Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 22 December 2019, is the Fourth Sunday of Advent (Advent IV). We are in Year A in the readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, and during Year A we are working our way through Saint Matthew’s Gospel.
Throughout Advent, the Sunday readings as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, provide for only one set of readings on the Sundays.
The Readings: Isaiah 7: 10-16; Psalm 80: 1-8, 18-20; Romans 1: 1-7; Matthew 1: 18-25. There is a link to the readings HERE.
Introducing the readings:
Next Sunday is the Fourth Sunday of Advent, and also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year. Sunday evening also marks the beginning of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah (חֲנֻכָּה), also known as the Festival of Lights, commemorating the re-dedication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire.
Are you looking forward to light coming into your life and into the life of your parish and your diocese as these Sunday readings bring us into the last week of Advent?
Christmas is upon us, the last of the purple candles on the Advent Wreath, the one representing the Virgin Mary, is lit on this Sunday. The Virgin Mary is likely to be the heroic figure in most of the sermons focusing on the Gospel reading.
These Sunday readings are about choices, about obedience to God’s plans, and about the fulfilment of God’s plans for all nations. While many sermons are likely to talk about the Virgin Mary and her obedience, Mary’s ‘Yes,’ Saint Joseph may be pushed to the side. Yet hHe says ‘Yes’ too, although he says it silently. He has no scripted lines, he has no dramatic parts or roles; indeed, he is mute; but he is obedient. And, like Joseph, his namesake in the Old Testament who is named in the psalm (Psalm 80: 1-7, 17-19), he too is the dreamer of dreams and the doer of deeds.
Isaiah 7: 10-16:
Each Sunday during Advent this year, we are reading from the Prophet Isaiah. In this reading, the prophet foretells that a young woman who is pregnant ‘shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.’
The setting for this reading is the threat from Assyria, which is forcibly expanding westwards. The kings of Aram, or Syria, and of Israel, or Ephraim, have formed an alliance coalition to resist their common enemy. They have tried to convince Ahaz, King of Judah and of the House of David, to join their alliance. But Ahaz has refused and the allies seek to replace him, putting a puppet king on the throne of Judah.
God commands Isaiah to meet Ahaz as he inspects the water supply that is vital to the defence of Jerusalem. Isaiah tells Ahaz not to fear these firebrands who plot evil against him. If he does not stand firm in faith and trust in God but relies on human counsel, he will be defeated.
Now God speaks again to Ahaz, telling him to ask for a sign that confirms the promise delivered by Isaiah. However, it seems Ahaz has already made up his mind. So instead, through Isaiah, God gives a promise through the House of David for future generations. David’s line will continue through the child Immanuel who will know how ‘to refuse the evil and choose the good.’
But before this promised child fulfils God’s will, there will be a desolate time.
Psalm 80: 1-8, 18-20:
Psalm 80 is a prayer for deliverance from Israel’s enemies, reminding God that as the Shepherd of Israel he has led his people, Joseph. The three northern tribes, Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh, are named in the opening verses, suggesting this psalm was written shortly before the conquest of the northern kingdom in 721 BC.
The psalm calls on God, who is enthroned above all, to shine forth, to show favour to his people, and to return to a covenantal relationship with them.
The present plight of the people is seen as being caused by God’s anger. But they recall his gracious works in the past and look forward to the time of deliverance:
Let your hand be upon the man at your right hand,
the son of man you made so strong for yourself (verse 18).
They will be given life and shall be saved (verses 19-20).
Romans 1: 1-7:
The Apostle Paul introduces himself to his readers in Rome as a servant or slave (δοῦλος, doulos) of Christ. He is an apostle, one sent with a special mission of divine origin. He has been set apart to deliver or preach the Gospel, God’s good news.
It is interesting to note that Saint Paul does not restrict the title apostle to the Twelve disciples alone.
The good news of God’s promise has come through the prophets, for example Isaiah and Jeremiah, through the holy scriptures, and through the descendants of David.
This good news is revealed in his Son, in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Resurrection. Christ is the Son of God, and we are called to be saints, set aside as holy ones and consecrated to God’s service.
