Fathering Hope: Giving Joseph A Voice
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
As we all know, the holiday season preceding Christmas is not universally one of comfort and joy, of good will toward humankind -- for many, it’s also a season packed with stress and depression, whether because of economic privation, loneliness, grief, family dysfunction, or any of a million other causes. And perhaps no one had more reason to be stressed out and agitated than Joseph, faced with somehow explaining the sudden pregnancy of his betrothed wife in a society that frowned on such things. We certainly would understand if he “did what he had to do” under the circumstances -- and Matthew tells us that was his initial impulse, for “Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.” That’s the most we hear about Joseph’ thoughts and motivations; we don’t hear him speak directly on the matter. But in this installment of The Immediate Word, team member Chris Keating says that Joseph tells a powerful story through his actions -- one which reveals a great deal about how we can handle times filled with anxiety, and how to find and nurture hope in difficult situations. As was the case with Joseph, sometimes it’s as simple as being open to receiving a word from the Lord, and then being willing to follow God’s leading and act upon that word.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the Isaiah passage and the prophet’s observation that by the time a child eats curds and honey the land will be deserted. Mary notes that it’s not just in Isaiah’s foretelling that massive changes take place in a brief period of time -- that’s also the case for young children in our world as well. And while the child Isaiah is talking about will make all the difference in the world, we who follow the Christ child are equally called to make a difference in the lives of children throughout our society -- especially since research is increasingly revealing the massive importance for their future lives of love and support during children’s earliest years of development.
Fathering Hope: Giving Joseph a Voice
by Chris Keating
Matthew 1:18-25
With the lighting of each Advent candle, anxiety builds.
There are lists to be finished, gifts to be wrapped, cookies to be plated, a child to be born. It’s a joyful time -- or so we’re led to believe. For many, seasonal depression and anxiety become unwanted addendums to our frenzied festivities. For others, there is a growing weariness of the cumulative impact of layers upon layers of stress, including reactions to the election.
“No matter how one voted in the recent election,” writes Diana Butler Bass, “it is obvious that happiness was a big loser in recent months.” These post-election holiday blues cross partisan lines, revealing a nation divided and stressed by pending change.
Comedian Stephen Colbert teamed up with Vice-President Joe Biden for a fatherly pep talk to America last week. It was a good try, but Matthew reminds us there is another father whose voice needs to be heard. This week, let’s light the fourth candle and give Joseph a chance to speak.
Of all the characters in the Christmas story, Joseph has the fewest lines. We find ways of making the imaginary innkeeper come alive, but somehow never get around to letting Joseph say what’s on his mind. Shepherds talk, Herod decries, the magi murmur, Mary sings -- but Joseph is mum. He undertakes his mission with quiet resolve. By comparison, Luke tells us that Zechariah, the awestruck, unexpected father of John the Baptist, manages to get in a few choice words before he is silenced by an angel.
Over the generations, this has come as minor relief for countless boys conscripted into portraying Jesus’ earthly father. But Matthew provides an opportunity to see this thing from Joseph’s point of view. In a world that is riddled by anxiety and fear of change, it may be time to give the guy a chance to speak.
He might just be able to say a word or two about fathering hope.
In the News
Like the uncouth cousin Eddie in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Christmas brings its share of uninvited and unexpected guests -- including stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Researchers say that a blue Christmas is more than the title of an old Elvis Presley ballad. For people affected by depression and anxiety, the holidays can be a tipping point for emotional difficulty.
“For many people, holidays are stressful because of the expectation of buying presents,” says Eric J. Nestler, a psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher at the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. “These are tough financial times, and it is difficult for many people to meet those expectations.” Myrna Weissman, a Columbia University professor of epidemiology and psychiatry, adds that stress related to family transitions, loss, and other chronic stress can multiply at the holidays, creating triggers for depression. While researchers point out that suicides do not increase dramatically over the holidays, persons who are clinically depressed are at higher risk for suicide, and pastors are wise to be familiar with suicide’s risks and warning signs.
Diana Butler Bass describes her own experience of feeling bent low by life’s crushing load this Christmas. Instead of buying purple candles for her Advent wreath, Bass found blue candles -- “an ambiguous shade, not too light, not too dark, that in-between color of neither night and day.”
Blue, says Bass, is exactly how she feels this Christmas, particularly in the wake of the election. “In recent weeks, I have been yelled at, threatened and ridiculed, had property defaced, been unfriended and blocked on social media. A neighbor witnessed a hate crime. Another friend arrived at church on a Sunday morning to malicious graffiti sprayed across the building. At first, I was angry. But now, I am just sad: blue, really blue.”
Reports of Trump supporters being attacked are reminders of the stark divide in our culture. Anxiety and lack of trust is a bipartisan issue, and nothing stirs anxiety more than stress and transitions.
Futurist Richard Watson cites anxiety as intrinsic to contemporary culture. In a post 9/11 world, Watson says, “trust has all but evaporated... and the speed of change, together with technology that disempowers, has left people yearning for the past.” The result of this yearning, Watson believes, is an increased interest not only for nostalgia, but also in narcissism and tribalism.
Bass maintains Advent holds the potential for hope. Like Joseph, she begins dreaming of what it means to wade through darkness. “Advent recognizes a profound spiritual truth,” she says, “that we need not fear the dark.”
This darkness is particularly acute among families during Christmas. While Joseph and Mary didn’t have to contend with the always-watching “elf on the shelf” or long lines at Walmart, their anticipation of Jesus’ birth was filled with the same sort of anxieties experienced by many families today. Mary and Joseph’s experience included traveling, crowded streets, lack of privacy, and the awareness that events were beyond their control. Their experiences would resonate with contemporary families whose sense of feeling overwhelmed during the holidays can be acute.
Searching for a cure to Christmas stress can lead to a variety of excesses -- eating, drinking, and even pornography. One adult entertainment website launched a holiday-themed advertising campaign in hopes of chasing away winter’s lonelier moments. Yet porn’s allure provides a fleeting, and ultimately unsatisfying, diversion from the deep chill and loneliness of winter.
In the face of this emotional polar vortex, perhaps it is possible to imagine the stress Joseph and Mary were experiencing. Whatever may have happened at Jesus’ birth, it was hardly a perfectly planned event. Like many first-time parents, no doubt they were tired, even fearful. Joseph, as Matthew portrays him, enters the nativity scene as a type of foster parent -- obedient and faithful, if uncertain and worried. It’s not too hard imagining Joseph trying to make sense of everything.
Like any parents, Joseph and Mary were trying to do the best they could.
Daniel Knapp, program director of FosterClub, a national network for young people in foster care, retells the story of his own experiences of the holidays as a child in foster care. Both foster parents and children can find it to be a chaotic and confusing time, he says.
Based on his own experience in foster care, Knapp tells youth that “foster parents are put in a tough position during the holidays because they have taken another child into their home and provide them with a ‘safe’ home during this season. They do their best and sometimes they don’t understand the feelings that their foster kids go through because they have never been in a similar situation themselves.”
Like Bass, Knapp has found that the blue fog of Christmas can lead to hope. For him, hope is not just a drummer boy pounding out some strange syncopated beat. Instead, Knapp tells foster youth that for him hope was the discovery that “I couldn’t control life, but I was letting it control me.”
Such discoveries arise like a dream -- which, like Joseph’s, leads us to explore what it means to witness the birth of God with us.
In the Scriptures
Joseph was a righteous man, unwilling to put his espoused wife through the shame of a disgraceful trial. Throughout Matthew’s gospel, “righteous” describes both those who will one day “shine like the sun” in God’s kingdom (13:43) as well as those who are a bit too confident regarding faith (9:13). Disciples are called to the way of righteousness (6:33), striving to fulfill the ways of God.
Moreover, Jesus declares that the lives of righteous discipleship are rooted in acts of mercy and justice. The truly righteous, as described in Matthew 25, are those whose lives are so aligned with mercy that they are quietly obedient, unaware and surprised that they have fulfilled God’s commandment.
Joseph is righteous, and he cares about Mary. Faced with a situation that could lead to Mary’s punishment, Joseph decides to seek a no-fault divorce. His family is in turmoil, mired in a crisis beyond both his control and understanding. Joseph understands the law: either Mary must be divorced or executed.
As David Lose points out, Joseph and Mary are not mere images on a stained-glass window. They are real persons, embroiled in an anxious, tangled, and emotional conflict. Joseph is righteous, but God is about to show him an ever-deeper righteousness.
