Joseph changed his plans.
His original plans began out of a place of fear.
In his restless sleep, he began to dream and in that dream, an angel visited.
The angel began with telling Joseph what angel visitors and messengers of God always say,
“Do not be afraid.”
Don’t think that Mary betrayed you. Don’t be afraid of what the community might think. This one who is going to be born will be Jesus—which means God saves.
God is with us.
Advent 3: Isaiah 35 and Matthew 1
Our theme today written by the creative team at Sanctified Art says this, “When Joseph awakes, he once again has the courage to choose a better way. He chooses to stay with Mary, to become an adoptive parent. Like Mary, he chooses to say, “yes.”
When have our ancestors also chosen a better way?
On Friday, I was called to the home of Bos Klan who died after two years of health challenges. As I sat with “Lot,” Bos’ daughter and Lot’s siblings, they shared about their journey in the 1980s with their mother from Cambodia. Bos was originally from Thailand but had moved to Cambodia with her husband. As war broke out, their family tried to escape and during the escape, a bomb exploded near them. Bos lost her husband immediately and her teenage daughter was seriously injured. “Lot” was just 7 years old as she lost her father and her big sister. Their family went to a refugee camp where her mother had to be incredibly brave in the face of many fears and an unknown future. Still today, this history is so painful and brings fresh tears of grief. Bos, mother of 8 and grandmother of 14 and great-grandmother of 14 was so strong. She came to this country as a widow. She raised her children and cared for grandchildren and great-grandchildren living in poverty, without the benefit of a car. She took them on the bus, cooked food over the fireplace, and sniffed them (her way of kissing). She made the earth bloom with her gardening skills. She learned English, passed her permit test and the citizenship test. She shaped four generations through her faith and courage, as she made Saint Paul, Minnesota her home for near 40 years. Lot repeated many times how her mother read her Bible often and went through the house singing Amazing Grace… both in English and in Khmer (ka-mai). In her last weeks, she was speaking in all three languages, calling out for the relatives who went before her into death. Her death is bittersweet for her closest loved ones as they do not want to lose her but rejoice that at last, all her sorrow and sighing flee away. She is at peace.
Like Joseph, Bos had to rearrange her whole life because of life’s circumstances… some of which no one would ever choose. Yet, like Joseph, Bos found courage and listened for God’s loving voice of grace and she has a whole family tree who have grown and flourished from her nurturing presence.
Today, our children are sharing the main message—a message of preparing to welcome very special guests with whatever we have to share. May we let them show us how to welcome, how to anticipate, how to take joy in this present as it unfolds. May God fill us with courage like Mary, like Joseph, who said “yes” and became bearers of God’s deep love and amazing grace.
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