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What are your plans for 2010? Is your calendar already marked for special vacations? Are you full of hope you will gave a job that is a great match for your heart and dreams and gifts and skills? Do you anticipate that your love for your spouse will deepen? Is there a school on which you’ve set your sights where you hope to study this fall? Do you have in mind how you will re-build a relationship that is fractured? What headlines from around the world will grab our attention this year? There is one thing for sure: there is nothing for sure. This weekend we will be invited to place the full weight of our trust in the only thing that is for sure in 2010.

Today, we bring our advent series to a close. We have explored the personal journey of those who played a role in the first Christmas. We looked at Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, the baby Jesus and Simeon and Anna. There is one more part of the story that needs to be examined. This part is about the journey away from the manger. It is a journey into the unfolding plan of God.

Please turn with me in your bibles or in the bibles we have provided to Matthew 2:13-23. You’ll find this on page 956 in our zpc bibles. We pick up the story of Jesus, his mother Mary and her husband Joseph sometime after the birth of Jesus and just after the magi have left to return to their home country.

[READ MATTHEW 2:13-23]

If I were Joseph of the Christmas story, I might have considered going without sleep as much as possible. I mean, just think about it. Here was a man who received direct messages from God when he was asleep. The words that came to him through an angel always challenged his status quo in a huge, huge way. So, if it were me, I would have at least given some thought to going with as little sleep as possible!

All kidding aside, Joseph’s journey away from the manger was a journey into the unknown. It was a journey of certainty and uncertainty; certainty regarding God’s overall plans; uncertainty regarding the moment to moment circumstances and details. He chose to live into the unknowns resting in God’s promises, provision and providential care. As we move into a new year, we can choose to do the same.

I’ve lived in fifteen different cities or towns in my lifetime. None of those moves came because an angel appeared in a dream. My first move as an adult was to graduate school. Having known a strong sense of call to pastoral ministry for some years, it came time to choose a seminary. I’m confidant I prayed and listened for God’s direction. But there was no dream, no angel visitation. It was through the counsel of two pastors I greatly respected that I found my answer. I entrusted myself to their counsel.

There have also been moments when I believe God has spoken to me with a case specific, word for word message. One evening during my high school years these exact words came to my heart and soul: “When the bible talks about sinners it means you.” That night I took hold of the gift of God’s forgiveness and surrendered myself to Jesus. Years later in college, I was wrestling deeply with a relationship I so wanted to hold onto. Out of the blue one evening I heard these words: “Give her up.” I was startled and then afraid that if I looked up I would see someone in the room with me. I knew the counsel was correct. As right as I knew it was, I still did not want to give up. Finally, it was the girl who told me the relationship was over.

I believe God has also spoken to me in dreams. In a dream just this past summer, I found myself in a town and among a people best described as dry, lifeless, hardened, suspicious and threatening. While standing with two men from the town a drop of red liquid fell on my hand. I looked up to find we were standing underneath a fruit laden tree. The fruit was so fully ripe that it was oozing its essence. Amazed, I cupped my hands and let the juice pool in them. I then notice the faces of the men who were standing with me, part of the hardened, deadened people of that community. Their faces were now filled with life and wonder and joy, and I held out the juice to them. I still think about that dream and its possible meaning.

We’ve just made our way into a new year. Every day, every moment stretches out before us the same as every other day. Living the Jesus way, followers of Jesus have the Spirit of God at work in us and around us. We have the written word of God. We have the opportunity day in and day out to live in obedience to Jesus who loves us and cares for us. God speaks, in his written Word, in our hearts and minds and souls, through people and circumstances. We are called to make our way into each moment and into this new year following the way and ways of Jesus listening for God’s prompts however they may come. In this, we are not at all different from Joseph.

Biblical scholar Dale Bruner is the one who alerted me to something I have missed in the story of Joseph. Joseph never speaks. Bruner writes that, while silent, Joseph proves himself to be a man who acts in accordance with God’s instructions. He

• overcomes initial hesitation and obeys the divine summons to marry Mary . . .
• he is commanded to flee to Egypt with the child and his mother . . .
• he is instructed to return with the family to the land of Israel and then to settle with them in the north in Galilee.

In every scene Joseph simply acts. His speech is to do the will of God.

What a powerful statement! “His speech is to do the will of God.” When we are first introduced to Joseph in the gospels he is described by Matthew as “a righteous man” (1:19). In the gospel of Matthew those who are right with God are those who obey God. So, here is the obedient man of God who receives instructions and does what God commands.

He and his wife and the baby Jesus are still in Bethlehem. They came there as part of God’s unfolding plans through the agency of a census that required Joseph to go to his hometown to be properly counted. They have lived there every since, perhaps weeks or months, perhaps for a year or more. Shepherds and wise men have come and gone. And with the departure of the wise men comes the first threat to God’s plans. This threat comes through common, human politics of power, through the agency of a madman puppet king named Herod. Chris Mallott painted an accurate portrait of this man for us just two weeks ago. Herod would stop at nothing to protect his place of power.

