"Reconsider Your Options"

Pastor Laura Guy

December 9, 2007

Here's an instant replay of what happened in worship:

We realized that our minds sometimes wander when we hear the Christmas story read yet again. But we tried to hear the story as told in Matthew 1:18-25 in a new way, from Joseph's perspective.
We learned why Joseph is often portrayed as an old man. The Catholic Church teaches that Mary remained a virgin throughout her life - yet we read in the Gospels that Jesus had siblings. To explain that, ancient theologians guessed that Joseph must have been married previously and had children from that marriage (making them Jesus' step-siblings). Because we don't hear about them, especially when Joseph had to bring his whole family to register for the census in Bethlehem, they must have been grown by that time. That would make Joseph 40-50 years old when he married Mary. But the Matthew passage specifically says that Joseph had no union with Mary until after the baby was born, meaning that the Scriptures themselves don't say that Mary remained a virgin. This means Joseph might very well have been a young man in his 20s, taking Mary as his first and only wife.
We thought about Joseph's emotions when he learned that Mary was pregnant, and he knew it wasn't his baby. He must have felt anger, hurt, humiliation - and the townspeople assumed that both Joseph and Mary had done a dishonorable thing. He weighed his options. Even though his anger and hurt must have told him to choose the legal option - accuse Mary of infidelity and have her stoned to death - his compassionate heart told him to choose the lenient option - divorce her quietly so she and the baby could live. It is this amazing character of Joseph that made him the perfect choice to be the man who would raise Jesus.
We saw how the angel appeared to Joseph and told him to reconsider his options. There was a third choice - the loving option - to believe Mary and raise Jesus as his own son. When Joseph said yes to the angel, he became a part of the greatest thing that has ever happened to humanity. When we are faced with a tough decision, do we weigh our two options - the legal and the lenient - forgetting (until an angel reminds us) that God may want us to reconsider our options and choose the third way - the loving option - so that we can be a part of God's plans, too?
We heard Fusion do a beautiful song about Joseph, A Strange Way to Save the World.
We celebrated communion. Pastor Laura said, when she heard about the ice storm on its way, she prayed for "accessibility" for people. She realized that the communion table is where we truly experience accessibility to God!