God guides Joseph to a righteousness that lives by faith. Before Joseph can call off the engagement God intervenes, sending an angel to Joseph in a dream. Joseph didn’t go to Jared -- he went to sleep. And in that dreamy otherness, God awakens him to a new and very different possibility. The angel’s declaration in v. 20 is not meant to pry open a can of biological questions. Instead, it is a reminder of God’s continuous relationship with Israel. There is no birther conspiracy surrounding Jesus’ birth. Right from the start, we are told in plain and simple terms that the child is from the Holy Spirit, entrusted to Joseph and Mary’s faithful stewardship and protection.
Joseph, the son of David, is called by God to give the child a name -- adopting him, as it were, into the house and lineage of David.
There is, as Charles M. Wood points out, a “gracious mystery” conveyed throughout this text (see “Theological Perspective” on Matthew 1:18-25, in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 1]). Joseph, conflicted and unsure of what to do, awakens from his dream knowing he has been called by God to trudge the pilgrimage path of hope. The story of God’s involvement with God’s people continues, as implied by Matthew’s detailed genealogy. It is, as Isaiah reminds us, a sign from God. For Matthew, the way of the righteous is not anxious uncertainty but trusting obedience which allows hope to be born.
It really is too bad Matthew doesn’t give Joseph any more lines. One imagines he had a lot on his mind. His dreams, after all, were legendary.
In the Sermon
A few years ago, our church was desperate to find a Joseph for the children’s Christmas pageant. We had plenty of Marys -- there were at least three little girls clamoring for the role. But one can’t just call out to central casting. Josephs can be hard to locate -- and when we did find one, he wore an expression that resembled a hostage being filmed by his captors. It was if he was saying, “I’m here under duress, and there is no amount of pizza in the world that will fix this.”
Fortunately, Jesus’ earthly father was a bit more reasonable. Or at least more open to the possibilities of what God might be up to in the world. Here on the fourth Sunday of Advent -- at a time when the holiday cauldron is about to boil over -- Matthew leads us toward that realization.
Joseph offers an imaginative platform for constructing a sermon on hope in anxious times. Imagine, for example, the conversation that Joseph and a teenaged Jesus might have had while working together in the carpentry shop. Jesus: “So, Pop, I’ve got this problem.” Setting down his tools, Joseph takes a deep breath and shoots a look back to Jesus. “Really, Jesus? Do you want to hear about problems? Let me tell you a thing or two about problems, buster!”
Joseph, being a righteous man, remained open to what God was about to do. Joseph doesn’t speak a word in Matthew’s narrative. Yet his actions describe a trusting faith. Joseph trusts that even in the unexpected circumstances of life, God is somehow present.
There is plenty of anxiety in our world this Christmas, and not all of it is the result of November’s election. There are wars brewing across the globe, tensions between nations, and fears of rogue terrorists. There are places of deep-seated unrest at home and abroad. As the curtain rises on our Christmas pageants this year, our congregations are restless and anxious.
We are waiting for hope, longing to hear that God is about to do something unexpected and wonderful. We need to let Joseph find his voice, so that he may lead us in the way of righteousness.
Jesus, when he was full grown, would proclaim: “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life...” To a people who were hard-working yet oppressed, he would say: “Look at the birds of the air... consider the lilies of the field... strive first for the kingdom of God and (God’s) righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
It’s not hard to imagine Joseph smiling somewhere in the back of the crowd, nodding his head, and quietly saying “That’s my boy.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Isaiah 7:10-16
There is a child on the way, the prophet Isaiah tells besieged King Ahaz, which will be a sign from God. By the time the child is eating solid food, the nation’s fortunes will have changed. If the age of one, say, is the age when a child shifts completely from mother’s milk or formula to solid food, then a lot can happen in a year.
A child born in the United States today will see different things before he or she turns one. Six children out of 1,000 will die before their first birthday. Some children are born into more fortunate circumstances than others. “Infant mortality is not distributed equally in the United States. In 2013, the infant mortality rate among non-Hispanic whites was five per 1,000 births, as was the infant mortality rate among Hispanics. The rate among non-Hispanic blacks, however, was more than 11 per 1,000 births.” Having a mother between the ages of 20 and 40 is an asset in the work of staying healthy. The U.S. and other countries have similar rates of infant mortality when studies consider babies in the first month of life. After the first month, most infant deaths “are due, in large part, to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sudden death, and accidents. Moreover, they seem to occur disproportionately in poor women.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends screening children for autism at the age of 18 months, but most children with autism are diagnosed later, often at school age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says one in 88 children has some form of autism spectrum disorder, more common in boys than girls. Each year the percentage of children with autism rises. The earlier the diagnosis, the earlier treatment can begin.
By the time a typical child turns one, she or he can change the tone of the sounds they make (preparing for speech), can find hidden things, make gestures to communicate (like waving goodbye or handing you a book to read), and has favorite people, clothes, and activities.
In the first year of life the brain makes huge gains, following up on growth in the womb. Researchers found that brain development has a lot to do with living in a safe, supportive environment and that “children who received more attention and nurturing at home tended to have higher IQs. Children who were more cognitively stimulated performed better on language tasks, and those nurtured more warmly did better on memory tasks.” Researchers studied the same youngsters as teenagers and “found a strong link between nurturing at age four and the size of the hippocampus -- a part of the brain associated with memory -- but found no correlation between nurturing at age eight and the hippocampus. The results demonstrated just how critically important an emotionally supportive environment is at a very young age.” By the time a child is old enough to eat curds and honey, a supportive environment is a big aid to developing the young brain.
The young brain needs an environment rich in love, language, and experience to develop fully. “Despite coming prewired with mind-boggling capacities, the brain depends heavily on environmental input to wire itself further.... Peering inside children’s brains with new imaging tools, scientists are untangling the mystery of how a child goes from being barely able to see when just born to being able to talk, ride a tricycle, draw, and invent an imaginary friend by the age of five. The more scientists find out about how children acquire the capacity for language, numbers, and emotional understanding during this period, the more they realize that the baby brain is an incredible learning machine. Its future -- to a great extent -- is in our hands.”
Baby brains respond to language -- the more, the better -- from the adults around the child, and “language delivered by television, audio book, internet, or smartphone -- no matter how educational -- doesn’t appear to do the job.” A lot has changed since Isaiah spoke to a frightened nation, but this need for human interaction in order for children to grow remains constant.
The absence of stimulation limits potential, but the presence of trauma in a young life lingers for years. In San Francisco, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and her staff look at the lifetime effects of early childhood experiences. They have developed “a survey that asks parents how many adverse experiences their child has gone through. Parents do not have to identify which experiences they are -- an attempt to encourage honest responses -- but the more boxes they check, the higher a child’s score. ‘If I see a child who has been exposed to four of them, I know their lifetime risk of heart disease is double,’ Burke Harris said. ‘Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2½. Depression, 4½. Suicides, 12 times.’ Young children with high scores are invited to participate in psychotherapy with their parents. As they grow older, they work with therapists to recognize signs of their body’s ‘flight or fight’ response and calm down with breathing exercises.” Treatment goes beyond medicine for infections and asthma.
Before children are old enough to go to school, they can experience enough adversity and trauma to change their lives -- and Dr. Burke Harris and her staff believe they can intervene and change the balance between good and evil in a child’s life. She and her staff believe that “regarding childhood trauma as a medical issue helps her to treat more effectively the symptoms of patients.... Moreover, she believes, this approach, when applied to a large population, might help alleviate the broader dysfunction that plagues poor neighborhoods. In the view of Burke and the researchers she has been following, many of the problems that we think of as social issues -- and therefore the province of economists and sociologists -- might better be addressed on the molecular level, among neurons and cytokines and interleukins. If these researchers are right, it could be time to reassess the relationship between poverty, child development, and health.” Health issues go beyond physical symptoms to the whole person, with body, mind, and spirit working together.
Isaiah promises one child who will make a difference in the world, but we who follow the Christ child have our own calling to make a difference for all children. Anticipating the arrival of one child, we ponder what we owe to the other children made in his image. Before a child is old enough to eat solid food, or to choose between good and evil, a lot can happen. When the manger is put away, we will still have a chance to make a difference for the children around us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Chevrolet has introduced a new electric-powered car called the Bolt. This innovative automobile has set a new record of being able to travel 238 miles on a single charge. The car is not designed for long-distance travel, but for everyday use of commuting to work and running household errands around town. The car is so well-designed that a neighbor would not even know that you have an eclectic-powered automobile in your driveway. Of course, an advantage of electric cars is being able to save on the use of gasoline. All of this is great -- except for the fact that one will have to own a Bolt for 24 years before the price of the car offsets the savings in gasoline. We read in our lectionary lessons about the land being restored, and the message is clear that it will not be a 24-year process if the people are respondent to the message of the Lord.
