Christmas Courage

Matthew 1:18-24 (NRSV)
¹⁸ Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.
¹⁹ Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.
²⁰ But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.
²¹ She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."
²² All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
²³ "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."
²⁴ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, 


Courage...it is a word to describe many things.  Firemen, Police, Soldiers, to name a few.  Those who take risks - not for foolish reasons, but for the sake of others.
Courage isn't something we take a course in.  There are not "Four Steps to Build Courage" that I'm aware of.  It's part of the character of an individual who is not selfish and believes that others matter...that the world doesn't revolve around them alone, but it has larger, more noble purposes to fulfill.
Joseph is a man of courage.  He took a risk. Mary had already said "Yes" to God and now she was explaining it to her husband to be.  Joseph sat and listened - in disbelief, and yet he knows that Mary isn't this kind of woman...yet.  There was a public way to get rid of her...it involved going to the Elders at the city gate and informing them of what Mary has done.  Then they would absolve him of his duty to marry, grant him a divorce decree; and probably ostracized, or maybe even stoned Mary.
How do you work through disappointments, pain, shame?
Yes Joseph was aided in his decisions by a visit from an Angel...most of us don't get angelic visits to make wise decisions.  Yet, the decision to go ahead is a courageous one.  The words would fall from neighbor's lips, the town would talk, maybe they would have to leave and go someplace else..."this is not Joseph's child".
The word to Joseph was what every faithful Jewish man had longed for, for several hundred years... a Messiah would be born, God would come among us - Emmanuel.
Joseph woke up and did the courageous thing.

I got the inspiration for this blog after watching an old Christmas movie - Home Alone!  Yes, the zany movie of the little kid left behind with two bumbling thieves as his nemeses.  It's not all of the slapstick stuff that he uses that made me think of this passage.  It's the scene where he meets his neighbor in church - an old man he has feared, believing the worst from his brothers.  There he finds out that the man is separated from his son - an argument years before that left them estranged.  The little boy, Kevin, asks him why he doesn't call.  There's reasons, but not are good, and in the end, they leave the church with his admonition to the old man - go ahead, make the call.  The movie ends with the family all coming home and all is well.  One of the very last scenes, Kevin walks to the window, looks out to see his neighbor reaching out to hug his son and his son's wife and granddaughter.  Go ahead, I dare you not to have a choked up tear!

It hit me...Christmas is a great time for taking risks to repair and restore...to reach out in Christ's name to someone you have lost.

Peace