Quiet Strength

 

Sermon Psalm 103:1-18; Proverbs 23:19-25; Matthew 2:13-23 June 20,2021 Father's Day

Quiet Strength

The Scripture readings for today are to encourage us in our life as we live in relationship with others. Most of us grew up in some kind of family. We grew up in foster, adoptive, group, blended, or nuclear families. We can look to our heritage and find the people who impacted our life and who we admire for their ability to inspire us. 

Who are those people for you? Let’s take a few minutes today and think carefully about them. Perhaps they are still living or they have long passed. Yet, something about who they were in our life has been a force to steer and guide us even today.

Whatever they did, put an impression upon us that has lasted a lifetime. There presence in our life gave us life. A thumbprint of energy, guidance, imagination, intelligence, confidence, curiosity, joy, and laughter.

I would have to say that Joseph was that kind of man for Jesus. In the first two chapters of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is born and is an infant without a voice in the narrative. Joseph also has no voice. The narrative teaches us about the obedience of a man caught in a circumstance that was more than awkward, it was downright dangerous. 

You know who Joseph is right? 

He’s the guy in the nativity scene that we can’t quite explain to our kids at Christmas. He’s the dad of Jesus. Well, he’s not really the dad. God is the dad of Jesus. But, then Joseph is the step-dad? God told Joseph to marry Mary just as they had planned and to obey God. So, Joseph without question, despite what all the neighbors, and all the relatives would say, took Mary as his wife even though she was having someone else’s baby. Yes, Joseph did that!

To be honest anyone who looks to Joseph can be impressed. 

They can look to him and honor him for his courage. They can look to him and be impressed by his integrity. For custom in those days was to stone Mary for having someone else’s child. A child out of wedlock was a penalty of death. And Mary was having a child out of wedlock and not even of the man to whom she was engaged. This was a nightmare that every family hoped would never come to them. And yet the holy family who we adore lived exactly that. It is important that we honor those who have had the courage to love, honor, and obey during the most unusual circumstances. To love children born without a voice of where they are born or where they are raised is the greatest of all gifts. Joseph is a man to be lifted up because he denied the customs of his day and chose to put love first.

Who are the people we know who put love above the rules, customs, or traditions for the sake of another?

Joseph had a quiet strength. Initially he didn’t know what to do. But, when the angel spoke to him he obeyed. He followed through with his vows to Mary. He followed through with the Roman law and went to his home town for the census. He followed through with care for his newborn son and named him Jesus, just as the angel had told him.

He trusted the presence of God in his life. He didn’t need to put on a fancy show. He didn’t need to place an ad in the paper about why he was doing what he was doing. He didn’t justify himself to his family, neighbors and friends. He just quietly listened to God and cared for his family. 

For all of today’s families who don’t quite fit the mold of what society deems a perfect family, we have the holy family as our example to know that there is no perfect family. 

The best ones are the ones ordained to come together as God calls them together-no matter how different from the norm.

Joseph had been raised in the faith of his fathers and his mothers through the generations. He knew the psalms and the proverbs. He knew to listen for God’s word to guide his life. All around him were people of faith. It is through their imprint that he developed his faith and strength in love.

When the angel of the Lord appeared to him, he remembered all the stories told to him of Moses and Abraham, Sarah and Hannah. He too could take heart in the word of God through the angel to love Mary, to love Jesus and to bring them to safety.

It’s hard to imagine though to hear a call in the middle of the night to flee to safety. The only time I could imagine a call like that would be in places along tornado alley. There are sirens and warnings and no time to tell others except to run to the safety of a shelter or room as quick as possible.

As a parent to have to run with your child to a place you’re not sure of in order to flee a certain conflict if you stay, I don’t know how Joseph made that decision.

I honestly believe there are moments in our life where we are caught with decisions that rely purely on our ability to trust God’s guidance. There are moments when the need to act outweighs the fear of inaction. The flight to Egypt was one of those moments.

Who are the people we know who have had the ability to guide us to safety, to reach out and lead us in another direction, to grab us by the arm and save us from the fire around us?

We can thank God for their ability to love us enough to take the time to raise us up and to bring us around to the place we ultimately belong.

Joseph stayed with Mary and protected Jesus in Egypt until the angel sent him an all-clear message. And when he heard the news he was guided to the best place to raise Jesus into adulthood.

Sometimes what doesn’t quite fit the norm for growing up turns out in the end to have been the right place all along. The Eastern Shore is one of those places people assume is not the best place. Galilee was one of those places. Galilee was no royal town for a messiah. Yet, Galilee was a place set up for a young boy to grow and learn among a community of people of quiet strength. Jesus grew up in a rural community where people cared for each other. People modeled behavior of love and acceptance for the young Jesus so when he entered into ministry he had been formed by the people of his village.

As the church we are the village for one another. Let us make sure our fingerprints are on the trees of one another. Let us show the community in which we live the quiet strength we have to live and grow.

Let us be for others in the same manner as those who we remember today for their impact on our lives through their quiet strength. Amen.

Resources: NIB Matthew; Working Preacher 2012 commentary; Max Lucado Before Amen;