*****
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
In a Family Circus comic, Dolly and Jeffy are standing in the doorway between two rooms. Holding a ragdoll under her arm, Dolly asks her mother: “Will Santa be watchin’ us this week or does he start next week?” The psalmist talks about the desire for restoration -- but we have to wonder, for him and for us: Do we desire that to start this week or the next? (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
*****
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has just been honored with NASCAR’s award for being its most popular driver for the 14th year in a row, despite not having driven in the final 18 races this past season due to a concussion sustained in an accident on the track. His recovery was slow at first because, even though he could not drive, he could not separate himself from the sport that he loved and gave him his self-identity. But this obsession with NASCAR caused stress, and stress slows the healing process from a concussion. It was only when Earnhardt completely separated himself from the sport that healing began from his brain injury, and to his astonishment he began to heal in another way as he discovered a life beyond racing. He discovered a life with family and hobbies, vacations and outings. Of this change Earnhardt said, “I was a much nicer, pleasant person. Caring and thoughtful and less agitated by stress and everyday life that we all kind of deal with.... It showed me the person I can be.” To be restored is to discover the person you can be.
*****
Romans 1:1-7
Dylann Roof has been in the news for a year now. The 22-year-old, who killed nine people at an evening Bible study at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, has asked the judge in his murder trial to act as his own attorney. The ninth-grade dropout will now present evidence before a jury that will hopefully spare him the death penalty in federal court. Tiffany Frigenti, an attorney who specializes in pro se representation, said of Roof and others who choose to defend themselves, “They think they have a message, and that unfortunately leads to these crimes in the first place.” Paul, in his letter, is cautioning us to be sure that we understand our message and present it correctly and accurately.
*****
Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25
Bud Selig, who served as commissioner of baseball for 22 years, was recently elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Many people have forgotten that when Selig first became commissioner, his main competition for the position was George W. Bush, who at the time was the owner of the Texas Rangers. Bush lost his dream job as baseball commissioner and turned his attention to another form of politics, as he was subsequently elected as the governor of Texas and then as president of the United States. As with the Christmas story, we must always wonder what might have happened if a different character prevailed.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
The cause of the disaster that killed the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense has been preliminarily determined. The British-built plane ran out of fuel before it could land, causing it to crash into a mountainside... killing all but six of the 77 people on board. The pilot’s last words were: “Complete electrical failure, without fuel.” The realization that the tragedy was a result of human negligence on the part of the owners of the aircraft company has only intensified the grief of the relatives of those who perished. It is in times like this, because of the heartless negligence of humans, that more than ever we need the compassion of Emmanuel, the God who we know is with us.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
In a Blondie comic strip, Julius Dithers and Dagwood Bumstead are looking out of a picture window in the upper stories of an office building, admiring a cloud. Dagwood asks Mr. Dithers what he sees in the cloud. Dithers, Dagwood’s hard-nosed and demanding boss and an individual who does not understand the meaning of a compliment, observes, “I see a sad office manager carrying the contents of his desk in a cardboard box!” Dithers then stomps away. Dagwood, who is a laid-back and easy-going individual, says as he is returning to his desk: “It looked more like a guy relaxing in a comfortable hammock to me.” There are many characters involved in the Advent and Christmas story. Some see it with eyes of judgment; others with eyes of joy. In our lesson today, the views of two individuals are presented, Joseph and Mary. (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Bud Selig, who served as commissioner of baseball for 22 years until his recent retirement, has just received a plaque in baseball’s Hall of Fame. During his time as commissioner he oversaw many changes in how the game was played and how teams could be managed by owners, as well as numerous player scandals. Speaking about the great number of changes under his watch, Selig said: “We were a sport resistant to change. I believe in those years as commissioner, that’s the most change in baseball history.” The story of Advent and Christmas is a story of change. The question becomes, are we willing to accept those changes?
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Gary Edwards is the men’s basketball coach for Francis Marion University in South Carolina. He recently wrote a newspaper article titled “Winning Gives a Thrill Like No Other” (Florence Morning News, Nov. 19, 2016). In the article he said that older coaches in the game have focused on the character development of the players. But for Edwards and the newer coaches to the game, winning has taken precedence over character development. Edwards admits that since he first started to play basketball at the age of 13 he became addicted to winning, and that winning is a powerful drug. Character development is not on Edwards’ agenda, as he wrote: “But that’s not why I coach. The players and the games and those damned practices are the mortars and pestles I use to concoct my winning compound.” In fact, Edwards has become so addicted to winning that when he does win “the high has not been quite as high.” Edwards concluded: “first as a player and then as a coach, I have worked tirelessly to feed my habit.” Coach Jesus was not out to win, but only to restore the character of individuals.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) was a leader in the early church. He was held in esteem for his hymns, poems, homilies, and biblical commentaries that expressed a practical theology for a persecuted church. Ephrem reflected on the biblical story of the widow of Nain, where Jesus restored the life of the widow’s son. In doing so Jesus gave life to two individuals -- one who was physically dead, and a widow who, absent of a male counterpart, was culturally dead. Ephrem wrote, “The virgin’s son met the widow’s son. He became like a sponge for her tears and as life for the death of her son. Death turned about in its den and turned its back on the victorious one.” Emmanuel has come to be a sponge for our tears.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
I Can Fix It
My brother Ben suffered from atrial fibrillation for over two years. In layman’s terms, that meant his heart beat out of rhythm. Instead of lub-dub, lub-dub, his heartbeat was more like lub-a-dub, lub-a-lub-dub, lub, lub-dub. It rarely beat the same way twice in a row.
This constant fluctuation in his heartbeat made him tired, nauseated, and anxious. On top of that, if this problem was not corrected it could overwork his heart and make it wear out too fast.
He went to a score of doctors. Different treatments were performed. Some of the treatments worked for a while, but eventually the arrhythmia always came back.
Nearly in despair, he made an appointment with a cardiologist at a nearby university who was trying an experimental procedure that was showing great promise for people with Ben’s problem. He and his wife arrived at the doctor’s office and were ushered into an examination room, where Ben took off his shirt and awaited the doctor’s ministrations. Eventually the doctor, who looked like he should still be in college, came in, introduced himself, and proceeded to listen to Ben’s heart.
After a few moments he stood, put his stethoscope in the pocket of his lab coat, and said, “Okay, Ben. Bad news and good news. The bad news is you have a serious arrhythmia there and it needs to be fixed. Good news: I can fix it. And I’m going to fix it. Be here tomorrow morning with an overnight bag.” He gave Ben a piece of paper with the address of the surgical center at the university hospital. “It’ll take about an hour. We’ll keep you overnight, and you can go home the next day feeling like a new man.”
Ben later said that it was a good thing his wife was there and that the doctor wrote everything down, because all he heard come out of the doctor’s mouth was “hope.”
*****
The Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian physician and psychiatrist who spent three years in Nazi concentration camps. In his account of that experience, Man’s Search for Meaning, he talks about the necessity of hope for those who would survive their imprisonment and torture.
Cigarettes, for instance, were symbols of hope because they could be traded (like money) for other things that were necessary for survival. Whenever he saw someone smoking his own cigarettes, Frankl says that he knew that person had given up hope and would soon be dead.
In another passage, he talks about how his love for his wife gave him hope to survive:
We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road leading from the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor’s arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: “If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us.”
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which Man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of Man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when Man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way -- an honorable way -- in such a position Man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”
*****
Finding Hope
The Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales is about a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Yankee raiders. With nothing left to live for, Josey joins the Confederate army in the hope that one day he will find the people who killed his family and have his revenge.
His hopelessness makes him into a very dangerous soldier indeed, because he walks into the most dangerous situations without a concern for his own life.
By the end of the film, the war is over and Josey has gotten his revenge -- but he discovers that it is not satisfying. It leaves the heart empty, as it was before the revenge. The only thing that has given him back his sense of hope is helping the people who have latched onto him as their protector.
Causes, he realizes, are not capable of giving us a sustained sense of hope.
