Yesterday morning our church was privileged to host a magnificent gathering of firefighters and church folks with families who recently lost their homes in the wildfires as we distributed over 100 bicycles and other toys from the Tony Hawk Foundation to a very happy group of kids. One additional item we gave—through the Fire Fund of this church—was a gift card for each child to a local sporting goods store so they could go and purchase their own bike helmet. I wish all of you could have been part of the joy. One of the best aspects of the morning was having a chance to visit with the families. Naturally, some of the conversation was about the Christmas season and the loss of cherished decorations. One church family lamented the loss of their Nativity Scene collection, something Helen and I could identify with. To us, the Nativity Scene is the centerpiece of all Christmas decorations because it portrays the most important people who participated in the Incarnation of God into the world in the form of His Son, Jesus. One of those people was Joseph, the carpenter from Nazareth, who became Jesus’ earthly father.

During this Advent and Christmas season we are spending some time getting to know some of the key figures who surrounded Jesus’ birth and early life. We have already met Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist, who taught us that we can best meet God when we are eagerly looking for Him. And we have met John the Baptist himself, who taught us that in order to have the power and presence of God in our lives we have to turn away from our current lives and turn toward God, beginning again and starting a new life. It is important for us to get to know other people who have known God because they have a lot to teach us about how we can live our own lives in relationship to God. Those people are not just found in the pages of scripture, but unless we know the folks from the Bible we do not have a complete view. In order to learn to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves, as Jesus taught us, we need to learn from other people.

Scripture gives us very little information about Joseph, but it gives us the most important information. Religious writers and scholars have loved dreaming about what kind of person Joseph must have been and what sort of influence he had on Jesus as Jesus grew up. But the key lesson we learn from Joseph is how he reacted to the news that the woman to whom he was engaged to be married was already going to have a child. What we learn from Joseph is how he handled a very, very tough situation.

In the marriage customs of Jesus’ day, two young people were often promised to each other in marriage as early as their childhood years. Marriage was much too important to be left to the decision-making ability of adolescents, and so families took on that role. When the time would come for the young man and young woman to be married, they would be betrothed for an entire year. Betrothal was a much more serious step than what our culture calls engagement. Betrothal was tantamount to marriage, save for actual consummation of the marriage and the beginning of the new household. At the end of the betrothal year, the pair would be married in an elaborate and days-long ceremony. Matthew tells us that Joseph and Mary were in their betrothal year, absolutely committed to the marriage but not quite there yet. And all was well until Mary found herself to be with child.

There were only two humanly possible ways to explain this situation, and neither was happy. Either Mary had willingly or unwillingly become pregnant by another man. In the first case, the law of the Jewish system dictated that both should be put to death. In the latter case, the law required that the man be found and put to death. If no one confessed to the crime, the woman, in order to prove her innocence, had to drink “waters of bitterness.” If she survived, she was innocent. But often, the woman would not survive. Whatever the cause of the woman’s pregnancy, severe consequences resulted.

Matthew gives us some clue that Joseph is a deeply faithful and also loving person. He says that when Joseph first hears the news of Mary’s pregnancy, instead of seeking the usual legal remedies, he simply decides to “dismiss her quietly,” which is to say that he intends simply to divorce her, end the betrothal, and be done with it. In the light of Jewish law, that was a very lenient response. But the story doesn’t end there, of course. An angel comes to Joseph, and as Jan reminded us a few weeks ago, this is not your Hallmark greeting card type of angel, with a cute little smile and precious little wings. This is a biblical angel, an awe-inspiring creature who represents the Living God. And the angel tells Joseph there is another scenario altogether in this situation, something that goes beyond human possibility and enters the realm of divine activity. Mary is with child not according to the normal human agencies, but because God willed it to be so. Therefore, Joseph must go through with the final step of the marriage. He must become the child’s human father. And he must name the child Jesus.

Joseph’s response to this difficult situation is the defining moment of his life. And it is one of the defining moments in the complicated and unlikely sequence of events that must unfold in order for God’s plan of salvation to come to pass. Matthew explains this pivotal step in simple and clear language: “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.”

Perhaps it was sometime earlier in Joseph’s lifetime. Perhaps it was at the very moment that Joseph and the angel had their now-famous encounter. Whenever it was, Joseph had made a fundamental decision in his life to do God’s will no matter what the consequences would be. He decided to listen first and listen only to God. He decided to go beyond the dictates of his culture, of the systems of his religion, of what might even be considered practical or wise in the eyes of the world. He had turned over his entire life to God: heart, soul, mind and strength. He had surrendered his life to love of his neighbor. In this case, it meant that he would have to go against what most people thought God would want and he would have to risk the ostracism and anger of his fellow Jews in order to please God. And it meant that he would go on and do the loving thing for his betrothed: he would marry her, which he did.

There are lots of ways that you and I describe such defining moments. We talk about doing the right thing versus doing the easy thing or the popular thing. We talk about doing what the world would teach us to do versus what our faith and commitment to God would have us do. In The Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight says it is making a decision based either on our reputation—which is what the outer world sees—or on our identity—which is what God sees. Your reputation is what others think of you. Your identity is what you and God think of you. And there is only one deciding factor that is the right deciding factor. Joseph decided to be right in God’s eyes because he knew he belonged to God. And that fundamental decision about placing his identity in God before any concern of his reputation before others made all the difference.

