December 11, 2011
‘John Who Is Not A Baptist‘
December 11, 2011
Rosedale United Church
(Mark 1 : 1-8) Doug Norris
and :
Matthew 1:18-25
Karen Bowles
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Let me tell you about John who is not the Baptist.
Though I first have to tell you about a dream I had a few nights ago. I dreamed I was in an old stone church. I felt bad about being there because I had a beer in my hand, and this felt inappropriate. (perhaps I was dreaming this because I had just been at a pub with Jason, where we did not come last in the trivia contest, which in itself seemed like a victory) Nonetheless I kept swigging from my beer as I walked around. There was a chapel in the basement of the church, and I could hear a gathering going on – the sound of a song being sung. It was one I felt like I knew – something deep in me leaped up when I heard it – a folky tune, full of heart, and I couldn’t see the people but the sound of it looked like warmth and hope. I decided to go outside, to find somewhere to put my beer down. Outside the church was a beggar – I know this is not the correct term but I use it so you’ll know what I mean – a man in a ragged coat and he too had a beer though he wasn’t drunk. And he looked at me and too was singing the song – it was a song he also knew.
A couple of weeks ago I was having coffee with John Deacon, who is not a Baptist. John grew up here at Rosedale United, and is an active member of his church in Richmond Hill, but more so he is a fervent advocate for the poor in the city – decades of volunteering at the CRC, and many of the shelters downtown. A couple of weeks ago John spoke at a rally on National Housing Day:
”If the measure of a nation’s health is the biblical standard of every household having its own fig tree and there being no poor among us, then Canada is an increasingly unhealthy nation. The line ups at our food banks are longer, the waiting lists for affordable housing and extended care facilities are growing and a cynicism grows among us that these problems are too big for us to handle.”
So, John and I were in a coffee shop, a rainy day, a man came in, much like the man in my dream this week. Went from table to table looking for some coins. He came to us and John looked at him, and said. I know you. You’re Dennis, right? I know you. (this is in Isaiah) I have called you by name. You are with me. The man – Dennis – looked startled, like he had just heard, in an unlikely place, a song that he recognized.
A compact set of convictions I take from this. One : It is in fact a wilderness out there. Many of us will rarely see this, and some will never get it, but it is wild out there, still. Two : Voices in the wilderness are, and ever are, crying out. Three : They are crying – make a way for the Lord! Make a way for the Presence of the Holy to be real among us.
And the way is a companionship, an astoundingly unlikely neighbourliness, that leads to justice, and through justice, leads to peace.
Chris Tindal has written for us the third of the ‘4 Songs For Waiting’. and this first message ends now with Chris singing the Advent refrain : Listen closely now….
Listen closely now, To all the wrong sounds, Trying to hear
Listen closely now, The lost will be found,The far will be near
She’s been calling in the wild,She’s been calling in the wild
Listen closely now, Straighten the path, Make way prepare
Listen closely now, The one you would search, soon will be here
She’s been calling in the wild, She’s been calling in the wild
To prepare for meek and mild, She’s been calling in the wild.
Listen closely now…
————-
Karen :
Let us turn now to the story of Joseph – Joseph who gets only a passing mention in the story of Jesus. Joseph, who chose to give Jesus his name so he and his mother Mary, vulnerable by age and gender, would be accepted and not shunned by her people. Joseph, who broke the rules and acted out of trust even when the story told to him, seemed so implausible. “Don’t be afraid the angel said, for God is at work in all of this.”
Mary was not a virgin. Joseph had a dream. Joseph listened to his dream. He chose to marry Mary. They had not had sex yet.
These are the facts.
verse 22 reads: Look the virgin shall conceive and bear a son
and they shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah 7:14 from the Hebrew Testament says the same thing – it is where Matthew found it. But the Hebrew did not say the virgin shall bear a son – it used the word ‘almah’ which means young girl either married or unmarried. When Isaiah was translated into Greek the translators used the word ‘parthenos’ which means virgin. Imagine if you will for a minute the repercussions over the centuries of such a mis translation! The number persecuted, killed, for refusing to believe that Mary was impregnated supernaturally. Imagine our forebears and the tortuous thought processes they engaged in – the admonition to simply believe in the face of all that science and nature and wonder have to offer. And even today we see only that part of this passage. Imagine how this one word part of this story becomes its centre, its nexus, its stumbling block, its remote making from the soul grabbing revelation route to God contained in this passage about a man and a woman and this wondrous baby to come in the usual way. Purity and holiness are not separate from physical love and conception. They are part of this God given gift of life. In the way this passage has been read – both Mary and Joseph are denied a role in the making of this man Jesus – All women were thought to be simply vessels without a hand in the formation of the child and Joseph – Joseph is not the father. period
There are many ways to read the Bible – read it intellectually, like a scholar –Read intellectually we argue and write discourses on translations and textual criticisms.
We can read it practically – it contains sound counsel on living well – charting a wholeness bearing course on both personal and social behaviour. Honour thy parents, turn the other cheek.
We can read it for inspiration – for turning to in times of need and grief – there are incredibly moving and grace filling passages in this book. Psalm 23, The Lord’s Prayer – dark night refuge passages of scripture.
And then and then we may read it by receiving it, receiving it first as story and as narrative, reading it not for our purposes but for the author’s purposes. Receiving the words in such a way that they become
interior to our lives, the rhythms and images becoming practices of prayer, acts of obedience, ways of love. (Eugene Peterson, Eat this Book Enter this story – imaginatively – take a place in the plot. Take the place of Joseph.
Joseph is troubled – is sad – is angry – is confused – his fiancé is pregnant – he is not the father – he will let her out of her promise – he will do this quietly so as not to cause harm or embarrassment. He does love her but after all the law is the law and honour is honour. I cannot marry her now he says. And so to sleep mind made up. But sleep does not come easily and when it does it with a dream. There is no burning bush or parting sea – there is only a dream – and in that dream an angel appears and says “Don’t be afraid” the angel said, “for God is at work in all of this.” And this Joseph does just that – he breaks the rules he acts out of trust, out of faith, out of trust, out of imagination, outside of his box. He acts radically. He acts faithfully. He acts out of love. He acts out of trust. period
And we anticipate just for a moment the coming story and we participate just for a moment in the coming kingdom and we are wise just for a moment with the coming wisdom –
To today – to other stories, stories of men and women but today we speak of men – who do not listen to the angels to the dreams to the inner voice that cries out to be heard – honour is not found in canals in Kingston – There is Honour and faith in Canadian Imams speaking out words of love and hope. There is no joy in our most vulnerable living in tents in sub zero weather. – Joy and relief are found in feeding the child, sheltering the family first, first.
You and I, Mary and Joseph, radically imperfect and radically valuable. And so we wait with them and with one another and we listen and we hear the glory in the story of this man Joseph who heard the angels sing in his dream – heard and listened and caught a glimpse, a whiff, a breath of this affirmation this declaration of Matthew taken from the prophet Isaiah “A young girl shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel – God is with us.”