Only people, our love for them and our relationships with them, can give us hope.
*****
Flying on Hope
The 1965 movie The Flight of the Phoenix has an all-star cast of excellent actors, and tells a story of hope lost and regained.
A cargo plane goes down in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for an airplane they will build to escape before their food and water run out or they are killed by unfriendly nomads.
The captain of the airplane (Jimmy Stewart) is convinced that if they just lie around waiting for rescue, they will all go mad in the heat and quite possibly die of thirst or starvation. One of the passengers, an airplane designer, suggests that he has a plan that may work -- rebuilding the plane with the parts from the wreckage, and using it to fly them all back to civilization.
With this glimmer of hope the men all begin to work together to rebuild the plane from its various parts -- but their enthusiasm, not to mention their sense of hope, all begins to fizzle when they discover that the engineer is an engineer who makes model airplanes, and that he has never actually flown a real airplane before.
In a speech that can be lifted directly from the film, the captain explains to the men that even the small hope they can get from a model plane engineer is greater and better than no hope at all.
The men reluctantly consent and work begins again on the airplane -- which eventually does, in fact, fly them to safety.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!
People: You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Leader: Stir up your might, and come to save us!
People: Restore us, O God; let your face shine and save us.
Leader: Let your hand be upon the one at your right hand.
People: Give us life, and we will call on your name.
OR
Leader: Come and worship our God, our Hope.
People: Praise and glory belong to our God.
Leader: God comes to lead us into life eternal.
People: We come to learn from and to follow our God.
Leader: God gives us to the world as a beacon.
People: We will let God’s light shine through us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
PH: 1, 2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
“What Child Is This”
found in:
UMH: 219
H82: 115
PH: 53
AAHH: 220
NNBH: 86
NCH: 148
CH: 162
LBW: 40
ELA: 296
W&P: 184
“Love Came Down at Christmas”
found in:
UMH: 242
H82: 84
NCH: 165
W&P: 210
“O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”
found in:
UMH: 247
PH: 69
NCH: 158
CH: 105
LBW: 76
ELA: 308
W&P: 230
“Joy to the World”
found in:
UMH: 246
H82: 100
PH: 40
AAHH: 197
NNBH: 94
NCH: 132
CH: 143
LBW: 39
ELA: 267
W&P: 179
AMEC: 120
STLT: 245
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“Come Down, O Love Divine”
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
W&P: 330
“Emmanuel, Emmanuel”
found in:
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
“His Name Is Wonderful”
found in:
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is our constant hope: Grant us the faith to trust in you as the anchor of our lives that we might be firmly grounded in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are the anchor of hope in our lives. Open our hearts to your instruction, and so fill us with your Spirit that we may always look to you as the center and ground of our lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our placing our hopes in false gods.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have listened to the false messages of the world and we have looked for hope in many wrong places. We have trusted in ourselves, our politicians, and the pundits of the world to heal us. They have all failed us again. Call us back to you and restore your Spirit within us, that we might place our hope in you and in you alone. Amen.
Leader: God is our hope and will never forsake us. Receive God’s love and grace as God’s Spirit fills you with true hope.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for in you alone is our hope. You have been constant in your love and grace, and we offer you our praise.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have listened to the false messages of the world and we have looked for hope in many wrong places. We have trusted in ourselves, our politicians, and the pundits of the world to heal us. They have all failed us again. Call us back to you and restore your Spirit within us, that we might place our hope in you and in you alone.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have led us and taught us the true way. You have never forsaken us or given up on us. You have been among us in the faithful lives of so many who have reached out in love to us. We thank you for being our hope.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all your children, and especially for those who have given up hope. As you speak to them and reach out in love to them, help us to be your hands and your voice for them as well.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about the excitement when a baby is born. If you have had a recent birth in the church or a recent infant baptism you can relate the story to that event. Preparations are made; a name is chosen; everybody wants to see the baby and hold it. We are all excited because this child’s life is just beginning. We don’t know what this person will become. They might discover a cure for a bad disease. They could be a world-famous singer. We have all kinds of excitement and hope because they have a new life ahead of them. With the birth of Jesus, we all have that same hope that we have a new life ahead of us. With the love and grace of God in Jesus, we have new life.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Joseph’s Story
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 1:18-25
(Hold a Bible in your lap -- you may have it open to Matthew 1, or closed.)
This morning, we’re going to talk a bit about this good book: the Bible. Can you tell me: Which part of the Bible tells stories about Jesus’ life and teachings -- the Old Testament or the New Testament? (allow responses) The New Testament. Right!
Is there just one book about Jesus’ life in the New Testament, or are there more? (allow responses) Yes, there is more than one book about Jesus’ life. There are four books that tell about Jesus’ life. These books are called the gospels; they tell “good news” about Jesus.
Can you name the four gospels, or name any of the gospels in the Bible? (allow responses) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That is correct. Of these four gospels about Jesus’ life, only two of them tell about the birth of Jesus. They tell about Jesus’ birth from the point of view of two different people. The gospel of Luke tells about Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective. The gospel of Matthew tells about Joseph’s response when he hears the news about the coming of Jesus. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we usually tell Jesus’ birth story from both perspectives. Mary’s story and Joseph’s story are each pretty important!
Today, we’re talking about the coming of Jesus from Joseph’s point of view. This is from Matthew’s gospel.
Tell the beginning of the story from Matthew 1:18-25:
Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married -- they had promised each other that they would get married, but the wedding hadn’t happened yet. Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. So he started to make plans to not marry her. He didn’t want to make a big scene; he planned to quietly walk away from their engagement.
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said to him, “Joseph, don’t be afraid to marry Mary. She is going to have a baby, a son. He is from the Holy Spirit. You will name the baby Jesus, and he will save people from their sins.”
What do you think Joseph did after he heard the angel’s message? (allow responses) He stayed with Mary, just as the angel told him to.
Do you think Joseph would have stayed with Mary without that message from the angel? (allow responses) Why do you think the angel said “Don’t be afraid” to Joseph? (allow responses)
I’m glad Joseph listened to the angel! I’m glad Joseph stayed with Mary, and that they were together for Jesus’ birth. I’m glad that Matthew included this story about Joseph’s story and Jesus’ birth in his gospel. It gives us a chance to look at Jesus’ birth from another person’s perspective.
Prayer: As we get closer to Christmas Day, O God, we give you thanks for Joseph. We are glad that he listened to the angel’s message. We’re glad that he stood by Mary with courage and faith, knowing that your love was coming soon in Jesus. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 18, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
Team member Mary Austin shares some additional thoughts on the Isaiah passage and the prophet’s observation that by the time a child eats curds and honey the land will be deserted. Mary notes that it’s not just in Isaiah’s foretelling that massive changes take place in a brief period of time -- that’s also the case for young children in our world as well. And while the child Isaiah is talking about will make all the difference in the world, we who follow the Christ child are equally called to make a difference in the lives of children throughout our society -- especially since research is increasingly revealing the massive importance for their future lives of love and support during children’s earliest years of development.
Fathering Hope: Giving Joseph a Voice
by Chris Keating
Matthew 1:18-25
With the lighting of each Advent candle, anxiety builds.
There are lists to be finished, gifts to be wrapped, cookies to be plated, a child to be born. It’s a joyful time -- or so we’re led to believe. For many, seasonal depression and anxiety become unwanted addendums to our frenzied festivities. For others, there is a growing weariness of the cumulative impact of layers upon layers of stress, including reactions to the election.
“No matter how one voted in the recent election,” writes Diana Butler Bass, “it is obvious that happiness was a big loser in recent months.” These post-election holiday blues cross partisan lines, revealing a nation divided and stressed by pending change.
Comedian Stephen Colbert teamed up with Vice-President Joe Biden for a fatherly pep talk to America last week. It was a good try, but Matthew reminds us there is another father whose voice needs to be heard. This week, let’s light the fourth candle and give Joseph a chance to speak.
Of all the characters in the Christmas story, Joseph has the fewest lines. We find ways of making the imaginary innkeeper come alive, but somehow never get around to letting Joseph say what’s on his mind. Shepherds talk, Herod decries, the magi murmur, Mary sings -- but Joseph is mum. He undertakes his mission with quiet resolve. By comparison, Luke tells us that Zechariah, the awestruck, unexpected father of John the Baptist, manages to get in a few choice words before he is silenced by an angel.
