Wingham United Church

December 21, 2025

4th Sunday of Advent

A Love Like That

Isaiah 7:10-16

Matthew 1:18-25

          As we read scripture, we should always be aware that there is always much more to the story than what has been written and handed down through the centuries. Just like a movie never includes all the details of the novel upon which it is based, stories never include everything that happened. All we ever have is one person’s perspective, and of that, only what they felt was important enough to write down or pass along.

          Take Joseph, for example. Joseph would seem to be a fairly important character in the story of Christ’s birth and his bringing up, yet he only ever seems to play a supporting role. Even in our gospel reading today, it is the angel who plays the starring role. Joseph is asleep through most of it. And aside from this, Joseph gets only an occasional mention, as someone who was there, but not vital to the scene or plot.

          Yet, as a father, I can’t help but wonder what it must have been like for him to raise the Son of God as his own. How did he feel when the gossip mills churned with speculation about Jesus’ lineage? We don’t hear anything about Joseph past an episode in Jesus’ life when his parents inadvertently left him behind at the temple when he was about 12 or 13 years old. Not something you want to include in your nomination for Father of the Year!

          We have Mary’s Magnificat, which we read together last Sunday. We know that upon hearing she would bear the Son of God, she was overjoyed, excited. All generations would call her blessed. But we know nothing of how Joseph felt through all of this, only that he did as the angel had told him to do.

And as a father, as we get closer and closer to Christmas, I can’t help but wonder what it would have been like for Joseph on the night of Jesus’ birth. Like most people of his day, when he heard of the coming of the Messiah, he would have had certain expectations. Those expectations would only grow and expand following the visit from the angel. He would play a role, a very important role. Yet here he is, and nothing is the way he imagined it.

Like many, he probably would have expected the Messiah to be born in Jerusalem, the Holy City. That would have seemed appropriate. Or at least in his hometown of Nazareth, where he and Mary would be surrounded by family and friends in a nice warm house with a nice, comfortable bed for Mary to lie on. He would have built a cradle for the newborn, sitting in the corner by the fire awaiting the baby’s arrival. The men would have gathered outside while the women tended to Mary. They would have listened for that first cry and the announcement that the baby was a boy. (Of course, Mary and Joseph already knew that it would be.) His friends would have erupted in praise and good wishes and slapped him on the back and shook his hand in congratulations.

But, instead, here he is in Bethlehem, a 5 days’ journey from his home and family, standing outside a stable, unable to even find a warm bed for his wife to lie on as she gave birth. Instead of being surrounded by friends and family, they are surrounded by sheep, cattle, donkeys, and perhaps a camel or two. The noise from the nearby inn, filled to overflowing, would have echoed in the background, interrupted only by the sound of an old cow chewing her cud. How could this be?

The angel had said this child would save people from their sins. This was their long-awaited Messiah, the Son of God. How can this be happening this way? Was he wrong? Was it just a dream? How does any of this make sense?

Of course, looking back, we can see that it is exactly how it had to be. Jesus came to bring good news of God’s love to the poor and marginalized. How could a message like that have been brought by someone born in a palace? How could the plain, ordinary, work-a-day common folk of Judah have related to a Messiah who hob-knobbed with the Pharisees and Sadducees? God’s people needed someone like them. Someone born and raised without privilege or power, someone whose only authority could come from God.

For God so loved the world that God became one of us. Born into extraordinarily humble circumstances so that at our lowest, darkest of times, we could know that God understood, and cared.

The prophet said that the child’s name would be Immanuel, which means God is with us. How could we know that God was with us unless he was born as one of us?

Born in scandalous circumstances, homeless, outcast, soon to find himself a refugee living in exile, regardless of how difficult or low our circumstances, Jesus understands. God came into the world like this so that Jesus could know what it’s like to have everything a person expects and hopes for turned upside-down. For God so loved the world that God wished to relate with everyone, no matter how bad things are or how badly you have been disappointed.

God could demand our respect, our worship, our obedience, but God does not desire our subjugation. God wants us to love God the way that God loves us. So, Jesus was born among us, and walked among us, and travels with us still so that we can know that whatever happens to us along the way, Jesus is there and understands what we are going through and how we feel. Jesus gets that there will be times when we, like Joseph, struggle to make sense of the things we read in scripture and the way things appear in the world around us.

In our reading from Isaiah, King Ahaz, who is king of Judah, is afraid. The kings of Israel and Syria have become allies, and Ahaz is worried that they will attack Judah. Isaiah tells him that God is with him and the planned invasion will never happen, as long as Ahaz follows God’s will, but he warns, “unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.” Ahaz needs faith and confidence to stand against his enemies, so Isaiah encourages him to ask for a sign of God’s allegiance and power to bolster his courage. But Ahaz won’t ask for a sign. Perhaps he cannot think of anything that would convince him that God would give him victory. Instead, he signs a deal with the other two kings that makes Israel little more than a slave and causes them years of hardship and poverty. So, Isaiah promised that there would be a sign for all so that all people would someday know that God was with them through every challenge in life, every hardship, every struggle and disappointment.

“Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel,” which means “God is with us.”

God is with us. As we light the fourth candle of our Advent wreath, the candle of Love, we are reminded once again that there is no love like the love of God, and all God asks for in return is that we love as well.

If we place our faith and confidence in God, even when life seems stacked against us, God will face the challenges with us and protect us. But “unless your faith is firm, [God] cannot make you stand firm.” I read something the other day that said, “We pray as if everything depends on God, then act as if everything depends on us.” We pray for God to help us, then ignore God’s guidance, then blame God when things don’t work out the way we hoped.

Our scripture lessons today show us two examples and the outcome of each. In one, a man hears God’s call, but ignores it, and a whole nation suffers for his lack of faith. In the other, a man hears God’s call, does as he is commanded, and the whole world reaps the benefits. Joseph may have appeared to play a small role in our story, but without him, and his faith, the story would never have been written. That is the power of faith. That is the power of love.

Rev. Colin Snyder, MDiv