Hi, my name is George Sinclair. I'm the lead pastor of Church of the Messiah.
! It is wonderful that you would like to check out some of the sermons done by Church of the Messiah,
either by myself or some of the others. Listen, just a couple of things. First of all, would you pray for us
that we will open God's Word well to His glory and for the good of people like yourself?
The second thing is, if you aren't connected to a church and if you are a Christian,
we really, I would really like to encourage you to find a good local church where they believe the
Bible, they preach the gospel, and if you have some trouble finding that, send us an email. We will do
what we can to help connect you with a good local church wherever you are. And if you're a non-Christian,
checking us out, we're really, really, really glad you're doing that. Don't hesitate to send us
questions. It helps me actually to know, as I'm preaching, how to deal with the types of things
that you're really struggling with. So God bless.
God bless.
Morning, Church. Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you for this morning and the chance to gather around your Word with your community at your table.
We thank you for the gift of your Word. We ask that you would help us to
eat of it this morning and that there we would find life.
We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.
So over the last six years, I worked with refugees who were stuck in the middle of the desert,
in North Africa, many living in tents, extremely limited water resources, and these refugees were
hosted by another country along the border in settlements. These refugees were waiting, longing,
and fighting to go home. Their home country, in the meantime, was in fact under the control of
another authority. Their leaders were operating in the refugee camps as a government in exile.
So imagine this was you. You wake up each morning in a place that you call home somehow, but in a very
real sense is not your true home. You live under the laws and customs of a foreign land that you would
do well to obey, but that do not define you in a deeper sense. You see the signs, you see the flags,
you see all the signs that point to the fact that you're not in your home and remind you of where your
home really is. You respect these signs, these flags, but they do not define you.
Well, this is the life of someone caught up in between two very different stories, two very different
narratives, living under two sets of rules, living under two sets of customs, and somehow in your day-to-day
life you have to reconcile these two things together somehow. To stay, to set up your life in the camps
means to live into one story. To fight to go back or to abandon the cause and seek education and health
care and whatever you can get outside of the camps is to live into yet another story. And so the people
that I worked with were caught in between these two stories. In the text we read this morning from
Matthew, which tells the story of Jesus's birth from Joseph's perspective, we see that Joseph found
himself in two stories in a sense, two competing narratives, and they're the same two stories that we
find ourselves in as well this morning. One of these stories was we might call the dominant story of the day,
the story of his community expectations, the way that society sees things, the values that shaped
his society. It's the world of common sense, the world that you can touch with your hands and see with
your eyes. It's a story that we piece together and have the sense of, in our context we might call this
the Canadian story. And the other story that interposes itself onto this story is the story that God tells.
It's the story in which God is speaking to us, that he tells us where we came from, who we are,
where we're going, and how we should live. One story depends on sight, the other story depends on faith.
One story is the story of our reasoning, the other story of God's revelation.
Now these stories are not always in contradiction. There are varying degrees in which these stories
compete and align in every place and culture. But one thing is sure, that just as Joseph, as for us,
there is a point, probably many points, of time in which these stories come into direct competition
with each other. That these stories are on a crash-collision course, and we are forced to choose
which story will shape us, which story do we truly believe in. When the stories contradict one another,
which story will you find yourself in? And as we'll see this morning, we are invited to join
the better story, the truer story, the one that will lead to life.
At the start of our text, I invite you to pull up your Bibles and follow along in Matthew chapter 1.
At the beginning of the text, we find that Joseph is very much operating within that first story.
Stuck, you might say, within that first story. He's in a moment of crisis, caught in the middle of this apparent scandal.
For Mary, his fiancée was found to be pregnant, and it certainly was not of his doing.
We're not given a lot of details in the text,
And so we might wonder exactly how Joseph found out about Mary's pregnancy.
Did it reach him through the grapevine?
Was it an official family-to-family communique,
where one father-in-law to another was trying to keep this marriage plan together?
Did Joseph drop in once and notice that unmistakable pregnancy glow that so many people talk about,
that I never saw in my wife, but other people did?
It doesn't seem that Mary told Joseph exactly what happened, what she had heard from the angels,
from the details of the text.
It doesn't sound like Joseph was weighing out this report and its accuracy.
But in any case, however Joseph heard or found out, his fiancée was indeed pregnant.