Over the generations, this has come as minor relief for countless boys conscripted into portraying Jesus’ earthly father. But Matthew provides an opportunity to see this thing from Joseph’s point of view. In a world that is riddled by anxiety and fear of change, it may be time to give the guy a chance to speak.
He might just be able to say a word or two about fathering hope.
In the News
Like the uncouth cousin Eddie in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Christmas brings its share of uninvited and unexpected guests -- including stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Researchers say that a blue Christmas is more than the title of an old Elvis Presley ballad. For people affected by depression and anxiety, the holidays can be a tipping point for emotional difficulty.
“For many people, holidays are stressful because of the expectation of buying presents,” says Eric J. Nestler, a psychiatrist and neuroscience researcher at the Friedman Brain Institute at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. “These are tough financial times, and it is difficult for many people to meet those expectations.” Myrna Weissman, a Columbia University professor of epidemiology and psychiatry, adds that stress related to family transitions, loss, and other chronic stress can multiply at the holidays, creating triggers for depression. While researchers point out that suicides do not increase dramatically over the holidays, persons who are clinically depressed are at higher risk for suicide, and pastors are wise to be familiar with suicide’s risks and warning signs.
Diana Butler Bass describes her own experience of feeling bent low by life’s crushing load this Christmas. Instead of buying purple candles for her Advent wreath, Bass found blue candles -- “an ambiguous shade, not too light, not too dark, that in-between color of neither night and day.”
Blue, says Bass, is exactly how she feels this Christmas, particularly in the wake of the election. “In recent weeks, I have been yelled at, threatened and ridiculed, had property defaced, been unfriended and blocked on social media. A neighbor witnessed a hate crime. Another friend arrived at church on a Sunday morning to malicious graffiti sprayed across the building. At first, I was angry. But now, I am just sad: blue, really blue.”
Reports of Trump supporters being attacked are reminders of the stark divide in our culture. Anxiety and lack of trust is a bipartisan issue, and nothing stirs anxiety more than stress and transitions.
Futurist Richard Watson cites anxiety as intrinsic to contemporary culture. In a post 9/11 world, Watson says, “trust has all but evaporated... and the speed of change, together with technology that disempowers, has left people yearning for the past.” The result of this yearning, Watson believes, is an increased interest not only for nostalgia, but also in narcissism and tribalism.
Bass maintains Advent holds the potential for hope. Like Joseph, she begins dreaming of what it means to wade through darkness. “Advent recognizes a profound spiritual truth,” she says, “that we need not fear the dark.”
This darkness is particularly acute among families during Christmas. While Joseph and Mary didn’t have to contend with the always-watching “elf on the shelf” or long lines at Walmart, their anticipation of Jesus’ birth was filled with the same sort of anxieties experienced by many families today. Mary and Joseph’s experience included traveling, crowded streets, lack of privacy, and the awareness that events were beyond their control. Their experiences would resonate with contemporary families whose sense of feeling overwhelmed during the holidays can be acute.
Searching for a cure to Christmas stress can lead to a variety of excesses -- eating, drinking, and even pornography. One adult entertainment website launched a holiday-themed advertising campaign in hopes of chasing away winter’s lonelier moments. Yet porn’s allure provides a fleeting, and ultimately unsatisfying, diversion from the deep chill and loneliness of winter.
In the face of this emotional polar vortex, perhaps it is possible to imagine the stress Joseph and Mary were experiencing. Whatever may have happened at Jesus’ birth, it was hardly a perfectly planned event. Like many first-time parents, no doubt they were tired, even fearful. Joseph, as Matthew portrays him, enters the nativity scene as a type of foster parent -- obedient and faithful, if uncertain and worried. It’s not too hard imagining Joseph trying to make sense of everything.
Like any parents, Joseph and Mary were trying to do the best they could.
Daniel Knapp, program director of FosterClub, a national network for young people in foster care, retells the story of his own experiences of the holidays as a child in foster care. Both foster parents and children can find it to be a chaotic and confusing time, he says.
Based on his own experience in foster care, Knapp tells youth that “foster parents are put in a tough position during the holidays because they have taken another child into their home and provide them with a ‘safe’ home during this season. They do their best and sometimes they don’t understand the feelings that their foster kids go through because they have never been in a similar situation themselves.”
Like Bass, Knapp has found that the blue fog of Christmas can lead to hope. For him, hope is not just a drummer boy pounding out some strange syncopated beat. Instead, Knapp tells foster youth that for him hope was the discovery that “I couldn’t control life, but I was letting it control me.”
Such discoveries arise like a dream -- which, like Joseph’s, leads us to explore what it means to witness the birth of God with us.
In the Scriptures
Joseph was a righteous man, unwilling to put his espoused wife through the shame of a disgraceful trial. Throughout Matthew’s gospel, “righteous” describes both those who will one day “shine like the sun” in God’s kingdom (13:43) as well as those who are a bit too confident regarding faith (9:13). Disciples are called to the way of righteousness (6:33), striving to fulfill the ways of God.
Moreover, Jesus declares that the lives of righteous discipleship are rooted in acts of mercy and justice. The truly righteous, as described in Matthew 25, are those whose lives are so aligned with mercy that they are quietly obedient, unaware and surprised that they have fulfilled God’s commandment.
Joseph is righteous, and he cares about Mary. Faced with a situation that could lead to Mary’s punishment, Joseph decides to seek a no-fault divorce. His family is in turmoil, mired in a crisis beyond both his control and understanding. Joseph understands the law: either Mary must be divorced or executed.
As David Lose points out, Joseph and Mary are not mere images on a stained-glass window. They are real persons, embroiled in an anxious, tangled, and emotional conflict. Joseph is righteous, but God is about to show him an ever-deeper righteousness.
God guides Joseph to a righteousness that lives by faith. Before Joseph can call off the engagement God intervenes, sending an angel to Joseph in a dream. Joseph didn’t go to Jared -- he went to sleep. And in that dreamy otherness, God awakens him to a new and very different possibility. The angel’s declaration in v. 20 is not meant to pry open a can of biological questions. Instead, it is a reminder of God’s continuous relationship with Israel. There is no birther conspiracy surrounding Jesus’ birth. Right from the start, we are told in plain and simple terms that the child is from the Holy Spirit, entrusted to Joseph and Mary’s faithful stewardship and protection.
Joseph, the son of David, is called by God to give the child a name -- adopting him, as it were, into the house and lineage of David.
There is, as Charles M. Wood points out, a “gracious mystery” conveyed throughout this text (see “Theological Perspective” on Matthew 1:18-25, in Feasting on the Word [Year A, Vol. 1]). Joseph, conflicted and unsure of what to do, awakens from his dream knowing he has been called by God to trudge the pilgrimage path of hope. The story of God’s involvement with God’s people continues, as implied by Matthew’s detailed genealogy. It is, as Isaiah reminds us, a sign from God. For Matthew, the way of the righteous is not anxious uncertainty but trusting obedience which allows hope to be born.
It really is too bad Matthew doesn’t give Joseph any more lines. One imagines he had a lot on his mind. His dreams, after all, were legendary.
In the Sermon
A few years ago, our church was desperate to find a Joseph for the children’s Christmas pageant. We had plenty of Marys -- there were at least three little girls clamoring for the role. But one can’t just call out to central casting. Josephs can be hard to locate -- and when we did find one, he wore an expression that resembled a hostage being filmed by his captors. It was if he was saying, “I’m here under duress, and there is no amount of pizza in the world that will fix this.”
Fortunately, Jesus’ earthly father was a bit more reasonable. Or at least more open to the possibilities of what God might be up to in the world. Here on the fourth Sunday of Advent -- at a time when the holiday cauldron is about to boil over -- Matthew leads us toward that realization.
Joseph offers an imaginative platform for constructing a sermon on hope in anxious times. Imagine, for example, the conversation that Joseph and a teenaged Jesus might have had while working together in the carpentry shop. Jesus: “So, Pop, I’ve got this problem.” Setting down his tools, Joseph takes a deep breath and shoots a look back to Jesus. “Really, Jesus? Do you want to hear about problems? Let me tell you a thing or two about problems, buster!”
Joseph, being a righteous man, remained open to what God was about to do. Joseph doesn’t speak a word in Matthew’s narrative. Yet his actions describe a trusting faith. Joseph trusts that even in the unexpected circumstances of life, God is somehow present.
