God is with us in this Mess

 

Matthew 1:18-25 on Advent III

 Matthew’s Gospel emphasizes that Jesus was of the line of David, the son of Mary but not of Joseph.  He was of the Holy Spirit of God.  Stressing that Mary was engaged to Joseph but had not lived with him, she was in trouble.

 Was Joseph contemplating her dismissal for her sake?  She would be found with a child and no husband, which could have put her in danger of the extremes of the Law of Moses if Joseph did not claim her.    Again, perhaps it was his own reputation that he was afraid of if he stayed with her.  But the Angel intervened on her behalf. 

 Isaiah’s prophecy would be fulfilled in Jesus, according to Matthew.  This young maiden did conceive and bore a son.  He would represent God being with humanity.  They named him Yeshua.

 Scandal.  Matthew claims the right lineage, the right pedigree, impregnation by the Holy Spirit of God and the right purpose for it all.  But everyone knows what a scandal it must have been for this young girl.  She had no options in her world, and her pregnancy could have meant marginalization or worse.  Joseph was not sure that he wanted to endure the scandal.  Mary had no choice.  Joseph was prompted to do the right thing by a messenger of God.  Jesus is born in scandal on earth.

 Jesus is born of woman, as any human child is born.  As current prophets have said, Jesus was born “between feces and urine” in blood, pain, and fear.  He was born in scandal and poverty.  He was born in a stable and laid in a feeding trough for animals.

 It seems like a strange way for God to come to be with us, or is it?  God comes to identify with “the least,” to minister to them and give them Good News.  Jesus comes as one of us to identify with us, so that we can identify with Him.  He comes to take on our frailty, lack and even scandal.  Jesus identifies with the imperfect and the most vulnerable among us.  Jesus is us.  Jesus was intimate with humanity.  Our plight is personal to Jesus.  As we do to “the least of these,” we do to Jesus. 

 He was born in scandal and died in scandal.  He took on the dirt and grime, the homelessness and poverty, the marginalization and scandal, and lived subject to the injustice and inhumanity of the world.  He was lynched for daring to question the powers that be and the values of empire. 

 Hey, if God is with us, God is with us in it all.  So, whenever we ask about where God is when we suffer the worst of what the world has to offer us, we must see that God is with us.  Jesus did not shy away from experiencing the worst of the world.  Jesus did not avoid its worst pain, even its death.  Jesus is with us and has been since his other-than majestic and serene birth in a stable.  God is with us in it all.

 I know this picture is not the beautiful, peaceful, and pristine picture painted by so many over the centuries, but neither is the life that Jesus willingly took on in order to identify with us in this world.  It is real.

 The fear in scandal of an unwed mother, the inability to pay for a room and the very human birth in a stable are not suitable circumstances around the birth of the Messiah of the line of David or Abraham.  But God is with us, as we are, and in that is Grace and Love, perfect love.

 Be with one another as an expression of such Grace and Love, unconditional and perfect love.  It will be messy and dirty, but God is in it.