Fred Craddock, a respected preacher reminds us people who travel the Advent journey that on this fourth and final Sunday of Advent, we have finally arrived in the little town of  Bethlehem. The children don’t have to ask, “Are we there yet?” We’re not at the stable but we are in Bethlehem. And Fred reminds us that the baby is due anytime, and now, all we have to do is wait it out, until the birth. And also we are on the Sunday that is closest to the longest night of the year. Waiting is going to be hard. And so on this last part of the journey, we might think of what are we going to do while we wait. [Fred Craddock: Cherry Log Sermons p. 1] . Waiting for God to be born among us does not mean we sit passively and do nothing. This kind of waiting for Christ to be born looks more like serving God. When we wait we turn ourselves to God.

One thing Matthew did while he waited in Bethlehem was he started thinking about family—Jesus’ family. Matthew’s gospel starts with a geneology—Jesus’ family history. How many people send out some Christmas cards each year? How many will write a family letter in that card? How many will write more in the card than your name and “Merry Christmas and All the best in 2008”? Family. Children, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandmas, grandpas, mothers, fathers, church families, shut-ins, people in hospital. When I visit Myrtle one of the first things she tells me is that she is praying for all of us. There’s another thing we can do while we wait. Myrtle tells me that she prays for her family and for her community and for all of us here at Valley Pastoral Charge. One time she said that she was praying for me. I told her that her prayers carry me and allow me to do the work I am called to. No matter how physically challenged God’s people are they can still serve God in a ministry of praying while we wait for God to move among us.

As we wait, Matthew reminds us that we can dream. One of my professors said in the gospel of Luke everyone sings [like a Broadway musical]. In the gospel of Mark everyone runs in big crowds. And in the gospel of Matthew everyone dreams. Last night Joseph had a dream and he will have three dreams next week. And the Magi will have a dream. God dreams a dream of dreams through Joseph—a dream about new life being made flesh and dwelling among us. God sent an angel to give a tough message to Joseph. When Joseph wakes up he has to make a decision:

To serve as father to Mary’s child and risk shame and rejection in his own family and community and to risk the Jewish faith as it has been presented in his culture. The news that Mary was pregnant and not by him would have been shameful, dishonourable and a crushing blow to both of their families. Joseph would have to change his whole way of living if he was to carry this out and marry Mary. Tradition says no one must marry an adulterous woman. According to the customs and culture of their times Mary would be labelled an adulterous woman subject to death by stoning.  No doubt someone in Joseph’s family in Bethlehem would have said something like, ‘I don’t care if he is our son, I will not have that hussy  and tramp in my house.”  Just an aside:  The real scandal in Bethlehem was not that there was no room in the inn. It was that Mary and Joseph had to go to an inn in the first place. The Jewish people lived in an honour and shame culture and whether they liked it or not, they had no choice but to disown Joseph in their house in Bethlehem where he was registering for the census in his home town. or should Joseph forget Mary ever happened and allow her to fade off in the distance, saving his family and his Jewish faith from shame and allowing Joseph to live as the righteous man he has been up to now. He could let her go quietly with only a handful of people knowing about the baby and she wouldn’t be stoned to death.

A lot of God’s dream hinges on Joseph’s decision. Joseph is a key figure in the story. In our nativity  sets we tend to dress Joseph in a brown robe and place him at the back of the stable looking on lovingly at Mary and the baby as if he was only her escort, kind of like Prince Philip walking 7 paces behind Queen Elizabeth. We treat him like a background kind of figure. As a gesture of gratitude let’s put Joseph in the front of the stable where he can guard the Holy family and greet shepherds and kings.

Nothing in any of Joseph’s righteous life up to this point led him to continue his relationship with Mary. Everything in his righteous past says, “Let her go.” And so that night, as Joseph got into bed and was lying there he decided to tell Mary it was over between them. Joseph was righteous and he thought that was the right thing to do.

Now God’s got a problem. If Joseph lets Mary go, there will be no righteous father to teach Jesus the Torah. There will be no righteous father to teach Jesus good family values. There will be no righteous father who takes his child on his knee on the tractor and lets the child drive it all by themselves. There would be no righteous father to teach his child how use hands to build useful things out of wood, or to teach patience and humility. You see the essential role Joseph plays.

And so God sent an angel with a message to Joseph. And as it turns out Joseph’s righteousness was a waiting kind of righteousness. Joseph was open to his Jewish faith and decided to let Mary go gently. But more importantly Joseph was open to God’s angel in a dream and later decided to become the righteous father of Mary’s child. Through Joseph we learn that to wait is often to worry, to work, to stumble, to plan and to pray. And we who wait in Bethlehem cheer Joseph on for carrying his part of God’s dream.

And God chooses to place one of the key pieces of God’s dream of salvation in a man who waits upon God.

And we will cheer for many others as they are called to at the manger: An inn keeper who said no: we have no room in the inn but yes there is room in the stable, shepherds who listened to an angel’s call, wise ones who followed a star. God incarnate, among us, invites many people to play a part in God’s dream of life among us. To hold God’s dream, many hearts and hands and feet are required. Key people who have held God’s dream in their hands by knitting prayer a prayer shawl, by pouring a cup of tea for a friend, by building useful things out of wood at the Craft Centre, by writing Christmas cards to distant family. Key people who have held God’s dream in their hearts by pastoring and prayer for those who are sick, those who are lonely, and those who others have stopped caring for. Key people who hold God’s dream in their bodies by doing neighbourly things like helping to fix broken things. Important people who hold God’s dream of a beautiful and vibrant prairie land with good water and clean air and fruitful soil. Through Joseph we learn that no matter how seemingly little our calling looks, the part of God’s dream that we carry is vastly important for Jesus Christ to dwell among us.

And so here in Bethlehem it is a bit crowded. Along with all the saints who have passed on before us we wait here and hope for the promise of God to be born among us again. Together we wait to see what God will do. However God calls us to wait let us hold each other’s hands and those of our family and friends beyond this church and those of our family and friends who have died and let us wait together in hope. May God be born among us. May our hearts be encouraged. May our lives know peace. Emmanuel: God be with us.