December Dreams

An Advent Sermon based on Matthew 1:18-25

Over the years at Christmas time, I’ve enjoyed playing a little Christmas carol game with the family ... oh, the girls are never all that excited about it, but they’ll usually humour the old man and play along.  It goes like this ... you pick one line embedded in a familiar carol, say it straight out, and see who can guess the carol first.  I know, it seems a little corny, but when it’s my turn, I usually try to pick lines that make me sit up and think twice about the Christmas story ... so you want to play?  O, come on, humour the old man.

Here’s one:  “makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness”?

Or how about:  “with the dawn of redeeming grace”? 

Or what about this one:  “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight”? 

When I think of Joseph’s dream, this verse from O Little Town of Bethlehem comes to mind ... the hopes and fears of a lifetime converge in one refining moment, in the middle of the night, in that sub-conscious battleground of his dream.  Joseph’s hopes and dreams of a blessed life with his beloved Mary, and the family they would create together, God willing – are attacked and destroyed by the worst possible news, the gut-wrenching fear of utter embarrassment for both of them in this little town of Bethlehem, where everybody knew their neighbours’ business.  “the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.”  When the word got out that Mary was pregnant and that he was not the father ... well, everybody knew what happened to women caught in adultery.  But Joseph’s love for Mary was too great, so it seemed, and his instinctive compassion for her and the child she carried, that poor bastard, was surprisingly strong, for him to do the right thing – to expose her for the adulterer she was, regardless of her bizarre claim that the child was Spirit-conceived.  And so he finds himself wrestling over his options, none of which bring any peace.  That’s the Joseph we meet in verses 18 and 19 ... a man whose hopes are shattered and whose fears are too real.

                In the midst of any human crisis, there’s a woundedness which marks the soul in such a way that leaves us changed forever ... I think of it as a sacred scar, a reminder of that moment in our lives when our hopes were shattered and our fears too real.  It’s virtually impossible to live in this world and not have some experience that resonates with Joseph’s dilemma ... oh, sure the circumstances are different for everyone, and yes for some poor souls the situations seem extreme ... but all human beings know this kind of brokenness, even if yours feels small or happened long, long ago by comparison.  And, for some among us that scar aches especially at Christmas-time in a way that reminds us of our connections with Joseph; we know what he’s going through is real, and we empathize with him, because we too have a sacred scar of our very own, we too are marked by the sub-conscious battle between our hopes and fears.  What’s particularly remarkable about Joseph and folks like him, folks like you and me, is the capacity to strive for what is loving, compassionate and grace-filled even in the midst of the crisis – that’s the Joseph we meet in verses 18 and 19 ... a person who appears ready to have a dream that will change his life forever.

                The Joseph in verses 20 to 23 is brooding over his decision when he dreams of an angel whose message is strangely familiar – it’s what Mary told him.  But with it, the angel encourages him to marry her, to raise the child as his own, and to name him “The Lord Saves” – Jesus.  What’s curious here is that unlike Luke’s story of the angel coming to a Mary who is fully awake and conscious, the Gospel of Matthew describes Joseph’s angel-encounter as a dream, as a purely sub-conscious awakening.  And what strikes me about it is how believable Matthew’s telling of this story really is.  Honestly, I’m almost always doubtful of conscious angel visitations ... oh, it’s not that I don’t want to believe, it’s just that I’m not at all sure about the factual credibility of such occurrences, whether they’re yours or mine.  I do believe that God’s messages are communicated in the here and now, and as such any of you can be an angel to me, God’s messenger to me – but a heavenly messenger who appears in some conscious visual form, like in Mary’s story ... well, it’s a challenge for me to imagine.  And so if any of you feel similarly, then Joseph’s story could be a life changer for you.  Because you see, dreams are well known to be portals into the human sub-conscious, and dreams can, in truth, reveal our deepest human longings and strivings.  Dream research is compelling to me – as is Joseph’s dream angel.  And his story feels all too real to me.  For Joseph, in the midst of his crisis with its desperate alternatives and tragic consequences, he dreams of an angel who offers another option, an option that lies deep in his soul, awaiting recognition – and when Joseph woke up, a new possibility emerged.  It could happen, just like that, to anyone of us.

                As I ponder the human struggles that can strike fear in our hearts, I wonder where we might find grace-filled options.  Believe me, I’m not trying to turn this into some kind of feel good, dream come true, happy ever after story ... in fact, maybe just the opposite.  Joseph’s dream doesn’t solve his problems, immediate or future; it would still require him to make some on-going, life-shaping choices, the consequences of which remained unknown to him for his entire lifetime.  We have come to believe that Joseph’s choice helped usher in the Saviour of the world, but for Joseph it was only a dream really ... a dream he could take seriously or not … and if he did, a dream that needed to chosen again and again every day from that day forward.  What is apparent to me from his story, though, is that there are still not-yet-revealed, grace-filled options to every struggle, and they can and will be redemptive for us, if like Joseph we are ready to dream, ready to choose, ready to live faithfully with the consequences.

                And that’s apparently exactly what Joseph chooses the morning after … at least that’s the Joseph we encounter in verses 24 and 25.  With only an unbearable situation, an unbelievable explanation from Mary, and an implausible dream of an angel, Joseph makes arrangements to marry her, to assume the fatherhood of her child, and to affirm and redeem it all by naming the child “the Lord saves.”  His choices not only have given us the saviour of the world, but also the divine possibility to transform our scars into the sacred. 

So that secret burden you are carrying around this holiday season … perhaps you too are longing for a December dream, one that will challenge your current perceptions, one that will awaken new possibilities, one that will alter the way you choose to live, one that will reframe what living faithfully looks like for you amid the perplexities of this season.  My prayer for you is that a December dream awaits, and that you too might be trusting enough to choose it every day, and faithful enough to live creatively with the consequences.

Glen Stoudt

Orleans United Church

December, 2010