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Joseph

Stories
Fourth Sunday of Advent - A
Matthew 1:18-25
David E. Leininger
Lectionary Tales For The Pulpit
Series VI, Cycle A
What a mess! Put yourself in Joseph's sandals. A simple man, a carpenter. He is about to be married. It would be the normal Jewish three-step procedure. There was the engagement, which was often made when the couple were only children, usually through the parents or a professional matchmaker. And it was often made without the couple involved ever having seen each other. Marriage was considered far too serious a step to be left to the dictates of the human heart. Then there was the betrothal, which was the ratification of the engagement into which the couple had previously entered.
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Paul reread the parable again and sighed. Why had he agreed to lead the Bible study this week? When Pastor Luke asked him, he had been all excited and enthusiastic. He knew the parable of the prodigal son inside and out having read commentaries and stories about it before. He had actually preached a sermon on the passage when Pastor Luke was away and received great feedback from the congregation.

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It is a well-known cliché that “God never gives us more than we can handle”, but I have sometimes found that not to be so. When my youngest brother died of brain cancer at age five, it was more than I could handle. When my first husband was emotionally and physically abusive, it was more than I could handle. When my second husband and I lost our twin sons at birth, it was more than I could handle. The COVID pandemic was more than we could handle. Wars and violence are often more than we can handle. Homelessness, poverty, grief, and loss are often more than we can handle.
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I suppose we are all a little bit nervous about the prospect of a sermon on a Bible story as familiar and sometimes as overworked as the Parable of the Prodigal Son. "What can I possibly say that hasn't been said before?" And I know what's going through your minds: "Are we going to be subjected to the same old sermon yet another time?" Confronting a familiar Bible passage like this mid-Lent really serves to address the discipline of reading Scripture as part of our devotional life, particularly passages that are very familiar.
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A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie the Pooh, wrote a simple, yet telling poem in his work, Now We Are Six:

When I was One, I had just begun.
When I was Two, I was nearly new.
When I was Three, I was hardly Me.
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The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
Call to worship:

 While the Prodigal Son was still far off, his father saw him, ran to him, put his arms around him and kissed him. In our worship today, let us turn to God so that he may run to us, put his arms around and kiss us.

Invitation to confession:

 Jesus, for the times when we run away from you,

Lord, have mercy.

 Jesus, for the times when we have wasted our inheritance on dissolute living,

Christ, have mercy.

 Jesus, when we return to you,

Lord, have mercy.

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