“Faith, Hope and Love Abide” – Sermon on Dec 1, 2013
Dec 1, 2013
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-25
Now 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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But 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. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’, which means, ‘God is with us.’ When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;* and he named him Jesus.
Sermon: Faith, Hope and Love Abide
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
So let’s talk about hope, our theme of the day. What is it? I used to think of hope as a wish. You know, like that Dusty Springfield song.. Wishin and hopin and thinkin and praying. And when I thought like that, at some point I came to think that hope was not important, and in fact, may even be undesirable. It seemed that it was unaccepting of the way things actually were, it was an argument with reality, it was a state of ingratitude. Isn’t it better, I thought, to accept that things are just as they are meant to be and find the blessing in them? But I came to realize that hope is not a wish, hope does not deny reality, but asks us to look more deeply at reality and consider what is possible. A person can accept a situation as is, not wishing it away, and still hold the expectation that it can be different. Hope is the expectation of something good happening. It accepts what is, and anticipates, even works for, something better. I learned that the indo-european root of the word hope is the same root of the word curve. Hope implies veering off on another path, taking a new course.
Joseph was faced with a difficult situation. He was engaged to Mary. Back in those days marriages were usually arranged by the fathers of the families, and there were serious contractual obligations involved. The contract began with the engagement, though the couple were given several months before the marriage and cohabitation began. I wonder how much time Mary and Joseph had spent together, how well they knew each other, how they were feeling about each other. And now Joseph is faced with the reality that Mary is pregnant, and not by him.
What scenarios must have run through his mind? Did he wonder if she had always loved another and this was her way of making sure she didn’t have to marry Joseph? Had their courtship been going well, increasing his sense of confusion and betrayal? And I wonder, how did he hear about it? Did Mary tell him, or did word travel through the fathers, the arrangers of the marriage? Perhaps Mary’s family figured out first about the pregnancy, and dad stormed off to confront Joseph’s family about this disgrace – pregnancy before marriage! Joseph proclaims his innocence, and now his family is outraged at this gross violation of the contract. Perhaps Joseph’s father is demanding a stoning of Mary to keep his family’s reputation intact. It must have seemed such a hopeless situation. Such terrible choices – see Mary humiliated, perhaps even killed, this girl he’s come to care about; or put his own family through the ordeal of shame and shunning. Did he cry, did he pray? The best thing he could come up with was to quietly void the contract, end the engagement, and walk away.
But his plan took a turn toward something better. An angel appeared in a dream and told him that this child that was conceived would not be his shame, nor Mary’s, but would be their salvation, the salvation of all God’s people. And with that, Joseph had hope. He and Mary still faced some problems perhaps around the pregnant-before- marriage thing, but they didn’t rate even a word of mention as the story unfolds. Hope gave him new eyes to see what was going on, a way of looking more deeply at what it means to be family, what it means to be faithful, what it means to trust.
I’d like to share a story of another Joseph. This Joseph, Joseph Kim, was born in North Korea in 1990. His family, a father, mother and older sister — struggled against poverty. In the Great Famine of 1994, the 4-year-old Joseph and his sister look for firewood from 5am until midnight. More than a million North Koreans died of starvation during that time. No one thought about politics and freedom, he says. “Hunger is humiliation. Hunger is hopelessness.” Whenhe was 13, he watched his father starve to death. That same year, his mother disappeared, and his sister left for China, promising to come back soon with money and food. Suddenly, Joseph was an orphan, left to survive on his own by begging, scavenging or working in the coal mines up to 16 hours a day. “When I could not fall asleep from bitter cold or hunger pains, I hoped the next morning my sister would come back to wake me up with food. That hope kept me alive.” After three years, understanding he could no longer survive this way, he decided to go to China to look for her himself. At age 16, Joseph crossed the border, risking execution by the North Koreans if caught escaping. Once in China, he found help in an under-ground shelter run for North Koreans, and later that year, made it to the US as a refugee. Joseph was adopted by a foster family and sent to high school — something that seemed “ridiculous” to him. He’d never even been to middle school.
He tells a story that changed everything for him, that set him on a new course. One day at dinner, he wanted an extra chicken wing, and seeing there was not enough for everyone to have seconds, didn’t take it. He looked down and saw it on his plate — his foster father had given him the last wing. He says, “It made me think of my biological father, who sacrificed everything for me even if he was hungry. My only wish that night was to cook a meal for my father. I thought about what else I could do to honor him, and decided to take school seriously for the first time in my life.” He made the Dean’s list in his first semester of high school. “That chicken wing changed my life,” says Joseph. “Hope is personal. Hope is something that no one can give to you. You have to choose to believe in it. You have to make it yourself.” But he says that doesn’t mean others can’t make a difference. “My foster father didn’t intend to change my life — and in the same way you may also change someone else’s life with the smallest act of love. I confidently believe that your act of love and caring can also save another’s life, and thousands of others who are hoping to survive.” Joseph Kim tells his story in a TED talk, and at the end of his talk, he is asked whether, on the off chance that his sister might see this talk online, he would like to send her a message. Here’s what he said:
“It has been already ten years that I haven’t seen you. I just wanted to say that I miss you and I love you, and I know you promised me that you would come back with food and money soon, but please don’t worry about that. I’m so sorry. It’s okay if you can’t make money or bring food, but please come back to me and stay alive. I still haven’t given up my hope to see you. I will live my life happily and study hard until I see you, and I promise I will not cry again. I’m just looking forward to seeing you, and please come back.
He also sent a message to his mother: “I know I haven’t spent much time with you, but I know you love me and probably think about me and pray for me. I just want to say thank you for letting me be in this world. Thank you.”
I was so touched by his hope, and by what he was hoping in – Love. Our God is a God of Love, a God who incarnated in a man who would show us how to love. And that is our hope, that is the other path, the new course. That is what Joseph found his hope in – in loving Mary, in loving the child that came through her. Hope in love, because hope is love. Amen?
