Living the Dreams Rev. Catherine Fransson_ preaching Text

							                                                    Living the Dreams
                                             Rev. Catherine Fransson, preaching
                                                   Text: Matthew 1: 18-24
                                                 Seattle First Baptist Church
                                                    December 13, 2009




        I’ve enjoyed the distinctions several rabbis have made this season that Hanukkah was never
meant to compete with Christmas. It is not a major festival for Jews such as Yom Kippur, for example.
But they do enjoy the glitter and ribbons on the evergreens, and borders of lights that brighten our
neighborhoods. It is time of hope, new birth, giving without restraint, and thus a show of solidarity when
we can barely smile on a morning that dawns below 20 degrees. We need the music of Christmas,
whether it’s an excellent, funny, and poignant Seattle Women’s and Men’s concert, a sing along
Messiah, or one of our other superb community choirs. While we citizens support, in one way or
another, two nasty wars, grieve the tragic loss of heroic police officers, learn of theft and graft and fraud
at all levels in public and private companies—even churches, we need the music and the dreams of
Christmas more than ever.


        It was no less true in the first century. When Jesus was born the temple was at its height, a
glorious Herodian structure defying the size and magnificence of buildings we admire today. Many
temple authorities were corrupt. Although I am sure Zechariah was a mere human astonished at the
startling news he was about to have a son, his doubt was a natural human response. He may have
been an ethical priest, one serving the altar with grace and faith. But Jerusalem was also a hotbed of
angry zealots and others incensed at the control of their Roman conquerors, whose magnificent and
efficient roads allowed them to move within days to any part of their empire and crush rebellion. It was
an uneasy and fractious time, not unlike today. A powder keg.


        Christmas is wonderful for all children, and all the children in us. Babies born today change the
course of our lives as the life of Jesus, born in antiquity, changed the course of the world. The joy of a
birth is rightly celebrated. And children by Christmas trees, unwrapping gifts, enjoying the discoveries of
new things, delight us. If we can manage to make it through dinner without Uncle Orville in his cups
carping about which American values we have trashed, that is. Or if the Lutherans can go to church
without appearing holier than we Baptists who cleaned up after everyone left. Christmas is, of course, a


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time of purchasing, preparing, setting up lights, trees, and flowers; gifting, eating, and family ritual —
almost as if we were a Christian country.


         We’re not. Ours is not the only faith in town. Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Hindi, and Sikhs, even
wiccans, join interfaith celebrations as do Roman Catholics, Protestants, and Evangelicals. At least we
can name ourselves now, and not pretend diversity in faith does not exist! But for the displays in most
of our stores, and at the capitol, well….


         At this first Christmas, a single boy is born who today would have probably emerged on
newspapers in a cardboard shelter thrown up under a freeway overpass. Joseph has brought Mary, his
fiancée, nearly seventy miles on foot and donkey from Nazareth to Bethlehem to be enrolled in the city
of his birth, the city of David—seventy-some miles of dusty trails bordering the Jordan river flowing
south from far above Galilee to the Dead Sea. In a pilgrim caravan they reach Jericho, the oldest city
on earth, and turn westward for the steep trek up the hills. Maybe there was a competition to see who
first saw the pinnacle of the temple which must have been visible over top of the hill at the center of the
Old City. It is a long, tiring journey, and for one great with child, made with only a supreme effort of will
and endurance.


         Why did they do it? How did they choose to come this far now? Are they bound by the harsh
laws of their conquerors to do what they’re told? Is Joseph a stalwart patriot willing to put his family at
jeopardy simply to sign the census? Who is this man who stands at the back of the manger leaning on
a staff, looking on as magical stories and myths are woven around this very normal, yet very unusual
birth?


         Joseph gets short shrift in this multimedia extravaganza with angels, suddenly-healed shepherd
boys, and little drummers. The light shines round about the Virgin and child, and Joseph stands to one
side looking on. Yet if it weren’t for Joseph, none of this would have happened.


         His role as a good Jew, having learned his betrothed was pregnant, was to drag her before his
community, have her stripped and stoned to death. Had the community learned of her condition, had he
not done that, he himself would have been called out and disciplined, if not completely shunned.
Scripture tells us he was upset but noble, determined to take care of things so that Mary would not be
embarrassed or hurt. Knowing what he knew, in a high state of anxiety, Joseph has a dream.


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    Seattle First Baptist Church / 1111 Harvard Ave / Seattle, WA 98122 / Phone: 206.325.6051 / www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org
         It would have been a nightmare, wouldn’t it? But instead God assures him God is in this
pregnancy, that Godself is bringing it about, and Joseph’s role is to name “his” son Jesus, “God saves,”
because he will save his people from their sin. When Joseph awakens, he doesn’t rub his eyes and
curse God, saying Thanks for nothing! What a lousy omen for a new marriage! He doesn’t hesitate. He
does exactly what he felt God told him to do: marry Mary, take care of her, and see that she was safe in
his hands and God’s until the child was born and named Jesus.


