Advent 4 Sermon                         12/23/2007                                                  Preached at ULC                                       Text:  Matthew 1:18-25           Title:  Bad or Good?

There’s a newspaper cartoon where Santa Claus is at his work bench putting a new toy together. From his nearby TV, he hears a reporter say, "We continue our look at the real meaning of Christmas – sales indicators. Consumers have dramatically cut back their borrowing which could slow the economy, but which might be a healthy development after their earlier borrowing which boosted the economy but added to concerns of low savings and over stimulation, but could result in sluggish sales leading into the all-important Christmas sales period."

Whereupon, Santa looks up and says to himself, "It used to be a lot easier to know if they've been bad or good."

How about you?  Have you been bad or good? Do you even KNOW anymore?

Last week I got to see ol’ St. Nick visit my daughter Bethany’s preschool, and I don’t think he asked a single one of the kids if they’d been good this year, because what are they going to say?  “No, I haven’t been good enough for a present.  Just give me my coal and I’ll go quietly.”  Every kid in the world knows that when Santa asks if you’ve been good, you say “Yes!”  Santa’s lap is not the place for the confession of sins! 

But how about if I asked the question of you, for real, right now?  How good have you been this year?  Do you even know what good is anymore?

· Did I spend enough time with my kids this year?
· Did I really do my best work on the job or at school?
· Did I donate enough money and time to charities this year?
· Have I been faithful to my family, my principles, my God throughout this past year?
· Have I been bad enough to add up to bad in general? Or have I been good enough to add up to good in general?

Santa Claus supposedly knows if you’ve been bad or good  --  do you?  And whose standards are you using to judge?  Santa’s?  Your own?  Or someone else’s?

I’m going to make the argument today that at Christmas, it’s easier than at any other time of year to see what God considers "good." The gift of the Incarnation shows us something powerful about God’s own goodness.  On Christmas, at the birth of Jesus, our God who is eternal, omnipotent, almighty, universal, and unchanging, defined goodness in terms of being vulnerable and "hands-on" with people in need instead of distant and hands-off.

The most unexpected part of the Christmas story is not that God is powerful enough to alter human history.  You expect God to change history with a wave of His hand – that’s what makes Him God!  The real shocker is that God became vulnerable and personal to everyone in one singular moment, as a child.

God fully entered into a particular place and a particular time, with all the limitations and frustrations that came with it, in order to put divine hands on history through the human hands of Jesus. He didn’t even have the good sense to be born to a family of power and prestige, or to have the advantage of wealth and influence. This hands-on, Emmanuel God showed us the greatest goodness in a humble birth, in being present for the poor and lowly.

Tomorrow, we’re going to hear this story from the Gospel of Luke.  We’re going to hear the familiar tale of shepherds and angels and good news of great joy.  That’s the Gospel of Christmas Eve.

Today, however, we read from the Gospel of Matthew, and there is a different perspective.  At first, the hands-on quality of the Incarnation doesn’t look so good in this Gospel.  Not at first.  At first, this story looks truly bad.

“His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together she was found to be with child.”  Joseph is confronted with the unplanned pregnancy of Mary, his fiancée, and even worse, he knows the baby isn’t his!  What are you supposed to think when your fiancé is pregnant and you know it’s not your baby?  She cheated on him.  That’s a capital offense in that day and time.  Mary could be executed for her adultery.  Now, Joseph chose not to do that to Mary, preferring to dismiss her quietly, but remember, they lived in a small town.  Do you know any small town in the world where something like this could be kept quiet? 

Mary was about to become permanently scarred by scandal. Joseph himself faced humiliation for being made a fool of by his young bride before they were even married. 

This is good?

But God wasn't finished being hands-on in this couple's lives. He sent an angel to Joseph’s dream and let him in on the divine, hands-on plan for history. Joseph wasn’t being cheated on; this really was something good!  Mary and this baby, and Joseph too, were part of God’s plan.  In fact, Joseph’s actions will end up being critical to ensure that things will turn out all right.  This man who took Mary as his wife anyway even though she was pregnant and even all of society thought he was a fool, this man helped show us what God’s goodness is all about.

Sometimes, God’s goodness means saying, "I Beg to Differ."

Samuel Rayan, writing in Gifts of Many Cultures, says of candles that they are "a protest at midnight. [Lighting a candle] is a nonconformist gesture. It says to the darkness, 'I beg to differ.'" (Thanks to Bruce Jenneker, "The Light of Christmas," Trinity Church in the City of Boston, 25 December 1999.)

Joseph begged to differ.  To a culture that said "put her away," Joseph said, "I beg to differ."

To a world that said God is abstract and aloof, God said, "I beg to differ."  To a world where the wealthy and powerful feel more important than ordinary people, God said, “I beg to differ”.  To a world where people claim there are no real standards of right and wrong anymore, God says today, “I beg to differ.”  The beauty and the grace of this all is how God gives us the right to beg to differ along with Him.

There’s a former Atlanta mayor and UN ambassador named Andrew Young who tells about the time that his daughter announced her decision to go to Uganda to work with Habitat for Humanity. Young said it put him in a real bind. After all, he's a Christian and he had raised her to be a Christian. He supported Habitat for Humanity. But he was also the Ambassador to the United Nations. He knew about Uganda. He knew the danger, the conflicting forces, the risk she was taking.   I met some Ugandan soldiers in Iraq, and knowing what they lived through, Mr. Young was right to be worried.

He says he tried to talk her out of it, but there was no changing her mind. This was God's calling for her life. He describes the January morning when he stood at the Atlanta airport, with tears streaming down his cheeks and watched her plane lift off the ground. He said that in that moment realized, 'I always wanted her to be a respectable Christian – not a real one!" (As cited by James A. Harnish, "Overcoming Complacency," 27 February 2000, Tampa, Florida).

Which will it be this morning?

· A good Christian or a bad One?
· A Christian that begs to differ?
· Or a Christian that strive to comply?
· A Christian that passes on God's hands-on touch?
· Or a Christian that keeps your hands in your pockets?

Forget Santa Claus is coming to town. God came to town, a town called Bethlehem, and God comes down to every town.  God has come to us in the past and He will come to us again.  God showed us what goodness is, not keeping your hands in your pockets but getting them dirty by getting hands-on in the world around you.  God has been good to you, far better than Santa Claus could ever be, when Jesus came to town.

But just like Santa Claus, he knows when you've been sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows when you've been bad or good.

So because Jesus has set us free, be good, for goodness’ sake.  Be good, for God’s sake.

Be hands-on.  Beg to differ.  And get your goodness from a God who is good to you.  Amen.