Today
we are getting a little ahead of ourselves. Next week, we'll read the
first part of this chapter for Epiphany, in which we celebrate the
visit of the magi. But I didn't want us to forget the second part of
the story, so we're reading it today. It is a
very dark part of the Christmas story, a part we don't often care to
remember, but also one that has deep resonances in our own violent
time. Hear now these words:
Scripture: Matthew 2:13-23 (NRSV)
Now after they had
left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said,
“Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and
remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the
child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his
mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the
death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord
through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”
When Herod saw that
he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent
and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two
years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from
the wise men. Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the
prophet Jeremiah:
“A
voice was heard in Ramah, wailing and loud lamentation,
Rachel weeping for
her children;
she refused to be
consoled, because they are no more.”
When
Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to
Joseph in Egypt and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother,
and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s
life are dead.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother,
and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was
ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go
there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the
district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called
Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be
fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”
Let us pray:
Patient teacher, we give you thanks for all the ways
you speak to us and try to get our attention--- from the beauty of
nature to the nagging of loved ones, from the words of scripture to
even dreams. Speak to us again this morning through the words of my
mouth and the meditations of all our hearts. Help us pay attention to
you again this day and every day. Amen.
I have not been able to get Joseph out of my head this
week. This is strange for me--- when I think of the Christmas story I
want to talk about how awesome Mary is. I don't really think much
about Joseph. But from now into the spring, we will be focusing on
the Gospel of Matthew, and Matthew focuses more on Joseph in the
Christmas story than he does on Mary. Now, no offense to the dads
here in our congregation today, but you don't really do much when it
comes to giving birth, which is perhaps why the Gospel of Luke
doesn't mention Joseph much. But in Matthew's gospel, Joseph is
active in one small but very interesting way. Joseph dreams.
Dreaming
is a common activity in scripture, and when we think of dreaming in
the bible, we are more likely to turn to another Joseph, the Joseph
of the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. That Joseph got in trouble for
his dreams at first. He dreamed of his older brothers bowing down to
him, and then, instead of keeping such dreams to himself he went
about telling people. His brothers are livid. I have described them
in the past as classic
bullies. They are obviously hurting, but instead of trying to break
out of the cycle of hurt, they choose to hurt someone else instead.
Joseph. They throw him into a pit, speak of killing him, but then
decide to sell him into slavery. Afterward, they soak Joseph's fancy
coat in blood and go to their father, allowing him to believe his
beloved son was dead. This is a horrible, heart-wrenching story. And
poor Joseph, as though his life wasn't bad enough, he tries to live
as ethically as he can as a slave and still finds himself wrongly
imprisoned! That's when his dreaming comes back into the story. When
in prison, God gives him gifts to interpret dreams, and he eventually
makes it all the way up to Pharaoh because of this gift, even
becoming rising from the status of a slave and a prisoner to
second-in-command over Egypt.
But
here's the thing about Joseph—- he does not lose sight of God. When
Pharaoh asks him to interpret his dream, Joseph replies that the
interpretation is not his own but God's; however, the text itself
never says, “And God spoke through Joseph” or “And God gave
Joseph the gift of dream interpretation” or anything like that.
Rather Joseph, despite all he goes through, is able to interpret
drams and dream himself because he does not shut himself away from
God. He pays attention to the situation around him and listens for
God.
Which
is what I think Joseph in the Christmas story does as well. You see,
why else would Joseph have paid any attention to dreams if he was not
naturally opening himself up to God? But he not only heeded God in
one dream, but in two: first as a young man preparing to quietly
divorce Mary, he changed his path and took Mary as his wife because
of a dream; then, God told him to move far away to Egypt in a dream,
and he did as he was asked. He listened, not to the clamor and chaos
of the world around him, but through it, to find that God was with
him, as his ancestor of the same name did before him.