        Because he is a faithful Jew and a law-abiding citizen, he even undertakes the long
journey south to Jericho, up the hills to Jerusalem and Bethlehem where, because of the
impossibility of making reservations, the crowds, and the lateness of their arrival, they settle
into a barn for the night. He must have been chagrined at the lowly setting. But at least, it is
safe, and warm enough.

         Joseph is living the dream.


         Matthew now tells us about the Eastern scholars who come seeking a new king in Herod’s
kingdom, spurring Herod into a murderous rage. And Joseph? Mary’s protector? He dreams again that
God tells him to take his family, flee to Egypt, and stay until further notice. Don’t you love that? Stay
until you hear from me again! Wait for further operating instructions. God has Joseph in the palm of
God’s hand, and Joseph is still paying attention! Scripture says simply, “Joseph obeyed.” Safely under
the cover of darkness, he begins the journey farther south into Egypt and away from danger.


         Joseph lives his dreams.


         After Herod’s death, an angel speaks to Joseph in yet another significant dream, assuring him it
is safe to return to Israel, but not to Galilee. So he settles in Nazareth, an unpopular hillside town,
because the political climate is better there. And thus, Jesus is called a Nazarene.


         There you have him, the man behind the drama who is not even the child’s father. What
becomes of him? He’s a saint in the Catholic Church. Churches are named for him. My grandfather’s
name was Joseph, and it’s an honorable name. But we hear little about him here. Once he follows
God’s leading, keeps Mary safe until the baby is born and thriving, and moves them back to northern
Israel, he steps off the world stage. One man. Four dreams. One man living dreams that change the
world.




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    Seattle First Baptist Church / 1111 Harvard Ave / Seattle, WA 98122 / Phone: 206.325.6051 / www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org
          Sometimes people ask me what does God want for me? What should I pray for? My answer is
ask, listen, wait. God speaks to us in ways simple and profound: in silence, in crowds, in music, in both
joy and deepest sorrow. God is always speaking. It is we who have lost the art of listening. We are so
ensnared by our so-called “real” lives that we expect to hear only letters from the earth. We forget that
God works completely beyond this world, and yet through it intimately every moment of every day.1


          When Celtic theologian David Adam was young he was convinced there was another world
woven into ours just waiting to be discovered. Eventually he realizes that “The material and the spiritual
are woven finely together in a way that makes them inseparable. The visible world of matter and the
invisible world of spirit are not two worlds but one. We belong to both, here and now….but I do not want
to imply separation—rather an interplay of the two that is vital to our well-being.”2


          I think it’s a dance. Not a zero-sum game or an either/or limited choice.


          Joseph danced in these two very real realms: the one of God and the one of power-over, the
one of Spirit and the one of allegiance to Caesar. Imagine the anxiety he felt when he knew in his heart
he would follow God and not Caesar. But he is not the only one living his dreams.


          Just last week in the Seattle Times, there were several hopeful items that reveal others, peers
of ours, who are also living their dreams. Maurice Clemmons’ aunt knew she should not protect her
nephew any longer, so she turned him in. She chose tough love rather than denial. A new poll is about
to reveal that the members of the National Rifle Association are more reasonable about controlling
access to guns than their lobbyists. A spokesperson said that to protect national security and
counteract terror, there cannot be just NO limits in our God-given [pause] American freedom to keep
and bear arms. And one more: when Governor Gregoire presented her budget, she said This budget is
balanced, but it is not just.


          These are examples of dancing between the world of the Spirit and the world of earth. It is to
live our dreams—to dare to take unpopular, countercultural action and to express opinions that
empower the powerless. Joseph broke his cultural laws to follow God’s leading. He put himself in
jeopardy. In that time and place, it would have been Joseph who taught his son about the law—God’s
teaching, not Caesar’s. For Joseph, the man who saved Jesus’ life before it began, nurtured him as he

1
    David Adam, Living in Two Kingdoms. Morehouse 2007, xii.
2
    Op.cit., xxii.
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      Seattle First Baptist Church / 1111 Harvard Ave / Seattle, WA 98122 / Phone: 206.325.6051 / www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org
grew in wisdom and stature, and was as distraught as Mary to discover him missing in the caravan
returning home, God’s law trumped human law and cultural custom.
           So we live on a powder keg. Any part of our world could explode with hardly a moment’s notice.
But in a wonderful Christmas book titled Children’s Letters to God, one letter reads, “Dear God, Are you
real? Some people don’t believe it. If you are, you’d better do something quick.” 3


           My dear friends, our God is already hard at work doing a lot of things quick. If we’re dancing
between Spirit and Earth, we know this because we’re listening, we dare to counter the power of the
world to think, say, and do the things God needs done to continue to build the realm of God here on
earth. You and I are part of the answer how our heart dance weaves itself into the frenzied dance of the
world. When we dance between heaven and earth, you and I are completely recreating the world.




3
    Stuart Hample and Eric Marshall
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       Seattle First Baptist Church / 1111 Harvard Ave / Seattle, WA 98122 / Phone: 206.325.6051 / www.SeattleFirstBaptist.org