Taking Responsibility - Matthew 1 - Advent 4A

Taking Responsibility

Tony E Dillon Hansen

Reflection based upon Matthew 1:18-25, Isaiah 7: 10-16, and Psalm 80

Opening prayer

There are moments in our lives when we are at forks in the road - decisions to be made.  What do we do ?  How do we proceed? What do we use to help us make that decision? 

This could be something simple as voting. It could be “do I go McDonalds or go on the diet?” “Do I drink another glass of whatever or be sober?” 

Like me a couple years ago, I looked at the road ahead with a lot of uncertainty and wondering if sticking around ministering, preaching and leading was the right decision or should I think “this isn’t my responsibility” And leave “well enough alone.”

Something happened, something I didn’t anticipate or expect. God happened. I got a call. 

I questioned if I had authority, proper education, or even the right perspective. I prayed and listened to the spirit speaking - not sure what the result was going to be, and for me, to be sure my ego was not interfering so that I, ultimately, do what God wants. 

I listened for the spirit’s guidance, regardless of broken human institutions, failed processes, and flawed traditions that hurt me, to take responsibility with this intervention: God’s intervention in my life (in our lives.) This was God’s call.

I leaned into faith and a result revealed a path before us: God gave me and gave the people around me so much. Thus, God called to us. God put me with people to move them to the Spirit, and the result was that we grew together. Yes, we had our challenges, but through our challenges and a hard pandemic, we grew as we witnessed the spirit working. 

Friends and family saw the spirit working and leaned into what was happening as well. They, with all of us, witnessed what failed processes didn’t.

We didn’t have the gift of foresight or a book telling how to do this. With faith and the spirit working with us, taking responsibility was the right decision. It was the right decision each day thereafter because taking responsibility is not “just a one and done” thing but a daily and hourly challenge; that despite all odds, isolation, broken systems or failing hierarchies, we walk with faith in the responsibility that God has given us. 

I think that is bit of what is happening here.  

Matthew’s account of the birth is different than the Luke version because Matthew attempts to expose the broken traditions and social pressures that Jesus comes into this world though Mary and Joseph.  

It is still a birth narrative, and we all know that birth is beautifully messy when that “new” comes into being. There is an interruption of traditions, of family, and of processes. There is a new life, and a fundamental change to those here.

Birth can also be a beginning after a long trial. That is a restoration of possibility and path to salvation.  Birth and the anticipation of birth forms comes with questions of what do we do and how shall we proceed? Do we take responsibility or something else?

We see this clearly in what Joseph does and doesn’t do. Joseph is trying to understand what is happening and what to do, and by the norms of that tradition as a”righteous man”, he intends to do follow that.  This can put Mary into an awful position because she is a young woman with child and without a husband in a society rigged against her. It is a system that is favored towards tradition. 

Something however remarkable happens here.  Can anyone guess why we read the Bible?  Who do we learn about in the Bible ?? God!

God happens! Isn’t that just like God too? Just when you thought you knew everything, had all the ducks in a row, had plans laid out, God shows up to put a wrinkle, a wrench, a surprise, a question that does more than tickle our faith.  

As last week, we saw how God is with us “Emmanuel” always, but when we get cozy or nonchalant, God tends to reveal holy presence more dramatically - not quite a Hollywood entrance but real and sometimes dramatic. 

That is part of the narrative that Matthew sets before us with Jesus.  What does Jesus do best - transcend the tradition and social norms! Where did Jesus get this? 

Good parents.

So this birth is foreshadowed with a decision about tradition - a decision about family - a decision about responsibility. At any point, Joseph could easily walk away, wipe hands and disappear. Yet unlike others in Jesus’s lineage that we read in the earlier part of Matthew, Joseph has a dream that persuades him to accept responsibility to witness.  He stays. 

Why because God showed up and God made it be known that God wills it. 

Guess what, not only did Joseph stick around and take responsibility, but God stuck around too and continues to. God didn’t just show up to the young couple and leave them out to dry.  God didn’t show up to me and to the people around me and leave us out to dry like failed systems have. Although I (and we) can still shake finger at failed and broken processes, God doesn’t fail us.  Unlike untrustworthy human processes or faulty people, God sticks around guiding and working with the couple because Joseph took responsibility to truly witness “Emmanuel” with Mary.

Thus, Beloved, when you are at the proverbial fork in the road, the unsure decision, the question of what is right - lean into your faith and lean into God. 

God is lighting paths for you and me every day, in many different ways.  Let God be with you, and let God interrupt you to show you the possibilities. Find that God is with us and God will help you do the right thing. 

Beloved, God is with us! Emmanuel! And we say… 

Thanks Be to God