Saint Paul wishes the Christian community in Rome grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew 1: 18-25:
Saint Matthew’s nativity story lacks the romantic imagery of Saint Luke’s account, whose heady mixture of heavenly angels with earthy shepherds is missing here. Instead, the hope of all the earth takes shape under the sign of arrangements being made for a betrothal that is apparently violated. The gifts of God’s grace and the promise of God’s reign are hidden, are to be searched for and to be found in the midst of what appears be a very tawdry story.
Saint Matthew has told us of the descent of Jesus from David. He is the promised, anointed Messiah. Saint Joseph and the Virgin Mary are engaged, but the marriage contract has not yet been signed, she has not yet entered into his house.
If the Mosaic law on sexual relations had been fully observed and Joseph had brought accusations against her, she could have faced ‘public disgrace’ and stoned to death for pre-marital sex.
Joseph is righteous and observes the Law. But he is also compassionate and plans to send her away quietly, ending the contract for marriage without public shame.
The angel of the Lord tells Joseph of his role: through him, Jesus is legally descended from David. In both Aramaic and Hebrew, the name Jesus and the phrase ‘he will save’ sound similar.
Saint Matthew is keen to show that Jesus fulfils God’s promise made through Isaiah (verse 22). The Greek word παρθένος (parthenos) is translated virgin in verse 23, and the same word is translated as ‘unmarried daughter’ in Acts 21: 9. Perhaps maiden is a better translation, as it has the same range of meanings as parthenos.
Through Jesus, ‘God is with us’ (verse 23), but Joseph names the child Jesus, not Immanuel.
Reflecting on the Gospel Reading:
I imagine the Virgin Mary may have been a mere teenager at the time, just 14 or 15. And, like so many other teenage brides, she turns up for her wedding – pregnant! Saint Joseph knows he could not possibly be the father. He decides to do the right thing and take and quietly drop out of the arrangement.
If Saint Joseph goes ahead, then this child is going to be known in his family, among his neighbours, perhaps by everyone who needs to know, as illegitimate for the rest of his life. His critics indelicately remind him of this in Saint John’s Gospel: ‘You are indeed doing what your father does.’ They said to him, ‘We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself’ (John 8: 41). The original Greek (πορνείας οὐ γεγεννήμεθα) is more direct, crude and blunt: they taunt him that they were not conceived through illicit intercourse.
These fears and sneers, those social judgments and wagging fingers, must have been running rapidly through Joseph like a nightmare. Yet the angel of Joseph’s dream makes a startling suggestion. He tells him to marry Mary, and then he is to name the child. To take on naming the child means becoming his father. And this is suggested not as a nice thing to do, a courteous thing to do, a gallant or gentlemanly sort of thing to do. Joseph is told why: ‘You are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins’ (verse 21).
It is not a promise of immediate reward. Saint Joseph is not offered the promise that if he behaves like this he is going to earn some Brownie points towards the forgiveness of his own sins; that God will see him as a nice guy; or even that if he lives long enough, this child may grow up, be apprenticed to him, take over the family business, and act as a future pension plan.
Instead, the promised pay-off is for others as yet unknown. ‘He will save his people from their sins.’ There is a book by Kerstin Mierke and Bridgette Rowland on Irish wedding traditions that takes its title from the shy Irish farmer’s way of proposing: Would you like to be buried with my people? (2007). But if Saint Joseph is not the father of the Child Jesus, he must have wondered what the angel meant by ‘his people’ and ‘their sins.’
But the forgiveness spoken of here is spoken of apocalyptic terms. It is more than the self-acceptance offered in psychotherapy. Instead, it is the declaration of a new future. To be forgiven is to receive a future. Forgiveness breaks the simple link between cause and effect, action and reaction, failure and disaster, rebellion and recrimination.
On the strength of the angel’s claim, the church asserts one of its own: from the beginning, it was always God’s intention that it should happen this way. It is the fulfilment of the ancient prophecy, Matthew declares (verse 22): the hope of all the ages, the beginning of the end of all the old tyrannies, the restoration of everything that is and will be, was always meant to take place in a virgin’s womb, in the manger, on the cross.
