Presence (Matthew 1:18-25)

¹⁸Now 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. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But 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. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. ²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ²³Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel, which means, God is with us. ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

Matthew 1:18-25

The Christmas present: It's a story most of us know pretty well. Even if you only go to church twice a year, it's likely that you'll hear the story of Jesus' birth at least one of those times, often it's told, or acted out by children… There are thousands of churches across the country very similar to us, hearing the story presented by children today. Many of us have memories of when we were angels or shepherds in some version of a Christmas pageant throughout the years. Of course, in each pageant, the basics are the same but each one gives a slightly different angle or emphasis to the story… I've been to one where the whole story was told from the point of view of the donkey and the other animals. I've been to one where they focused in on the various announcements of the angels in the gospel accounts. And of course our version here today emphasized that Jesus was, and is, the best present of all.

And when I think about the phrase, The best present of all, the first thing that comes to my mind is a question of desire… What is it that we really want? Growing up, that would be what would make something the best present. I remember as a kid, it seems like every year there was something that my heart was set on… one thing that I wanted most in the whole wide world. I wasn't very subtle about it… I would take the catalog that came in the mail and I'd circle everything that I wanted but for the one thing that I decided would be the best present of all, I would circle it over and over… draw arrows to it and fold over the corner of the page and then I'd put the catalog right on the pillow of my parent's bed. If we were in the store, when I found the best present, I would make promises: Mom and Dad, if you get this for me, I'll never ask for another thing and I'll do all my chores the first time you ask. (Yeah right) There were a couple of years I can remember when the hints didn't work and I didn't get exactly what I wanted… but those are stories for another day. For the most part, I did get that present that I thought would be the best present of all and yet every year something else came along. This year, as I listened to the children practice and I thought about the best present of all, I became aware that, especially during advent, in the midst of the incredible momentum of the cultural Christmas celebration, it's good to ask the question of ourselves: What are we seeking? What are we waiting for? What is it that we want most? And where does the Christ child fit into that desire?

I'm almost certain that the baby Jesus would hardly have been what Mary and Joseph wanted most. Things then were really not like they are now-a-days… there were processes to getting married that took some time… there were expectations that communities had and they weren't naive…They knew where babies came from… so as the baby Jesus was growing in Mary's womb, suspicion and perhaps scorn or embarrassment or even shame would have been growing toward the couple. People who saw probably wouldn't have understood, or believed Mary and Joseph's story any more than people believed the three girls at my high school who made a similar claim (except for the Holy Spirit part)… Joseph could have walked away from the whole mess. Our text for the day told us that he was ready to dismiss her quietly, but he didn't. He stuck around. Even if no one believed, except him and Mary he decided that he did want to be part of what God was doing. After all, God had told him in a dream that this child would be something special.

Of course later, they did recognize how much of a gift Jesus was, through his ministry, his teachings, his miracles, and in fact all the surprises that he had up his sleeve. He brought good news to the ordinary people wherever he went and he showed everyone what God looks like in word and deed. The longer Jesus was around, the clearer it became how much of a difference he was going to make in the big scheme of things.

And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that in my life, the best presents weren't always exactly what I thought I wanted… but rather a surprise… something that I didn't know that I wanted but once I had it I couldn't imagine not having it. That kind of gift doesn't happen terribly often and I would guess it's because that kind of gift is both harder to give and harder to receive… it's harder to give because it requires the giver to know the receiver at a deeper level of intimacy… what they say they isn't the only thing that matters, but also what brings them joy and perhaps even what might be missing that would make their life better… and it's also harder to receive because to do so, you have to be open to trying something different, making space for something in your life that you didn't expect and may not have even wanted… at least at first.

And I don't know about you, but that sure resonates with my personal experience of coming to faith in Jesus Christ. When this journey began for me, I was certainly not looking to become a follower, let alone a pastor… I imagine that when the disciples stood there with their nets and Jesus said come follow me, their journey led them to places they didn't expect too… what about the people in the boat when he calmed the storm… or the 5000 who ate their fill from two loaves and five fish. The list of surprises that came from the life of Jesus could go on and on… Right up until the time when he rose from the dead after being put in the ground… and when he promised his disciples that he would be with them even after he'd gone. That's how Matthew's gospel ends… A promise of Christ's presence…

And it makes me wonder where and how that presence is manifest in your life… because that presence may well be the best part of the best present of all. You see, when we are aware of the presence of Christ, a lot of other things come along with that as well.

Hope, the possibility of a transformed life, authentic community that cares and prays for one another. Assurance of God's love, forgiveness of past failures reconciliation with the divine. This is all part of what it means when we say Emmanuel, God is with us. So when we ask what it is that we want most, it's helpful to remember what God has already given because it's all part of what we celebrate at Christmas time: After all these years God is still right here with us, at work in us and through us; loving us in everything we go through… and that is the best present of all.

The foregoing sermon was given by Rev. Dan Holland at the United Parish of Bowie on the Fourth Sunday in Advent, December 19, 2010.