Actions Speak Louder – December 17, 2023, The Third Sunday of Advent

Isaiah 11:1-9, Matthew 1:18-25
December 17, 2023

So, I was thinking this week, “Ok, last week we talked about Mary.  It seems only fitting this week that we talk about Joseph.”  He too holds a unique place in history.  He was the husband of the mother of our Lord.  And yes, I almost wrote, “He was the father of our Lord.”  But that’s not exactly accurate, is it?  He is not the Lord’s father – biologically.

However!  Those of you who have adopted children, or have raised step-children would be quick to point out – and I would agree with you – that parenthood is more than just biology!  Parenthood is about lovingly raising children.  And I would argue that, from that perspective, Joseph was the “Father of our Lord.”

Now, having said that, what do we know about Joseph?  Well, one thing we know is that he was “of the house and lineage of David.”  That’s what it says about him in the birth accounts in the Gospels.  We read that every year.  And of course, that was important because of the prophecies of the Messiah.  They tell us that Messiah would be of the lineage of king David.

We also know that Joseph was a carpenter.  And I would remind you of something I heard once in a documentary about the life of Jesus.  The word translated “carpenter” could also mean “one who tends and sharpens the tools of a carpenter.”  If that were true, it would put Joseph on the lowest rung of that society’s ladder.  So it could then be said of our Lord that he came from the humblest of beginnings.  And that’s a beautiful thing!

We don’t know very much more about Joseph.  In fact, as crazy as it seems, none of the Gospel writers record anything that Joseph said!  (Correct me if I’m wrong, here!  But I believe that’s true!)  Isn’t that amazing?  We have no actual words of Joseph!  Such a prominent person in the story of Jesus, and …nothing.

I remember once I couldn’t sleep and I turned on the TV, and I happened to stumble on a religious station, and they were doing a retrospective on Joseph.  And the program consisted of one person after another coming on the screen giving their take on Joseph.  And as I watched, they built an entire personality profile of him, based on the fact that he said nothing at all!”  And so they talked about him being a humble and “quiet man.”  But the Bible doesn’t say that.  It just doesn’t happen to record anything he said.

I thought about calling this sermon today, “The Man Who Said Nothing.”  That almost sounds like a spy novel, doesn’t it/.  Maybe that can be a subtitle, or a secondary title.  (Like the old Bullwinkle Show.  Do you remember that.  They always gave the title of the next episode in two parts.  They would say, “Tune in to our next episode, ‘Bullwinkle sits on a nail’ or ‘The Moose gets it in the end.’”)

I like better the title I chose.  “Actions Speak Louder.”  Because one of the main things we do know about Joseph is that – just like Mary – when God spoke to him, he obeyed.  And the old saying does apply, that “Actions speak louder than words.”  In fact, when I Googled Joseph, the article that came up quoted that saying – and I didn’t see that until after I had already settled on this!  So it was meant to be!  And that’s what I want us to think about here.  “Actions speak louder.”

As we look at this story, we see that, chronologically, it comes after the story we read last week.  That was the story where Mary was told she would conceive a son.  Here, Matthew’s account begins, “before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit.”  So everything Mary heard from the angel Gabriel had now already happened.

What we hear right away, then, is Joseph’s reactions.  And remember that there would social implications of this.  (Maybe not so much in our world, but definitely in theirs!)  So Joseph “resolved to divorce her quietly.”  Now, we’re not really sure why that would be the “right thing to do.”  I’ve never heard a good explanation for that.  But we do get the impression that he’s trying to do the right thing.  The beginning of that sentence says, “But Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.”  We know that betrothal and marriage and divorce were not quite the same as ours.  Their being betrothed is a little “fuzzy” in meaning to us.  But I don’t want us to worry about that today.  What I want us to concentrate on is that Joseph found out about this child, and he had decided what he was going to do about it.

And I wonder something else.  Matthew tell us that Mary was found to be with child “by the Holy Spirit.”  What did Joseph know about that?  From the rest of this paragraph, it seems that he didn’t.  But wouldn’t Mary have told him?  And wouldn’t he have rejoiced with her?  “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she said.  Wouldn’t Joseph have felt that same joy in being part of the coming of the new king of Israel?  Maybe she told him, and he just didn’t believe her.  That would certainly be understandable, wouldn’t it?  Put yourself in his sandals for a minute.  And try to set aside all that we the readers know!

Whatever he thought or felt, we have the story today about what God did when Joseph decided what he would do.  God sent him a messenger!  And notice, this is not the same angelic visitation Mary had.  This visitation took place in a dream.  And dreams were big things in those days.  Even in our day, some people like to analyze dreams and find meaning in them.

Well, in this dream, the angel tells Joseph what’s going on.  And maybe he was confirming what Joseph had been told.  Maybe Mary did tell him, and he didn’t believe her, and God’s answer was to give him a vision of his own.  Whatever the reason, Joseph gets a little more of the story.  Because if Mary did tell him, she certainly would have said the part about the child being king, right?  That part was confirmed.  But now, Joseph is told to call the child “Jesus,” because he will save his people from their sins.

That’s the part Mary didn’t hear from the angel Gabriel.  She was just told the king part.  And by the way, “Jesus” is said to be the New Testament version of the name “Joshua,” which literally means “God saves.”  So that’s why this sentence makes sense, “You shall call his name, Jesus, for he will save his people.”  And then the angel explains to Joseph that this is all part of the prophecy of the Messiah.  And he quotes Isaiah 7:14.  “Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Immanuel.”  Which means “God with us.”

So Joseph gets the big picture here.  And I think it finally all made sense.  And then he was told to act.  And here’s where his actions speak louder than anything he said.  The angel said, “Do not fear to take Mary your wife.”  Again, they were betrothed, but not married, yet Joseph was contemplating divorce.  It’s a little confusing from our perspective.  But, the last part of the story says, “When Joseph awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded.  He took Mary as his wife.  And when the child was born, he called him Jesus.”

And again, whether he was told at first and didn’t believe it, or whether he was just caught up in a whirlwind of confusion and fear and possible social stigma, Joseph seems to have believed at this point, and the bottom line is that he obeyed.  In his case, his actions truly spoke louder than the words that weren’t recorded.

And that speaks to us, I think.  We struggle with belief sometimes, don’t we?  There are parts of our faith that we “say with our words” that we believe, but in our minds, we have a hard time believing, and we have an even harder time putting into action.  Whether that means something like stepping out in faith over the miraculous, or like reaching out with the love of God that our faith calls us to share. Sometimes those things are not easy.  Sometimes it’s not easy obeying what we know God is telling us to do.  Sometimes it’s hard to put our faith into action.  Sometimes it’s much easier just to “talk about faith.”  Isn’t that true?  But it is true that the actions of faith speak louder!

In the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth, God put his love into action.  And Joseph is an example to us about putting his faith in action and obeying God.  He shows us, in his part of the Christmas story that, indeed, actions speak louder.  And may that be said of our faith, too.

Prayer

Eternal God, we thank you that you showed your love for us by giving us Jesus.  Help our love for you to be seen in our actions, too.  Help us to be the light of the world, as you called us to be through him. For we pray in his name, Amen.