That is Advent. It is a time of expectation, repentance and forgiveness. It is a time of preparation, anticipation and hope. It is a time for dreaming dreams, and putting behind us all our nightmares.
The dream in our Gospel reading is the dream of Saint Joseph, not the Virgin Mary’s dream. The Angel Gabriel appears to the Virgin Mary only in Saint Luke’s Gospel. Saint Mark and Saint John, for their part, give us no account of the birth of Christ, they have no Christmas narrative. In Saint Matthew’s Gospel, the angel appears not to Mary, but to Joseph.
In Hamlet (Act 3, Scene 1), as he contemplates suicide, Hamlet begins that most famous of Shakespearian soliloquies, that opening word: ‘To be or not to be …’ And he muses and thinks out loud:
‘… To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil …’
Why do we need sleep? Perhaps, as the Very Revd Samuel G Candler, Dean of Saint Philip’s Episcopal Cathedral in Atlanta, Georgia, suggests in a sermon on this Sunday 12 years ago: ‘We need sleep because we need to dream.’
Saint Joseph dreamed something wonderful. God would enter the world; God would be born to his new, young wife, Mary. But to believe this, Saint Joseph had to trust not only his dream, but to trust Mary, to trust the future child, to trust God.
Do you love the people you trust and trust the people you love?
To trust the Virgin Mary, Saint Joseph must have truly loved her. But trust in this predicament must have gone beyond trust. Joseph must have truly glimpsed what it is to trust God, to have hope in God, to love God, to have faith in God.
Saint Joseph dreams a dream not of his own salvation, but of the salvation of the world.
Sometimes, like Saint Joseph, we are supposed to trust God and then get out of the way. Do you trust that God is working through the people you love? Do you trust that God is working through people you find it difficult not to love but merely to like … working through God’s people for their salvation?
Too often we forget about poor Joseph. Every year, we tend to focus on the story of the Virgin Mary. But this year, Year A, the Lectionary asks us to focus on Saint Joseph. The annunciation occurs not just to Mary, but to Joseph too. And they both say ‘Yes.’
And Saint Joseph says a second Yes too. Later in this Gospel, we read:
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.’ Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, ‘Out of Egypt I have called my son’ (Matthew 2: 13-15).
Saint Joseph listens, God sends a messenger again, Saint Joseph dreams again, and he remains true to God, he answers God’s call.
Saint Joseph has no speaking part; he just has a walk-on part in this drama. But his actions, his obedience to God’s call, speak louder than words.
Yes, God appears over and over again, to men, women, to ‘all sorts and conditions of people.’
But do we trust them?
Can you have faith in someone else?
Can you believe their dreams?
Can you believe the dreams of those you love?
And dream their dreams too?
The French renaissance writer and humanist, François Rabelais (1494-1553), once quoted a monk who told Gargantua: ‘I never sleep really comfortably, except when I am at a sermon, or at my prayers.’ But if people sleep during your sermon on the Fourth Sunday of Advent, I hope they too dream of God’s promise of salvation to all his people. For God is among us.
O Come, O Come Emmanuel.
As Dean Candler urges in that sermon: ‘Believe in the dreams of the person you love. Believe in dreams this Christmas, and Jesus will be born again. Believe in dreams this Christmas, and God will appear. Amen.’
‘O come, O come, Emmanuel’ … the Holy Family by Giovanni Battista Pittoni, the Altar Piece in the Chapel of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge … the depiction of Saint Joseph was typical for centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford)Matthew 1: 18-25 (NRSVA):
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ 22 All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ 24 When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 25 but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Violet (Purple)
The Collect of the Day:
God our redeemer,
who prepared the blessed Virgin Mary
to be the mother of your Son:
Grant that, as she looked for his coming as our saviour,
so we may be ready to greet him
when he comes again as our judge;
who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Advent Collect:
Almighty God,
Give us grace to cast away the works of darkness,
and to put on the armour of light,
now in the time of this mortal life,
in which your Son Jesus Christ came to us in great humility;
that on the last day,
when he shall come again in his glorious majesty
to judge the living and the dead,
we may rise to the life immortal;
through him who is alive and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and ever.
