the Love of God, Hope of the World
Advent 4A | Matthew 1:18-25
The gospel of Matthew has one of the most unintentionally funny moments in scripture. It’s right up there with Paul yelling at the people of Corinth “I’m glad I didn’t baptize any of you!” before proceeding to name all the people he actually did baptize there. We got the same thing here this morning. The evangelist tells us
“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.”
And proceeds to tell us a story about an angel convincing Joseph not to dump Mary like a bag of rocks. Which, if you hadn’t quite noticed, is not so much a tale of Jesus’s birth as it is a conversation with an angel.
It gets even better when we get to the birth itself, told in the past perfect simple tense of “she had borne a son”. Which still isn’t a story of Jesus being born. It is a story of Mary giving birth — she’s the agent in that clause, that tiny part of the story.
So, to recap, the story of “the birth of Jesus the Messiah” is a story about Joseph. And Joseph’s relationship to his fiancée. And that his fiancée gave birth to her son that he is to name Jesus. That is funny. And isn’t that the perfect stepdad story? Yes, I am that important! I get to be the main character in your story! Actually, isn’t that just a Dad story? We are on a mission to be the main character forever.
Oh, and moms, don’t think we don’t see what you’re up to when we’re not in the room. We might not selectively hear what you’re whispering, but we know what you’re saying. …
For a limited time, you may find the audio here.