There is plenty of anxiety in our world this Christmas, and not all of it is the result of November’s election. There are wars brewing across the globe, tensions between nations, and fears of rogue terrorists. There are places of deep-seated unrest at home and abroad. As the curtain rises on our Christmas pageants this year, our congregations are restless and anxious.
We are waiting for hope, longing to hear that God is about to do something unexpected and wonderful. We need to let Joseph find his voice, so that he may lead us in the way of righteousness.
Jesus, when he was full grown, would proclaim: “Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life...” To a people who were hard-working yet oppressed, he would say: “Look at the birds of the air... consider the lilies of the field... strive first for the kingdom of God and (God’s) righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
It’s not hard to imagine Joseph smiling somewhere in the back of the crowd, nodding his head, and quietly saying “That’s my boy.”
SECOND THOUGHTS
by Mary Austin
Isaiah 7:10-16
There is a child on the way, the prophet Isaiah tells besieged King Ahaz, which will be a sign from God. By the time the child is eating solid food, the nation’s fortunes will have changed. If the age of one, say, is the age when a child shifts completely from mother’s milk or formula to solid food, then a lot can happen in a year.
A child born in the United States today will see different things before he or she turns one. Six children out of 1,000 will die before their first birthday. Some children are born into more fortunate circumstances than others. “Infant mortality is not distributed equally in the United States. In 2013, the infant mortality rate among non-Hispanic whites was five per 1,000 births, as was the infant mortality rate among Hispanics. The rate among non-Hispanic blacks, however, was more than 11 per 1,000 births.” Having a mother between the ages of 20 and 40 is an asset in the work of staying healthy. The U.S. and other countries have similar rates of infant mortality when studies consider babies in the first month of life. After the first month, most infant deaths “are due, in large part, to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), sudden death, and accidents. Moreover, they seem to occur disproportionately in poor women.”
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends screening children for autism at the age of 18 months, but most children with autism are diagnosed later, often at school age. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says one in 88 children has some form of autism spectrum disorder, more common in boys than girls. Each year the percentage of children with autism rises. The earlier the diagnosis, the earlier treatment can begin.
By the time a typical child turns one, she or he can change the tone of the sounds they make (preparing for speech), can find hidden things, make gestures to communicate (like waving goodbye or handing you a book to read), and has favorite people, clothes, and activities.
In the first year of life the brain makes huge gains, following up on growth in the womb. Researchers found that brain development has a lot to do with living in a safe, supportive environment and that “children who received more attention and nurturing at home tended to have higher IQs. Children who were more cognitively stimulated performed better on language tasks, and those nurtured more warmly did better on memory tasks.” Researchers studied the same youngsters as teenagers and “found a strong link between nurturing at age four and the size of the hippocampus -- a part of the brain associated with memory -- but found no correlation between nurturing at age eight and the hippocampus. The results demonstrated just how critically important an emotionally supportive environment is at a very young age.” By the time a child is old enough to eat curds and honey, a supportive environment is a big aid to developing the young brain.
The young brain needs an environment rich in love, language, and experience to develop fully. “Despite coming prewired with mind-boggling capacities, the brain depends heavily on environmental input to wire itself further.... Peering inside children’s brains with new imaging tools, scientists are untangling the mystery of how a child goes from being barely able to see when just born to being able to talk, ride a tricycle, draw, and invent an imaginary friend by the age of five. The more scientists find out about how children acquire the capacity for language, numbers, and emotional understanding during this period, the more they realize that the baby brain is an incredible learning machine. Its future -- to a great extent -- is in our hands.”
Baby brains respond to language -- the more, the better -- from the adults around the child, and “language delivered by television, audio book, internet, or smartphone -- no matter how educational -- doesn’t appear to do the job.” A lot has changed since Isaiah spoke to a frightened nation, but this need for human interaction in order for children to grow remains constant.
The absence of stimulation limits potential, but the presence of trauma in a young life lingers for years. In San Francisco, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris and her staff look at the lifetime effects of early childhood experiences. They have developed “a survey that asks parents how many adverse experiences their child has gone through. Parents do not have to identify which experiences they are -- an attempt to encourage honest responses -- but the more boxes they check, the higher a child’s score. ‘If I see a child who has been exposed to four of them, I know their lifetime risk of heart disease is double,’ Burke Harris said. ‘Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, 2½. Depression, 4½. Suicides, 12 times.’ Young children with high scores are invited to participate in psychotherapy with their parents. As they grow older, they work with therapists to recognize signs of their body’s ‘flight or fight’ response and calm down with breathing exercises.” Treatment goes beyond medicine for infections and asthma.
Before children are old enough to go to school, they can experience enough adversity and trauma to change their lives -- and Dr. Burke Harris and her staff believe they can intervene and change the balance between good and evil in a child’s life. She and her staff believe that “regarding childhood trauma as a medical issue helps her to treat more effectively the symptoms of patients.... Moreover, she believes, this approach, when applied to a large population, might help alleviate the broader dysfunction that plagues poor neighborhoods. In the view of Burke and the researchers she has been following, many of the problems that we think of as social issues -- and therefore the province of economists and sociologists -- might better be addressed on the molecular level, among neurons and cytokines and interleukins. If these researchers are right, it could be time to reassess the relationship between poverty, child development, and health.” Health issues go beyond physical symptoms to the whole person, with body, mind, and spirit working together.
Isaiah promises one child who will make a difference in the world, but we who follow the Christ child have our own calling to make a difference for all children. Anticipating the arrival of one child, we ponder what we owe to the other children made in his image. Before a child is old enough to eat solid food, or to choose between good and evil, a lot can happen. When the manger is put away, we will still have a chance to make a difference for the children around us.
ILLUSTRATIONS
From team member Ron Love:
Isaiah 7:10-16; Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Chevrolet has introduced a new electric-powered car called the Bolt. This innovative automobile has set a new record of being able to travel 238 miles on a single charge. The car is not designed for long-distance travel, but for everyday use of commuting to work and running household errands around town. The car is so well-designed that a neighbor would not even know that you have an eclectic-powered automobile in your driveway. Of course, an advantage of electric cars is being able to save on the use of gasoline. All of this is great -- except for the fact that one will have to own a Bolt for 24 years before the price of the car offsets the savings in gasoline. We read in our lectionary lessons about the land being restored, and the message is clear that it will not be a 24-year process if the people are respondent to the message of the Lord.
*****
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
In a Family Circus comic, Dolly and Jeffy are standing in the doorway between two rooms. Holding a ragdoll under her arm, Dolly asks her mother: “Will Santa be watchin’ us this week or does he start next week?” The psalmist talks about the desire for restoration -- but we have to wonder, for him and for us: Do we desire that to start this week or the next? (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
*****
Psalm 80:1-7, 17-19
Dale Earnhardt Jr. has just been honored with NASCAR’s award for being its most popular driver for the 14th year in a row, despite not having driven in the final 18 races this past season due to a concussion sustained in an accident on the track. His recovery was slow at first because, even though he could not drive, he could not separate himself from the sport that he loved and gave him his self-identity. But this obsession with NASCAR caused stress, and stress slows the healing process from a concussion. It was only when Earnhardt completely separated himself from the sport that healing began from his brain injury, and to his astonishment he began to heal in another way as he discovered a life beyond racing. He discovered a life with family and hobbies, vacations and outings. Of this change Earnhardt said, “I was a much nicer, pleasant person. Caring and thoughtful and less agitated by stress and everyday life that we all kind of deal with.... It showed me the person I can be.” To be restored is to discover the person you can be.
*****
Romans 1:1-7
Dylann Roof has been in the news for a year now. The 22-year-old, who killed nine people at an evening Bible study at Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, has asked the judge in his murder trial to act as his own attorney. The ninth-grade dropout will now present evidence before a jury that will hopefully spare him the death penalty in federal court. Tiffany Frigenti, an attorney who specializes in pro se representation, said of Roof and others who choose to defend themselves, “They think they have a message, and that unfortunately leads to these crimes in the first place.” Paul, in his letter, is cautioning us to be sure that we understand our message and present it correctly and accurately.
