to say,

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord;

let it be with me according to your word.”

(Luke 1:38)

It is Luke who gives us shepherds,

telling us that they learned the wonderful news from an angel

who came to them in the dark and cold of night

as they tended their flocks in the fields,

the angel saying, “Do not be afraid, for see –

I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people;

[for] to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,

who is the Messiah, the Lord.”

(Luke 2:10)

Matthew tells us the story of the wise men;

it is clear that they had to figure things out for themselves:

no annunciation,

no dreams,

no angels,

no heavenly host singing “Glory to God in highest heaven!”

They simply watched the night sky

and when they saw one star brighter than any other

they knew it meant something

and so they set out on what was surely

a long and difficult journey,

following the star, to find the newborn king,

trusting that the star would lead them

to the light they sought.

“And when they saw that the star had stopped”,

they knew they had found what they had been seeking

“and they were overwhelmed with joy!”

as they knelt before the baby.

(Matthew 2:10)

There is a sense of wonder in these stories,

a sense of the miraculous that no high-tech device

could ever convey.

Each vignette in both of these narratives

tells us the story of a man, a woman,

a group of individuals

from different backgrounds,

different lifestyles,

but all sharing such deep and abiding faith.

Every person in these stories responds to God

with “let it be with me according to your word.”

Look again at Joseph:

he is a model of faith for all of us.

Here he is a carpenter,

probably a very ordinary one,

someone who might work today framing out modest houses,

someone who were he alive today,

would probably be struggling after months of unemployment.

As we meet him, he finds himself facing such a dilemma:

a marriage that is about to implode even before it happens.

But his first reaction is to act with grace,

act with mercy,

act with righteousness and love.

                 

He didn’t have to;

he had the law on his side;

he had scripture on his side;

if he chose to,he could have shouted furiously,

“Scripture demands;

the law requires…”

But that’s not the choice Joseph made;

Joseph chose to act with his heart

even before the angel spoke to him.

Matthew begins his gospel with a genealogy,

a long string of “begats,” that we typically skip over.

It’s Matthew’s way of trying to show that

Jesus was of the House of David.

But the genealogy actually does a better job

teaching us that Joseph is the perfect descendent of Abraham,

a descendant by more than bloodline;

a descendant in faith,

a descendant in temperament,

a descendant in his trust in God.

Luke and Matthew give us these powerful stories of faith,

of trust,

of belief,

stories which are the foundation stones

of the Christmas Story,

the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It is the story of Joseph,

the story of Mary,

the story of the shepherds,

the story of the Wise Men

on which the Christmas Story is built,

as firm a foundation as we could every hope to find,

for they are stories built on hope, grace,

faith, and love.

For all the time, energy and effort we all put into

decorating our houses,

cooking and baking wonderful meals and treats,

buying and wrapping presents,

all as we listen to our favorite carols,

what makes for a perfect Christmas

are these stories

these stories of men and women just like you and me

who put their faith in God,

their hope in God,

their trust in God.

What makes for a perfect Christmas

is hearing the stories and remembering the promise

that God gives us in Christmas,

the promise of hope that the birth of Jesus

is the beginning of the story of God’s new creation,

a story which will come to fulfillment on that day

when Jesus comes again

and all the earth will be filled with peace and goodwill,

peace and goodwill not imposed by war or by political will

but by the love of God revealed to us in a baby,

a baby born to a quietly faithful woman and man.

The perfect Christmas is yours and mine

to be found in these stories,

so short, yet so rich.

So read these stories in your homes this week.

Listen to them again on Christmas Eve,

and then rejoice and be merry,

for unto us a child is born.

AMEN