I Dreamed a Dream

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.

Not preaching this Sunday.

I wonder if I would even mention Joseph’s dreaming. . . 

Maybe I’d work with that - there might be some fun with that. You could have video of Susan Boyle singing “I Dreamed a Dream”

Or not.

There are a lot of things I like about this text. 

I consider Joseph the patron saint of adoptive fathers - heck adoptive parents. There is a certain strangeness to adoption - (and a certain dreaming as well. Dreams fulfilled in ways you wouldn’t suspect (or ways you wouldn’t dream, I guess).) And so, I like to think about Jesus as an adopted child, and this holy family coming together as gift of God. 

What I find most compelling with this text is that Joseph has - in his righteousness - decided to act totally contrary to God’s plan for the salvation of the world.

Daniel Patte, in his commentary “The Gospel According to Matthew A Structural Commentary on Matthew’s Faith” makes this insight quite well. 

He says that Joseph needed the angel to appear to him in order for him to have a correct understanding of who Jesus is. . . .

...he had an incorrect evaluatoin as long as he, the righteous Joseph, the husband of Mary, was on his own. ...Joseph’s righteousness was of no help to him to gain the proper perspective of the situation. In fact, the opposition makes it clare that it is as “righteous” that Joseph makes an incorrect evaluation of the situation, and this even though his righteousness is the better righteousness (5:20) of a person who has mercy and compassion (5:38-48; 7:12) for someone else. This is indicated by wanting to divorce Mary quietly so as not to expose her to shame. (1:19) Yet such a righteousness is not enough. Something is missing or incoreect in it. pg 26

People say, "If only we could keep the Christmas Spirit year round." I say we can't even maintain it for Christmas. Sounds kinda curmudgeonly, I guess. But sadly. Its true.  Our best isn't good enough.

We look ahead to a salvation that will save us from even our own righteousness.