There's a song I was listening to this past week from a contemporary Christian singer-songwriter
that says, singing about Mary, says,
The day you're getting married and this isn't what you dreamed of,
walking down the aisle at eight months,
they'll never understand that this isn't what you planned.
Now it might be a little anachronistic thinking about an aisle walking
in first century Judaism and in Palestine,
but the point is this.
This marriage, this young love,
which was supposed to be a pure, good moment of community celebration,
that it was overshadowed in a sense of shame.
That Joseph, in order, you know, we know the story of Joseph walking to Bethlehem
by donkey with his wife,
that before that, Joseph would have had some sort of arrangement
where he took Mary, pregnant Mary,
to come home with him and his wife.
And we can only imagine what the neighbors would have thought.
Over the last 10 plus years,
we've lived in many cultures that are very community-based,
very traditional,
and where indeed the neighbors talk.
We had to be careful about the groceries that we brought home,
walking home in our bags,
because if we had too many Western products
or too many things that would have cost a pretty penny,
we would have been judged for that.
It seemed that the people around us,
our neighbors, the people we lived,
with and amongst,
that they would take anything to gossip about
and talk about and spin a story about you of.
And I imagine that Mary and Joseph's day was no different,
that they had to endure the judgment
and the shame that went along with this moment,
very unfortunately.
And so at the start of this,
our text,
we find that Joseph was operating
within this first story,
and of course,
it was no simple thing just to call off the engagement.
There's a friend of mine
who,
when he tells the story of his marriage,
marriage,
he talks about how he met his wife
who was engaged to another fellow at the time,
and long story short,
he got in there and stole her away.
And in his words,
he says,
it's not over till it's over.
And whether you may or may not have been so bold
as to scoop in there
and end another engagement,
we,
I think we mostly think
that this sort of thing
is acceptable,
you know,
according to our rules
of dating,
engagement,
and marriage.
You know,
it's not marriage
until both parties say,
I do.
Well,
it wasn't so in Joseph's day.
Engagement and marriage
were linked together
such that for Joseph
to call off the engagement
was for him to call off
the marriage
and a divorce
was in order.
And so this is where we find
Joseph at the start of the story
not wanting
to put Mary to shame
despite his confidence
of how this baby
must have come about.
We find him
considering,
reasoning,
agonizing,
looking at the facts,
trying to wrap his mind
around what is happening,
what God is doing.
We read in the text
that Joseph is described
as a just man,
which means that
he was a good guy.
He would have followed
God's law
and would have had
a degree of honor
and respect
from his community.
But his reputation,
the life that he built,
is all now under attack.
And all of a sudden,
upon the angel's visitation
in a dream at night,
crashing into Joseph's world
of predictability
and common sense
and community expectations,
comes God and his word.
God's story interposing itself
on his.
God's story contradicting
what Joseph saw
with his eyes.
And Joseph was at a fork
in the road,
a choice before him.
Which story would he
play into?
Which story would he choose
to be a part of?
And we read,
an angel of the Lord
appears to him
in a dream.
Do not fear
to take Mary
as your wife,
for that which is conceived
in her is from
the Holy Spirit.
And so imagine
waking up
the next day
in Joseph's shoes
or maybe
in Joseph's bed
and there's a decision
hanging over you.
I think we've all
had that moment
where we go to bed
with an awful decision
before us.
Sometimes we wake up
in this blissful
state
where we forget
the decision
before us
and it takes
a couple seconds
before we get
sucker punched
and wake up
to reality.
Sometimes we
somehow dream
all night
about the decision
and we wake up
somehow already
sick to our stomach.
Whatever it was
for Joseph,
he woke up
and we ask ourselves
the question
if you were to wake up
in his shoes,
where would your mind go?
What would you do?
All that Joseph
had built up
flashes before his eyes
and he might be
thinking to himself,
even if the angel,
even if what the angel
was telling me
was true,
who is going
to believe this?
All forever be
the loser
that got married
to a loose wife,
whose child
is not my own,
quite literally,
shame on me.
It's remarkable
what God asks
of Joseph
and what he asks
of me and you.
So often,
God's word
provides us
with the ability
to live respectable lives,
fulfilling lives
that mark us out
as good neighbors,
leaders,
spouses,
parents,
friends,
in ways that can be
appreciated and understood
by the community
around us.