Only one man in the history of the world ever had to make the choice that Joseph did. But every single one of us makes similar choices every day. Sometimes they have to do with large matters, sometimes small. But in every choice we make, either we move closer to God and further down the path that he lays out for us, or we take a step away from God and away from the lives that he would have us lead.

A couple of weeks ago an old childhood friend of Helen’s who was also a college friend of mine came to see us. He lives in Phoenix and for many years has run a successful business in stained glass and other artistic architectural features. When the fires broke out, he called us and said that he wanted to bring us a tent-trailer and give it to a family so they would at least have some kind of shelter to live in. We have found a home for it and it’s waiting now to be delivered. I first met Bob through the football program at the University of New Mexico. He was the kicker. Back then, in the mid-1970s, he could kick a 65-yard field goal, which is still pretty amazing. He was drafted by the Buffalo Bills, but after a few weeks he left that organization. The next year he signed with the Washington Redskins, but he also left that team. He told me that he simply decided he wasn’t cut out for the life of a professional football player. He knew there was another plan for his life. He gave up fame and fortune to do what God wanted with his life.

I could relate to that. Most of you know that early on in high school I decided that I wanted to be involved in professional sports as an athletic trainer. I had met Bob because I had gone to college on an athletic scholarship and was moving rapidly through one of the first programs in the nation that produced certified athletic trainers. There is no way to know now, of course, but my dream was to be the head trainer for the Dallas Cowboys. In my freshman year of college, I gave up the scholarship and I gave up the dream I had dreamed for five years, because God gave me another dream. I’m living that dream now. I hope it isn’t your nightmare!

When I came home from college that first summer and told all my high school friends and teachers and coaches that I had changed my mind about my future, most of them were shocked. I grew up in a town about the size of Rancho Santa Fe, about 5,000 people. And in my home town, high school sports were the most popular form of entertainment. At least half the town knew who I was because of years of involvement there and because of my work at the biggest college in the state. More than one person tried to talk me out of my decision. More than one tried to talk me back into professional sports, or at least some financially rewarding field like medicine. So much of the world simply could not accept that I would give up at least the hope of a rewarding career for something like ministry. And the point is not that the best thing you can do with your life is ministry. The point is that you and I must do what God wants us to do with our lives and not what the values of the outer world would have us do.

Charting the course of our lives according to the identity that we have in God and according to the decision that we make to turn our entire lives over to God changes not just the big decisions that we make, like career choices, but also the small decisions that we make every day. The other day I read that someone has written yet another sequel to Gone With the Wind. This new book tells the story from the perspective of Rhett Butler. That reminded me of one of the famous scenes from the movie that we’ve all seen umpteen jillion times. You remember that Scarlet O’Hara has a lifetime crush on Ashley Wilkes, but Ashley marries his cousin, Melanie. Scarlet continues to throw herself at Ashley, however, and they are discovered in an awkward moment when Ashley is hugging Scarlet to comfort her, and Scarlet is taking more than just comfort from Ashley’s more noble sentiments. Naturally, the whole town learns about it, and the whole situation grows very tense because Scarlet and her husband Rhett are supposed to attend a party at Melanie and Ashley’s home. Scarlet doesn’t want to show her face, but Rhett makes her go, and then in famous Rhett fashion leaves Scarlet at the door to walk in and meet her public humiliation at the hands of Melanie. When Scarlet walks into Ashley and Melanie’s home, everyone is hushed. Everyone expects Melanie to throw Scarlet out on her ear. But Melanie welcomes Scarlet in a forgiving gesture that astounds everyone. Melanie made her decisions based on a different value system, a different God from the god of this world.

When I was in college I received one of those solicitations in the mail that we’ve all gotten from the folks who publish the Who’s Who books. They wanted me to sign up for Who’s Who in American Colleges and Universities, as I remember it. I never did sign up, and I’ve been nobody ever since! But I do remember coming across an entry from the book a year or two later. It was a long and flattering piece about some fellow who, along with his many other accomplishments and associations, claimed to be an active member of the college fellowship group at the First Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque. I found that quite interesting, since I had never met this person, and I had been teaching the Bible study for that group for two years. Obviously, what you say about yourself and what is published in Who’s Who is not necessarily the whole truth and nothing but the truth. I did learn later that the guy was a member of the church, at least, the kind who showed up at least once a year.

Who are you? And in whose Who’s Who book are you listed? If you are going to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and if you are going to love your neighbor as yourself, there is only one Who’s Who that matters. It’s what scripture calls the Book of Life. The keeper of the list is God. When you enlist on that list, you make a fundamental choice about who you are and what you will and will not do. None of us ever does it perfectly, of course. But when we do it right, like Joseph did when he did as the Lord commanded and took Mary as his wife, we find that we are living in that blessed state of God’s will for our lives and God’s plan for his world.

Amen.