Gospeling Our Life - Noticing our Assumptions

 

This week, we are preparing the soil of our souls, polishing our reading glasses, before we launch into reading the Gospels in fifty-ish days.  Yesterday, I touched briefly on the importance of questions in response to what we are reading Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  Unfortunately, sermons too often leave us with neat and tidy “answers” that we can tuck into our pockets, and we assume that we understand.  But the best part of Scripture is that it is not a story to be solved but a mystery to be lived.  Yesterday, I invited you to read Luke 2.  Today, continuing our Christmas in the middle of summer, theme lets turn to Matthew 2 where we meet Joseph, Jesus’ adoptive father.

 

For example, who really is Joseph?  What do we know about him?

 

Actually, very little.  Matthew tells us he was a righteous man.  Wait, what pops into your mind with that word, “righteous”?  Often today, it carries baggage of negativity.  We think of self-righteous people who pound pulpits and are always the hero, who never admit a mistake, always blame others.  We think of people who look down their nose at us, make us feel small.  But “righteousness” here could be faithful.  In fact, it could be connected to the Hebrew word, “Hesed” which means, “Loving-kindness”.  Joseph embodied and embraced a way of being that sought not to blame or shame.  As a matter of fact, Joseph had every right to accuse Mary of adultery.  But he tried to dismiss her, that is, divorce her, in quiet.  He didn’t drag her into the public square or post on his social media accounts about how he is the victim.  He sought another way.  And note that most people would have assumed that the baby in Mary’s womb was Joseph’s offspring.  And that he was sidestepping his parental responsibility and accountability.  Joesph takes the societal shame and blame. 

 

Now, I don’t expect that you would know all of that or that you should go down a rabbit hole with every sentence in Scripture.  Otherwise, we won’t finish the gospel in about sixty days or sixty years!!  What I am encouraging is that each day, you find one story, verse, or word to dig a bit deeper for five minutes.  This is where technology is amazing!  I will share a few good resources with you to help you with overviews of each Gospel.  The church library has some amazing commentaries that I can share with you to assist you.  I have books that you could come and read a few paragraphs about the verse that are singing to your soul.  Again, this won’t be every day or even every week.  But I do pray a few times over the course of sixty days you might find God showing up as you read Scripture with me.  May God, who is authoring your story in these days, continue to write of God’s love in your life today. Amen.