4 Advent, Year A

“GOD’S POWER, COME AMONG US”
4 Advent -- Isaiah 7: 10 – 17 -- Psalm 24 -- Romans 1: 1 – 7 -- Matthew 1: 18 – 25
A sermon by, The Rev. Gene Tucker and given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, IL; Sunday, December 23rd, 2007

Some years ago, I had occasion to take a trip to New York City (from Washington, DC). It was a cold, late November day, and as we headed north from Baltimore and entered an area north of the Susquehenna River (in northeastern Maryland), suddenly, the train stopped. The emergency lights went on, but everything else went dead: the train itself, the air conditioning system, the appliances in the café car, everything.

It was late in the afternoon, after sunset, and there we sat.

The bright and shiny cars, impressive as they whisked down the tracks at over 100 MPH just a few minutes before, seemed almost worthless in the dim light of the battery-powered emergency lights and the encroaching cold. Without the overhead electricity to power not only the train but all the other systems as well, they could keep us dry (if it had been raining), but that was about all.

Time went along, and eventually members of the train crew came along and told us that there had been a derailment somewhere northeast (ahead) of us, and in the process of completely blocking the tracks, the derailed train had also pulled down the overhead catenary wires upon which our train (and the other trains behind us) depended for movement and for the welfare of the passengers.

As time went along, and the temperatures inside the car began to drop, it dawned on all of us that we were powerless to help ourselves. Not only was the way ahead blocked, but that blockage had also deprived us of our own ability to get around the blockage. We were stuck.

As more time went by, the train crew informed us that they were sending a diesel locomotive from Baltimore to come and couple up to our train. The diesel (which had the power to circumvent the lack of electricity) would pull us backwards, travelling southwest, back to the Susquehenna River, where we would follow the rail line that hugs the eastern shore of the river northwestward, all the way to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Once we reached Harrisburg, the train would then be reversed again and we would proceed to Philadelphia, and then on to New York.

Needless to say, the trip was a long one….We reached New York in the wee hours of the morning. A trainload of very tired and disgruntled passengers got off at Pennsylvania Station to make their way, about eight hours’ late from our original arrival time.

Now this story is engraved on my mind, not so much for the length of the trip, nor for my offer of assistance to the train crew because one of them didn’t know how to disconnect the air hoses at the end of the car, but because of the relevance to our spiritual journey through this life.

Let me explain: If we are honest about our situation, we have to admit that we are: 1. powerless to extract ourselves from our capacity to do wrong; 2. the way to wholeness and a deep and abiding relationship with God is blocked by the condition of the sinful world in which we live; and 3. the encroaching chill of our isolation impresses upon us the danger we are in by virtue of our inability to help ourselves.

But God is the actor in the drama that unfolds as Jesus Christ is born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. God is the engine of rescue, redeeming us from our predicament.

And so, with that background, the background of God’s intervention to end our isolation from Him, let’s look now at Matthew’s birth account, as we heard it today from chapter one, verses 18 to 25….

Note immediately what Matthew does not relate to us about Jesus’ birth. But then, as we make our way through chapters one and two, Matthew relates other details of Jesus’ birth and early life in the visit of the Wise Men, the flight into Egypt, and the slaughter of the Innocents at Bethlehem as King Herod the Great attempts to stamp out any possible threat to his rule as king.

As we read Matthew’s account, it seems almost matter-of-fact…notice that he says (verse 18), “His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; before their marriage she found she was going to have a child through the Holy Spirit.”

As we read those words, we might be tempted to say to ourselves, “Well, yes, we know the words of the (Nicene) Creed where it says of Jesus Christ, ‘By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary…’” We say those words every Sunday (maybe even rattling them off without much thought or contemplation).

We know the story, don’t we!

But remember, we have what literary scholars call “The Readers’ Perspective” , that is to say, we can sit down and “read the book”, seeing the story from beginning to end, and from the perspective of 2,000 years.

Is it possible for us to put ourselves back in the place of Joseph, or of Mary, as they are told that the child to be born will be the work of God himself, working through the power of the Holy Spirit?

(Can’t you imagine their wondering, “well, who is this ‘Holy Spirit’?” Remember, all of this was quite new to them, and to everyone else who heard the news.)

But Matthew takes great care to ensure that we understand that Jesus’ conception was not due to any activity of Joseph and Mary…In typical Matthean fashion, he tells us twice that (verse 18), “before their marriage” Mary was pregnant….Actually, the Greek says this, “Before they came together”. And again (verse 25), (Joseph) “had no intercourse with her until her son was born.” Here again, the Greek says this, “(Joseph) “did not know her until she bore a son.”

So the net effect of both verses is that say that God is the prime mover, the actor, the power behind Jesus’ birth.

Now, let’s look at the other aspect of Jesus’ coming among us: Matthew records the angel’s words to Joseph , “Do not fear to take Mary home with you to be your wife. It is through the Holy Spirit that she has conceived. She will bear a son, and you shall give Him the name ‘Jesus’ , for he will save his people from their sins.”

And so, from the angel’s instruction, we see that Jesus has come to do something that people cannot do for themselves: save themselves from their sins.

We began with the story of my train trip to New York.

Returning to that experience, might it serve as an object lesson from today’s Gospel reading?

For example, if we’re honest with ourselves, we have to admit we’re stuck, isolated, in the “middle of nowhere” with respect to our relationship with God.

It’s only by the outside intervention of God, just like that diesel locomotive so many years ago, that we can be rescued from that isolation, and from the encroaching cold that the absence of God in our lives always leads to.

But Jesus’ birth should be as welcome as a locomotive headlight, the bright and shining morning star, announcing that God’s rescue is at hand.

And so (if I can press the illustration just a bit more), on this fourth Sunday of Advent, can we with honesty say that we have looked for the brightness of God’s Son as He approached, bringing salvation with Him, as we look back down the tracks of our lives?

Do we look for the brightness of His coming to us again and again in our lives today?

For we are helpless, unable to pull ourselves out of our situation. But by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ came among us to “couple up” with us as one of us, taking on humanity completely and fully. And the reason for His advent is to rescue us from our sins.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.