God intervenes in the corrupt ways of this world by sending an angel to Joseph in a dream. Just for a moment, consider that God could have worked this in any number of ways. He could have prevented Herod from coming up with this idea. He could have put an army of angels around Bethlehem to keep the soldiers from carrying out their orders. He could have sent angels to all the parents of infants and toddlers two years old and less to warn them to take their children and flee. The commander of the troops could have decided to refuse his orders. But none of those happened. Somehow, this massacre of likely a dozen or more infant boys needed to be part of the story.

Matthew himself reminds us in verse 18 that horror and sorrow are part of the unfolding story of God’s plans. He refers us back to the prophetic words of Jeremiah centuries before when he wrote of the destruction of Israel and their exile. Jeremiah recorded God’s message that their ancestor Rachel wept from the grave in a poetic way over the sins of her people and the destruction they faced. Why does Matthew mention Rachel’s tears in relation to this vile, despicable act in Bethlehem? Because her grave lies just outside town and in a poetic way she witnesses the harsh realities of a fallen world unfold against these innocent children. Horror and devastation and heartbreak and tears are part of this life. You might have seen the business article this weekend titled “What could go wrong in 2010?” The answer is that things can and will go wrong not only in business but in every area of life.And God chooses to let the wrong unfold even as he continues to unfold his salvation.

The child Jesus is not among those murdered. He escapes because Joseph obeyed the angel’s instruction to go to Egypt. Why Egypt? It makes perfect sense from a human perspective. Egypt is quite accessible via the international road along the coast. Herod, though constantly working for prestige in international circles in the area, is thoroughly on the outs with Egypt at this time so the reach of his madness will not go past his southern border. Over the generations from the days of Jeremiah on Jews went to Egypt to escape all kinds physical, spiritual and political hardship. In Joseph’s day, there are places in Egypt where the Jewish population outnumbers the Egyptian nationals. So, the family will find a welcome among their own people.

Matthew makes another connection for us in verse 15, a connection that points to a much bigger picture of God’s unfolding plans. He writes of the trip to Egypt and back, “And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” When the writers of Scripture mention a statement from another part of Scripture we need to know there is more to it than just a well researched reference. This notation hints at something more. What is this more? We have to go to that part of Scripture. In this case it is to Hosea 11.

In the first ten chapters, the prophet Hosea has spoken of incalculable devastation coming to the people of God centuries before the birth of Jesus. And then, as chapter eleven beings he writes, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” In Hosea, then, this son is God’s people Israel. This refers to the time when God brought them out of Egypt through the leadership of Moses. After this quick reference to the exodus as an act of God’s redeeming love, Hosea records more of God’s message. “I led them with cords of human kindness . . . . To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.” Sadly, God also announces the harsh reality of Israel’s faithlessness. “The more they were called the more they went away from me.” The provision of God was tossed aside willfully. They all like sheep went astray. Each turned to their own way.

This describes the people of God at the time of the first Christmas as well. And this time the deliverer is not Moses but the one who fulfills, who renders perfect, who carries God’s gift of freedom “through to the end.” The Israelites were called out of Egypt but were imperfect. Jesus is called out of Egypt and will be perfect in His obedience towards God. In Jesus all is reclaimed. The rescue is complete through the final deliverer, the new Moses. Bruner writes, “Jesus goes down into Egypt . . . and comes out again . . . in order to inaugurate the New Exodus of the people.” Keener adds, “The painful events of Jesus’ persecuted childhood are the anvil on which God would forge the fulfillment of his promises to his people.” Friends, this is great news! The pain and uncertainty of our lives becomes the anvil on which God forges his plans for us. What is our part?

Silent Joseph does what God says. He takes baby Jesus and Mary and leaves behind people who will weep. He goes into Egypt so God will bring Jesus, the second Moses, out of Egypt. He takes his family back to Israel when he again receives the all clear sign from an angel in his dreams. Herod is dead. In verse 21 they start home. Along the way Joseph receives word that Herod’s son, Archelaus, who is just as mad and ruthless as his father, is in charge in Judea where Bethlehem was situated. Joseph is afraid. One last time and angel appears to him in a dream and warns him. So they go to the only other home they have known. They go back to Mary’s hometown where she and Joseph had met. They raise Jesus in Nazareth. And there is greater significance in that as well. The root of the name Nazareth is “stump” as in one of the designations in the Hebrew scriptures for the messiah, “a branch from the stump of Jesse.”

Well, this has been quite a travelogue! From Bethlehem to Egypt to Nazareth we have gone. We have seen plenty of evidence that God fulfills his purposes, that his plans are ultimately fulfilled in the midst of the realities of our world—the realities of your world and mine. This means that our confidence is well placed when we place it in God and his unfolding plans. The words of an old gospel hymn come to mind:

God is working His purpose out

As year succeeds to year:
God is working his purpose out,
And the time is drawing near;
Nearer and nearer draws the time,
The time that shall surely be,
When the earth shall be filled
With the glory of God
As the waters cover the sea.

And what might our part be? I believe our part is to live in obedience to God like Joseph. His hallmark is obedience—prompt, simple obedience. Will you set your heart to live in full obedience to God this year as we journey into the unknown?