*****
Isaiah 7:10-16; Matthew 1:18-25
Bud Selig, who served as commissioner of baseball for 22 years, was recently elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. Many people have forgotten that when Selig first became commissioner, his main competition for the position was George W. Bush, who at the time was the owner of the Texas Rangers. Bush lost his dream job as baseball commissioner and turned his attention to another form of politics, as he was subsequently elected as the governor of Texas and then as president of the United States. As with the Christmas story, we must always wonder what might have happened if a different character prevailed.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
The cause of the disaster that killed the Brazilian soccer team Chapecoense has been preliminarily determined. The British-built plane ran out of fuel before it could land, causing it to crash into a mountainside... killing all but six of the 77 people on board. The pilot’s last words were: “Complete electrical failure, without fuel.” The realization that the tragedy was a result of human negligence on the part of the owners of the aircraft company has only intensified the grief of the relatives of those who perished. It is in times like this, because of the heartless negligence of humans, that more than ever we need the compassion of Emmanuel, the God who we know is with us.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
In a Blondie comic strip, Julius Dithers and Dagwood Bumstead are looking out of a picture window in the upper stories of an office building, admiring a cloud. Dagwood asks Mr. Dithers what he sees in the cloud. Dithers, Dagwood’s hard-nosed and demanding boss and an individual who does not understand the meaning of a compliment, observes, “I see a sad office manager carrying the contents of his desk in a cardboard box!” Dithers then stomps away. Dagwood, who is a laid-back and easy-going individual, says as he is returning to his desk: “It looked more like a guy relaxing in a comfortable hammock to me.” There are many characters involved in the Advent and Christmas story. Some see it with eyes of judgment; others with eyes of joy. In our lesson today, the views of two individuals are presented, Joseph and Mary. (Note: If your sanctuary has a projection screen, you may want to display this comic.)
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Bud Selig, who served as commissioner of baseball for 22 years until his recent retirement, has just received a plaque in baseball’s Hall of Fame. During his time as commissioner he oversaw many changes in how the game was played and how teams could be managed by owners, as well as numerous player scandals. Speaking about the great number of changes under his watch, Selig said: “We were a sport resistant to change. I believe in those years as commissioner, that’s the most change in baseball history.” The story of Advent and Christmas is a story of change. The question becomes, are we willing to accept those changes?
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Gary Edwards is the men’s basketball coach for Francis Marion University in South Carolina. He recently wrote a newspaper article titled “Winning Gives a Thrill Like No Other” (Florence Morning News, Nov. 19, 2016). In the article he said that older coaches in the game have focused on the character development of the players. But for Edwards and the newer coaches to the game, winning has taken precedence over character development. Edwards admits that since he first started to play basketball at the age of 13 he became addicted to winning, and that winning is a powerful drug. Character development is not on Edwards’ agenda, as he wrote: “But that’s not why I coach. The players and the games and those damned practices are the mortars and pestles I use to concoct my winning compound.” In fact, Edwards has become so addicted to winning that when he does win “the high has not been quite as high.” Edwards concluded: “first as a player and then as a coach, I have worked tirelessly to feed my habit.” Coach Jesus was not out to win, but only to restore the character of individuals.
*****
Matthew 1:18-25
Ephrem the Syrian (306-373) was a leader in the early church. He was held in esteem for his hymns, poems, homilies, and biblical commentaries that expressed a practical theology for a persecuted church. Ephrem reflected on the biblical story of the widow of Nain, where Jesus restored the life of the widow’s son. In doing so Jesus gave life to two individuals -- one who was physically dead, and a widow who, absent of a male counterpart, was culturally dead. Ephrem wrote, “The virgin’s son met the widow’s son. He became like a sponge for her tears and as life for the death of her son. Death turned about in its den and turned its back on the victorious one.” Emmanuel has come to be a sponge for our tears.
***************
From team member Dean Feldmeyer:
I Can Fix It
My brother Ben suffered from atrial fibrillation for over two years. In layman’s terms, that meant his heart beat out of rhythm. Instead of lub-dub, lub-dub, his heartbeat was more like lub-a-dub, lub-a-lub-dub, lub, lub-dub. It rarely beat the same way twice in a row.
This constant fluctuation in his heartbeat made him tired, nauseated, and anxious. On top of that, if this problem was not corrected it could overwork his heart and make it wear out too fast.
He went to a score of doctors. Different treatments were performed. Some of the treatments worked for a while, but eventually the arrhythmia always came back.
Nearly in despair, he made an appointment with a cardiologist at a nearby university who was trying an experimental procedure that was showing great promise for people with Ben’s problem. He and his wife arrived at the doctor’s office and were ushered into an examination room, where Ben took off his shirt and awaited the doctor’s ministrations. Eventually the doctor, who looked like he should still be in college, came in, introduced himself, and proceeded to listen to Ben’s heart.
After a few moments he stood, put his stethoscope in the pocket of his lab coat, and said, “Okay, Ben. Bad news and good news. The bad news is you have a serious arrhythmia there and it needs to be fixed. Good news: I can fix it. And I’m going to fix it. Be here tomorrow morning with an overnight bag.” He gave Ben a piece of paper with the address of the surgical center at the university hospital. “It’ll take about an hour. We’ll keep you overnight, and you can go home the next day feeling like a new man.”
Ben later said that it was a good thing his wife was there and that the doctor wrote everything down, because all he heard come out of the doctor’s mouth was “hope.”
*****
The Search for Meaning
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian physician and psychiatrist who spent three years in Nazi concentration camps. In his account of that experience, Man’s Search for Meaning, he talks about the necessity of hope for those who would survive their imprisonment and torture.
Cigarettes, for instance, were symbols of hope because they could be traded (like money) for other things that were necessary for survival. Whenever he saw someone smoking his own cigarettes, Frankl says that he knew that person had given up hope and would soon be dead.
In another passage, he talks about how his love for his wife gave him hope to survive:
We stumbled on in the darkness, over big stones and through large puddles, along the one road leading from the camp. The accompanying guards kept shouting at us and driving us with the butts of their rifles. Anyone with very sore feet supported himself on his neighbor’s arm. Hardly a word was spoken; the icy wind did not encourage talk. Hiding his mouth behind his upturned collar, the man marching next to me whispered suddenly: “If our wives could see us now! I do hope they are better off in their camps and don’t know what is happening to us.”
That brought thoughts of my own wife to mind. And as we stumbled on for miles, slipping on icy spots, supporting each other time and again, dragging one another up and onward, nothing was said, but we both knew: each of us was thinking of his wife. Occasionally I looked at the sky, where the stars were fading and the pink light of the morning was beginning to spread behind a dark bank of clouds. But my mind clung to my wife’s image, imagining it with an uncanny acuteness. I heard her answering me, saw her smile, her frank and encouraging look. Real or not, her look was then more luminous than the sun which was beginning to rise.
A thought transfixed me: for the first time in my life I saw the truth as it is set into song by so many poets, proclaimed as the final wisdom by so many thinkers. The truth -- that love is the ultimate and the highest goal to which Man can aspire. Then I grasped the meaning of the greatest secret that human poetry and human thought and belief have to impart: The salvation of Man is through love and in love. I understood how a man who has nothing left in this world still may know bliss, be it only for a brief moment, in the contemplation of his beloved. In a position of utter desolation, when Man cannot express himself in positive action, when his only achievement may consist in enduring his sufferings in the right way -- an honorable way -- in such a position Man can, through loving contemplation of the image he carries of his beloved, achieve fulfillment. For the first time in my life I was able to understand the meaning of the words “The angels are lost in perpetual contemplation of an infinite glory.”
*****
Finding Hope
The Clint Eastwood movie The Outlaw Josey Wales is about a Missouri farmer whose family is murdered by Yankee raiders. With nothing left to live for, Josey joins the Confederate army in the hope that one day he will find the people who killed his family and have his revenge.
His hopelessness makes him into a very dangerous soldier indeed, because he walks into the most dangerous situations without a concern for his own life.
By the end of the film, the war is over and Josey has gotten his revenge -- but he discovers that it is not satisfying. It leaves the heart empty, as it was before the revenge. The only thing that has given him back his sense of hope is helping the people who have latched onto him as their protector.
Causes, he realizes, are not capable of giving us a sustained sense of hope.
Only people, our love for them and our relationships with them, can give us hope.
*****
Flying on Hope
The 1965 movie The Flight of the Phoenix has an all-star cast of excellent actors, and tells a story of hope lost and regained.
A cargo plane goes down in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for an airplane they will build to escape before their food and water run out or they are killed by unfriendly nomads.
The captain of the airplane (Jimmy Stewart) is convinced that if they just lie around waiting for rescue, they will all go mad in the heat and quite possibly die of thirst or starvation. One of the passengers, an airplane designer, suggests that he has a plan that may work -- rebuilding the plane with the parts from the wreckage, and using it to fly them all back to civilization.