The faith makes us
into people
that are serving
the common good.
But just as often,
maybe a little bit more,
God's word
has the very opposite
effect.
That living
in his story
will set us apart
in ways that
will be met
with mocking,
with incredulity,
or disbelief.
And so for Joseph,
as for us,
there was no getting
around this fact.
To go through
with what God
told Joseph to do,
being misunderstood,
would have been
completely unavoidable.
And this seems to be,
for whatever reason,
a part of God's will
for us.
To go through
with lives
where we,
at times,
will be grossly
misunderstood.
And we can feel
the whiplash
of being jostled
between our faith
being received
as a good
to society
and sometimes
our faith
being received
as an ill
to society.
I think this is
a particular challenge
for those of us
who live
in the post-Christian
culture
that we find
ourselves in,
where faith
is disputed,
where we somehow
need to give
a justification
for belief
of any kind
in this day and age.
And I don't know
about you,
but being a minority
in this majority
type of culture,
I've spent years
and much energy
trying to live out
my faith
in a way
that can be understood
and appreciated
by my wider culture.
I want to show
the world
that I have
in my faith
the very things
they long for.
Hope,
love,
forgiveness.
I want to show
that my faith
answers life's
big questions.
I want to show
the world
that I'm
intellectually honest,
that God's law
is not arbitrary
or harmful,
but is freeing,
that I can bring
together the methods
of the enlightenment,
the impulses
of romanticism,
the critiques
of post-modernity
into some
cohesive framework,
traditional,
historic and ancient
and reformed.
I want to argue
that the scriptures
have held up
against the best
criticisms of the
last centuries.
And while this is
all very good,
there's also,
I've found,
an unintended
consequence here.
As we live
to be understood,
as we spend
great efforts
to be understood,
I think it becomes,
and in my experience,
it's become harder
and harder
to stand out
and to be different
when indeed
this is required
of me.
We get quite used
to living
by the standards
and assumptions
of the prevailing culture.
We get used
to living
defensively,
apologetically.
We live in the world
and while we want,
while we might want
to not be of the world,
we want to somehow
find our place
in the world.
we don't want
to be seen
as weirdos,
extremists,
or irrelevant.
And so we do
everything in our power
to avoid being
misunderstood.
And yet the text
confronts us
with something
this morning
that at times
it is God's will
for you and for me
at times
that we will be
misunderstood.
We could talk
about tons
of examples
about how this is,
but maybe a few.
In our culture
of the therapeutic
where self-care
is everything,
where shame
has no place,
God calls us
to a life
of confession,
to walk
in repentance.
As we gather
as the church
week in and week out
and confess our sins
that we're doing
something deeply
counter-cultural
that will
very much
not be appreciated
by the wider
culture.
They'll say
no need to go there,
right?
No need to get
lost in
shame
and this negativity.
No need
to be honest
about
your sin.
Just try and
kind of pretend,
get past it,
this sort of thing.
It's amazing
when you read
the Psalms
how counter-cultural
these texts are.
people that are
lamenting
their sins,
grieving over
their sins
and there's
something that
the world
sees in us
and says
that's not
the way,
that's not
the way up,
that's not
the way to
grow.
And yet of course
we know that
in Christ
we follow him
all the way down
into his death
in order to
come up,
back up with him
into his
life.
in our
workaholic
culture
obsessed with
advancement
and materialism
God has
called us
to Sabbath
rest
to give up
of our
resources
things that
others
will look
at us
and say
you're wasting
your time,
you're wasting
your efforts,
life is hard
enough,
you don't need
to spend
your time
with a
bunch of
strangers
at church
on a Sunday.
spend your
efforts
climbing the
ladder,
the fastest
way to
the highest
pay
is the
way to
the best
life,
yet God
calls us
to seek
flourishing
of the
places in
which we
work,
to slow
down,
to give
up of our
time and
resources in
all sorts
of ways.
This
often will
be misunderstood
by those
around us.
We could
go on.
Opportunities
for being
misunderstood
abound,
spending time
with Jesus'
kinds of
people,
calling
yourself a
Christian.
For many
people this
will represent
the patriarchy,
colonialism,
systemic
oppression.
You'll be
seen by
others to
represent the
worst sins
of the
church.
