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January 4,  2004; the Second Sunday after Christmas, Year C
    The Rev. Harold "Skip" Comer, Rector

I’ll bet that Sigmund Freud would have loved to have gotten Joseph on his couch in order to analyze his dreams.  It’s an amazing story that Matthew records in the first two chapters of his Gospel.  Not once, not twice, not even three dreams, but four, in which an angel spoke to Joseph, delivering messages, that if ignored would have changed the world.  Changed the world in the sense that Jesus might have been killed as an infant.

The setting for this mornings Gospel reading is that the three wise men from the East had stopped in Jerusalem and asked “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews?”  When King Herod heard of this inquiry he felt extremely threatened by the news and attempted to trick the wise men into returning to him after they had found Jesus.  But after finding Jesus, they were warned in a dream not to return to Jerusalem and tell Herod the location of Jesus’ birth.  This infuriated Herod to the point that he order the massacre of all children in and around Bethlehem who two years old and younger.[i]

It is hard for most people to understand how anyone could be so insecure and vile to order such a slaughter of innocent children.  Unfortunately, Herod has not been the only evil or immoral person in the history of the world to order the slaughter of innocent people.  Certainly Hitler and Saddam Hussein are two people in our own lifetimes that come to mind.  It makes me wonder what voices they were listening to, how twisted was their thinking, to order such despicable killings. 

There is a stark contrast between Herod and Joseph.  Herod loved his status as a ruler and the power and possessions that went along with it to the extent that he was willing to kill anyone he even perceived might be a treat.  Joseph on the other hand listened to God and was willing to do whatever it took to insure the safety of his family, a family that included a child that is not even his own.

We live in a world where many people mother and father children, yet many of these children have no real mother or father.  Being a good mother or a good father is not something that just happens.

It is something that we have to work at.  Perhaps today, more than ever, when the stress is upon "me" rather than "we" and the whole concept of commitment and respect have been thrown out the window - we do have to work at it.

"Syndicated columnist, Sydney Harris said, 'that having children doesn't make a woman a mother anymore that having a piano makes her a musician.'  And Pope John XXIII said, 'It is easier for a father to have children, than for children to have a father."[ii]

Today is the Feast of the Holy Family, a day that we celebrate the faith, love and commitment found in Mary and Joseph, and shared with their son, Jesus.  It is a day that reminds us that "family" is a very important part of the Christmas story.   Like all families it was a family that experienced sleepless nights, frustration, fear of the future, unrealized hopes and dreams, and tragedy.[iii] 

What makes this family different from other families of its time and even today?   To borrow a phrase from Jesus, "Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."[iv]   Joseph and Mary treasured each other and the relationship that they had.  They had a "sacrificial" type of relationship.  It was a relationship that focused on the other person, rather than on themselves or their possessions.  We catch a glimpse of this in the first chapter of Matthew[v] where Joseph wrestles with what to do with Mary after he learns that she is pregnant.  Even though he is hurt, and perhaps even angry, he was compassionate in his response.  Some people would call this true love, but I believe that it goes deeper than that - it involves commitment and faith.

Commitment to each other that will see them through times that would dissolve any other relationship.  Commitment to the concept of a life-long relationship that is intended to be sacred.

Where do we get this type of commitment?  Certainly not from the world.  The world embraces sex, money and power; and would rather throw something away rather than try and fix it.  I am reminded of the commercial that has been on television recently that shows a recently married bride carrying her husband back to the church and placing him in the arms of the minister with a comment like “it didn’t work out.”   No, it does not come from the world in which we live, but from God.  The same God, who time and time again, has sought to renew the covenant with his people when they abandon him.  When we look for the best example of commitment to imitate, anything less than the commitment that God has to us as his children is far from perfect.

This is where, I believe Mary and Joseph got the model on which they based the commitment they had toward one another - from God.

And faith.  Some would call it trust, but trust has to be earned.  It is faith that enables us to trust in the first place.  And as the New Testament reminds us, faith is a gift from God.  How we use that faith is another matter.  But when used as God intended, faith becomes the bonding agent.  Mary and Joseph had it - faith in each other, but more importantly, faith in God.

For me, a marital relationship is like a triangle.  You have the man and woman at either end of the base of the triangle.  At the top of the triangle is God.  In this type of marriage love, faith and commitment flow through the lines nourishing the relationship.  In times of adversity the couple has something to fall back on - God and his love, faith and commitment. 

Born within this triangle, children are nurtured by loving committed parents, whose faith in each other is grounded in their faith in God.

As God looked down on the world he created, his eyes fell on a couple who had this type of relationship.  And he said, these two, Mary and Joseph, will raise My Son, because they not only treasure each other, but also me.

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