Advent: Unexpected Plans

So her husband Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly. But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is by the Holy Spirit.”

Matthew 1:19-20

In this third week of Advent, I’d like to suggest something provocative; I’d like to propose, as others have before me, that our God is too small. For those of us who have so much—and most of us in the West do, even in these economically challenging times—it’s often hard for us to imagine God as anywhere but in North America, doing North American things, in safe, North American churches. Our God is too small. But how can I say this? For one, I know the story of the nativity, the outlandish narrative of the Word made Flesh, God born in a dumpster to peasants from an undesirable corner of an occupied country.

In today’s reading, we are reminded that the wild, contradictory ways of God often confound our understanding, and even worse, completely disrupt our plans. Here, Joseph, a righteous man, did what a righteous man in his day and age would do when he heard that his fiancée—the woman to whom he was “pledged to be married” but had not yet “come together” with (Matt. 1:18)—was pregnant: he planned to quietly break off the relationship. But the Scriptures say that after he had considered taking this very reasonable step, the unreasonableness of God broke through in a dream, instructing him to take Mary as his wife. She was pregnant not by another man, but by the Holy Spirit, the angel said.

What an insane idea! Who could believe it? And yet that’s exactly what Joseph did: he accepted the words of the angel, and with humility, married his betrothed. Can you imagine the whispering that must’ve happened? The snide comments from others as Joseph walked hand-in-hand with a pregnant Mary through the market? What a fool, some must have said. Cuckolded, others likely thought. Yet Joseph fulfilled his obligation.

When we truly respond to the voice of the Holy Spirit, it seems that we always end up doing things we never imagined: caring about people we never cared about before, giving away a coat (or a car), finally going to Nineveh when we wanted to go to Tarshish, and sometimes, most difficult of all, willingly forsaking our pride for Christ as Joseph did.

Scripture says that God has seen it fit to shame the wise by choosing the foolish things of this world (1 Cor. 1:27), and nowhere in the biblical narrative do we see this as clearly as we do in the story of Christ’s birth. After all, most of the religious people of Joseph’s time expected God to come in glory, not in a manger. They thought true spirituality was an ascent. But true spirituality—as Jesus and Joseph remind us—is a descent; it’s becoming less, not more. This Advent let us follow Joseph’s example and become a fool for Christ. Let us listen for the voice of the Spirit and be willing, if necessary, to do something we never thought we’d do; let us be willing to become nothing that we might see Christ.

Father God, so often, I don’t know what I don’t know. In my reasonableness, I fail to respond to the dangerous voice of the Holy Spirit. Give me ears to hear this Advent that I, like Joseph, might become less in order to fulfill your perfect, unpredictable plan. Grant that I, like Joseph, might do whatever is necessary in order to see Christ. Amen.

Scripture Reading: Matthew 1:18-23

Editor’s note: This article was originally published December 2008. It is the third of four articles devoted to the Advent season. Don’t miss Part 1 and Part 2. Use these articles as a guide to prepare your heart for the celebration of Christ’s birth.