You'll be
called
anti-intellectual,
bigoted,
and while we
can do our
best to
strive to
represent
Christ well
and to
explain and
show a
better way
that at the
end of the
day we
can't control
all of this
and we
will be
marked out
in some
of these
ways.
And so
why is it
that God
asks us
of these
things?
Why does
God ask
us things
that will
be unintelligible
to those
around us?
Things that
will cost
us friendships,
things that
will cost
us jobs,
honor,
and we
have to
ask ourselves
the question,
is he being
mean?
Is he
wanting us
to struggle?
Perhaps this
is a question
you're struck
with,
disappointed
with God,
reflecting on
the fact that
this whole
Christian walk
is far harder
than you thought
it would be.
reflecting on
Joseph and
his story,
sure,
Joseph meant,
obedience for
Joseph meant
that being
misunderstood
and being
judged was
his reality,
and of course
there's no
indication that
Joseph would
have been
vindicated,
publicly
vindicated
within his
lifetime,
and yet we
have to reflect
on the fact
that Joseph
gets to
father the
long-awaited
Messiah,
that Joseph
had the
honor of
bestowing the
name spoken
to him from
heaven,
Jesus,
to his
son,
the son of
God,
anticipating
that this
child will
save God's
people from
their sins,
that Joseph,
well,
taking the
words of a
song from
a few decades
ago,
from Joseph's
perspective,
it says,
Lord,
for all my
life I've
been a simple
carpenter,
how can I
raise a
king?
For
Joseph,
in his
life,
in his
place in
society,
that this
man got
to raise
Jesus,
the Messiah,
the son of
God.
And so we
find an
answer to
our question,
why does
God go
after us
to live
these lives
that are
quite
challenging?
And I
think the
answer is
this,
that he
doesn't just
want us to
struggle,
he doesn't
want us
just to
be
disagreeable
for the
sake of
it,
he wants
to lift
us up
from our
small
stories,
he wants
to lift
us from
our broken
stories,
our self-righteous
stories,
and he wants
us to live
with him
and for him,
unto him,
for a far
better story
than we could
ever come up
with ourselves.
It's because
of his love
that he goes
after us.
The example
of Joseph
is set
forth as
an encouragement
to each
of us,
that even
though Joseph
does not
speak a
single recorded
word in
the scripture,
that this
Joseph was
appointed for
something
great.
God's word
breaks into
Joseph's story
and tells him
what to do.
Do not fear
to take Mary
as your wife,
for that which
is conceived
in her is
from the
Holy Spirit.
She will
bear a son
and you shall
call his name
Jesus.
For he will
save his
people from
their sins.
And we read
that when
Joseph woke
from sleep,
he did as
the angel
of the Lord
commanded him.
From agony
to resolve,
from his
small story
to God's
big story,
he took
the words
to heart,
do not fear,
was the message
from the angel
and Joseph
courageously put
his full weight
down on God's
word.
He took his
pregnant fiancee
to be his
wife.
He did
what was
asked of
him,
despite its
shame,
to bring up
one who
would himself
be ready
to take
on shame
and disgrace
of a much
greater kind.
Jesus Christ
followed the
pattern set
by his
earthly father
and delivered
on the plan
established before
time with his
heavenly father
to take on
our shame
and disgrace
and to save
us from our
sins.
That Jesus
Christ,
Emmanuel,
God with us,
has done this
for you
and for me.
This,
Jesus Christ,
then sets the
pattern for
each of us
to rise above
our fear
and to take
on shame,
misunderstanding,
disbelief,
inviting and
equipping us
to partake in
God's great
story.
And so the
question we're
asked with this
morning,
we're left
with,
is will you
play your
part?
will you
join in
God's
story?
And who
knows how
God will
use it
in his
greater story?
I invite you
to stand
and we'll
pray together.
Yeah.
Father,
we're grateful
for this,
your word,
we're thankful
for this,
for this
familiar story,
we're grateful
for this
example of
Joseph.
Joseph,
who did
not stop
at the
prospect of
shame,
but went
through with
what you
were calling
him to
do,
and that
he was
blessed,
and we're
blessed by
reflecting and
being challenged
by his
story.
We ask that
you, by the
power of
your spirit,
would bring
these words
and this
message into
our hearts,
that you'd
make us
courageous
people,
willing to
follow you
in all
things,
today and
all days.
We pray
this in
Christ's
name.
Amen.