Word to the Wise
Sunday, December 22, 2013 - 4th Sunday of Advent - A
[Isa 7:10-14; Rom 1:1-7; Matt 1:18-24,42]"Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her." ....All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet......
My dear deceased sister, Ann, had an expression that she would aim at me when I objected to the way she recounted an event in which we were both involved: "Let me tell it my way!" The same could be said of the way in which the Gospel of Matthew recounts the circumstances of Jesus' birth and the way the Gospel of Luke tells it. I recommend to my Beloved Congregation that you read both and put your own narrative together! Indeed I hear these narratives when I visit a home in this season where there is a "nativity scene" on display and parents or older siblings interpret the scene for younger children!
Matthew, today, tells it "his own way." His "agenda" is different from that of Luke. For Matthew, the "Davidic" lineage of Jesus is most important. After all Matthew begins his story with the genealogy of Jesus. Joseph is the instrument of that lineage! So Joseph is the one who receives the angelic message! Matthew also emphasizes the fulfillment of prophetic hopes and he quotes Isaiah [the passage in today's first scripture] to show this.
Scripture scholars remind us that the "infancy narratives" are really "mini-gospels" because they were written last and are to be seen through the lens of Jesus' total life! I suppose we tell stories that way too when we say "looking back now, I can see the meaning of what he/she said at that time...." The "big picture" is compressed into the smaller one! For each of us in this season, the story unfolds in the midst of secular symbols. We may have to shout to make Jesus' story known. We have have to combine them and cry: CHRIST IS BORN!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS! AMEN