I’m the sort of person who believes if you want a job done well you do it yourself. I’ve never been that good at delegating. And I know a lot of people like that – that’s it’s easier and quicker to do something yourself than to explain and oversee someone else doing it. It’s probably something I should have worked on because it’s not how God works. God breaks into human history bringing his plans to work through ordinary people. And he doesn’t stand over us telling us what to do or, what we call, micromanaging. Sometimes we get it wrong but God doesn’t take over. He gently guides us back or rearranges things.
We see this pattern in the Bible. We have the patriarch Abraham whom God used to bless the world. Now, Abraham didn’t always get it right. Like having a child with Hagar, Ishmael, instead of trusting God’s promise. In fact God honoured Abraham’s wrong decision by promising to bless Ishmael and make him a mighty nation even though it was not part of God’s original plan.
In choosing Israel’s King – God chose, seemingly, the wrong person – Saul, who disobeyed God and was replaced by King David who during his Kingship committed adultery and murder. God chose the persecutor of Christians, Saul, who becomes the Apostle Paul to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. God didn’t stop Saul’s earlier work but chose him despite his previous persecution.
God used women like Deborah and Esther to bring hope and freedom to his people. He also chose Mary Magdalene as a witness to the Resurrection and then sent her to the apostles with the Good News. God chose a simple young woman, Mary, to bear the Saviour of the world. God used Mary and Joseph in a plan that would turn the world upside down. This is how God works. He uses ordinary people – he uses people that get it wrong – he even allows people to get it wrong without interfering or micromanaging. He guides and directs but at the end of the day we have free will.
But we also see in our Gospel reading that God doesn’t just leave us on our own to achieve his plan of salvation. No, he tells Joseph that the child that Mary will give birth to will be called by a very special name – Emmanuel – which means “God is with us”. At the end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus affirms that promise when he says – behold, I am with you always, till the end of the age. What we also find in our Gospel reading is that God sometimes interrupts and challenges our plans in order to bring them in line with his will.
Joseph is a person with hopes and dreams for his own life but finds himself with a predicament. He is engaged to Mary but learns that she is pregnant. Joseph plans to dismiss her quietly but God uses a dream to change Joseph’s mind. We can sometimes have our own plans that get interrupted by God. What we learn from Joseph is that despite having free will to make our own decisions that we also need to be in tune with God to listen to him. To pray about situations. To ensure we regularly read our Bible to refresh our understanding of his will.
I think of the Old Testament again where Israel had gone way of the track with their worship of false gods like Baal and Molech until King Josiah found a copy of the Covenant in the temple and read it and realised how far they had drifted away from God’s will. Joseph is often forgotten in the important role he takes in the nativity.
Obviously God saw the important role that Joseph played. Otherwise why would he send an angel to him to change his mind regarding the plan he had. Without Joseph how would Mary have been supported? Her family would have been bound by the law to reject her if Joseph had rejected her. Mary’s baby would have been seen as illegitimate in their culture. And importantly, Mary’s life, would have been in danger and without Jesus to intercede as he did for the woman caught in adultery in John’s Gospel.
What this tells us is the role each of us has to play in God’s plan for the world, even if we don’t see ourselves as important. Some might say that Joseph has no role to play – after all, as we confess in the creeds – Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary – but no mention of Joseph. Maybe you don’t see your name up in lights. Maybe you don’t see your name listed anywhere. But you are all vital to God’s plan of salvation for the world. God has a plan for you just as he had a plan for Joseph even though we don’t hear anything of him after the birth narrative.
Some might think, God doesn’t really need me. Look at me. But God needs each and everyone of us regardless of the small insignificant role we think we might play. Regardless of the accolades we don’t receive. How often when a car breaks down that it’s a small minor part in the engine that has caused the car to break down. We recently had our heater break down. The serviceman we called in took one look at it and said it was unrepairable and quoted us $6,000 to replace it. I wasn’t comfortable with that and got a 2nd opinion. He looked at it and said it needed a new thermistor – a $20 piece he reckoned that he had one sitting in his car. Each part is significant and has a role to place. If a $20 part breaks down it makes the entire unit broken even if the unit was worth $6,000.
Likewise, without YOU our church body suffers. And sometimes the smaller the part the more important function it has. Which is what Paul says when he explains the human body as an example of the body of Christ. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it.
So to all you Joseph’s out there – thank you. Be encouraged. We need you. I need you. But more importantly – God needs you.
