A loving response

Obedience to God is a loving response, not a coerced one, and few in the Bible exemplify that better than Joseph, the man who raised the child Jesus. An angel of God spoke to Joseph in a dream saying, ‘don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife… she has not been unfaithful to you. ‘God is acting in this moment. The son she will bear is from the Holy Spirit. When he is born, you must name him Jesus (which means ‘God saves’)…’ (Mt 1:20-21)

Through the angel, God was asking Joseph to give up the plans he had for his own life and accept God’s plan instead. Revealing only one step at a time, God began by asking Joseph to receive into his home and his care one whom society insisted “good people” should reject.

Joseph could have protected his reputation and let the law take its course. Mary would have been stoned to death for being adulterous. Being righteous, however, Joseph was willing instead to quietly dissolve their marriage contract. This would have spared Mary’s life, and Joseph’s reputation, but it would have destined Mary to a lifetime of ostracism by her own people.

Joseph could have said to himself, ‘God doesn’t speak to someone like me.” He could have reasoned that the God of Israel wouldn’t ask him to violate Jewish laws and norms - but he doesn’t. When he awakens, Joseph obeys God - as strange and uncomfortable as that was - and committed himself, walking forward with astounding faith, letting go his own dreams and plans for his life and future.

Joseph didn’t know how God would redeem the many difficult situations his obedience to God led him into; he simply trusted that God would, and we are all indebted to him. Joseph’s obedience to God enabled God to become known in the world in a way that had never happened before. His ‘yes’ to God was just as important in bearing the light of Christ to the world as Mary’s ‘yes’ to God was.

God continues to act in ways that lead all of us out of our comfortable lives, beyond our plans, outside the bounds of our notions of right belief and right action, and into new ways of living in holiness and righteousness. God continues to ask us to walk forward in faith, letting go our plans for the future, letting go our reputations, and committing ourselves to endure even the judgments of our own community, while God acts through us to redeem in ways we never could have imagined.

During Advent, we have been preparing for the Christ to be born in us again. Like Joseph, we must also respond in obedience to God. St. Paul tells us that we have been prepared to do this, having received grace and apostleship - an apostle being one who is sent – sent on a mission. (Ro 1:5)

The Greek word we get our word “church” from is ecclesia and it means a gathering of apostles. We are, by definition, a community of people who are sent by God on a mission, and our mission - should we decide to accept it - is to use everything we’ve been given and risk everything we have, in order to be bearers of the light of Christ into the world today – like Mary was… like Joseph was.