This collect is said after the Collect of the day until Christmas Eve
Collect of the Word:
Gracious God,
you chose the Virgin Mary, by your grace,
to be the mother of our Lord and Saviour:
so fill us with your grace,
that with her we may rejoice in your salvation,
and in all things embrace your will;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
Heavenly Father,
you have given us a pledge of eternal redemption.
Grant that we may always eagerly celebrate
the saving mystery of the incarnation of your Son.
We ask this through him whose coming is certain,
whose day draws near,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Liturgical resources for Advent:
The liturgical provisions suggest that the Gloria may be omitted during Advent, and it is traditional in Anglicanism to omit the Gloria at the end of canticles and psalms during Advent.
These additional liturgical resources are provided for Advent in the Book of Common Prayer (2004):
Penitential Kyries:
Turn to us again, O God our Saviour,
and let your anger cease from us.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Show us your mercy, O Lord,
and grant us your salvation.
Christ, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Your salvation is near for those that fear you,
that glory may dwell in our land.
Lord, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
Introduction to the Peace:
In the tender mercy of our God,
the dayspring from on high shall break upon us,
to give light to those who dwell in darkness
and in the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1: 78, 79)
Preface:
Salvation is your gift
through the coming of your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ,
and by him you will make all things new
when he returns in glory to judge the world:
Blessing:
Christ the sun of righteousness shine upon you,
gladden your hearts
and scatter the darkness from before you:
Suggested Hymns:
Isaiah 7: 10-16:
146, A great and mighty wonder
151, Child in the manger
160, Hark! the herald–angels sing
133, Long ago, prophets knew
168, Lord, you were rich beyond all splendour
135, O come, O come, Emmanuel
174, O little town of Bethlehem
Psalm 80: 1-8, 18-20:
10, All my hope on God is founded
695, God of mercy, God of grace
614, Great shepherd of your people, hear
305, O Breath of life, come sweeping through us
Romans 1: 1-7:
524, May the grace of Christ our Saviour
508, Peace to you
Matthew 1: 18-25:
250, All hail the power of Jesu’s name
148, As Joseph was a–walking
152, Come and join the celebration
119, Come, thou long–expected Jesus
462, For Mary, mother of our Lord
159, Good Christians all, rejoice
160, Hark! the herald–angels sing
92, How sweet the name of Jesus sounds
94, In the name of Jesus
99, Jesus, the name high over all
133, Long ago, prophets knew
168, Lord, you were rich beyond all splendour
102, Name of all majesty
135, O come, O come, Emmanuel
174, O little town of Bethlehem
175, Of the Father’s heart begotten
472, Sing we of the blessed mother
139, The angel Gabriel from heaven came
117, To the name of our salvation
186, What Adam’s disobedience cost
‘Christ in the House of His Parents’ (1850) by Sir John Everett Millais (1829-1896)Man of the House, by Katherine Tynan
Joseph, honoured from Sea to Sea,
This is the name that pleases me,
‘Man of the House.’
I see you rise at dawn and light
The fire and blow it till the flame is bright.
I see you take the pitcher and carry
the deep well-water for Jesus and Mary.
You knead the corn for the bread so fine
gather them grapes from the hanging vine.
There are little feet that are soft and slow
follow you whithersoever you go.
There’s a little face at your workshop door
a little one sits down on your floor.
Holds his hands for the shaving curled
the soft little hands that made the world.
Mary calls you: the meal is ready;
you swing the Child to your shoulders steady.
I see your quiet smile as you sit
and watch the little Son thrive and eat.
The vine curls by the window space,
the wings of angels cover the face.
Up in the rafters, polished and olden,
There’s a Dove that broods and his wings are golden.
You have kept them through shine and storm,
a staff, a shelter kindly and warm.
Father to Jesus, husband to Mary,
hold up your lilies for Sanctuary!
Joseph, honoured from Sea to Sea
Guard me and mine and my own rooftree.
‘Man of the House.’
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
The hymn suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000).
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