Now,
when we read this scripture from Matthew this morning, I'm sure that
your first thought was not, “Wow, what a great listener Joseph was
to pay attention to the warnings in his dreams.” Your first thought
was probably, “Wait a minute, I thought this Christmas story was
supposed to be warm and fuzzy--- I didn't remember that part about
the babies dying!” This verse is discordant with the picture of the
happy family in the stable receiving extravagant gifts from the wise
me: When
Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was
infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around
Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that
he had learned from the wise men. I
don't want to gloss over the horror in this story by talking about
dreaming. Just a few weeks ago, my friend in San Francisco preached
on this scripture and spoke about Ferguson and the violence in the
hands of the powerful in our own nation. She said, “There
are too many weeping Rachels, not only across America, but in this
very room. And not only in America, but in Gaza, in Nigeria, in
Ukraine.” And she said, there are too many Herods as well: “Herod
killed the babies of Bethlehem because he was afraid, afraid of
Jesus’ power. So he killed innocent ones to keep himself feeling
safe. When we refuse to hear the truth of the lived experiences of
others, we become Herods, exercising power [and control] over others
as a way to keep ourselves safe.”2
And of course then it becomes a vicious cycle in which police
officers are killed, breeding more fear, which breeds even more
violence...Herod's world and our world are hurting, broken places in
need of a new dream.
That's
why we are talking about dreams this morning--- not to avoid the
horror of the story but to remind us that in our own stories of
horror we need to pay attention. We need to listen. For God is
already with us, speaking to us and guiding our steps if only we
would open our hearts to realize it!
To
return to the dreams of technicolor dreamcoat Joseph, his openness to
God's work in his life is what made him able to ultimately forgive
his brothers, rather than continuing the cycle of violence and
retribution. Joseph's story is a story of hope that we may become the
people God calls us to be, a people who make God's dreams for a
redeemed and renewed world come to life. Theologically, dreaming is
about vision: a vision of that redeemed, restored world.3
That is God's dream. But God's dream gets so mixed up in our own
hopes and fears that we lose sight of it and are lost to violence and
power struggles. And we are not able to get out of the struggle
because we won't look to God, who is beside us all the time coaxing
us to do good.
But
both Josephs did. Dreamcoat Joseph forgave his brothers for their
betrayal and violence. Joseph, Jesus' earthly father, took Mary as
his wife despite his own fears and uncertainties, and despite the
societal expectations. Joseph, despite his own confusion and sense of
powerlessness, took flight in the middle of the night and went to
Egypt, far from anywhere he knew. He had seen that vision of a
redeemed and restored world, and he trusted God to guide him to it.
Of course, I don't want you to go home and take a nap so
you can figure out what God is saying to you. You have to cultivate a
listening heart within yourself--- you can't just expect every dream
you have to be direct from God. For instance, recently, I had a weird
dream about how I really wanted to eat potato chips but I kept
checking the ingredients on the bags and every single one had lard in
it. I don't think God gave me that dream, as though trying to tell me
that lard is important to my salvation or something. But if we can
cultivate listening hearts within ourselves, then even in the small
things we may hear echoes of God.
My
prayer is that in this new year we may make a resolution not just to
lose weight or eat more vegetables or stop cursing, but a resolution
to listen more for God. Let us pay attention to God's dreams, whether
we see that dream reflected in our own dreams, or in the words of
great prophets and leaders, or in the kindness of a stranger. Bishop
Desmond Tutu in his children's book called God's
Dream
that I have read to the kids during worship before says this about
God's Dream: “God dreams about people sharing. God dreams about
people caring. God dreams that we reach out and hold one another's
hands and play one another's games and laugh with one another's
hearts.”4
Maybe we resolve this new year to reach out and hold one another's
hands. What do you think God dreams about? What
does God dream for us in this new year--- for us and our families,
for our church, for our world?
Remember: God is with us--- that is what Christmas is
all about. So let us open our hearts to God.
1I
knew I wanted to talk about dreams this Sunday, but this sermon
didn't really take shape until after reading this blog post: Adam
Phillips, “Dreaming of God With Us,” Advent Reflections,
Sojourners, 22
December 2014, http://sojo.net/blogs/2014/12/22/dreaming-god-us.
2Karen
Oliveto shared her sermon with me over a
direct message on twitter. Fangirl moment! These are quoted from
that sermon. Karen Oliveto, “To Comfort Rachel,” 25 November
2014. Also found here:
http://karenoliveto.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-cries-of-rachel.html.
3Rolf
Jacobson writes, “In terms of theological content, 'those who
dream' are prophets--those who receive visions from God (see Joel
2:28-29). The meaning, then, is that the divinely wrought
restoration includes the re-opening of the lines of communication
between God and people. In terms of the emotional content, 'those
who receive visions' often experience and express ecstatic joy--like
David dancing beside ark as it was brought into Jerusalem. The
picture, then, is of spontaneous and uncontainable joy: 'our mouth
was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy.'”
Commentary on Psalm 126, Working Preacher,
14 December 2008,
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=193