With this glimmer of hope the men all begin to work together to rebuild the plane from its various parts -- but their enthusiasm, not to mention their sense of hope, all begins to fizzle when they discover that the engineer is an engineer who makes model airplanes, and that he has never actually flown a real airplane before.
In a speech that can be lifted directly from the film, the captain explains to the men that even the small hope they can get from a model plane engineer is greater and better than no hope at all.
The men reluctantly consent and work begins again on the airplane -- which eventually does, in fact, fly them to safety.
WORSHIP RESOURCES
by George Reed
Call to Worship
Leader: Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock!
People: You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth.
Leader: Stir up your might, and come to save us!
People: Restore us, O God; let your face shine and save us.
Leader: Let your hand be upon the one at your right hand.
People: Give us life, and we will call on your name.
OR
Leader: Come and worship our God, our Hope.
People: Praise and glory belong to our God.
Leader: God comes to lead us into life eternal.
People: We come to learn from and to follow our God.
Leader: God gives us to the world as a beacon.
People: We will let God’s light shine through us.
Hymns and Sacred Songs
“Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus”
found in:
UMH: 196
H82: 66
PH: 1, 2
NCH: 122
LBW: 30
ELA: 254
W&P: 153
AMEC: 103
“What Child Is This”
found in:
UMH: 219
H82: 115
PH: 53
AAHH: 220
NNBH: 86
NCH: 148
CH: 162
LBW: 40
ELA: 296
W&P: 184
“Love Came Down at Christmas”
found in:
UMH: 242
H82: 84
NCH: 165
W&P: 210
“O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright”
found in:
UMH: 247
PH: 69
NCH: 158
CH: 105
LBW: 76
ELA: 308
W&P: 230
“Joy to the World”
found in:
UMH: 246
H82: 100
PH: 40
AAHH: 197
NNBH: 94
NCH: 132
CH: 143
LBW: 39
ELA: 267
W&P: 179
AMEC: 120
STLT: 245
“I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light”
found in:
UMH: 206
H82: 490
ELA: 815
W&P: 248
Renew: 152
“Hail to the Lord’s Anointed”
found in:
UMH: 203
H82: 616
AAHH: 187
NCH: 104
CH: 140
LBW: 87
ELA: 311
AMEC: 107
Renew: 101
“Come Down, O Love Divine”
found in:
UMH: 475
H82: 516
PH: 313
NCH: 289
CH: 582
LBW: 508
ELA: 804
W&P: 330
“Emmanuel, Emmanuel”
found in:
CCB: 31
Renew: 28
“His Name Is Wonderful”
found in:
CCB: 32
Renew: 30
Music Resources Key:
UMH: United Methodist Hymnal
H82: The Hymnal 1982 (The Episcopal Church)
PH: Presbyterian Hymnal
AAHH: African-American Heritage Hymnal
NNBH: The New National Baptist Hymnal
NCH: The New Century Hymnal
CH: Chalice Hymnal
LBW: Lutheran Book of Worship
ELA: Evangelical Lutheran Worship
W&P: Worship & Praise
AMEC: African Methodist Episcopal Church Hymnal
STLT: Singing the Living Tradition
CCB: Cokesbury Chorus Book
Renew: Renew! Songs & Hymns for Blended Worship
Prayer for the Day / Collect
O God who is our constant hope: Grant us the faith to trust in you as the anchor of our lives that we might be firmly grounded in eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
OR
We praise you, O God, for you are the anchor of hope in our lives. Open our hearts to your instruction, and so fill us with your Spirit that we may always look to you as the center and ground of our lives. Amen.
Prayer of Confession
Leader: Let us confess to God and before one another our sins, especially our placing our hopes in false gods.
People: We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have listened to the false messages of the world and we have looked for hope in many wrong places. We have trusted in ourselves, our politicians, and the pundits of the world to heal us. They have all failed us again. Call us back to you and restore your Spirit within us, that we might place our hope in you and in you alone. Amen.
Leader: God is our hope and will never forsake us. Receive God’s love and grace as God’s Spirit fills you with true hope.
Prayers of the People (and the Lord’s Prayer)
We worship you, O God, for in you alone is our hope. You have been constant in your love and grace, and we offer you our praise.
(The following paragraph may be used if a separate prayer of confession has not been used.)
We confess to you, O God, and before one another that we have sinned. We have listened to the false messages of the world and we have looked for hope in many wrong places. We have trusted in ourselves, our politicians, and the pundits of the world to heal us. They have all failed us again. Call us back to you and restore your Spirit within us, that we might place our hope in you and in you alone.
We give you thanks for all the ways in which you have led us and taught us the true way. You have never forsaken us or given up on us. You have been among us in the faithful lives of so many who have reached out in love to us. We thank you for being our hope.
(Other thanksgivings may be offered.)
We pray for the needs of all your children, and especially for those who have given up hope. As you speak to them and reach out in love to them, help us to be your hands and your voice for them as well.
(Other intercessions may be offered.)
All these things we ask in the name of our Savior Jesus Christ, who taught us to pray together, saying:
Our Father . . . Amen.
(or if the Lord’s Prayer is not used at this point in the service)
All this we ask in the Name of the Blessed and Holy Trinity. Amen.
Children’s Sermon Starter
Talk about the excitement when a baby is born. If you have had a recent birth in the church or a recent infant baptism you can relate the story to that event. Preparations are made; a name is chosen; everybody wants to see the baby and hold it. We are all excited because this child’s life is just beginning. We don’t know what this person will become. They might discover a cure for a bad disease. They could be a world-famous singer. We have all kinds of excitement and hope because they have a new life ahead of them. With the birth of Jesus, we all have that same hope that we have a new life ahead of us. With the love and grace of God in Jesus, we have new life.
CHILDREN’S SERMON
Joseph’s Story
by Beth Herrinton-Hodge
Matthew 1:18-25
(Hold a Bible in your lap -- you may have it open to Matthew 1, or closed.)
This morning, we’re going to talk a bit about this good book: the Bible. Can you tell me: Which part of the Bible tells stories about Jesus’ life and teachings -- the Old Testament or the New Testament? (allow responses) The New Testament. Right!
Is there just one book about Jesus’ life in the New Testament, or are there more? (allow responses) Yes, there is more than one book about Jesus’ life. There are four books that tell about Jesus’ life. These books are called the gospels; they tell “good news” about Jesus.
Can you name the four gospels, or name any of the gospels in the Bible? (allow responses) Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. That is correct. Of these four gospels about Jesus’ life, only two of them tell about the birth of Jesus. They tell about Jesus’ birth from the point of view of two different people. The gospel of Luke tells about Jesus’ birth from Mary’s perspective. The gospel of Matthew tells about Joseph’s response when he hears the news about the coming of Jesus. On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we usually tell Jesus’ birth story from both perspectives. Mary’s story and Joseph’s story are each pretty important!
Today, we’re talking about the coming of Jesus from Joseph’s point of view. This is from Matthew’s gospel.
Tell the beginning of the story from Matthew 1:18-25:
Mary and Joseph were engaged to be married -- they had promised each other that they would get married, but the wedding hadn’t happened yet. Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. So he started to make plans to not marry her. He didn’t want to make a big scene; he planned to quietly walk away from their engagement.
An angel appeared to Joseph in a dream and said to him, “Joseph, don’t be afraid to marry Mary. She is going to have a baby, a son. He is from the Holy Spirit. You will name the baby Jesus, and he will save people from their sins.”
What do you think Joseph did after he heard the angel’s message? (allow responses) He stayed with Mary, just as the angel told him to.
Do you think Joseph would have stayed with Mary without that message from the angel? (allow responses) Why do you think the angel said “Don’t be afraid” to Joseph? (allow responses)
I’m glad Joseph listened to the angel! I’m glad Joseph stayed with Mary, and that they were together for Jesus’ birth. I’m glad that Matthew included this story about Joseph’s story and Jesus’ birth in his gospel. It gives us a chance to look at Jesus’ birth from another person’s perspective.
Prayer: As we get closer to Christmas Day, O God, we give you thanks for Joseph. We are glad that he listened to the angel’s message. We’re glad that he stood by Mary with courage and faith, knowing that your love was coming soon in Jesus. Amen.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Immediate Word, December 18, 2016, issue.
Copyright 2016 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to The Immediate Word service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons and in worship and classroom settings only. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
