The Fourth Sunday of Advent, Year A

Matthew 1: 18-25

The Rev. Ronald N. Johnson

Today marks the beginning of the fourth and final week of Advent.  The Church season whose theme is “Waiting on the Messiah” is almost over.  For all of us, waiting now on Christmas, excitement is building.  Preparations are becoming frantic.  If the decorations are not yet up, we feel we are behind.  There might be preparatory cooking to do, and of course always the final shopping. But hectic as it is, this is still, for most of us, a favorite time of the year.  We are basking in the anticipated pleasure of having yet another Christmas in our lives.  But, in this run towards December the 25^th, we should not get the cart before the horse. We still have a few more days of Advent.  There are still several days for waiting and anticipating the coming of Jesus, and our Gospel, this morning, speaks to those who wait.

This is an interesting gospel reading, in which God gives Joseph a “head’s up.”  The “Annunciation” to Mary was just as much of a shocker.  Truly, Mary was a very special woman and Joseph a very special man – a couple chosen by God to be the earthly parents of the Incarnate God.

The story of the announcements to both Mary and Joseph, and their subsequent responses teach us something valuable.  When God comes knocking, we must not only listen to what he has to say, but be open to the seemingly impossible, and be obedient regardless of fear or cost.  For the last three weeks, we have explored the coming of Jesus.  More than just a remembered moment in history and a hoped for time in the future, we know that the Messianic Coming is very much a thing of the present, too.  The Christ is constantly and continuously pouring himself out, making himself available to redeem this world.  But, more personally for us, Jesus, the Messiah, is knocking on our door asking us to be open to him, so that we might be instruments of his love and peace in a world of hate. 

In Matthew’s Gospel, this morning, we learn that Joseph, in response to the angelic message, was obedient and faithful. Matthew records that Joseph, upon awakening from his dream, took Mary as his wife.  He did not hesitate to do God’s will even in a circumstance far beyond his understanding.  In Luke’s Gospel the annunciation is to Mary.  Mary responded to Gabriel, the archangel, when he announced that in her virginity she would conceive and bear God’s Son, by saying “Let it be to me, according to your word.” 

When God knocks at the door, the appropriate response is, “Yes, Lord.  Let it be to me exactly as you say.” When God knocks at our door, as he does each and every day of our lives, he is offering us the very same grace of his presence in us.  He is asking to live in us and live through us.  He is asking us to be his disciples and to make him present in the world. 

God’s requests of us are unique to us, because for each of us God has some task, some special need, some desire of us to help him in the building of his kingdom.  If we were not the perfect choice, then God would choose another.  So our response must be, each and every day, “Let it be to me according to your word.”  It is through this daily obedience to God, fueled by faith through the grace of God’s Christmas gift to us, that we prepare not just to celebrate Christmas but for our eternal Eastertide with God. Amen.