It’s a Savior?
The Rev. Dr. John Judson
December 19, 2010
The world held its collective breath. They held their breath because the fate of humanity hung in the balance. The fate of humanity hung on the decision of a single human being. The year was 1962. The month was October. The Soviet Union had secretly placed offensive nuclear weapons in Cuba; weapons which could reach virtually any city in the continental United States. When the Kennedy Administration learned of their placement they first considered invading Cuba, but instead chose to blockade Cuba until the missiles were dismantled and removed. The leaders of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, wrote a letter to Kennedy contending that such a blockade was tantamount to a declaration of war and that it would lead to nuclear conflict. And so the world waited. They waited knowing that Kennedy could not back down and that only a decision to remove the missiles by Khrushchev would insure the world’s future. The fate of humanity hung in the balance.
There have been few times in the history of the world when the fate of humanity and even creation itself hung in the balance on the decision of a single individual. But if we are to believe the writer of the Gospel of Matthew, the fate of the world hung on the decision of one man almost 2,000 years before the Cuban missile crisis. That man? That man was Joseph of Nazareth. I realize that this may seem a bit overreaching perhaps, but not if we are to believe Matthew. Let me explain. For the writer of Matthew all of God’s salvation work; all of God’s work to restore and redeem humanity has come down to this moment in time. Everything that God has done, from calling Abraham, to freeing the people from captivity in Egypt, to anointing David as King, to returning the people from Babylon, all of that was to be consummated in the birth of this child, the messiah. Yet the success or failure of that child would depend on the decision of a single man, Joseph of Nazareth. This was so because if Joseph did not claim the child as his own, the child would have no family, no lineage, and no chance at ever being accepted as a leader of God’s people.
As the writer tells the story Joseph discovers that Mary is pregnant. This means one of two things. Either she committed adultery or some other man has forced himself upon her. This leaves Joseph with only two choices. His first choice is that he can assume she has committed adultery, which would then lead him to publically denounce her and open her up to the possibility of being stoned to death; the remedy for adultery in the Torah. His other option is that he could assume she is the innocent victim and put her away quietly; allowing her to go stay with her cousin Elizabeth where she could create a plausible story for her pregnancy. Being a kind man Joseph chooses the second option. He plans to allow her to leave without being exposed. While this might do under normal circumstances it would mean the failure of all of God’s work. Thus at this moment God intervenes…yet not as we might imagine. God sends an angel in a dream to Joseph explaining the situation. The angel explains that the child is the messiah and that God wants Joseph to man-up and claim him. But notice carefully, there is no force applied. Joseph is not threatened with punishment if he does not choose to man-up. The choice is his…and as the writer leaves us there…the future of humanity hangs in the balance with the decision of a man who has heard an angel in a dream.
Decisions, decisions, we make them every day of our lives. Some of our decisions seem to be of great importance; will I stay in school? Will I go to college? What career path should I take? Whom should I marry or should I marry at all? Should we try to have children and if so how many? How much should I save for retirement? How much should I give away to church and charity? How much should I spoil the grandkids? Other choices seem, well rather trivial. Should I wear the red or green sweater today? Should I leave five minutes early for work, school, the club? Should I bid three no trump or go with five clubs? Many of our decisions are made without even a thought, they are part of our daily routines. When should I get up? When should I leave for work? And chances are that in the thousands of decisions we make every week we seldom have to wonder if the fate of the world hangs in the balance. And yet while the fate of the world may not hang in the balance there may be much more at stake in our choices than we might imagine. And to illustrate my point I will use one of the great secular parables of our time; It’s A Wonderful Life.
How many of you have heard of or seen the movie? Oh, most of you. Well to recap for those who may have missed it one of the few thousand times it has been on, it is about George Bailey, a man who makes decisions not based on what he wants but based on what he understands at the moment to be right. And when things go south, because of the film’s villain, George thinks that his life and his choices have been wasted. Only through the work of an angel (sound familiar?) is George able to see that his choices have impacted the world far more positively than he ever imagined. What this modern parable reminds us of is the fact that we live in a complex social network in which our actions affect not merely ourselves but people far beyond us. They are like ripples in a pond which go out, bounce off other ripples each impacting and effecting others. And it is here that we return to the Biblical story.
. The angel tells Joseph that the child he is to claim has come to save God’s people from their sins. For many of us where this statement takes us is to some sort of spiritual survey where after entering our name, age and social security number there is a line where we either check “sinner” or “saved.” If we believe in Jesus we get to choose “saved” and thus get the fully furnished, retirement home in heaven. If it is “sinner”, well pack the sun screen. That image however misses the point that the Gospels actually make. Saving the people from their sins means reorienting people in the here and now away from ways that are life stealing into ways that are life affirming and life building. God’s plan for creation is not to help people escape this world but to transform it while being transformed in it. Joseph’s choice then had little to do with helping people get into heaven but everything to do with God’s plan to unleash a tidal wave of grace and reconciling love across the face of the earth in the child yet to be born. Joseph had to decide if he would push the wave ahead or stop it dead cold.
This is where or story now joins with Joseph’s story. We are called to realize that just as Joseph had to choose to either accelerate or diminish the wave of God’s grace so too do we. For better or worse many of the decisions we make in terms of how we relate to others, how we spend our money, how we spend our time will either diminish or accelerate the tidal wave of grace first unleashed on Christmas morning. We are urged to see our decisions in a larger context, not merely as choices that affect us, but that ultimately affect the future of individuals, our schools, communities and our world. The challenge for us at this time of the year is to be conscious of the choices we do make so that as our lives progress we will be able to look at the world in which we live and see that we have been partners with Jesus Christ in making this world a more grace filled place.
Khrushchev had a choice to make. Send the world into nuclear annihilation or perhaps toward peace. Joseph had a choice to make. Send Mary away and let the world stew in its sins, or listen to the angel and make a way toward a new world. They each made the right choice. They each chose the way of a new world with new possibilities. The question is will we? So here is the challenge. Are my choices impacting the world in a way that supports the loving work of the one born two thousand years ago to save the world from sin?
