What does it mean to be a man?

What does it mean to be a man.

Joseph reflects God’s fatherly love into the world.

This is what it means to be a man.

Transcript:

Welcome to The Light of Christ weekly podcast. Light of Christ Anglican church is located in Georgetown, Texas at MLK and University Avenue. We are a modern expression of the ancient faith. You can learn more about us at lightofchristgeorgetown.org

Today's sermon soundbite will be a bit longer than normal. As we take a closer look at the love of Joseph revealed in Matthew chapter one verses 18 through 25 and how that reflects the divine love into the world.

This is what God created you to be. A symbol of God's love in the world. Here Joseph is an example of this for us. I mean, he's put in an incredibly difficult, unexpected situation, but he chooses to live into this reality of being assigned a sacrament of love. And he courageously chooses love, and as he chooses love, he finds himself in a crucial role in God's story. And in doing this, he serves as an example for all of us.

So let's walk through this story and see God's love as it's expressed through the person of Joseph. And there are four qualities of divine love that we're going to see here. We're going to see that divine love as expressed through Joseph is free, faithful, total and fruitful. Free, faithful, total and fruitful. So let's start at 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.

When his mother, Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. One quick comment here. We don't know really much of anything about the betrothal process of that time, but it was very serious. So they're not married yet, but they had promised themselves to each other in some sort of way that was akin to marriage. They had not consummated it yet, but it was such a strong bond in their culture. This betrothal process, and like I said, anyone who says they know exactly what's going on here is fooling you. They don't know what they're talking about. No one really knows exactly what's happening here but they were so promised to each other that in order for him to get out of the relationship. It was akin to divorce, which is why it uses this term next in verse 19.

And her husband Joseph being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame resolved to divorce her quietly. Can you imagine what Joseph is going through right now? Yeah, I imagine that he had dreams. That he had a life he wanted to live out with Mary as his wife. He had thought about what it would be like and suddenly he gets news that the one he's betrothed to is pregnant. But what does he do? Does he shame her openly? No. He doesn't want to put her to shame but resolves to divorce her quietly. He realizes this isn't going anywhere. He doesn't know the full story yet, right. But he's saying, "Okay, obviously this isn't going well, Mary's not who I thought she was. This isn't going to work." But he doesn't want to shame her. He wants to do it quietly.

And this shows us what love is. What is love? Love is seeking the good of the other for their own sake. And so already in Joseph we see love. That in this situation he doesn't have all the facts, yet. He is seeking the good of Mary, not wanting to shame her, but wanting to do this in a way that preserves her dignity as much as possible. Love again is seeking the good of the other for their own sake. We see in him a heart of mercy.

Then in verse 20, but as he considered these things, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, "Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit." Here we see the quality of love is being free. Love is freely given and it's freely received. Love is a gift, right? Love cannot be owed, love cannot be earned. Love is never coerced. It's never forced. But what does Joseph do? Joseph trusts God. He trusts God and we will see that he freely chooses to obey and he will love and he will care for Mary and the child. I mean taking a tremendous responsibility upon him and not only a responsibility for a child that's not biologically his, but he has just found out who is this child, the son of God. The Messiah of the world, the King of Israel.

And so we see here through Joseph that love is free. Let's skip down to verse 24. Let me read down to 24 and then I'll comment. Twenty-one, she will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus and he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, he took his wife. Here we see that love is faithful. Love is faithful. It's till death. Joseph faithfully follows through on God's instructions. He follows God's on every single point.

Verse 24 he says, "He took his wife, 25 but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name Jesus." So he follows God's directions, exactly. And we see he's faithful in that he marries Mary, dedicating himself and his entire self to her and to the needs of her and this child. And for all of those that are married here, we understand that marriage is a life altering event, is it not? But he takes this responsibility faithfully. Not only that, but he knew her not. Notice that. He knew her, not this means that he did not have sexual relations with her.

So Mary is not some means whereby he fulfills his sexual lusts. Mary is a person that he's loving and cherishing. Notice that. In order for us to love actually we have to develop, especially as men, we have to learn self control. We have to be before God, constantly confessing to him so that our desires can be turned towards God. So that our desires are unified and harmonized with love, which means to seek the good of the other for their own sake. People misread this and they think that scripture is against sexuality and against pleasure. Well read Song of Solomon. That's not the case, right? That's not the case. What it's against though is using another person as an object for my pleasure. What the Bible envisions as love is that I ... In seeking the good of the other for their own sake, God will then bless that with pleasure. You see the difference. Here, Joseph is seeing Mary as a person to be loved and cherished, not an object to be used.

And so we see that he is faithful in this and then he does something incredible as well. It continues getting more incredible. He calls his name Jesus. We can kind of glance over this, okay, calls his name Jesus, but this has incredible import for that time. In taking that baby into his hands and calling him Jesus. What Joseph is doing is adopting that child as his own. The moment he names that child, it doesn't matter where that child came from, the child is now legally his. Using his faculty of speech. Remember where images from the tip of our head to the bottom of our toes. Using his faculty of speech, he is faithful. Taking this child as his.

So Joseph's love is free. It's faithful. His love is total. By taking Mary as his wife and naming Jesus, he is legally becoming his father. I mean, he's jumping into the deep end of the pool. There's no going back from this. And this is a total commitment that we see in Joseph again and again and again. We're going to see in a little bit that he will literally leave his land, his family, uproot himself from Bethlehem. And where will he go as a refugee? To Egypt. In order to protect Mary and this child from the murderous intentions of Herod. He is all in totally giving himself for the other.

And then finally, love is fruitful. Love is always open to receiving and nurturing new life. And Joseph's love for Mary brings life into the world, not biologically, but through the miracle of adoption. And one of the miracles of adoption, that I've talked to many people who have adopted. And they all tell me the same thing. They say, there is no difference in my love for my adopted children and for my biological children. It's the same.

Love is always fruitful. It always creates life. And because Joseph is obedient to the Lord and he is offering this love of God to Mary. He's not only bringing a little life into the world through adoption, but he's bringing the life of the world into the world. The father of life itself, the adoptive father. Can you imagine? The responsibility and the gift. And so we see here in Joseph, God's love. Free, faithful, total, and fruitful.

And so he's an example for us and he's especially an example for fathers. It's kind of a weird time to have a Father's Day sermon, but this is kind of what it's turned out to be. Joseph is a sign of God's fatherly love. Brothers, men, whether you're married or you're not, whether you're called to have biological children or whether you're called to have spiritual children. This is what your hands are for. This is what your feet are for. This is what the top of your head to the bottom of your toes is for. This is what it means to be a man. It means to love. It means to be a sign of God's love. To give a love that's free, that's faithful, that's total, that's fruitful. To look out for the good of the other for their own sake. That's what it means to be a man.

Thank you for listening to the Light of Christ weekly podcast. Let us end our time together with a prayer from the book of Common Prayer. You can find this prayer on page 627.

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the husband of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.