Isaiah 7.10-16, Matthew 1.18-25
The Fourth Sunday of Advent, 18 December 2016
Sparkford, Corton Denham
Joseph the builder, the worker-in-wood, probably wearied after another long hard day-shift building Herod’s new city. [1] You could imagine that he would be ready just for bed, and by no means ready to hear what Mary had to tell him - stuttering, nervous, scared young Mary: whispering to him the bewildering news that she was pregnant.
Now Joseph loved Mary, of that he was clear. But he was sure that he had never loved her - not in that way; they’d never consummated their relationship. And he would never have forced that. For he was a man who did things properly - they were engaged, they would wait.
And Joseph respected Mary, he knew in his heart. And he respected God, that’s how Joseph lived. So when Mary came to him with her startling statement that a messenger from God had told her that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit - he couldn’t make sense of it, but he knew he had to accept it.
What should he do? Joseph, a righteous man who played by the rules of sacred society and knew what shame this could bring on him.
What should he do? Joseph, who loved Mary and wanted to protect her from public disgrace.
What should he do? Joseph, conflicted between doing the right thing for Mary and doing the right thing in the eyes of society. He felt that his burning sense of shame would force the issue: that he would have to ‘dismiss her quietly’, to break off their engagement and leave her to do whatever it was that women in her situation had to do, to hide her pregnancy and create a story to protect her honour and her child when it was born.
But before he acted on this instinct, first, Joseph did something else. He slept on it.
Why would he sleep on it? Maybe out of pure exhaustion, emotional exhaustion now added on to the fatigue from his long day’s work. But possibly he had a hunch that if he slept on it, maybe something else would come to his addled mind, something else to force the issue better than his burning sense of shame.
Wise man, Joseph. For sleeping on it. For sleeping on it is what wise people do.
And sure enough, as he slept on it, in dreams Joseph found himself in the presence of an angel of God, who confirmed Mary’s outrageous tale about this child inside her being God’s son. And who awoke Joseph from his anxious urge for face-saving self-preservation, to help him realise that he had to stop playing by the rules of sacred society and instead to stick with Mary, he had to stop doing things ‘properly’ and start doing things perspicaciously - because God is doing something special through this child. [2]
Now ‘perspicacious’ means ‘having a ready insight into and understanding of things’ [3] And have you noticed how many people in the Christmas story slept on it - and in dreams gained insights and understanding that opened up a whole new world for them.
In dreams Zechariah had the birth of John foretold him. In dreams the Magi were instructed by an angel to take a different route home. [4]
But most of all, there are Joseph’s dreams. Matthew records four of them. This first dream in which the angel told Joseph to marry Mary and together nurture their precious baby's life. The second dream, mirroring that of the Magi, where Joseph is warned to leave Bethlehem and flee to Egypt. Later, while in Egypt, in dreams Joseph is told that it is safe to go back to Israel. And, having been warned in another dream to avoid Judea, he departed for the region of Galilee instead. [5]
It seems that God likes meeting us in dreams. It might even be true to say that the best time to hear God speaking to us is when we’re asleep!
In dreams God instructs us. In dreams God directs us. In dreams God encourages us to set a new course for our own good and for the good of those around us, for the good of the world.
So if your mind is troubled by conundrums causing you anxiety, not knowing if the way you think you should go is really the best one, be encouraged to sleep on it. Maybe you’ll meet God in dreams.
Or if your heart is troubled by circumstances you feel you cannot control or change, not knowing how to respond to situations in the community or in the world at large, be encouraged to sleep on it. Maybe you’ll find God there, revealing, revitalising, redirecting.
The author of Psalm 4 says to God, “Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’” And we might ask that too, living in our so-called ‘post-truth’ society, where moral leadership gives way to economic pragmatism and political populism. But the psalmist is only halfway through his statement. The author of Psalm 4 says to God,
Many are asking, ‘Who can show us any good?’ [but] you have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound. [6]
Maybe it is when we sleep on it that we find answers to the question, ‘Who can show us any good?’. Maybe it is in dreams that God comes to fill our hearts with greater joy than we experience in our best waking moments.
Reflecting on these insights the Baptist minister Kevin Durrant writes,
God knows that it’s not just our bodies that need the renewal that sleep gives; our minds and emotions need it as well. Sleep allows our dreams to sift through all the thoughts and emotions of the day, testing and releasing them in the safety of our subconscious. Many people find inspiration and direction from their dreams; some even hear God speaking through dreams at crucial moments in their lives. But whether we remember our dreams when we awake or not, they still form part of God's night-time rhythm - a rhythm that brings renewal to our lives. [7]
So Joseph was a wise man, for sleeping on it. And opening himself up to the renewal which God longed to bring him in dreams.
We sometimes think of sleep as a kind of death; but the darkness of the grave cannot simply be dismissed as a negative symbol; it also speaks of renewal. For Christians, death offers the prospect of re-birth. It is within the darkness of the soil that the dead seed germinates. As Jesus stated, “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed; but if it dies, it produces many seeds.” [8]
Re-birth happens in sleep; new life is born in dreams. Writing with hope, about the challenges of the times we are living in, the activist Rebecca Solnit says, ‘The future is dark, with a darkness as much of the womb as of the grave.’ [9]
To the one who is open to God, death offers the prospect of re-birth. And re-birth is what Joseph experienced on that pivotal night in his and Mary’s life. He, they, the world, would never be the same again. As it dawned on him that God had begun a new thing.
So let us be encouraged by Joseph, a man renewed and redirected in dreams. Let us turn off our TVs and our phones, fold away our papers, dial down the digital radio chatter and be encouraged: that sleeping on it is what wise people do.
The beautiful service of Night Prayer, otherwise known as Compline, borrows from Psalm 4 and other places and offers us these words which we might be encouraged to make our own:
In peace we will lie down and sleep;
for you alone, Lord, make us dwell in safety.
Abide with us, Lord Jesus,
for the night is at hand and the day is now past.
As the night watch looks for the morning,
so do we look for you, O Christ.
The Lord bless us and watch over us;
The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious to us;
The Lord look kindly on us and give us peace. Amen. [10]
Notes
[1] Joseph may have been employed, as many artisans were, on one of Herod the Great’s city-building or Temple-restoring projects. Wikipedia: Herod the Great: Architectural achievements.
[2] Paul Nuechterlein, Girardian Lectionary. Reflections. Year A, Advent 4a. Matthew 1:18-25. Exegetical Note.
[3] Online Dictionary: perspicacious |ˌpəːspɪˈkeɪʃəs| adjective. Having a ready insight into and understanding of things.
[4]
[5] Matthew 1:20-21, Matthew 2:13, Matthew 2:19-20, Matthew 2:22.
[6] Psalm 4.6-7.
[7] Kevin Durrant, The Earth Will Teach You, p.144-145.
[8] Kevin Durrant, The Earth Will Teach You, p.145.
[9] Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark, Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities, p.5.
[10] Common Worship: An Order for Night Prayer (Compline). Copyright © The Archbishops' Council of the Church of England, 2016
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