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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. (Amen.)
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
This year in our Midweek Advent Evening Prayer Services, we have been developing the theme “Angels of Advent”. Previously we considered both how “Gabriel appears to Zechariah” (Luke 1:5-25) and how “Gabriel comes to Mary” (Luke 1:26-38), and tonight we consider how “An angel appears to Joseph”, as narrated in tonight’s First Reading. While the image on tonight’s service folder apparently depicts the same angel as last week’s depiction of Gabriel, the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew does not name the angel who appears to Joseph in a dream, and so we cannot say definitively one way or another whether or not the angel who appeared to Joseph in a dream was Gabriel. There are other notable differences between the three accounts, as well. Although the English Standard Version that we heard read translates “appears” in both cases, St. Luke uses a different Greek word when referring to Gabriel’s appearing to Zechariah than St. Matthew uses when referring to the angel’s appearing to Joseph. Likewise, Gabriel is described as “sent” to both Zechariah and Mary, and Gabriel further is said to have “come” to Mary, while the angel who appears to Joseph is said to appear “in a dream”—clearly no ordinary dream (Buls, ad loc Matthew 1:18‑25, p.13), but still seemingly a lesser form of revelation. Similarly, while “fear” is mentioned in all three narratives, and all three people are told by their respective angel “not” to fear, Zechariah’s fear seems to relate to his being troubled when he saw Gabriel, Mary’s fear seems to relate to her being troubled—expressed by a different Greek word—at Gabriel’s greeting, and Joseph’s fear seems to relate to his potentially taking Mary as his wife. And, while Gabriel speaks to Zechariah and Mary before their children’s conception, the angel speaks to Joseph after Jesus’s conception.
Either through the angel who appeared to Joseph or through the Divinely‑inspired St. Matthew, the Lord goes on to tell Joseph or to say in general that “All this took place” in order “to fulfill what the Lord had spoken” some 700 years earlier “by the prophet” Isaiah, about a virgin’s conceiving and bearing a Son, Who would be called “Immanuel”, “which means, God with us”. In tonight’s First Reading we heard the full account of that prophecy (Isaiah 7:1-25), which in some ways compares and contrasts to the angel’s appearing to Joseph. For example, the Lord sent the prophet Isaiah to tell Ahaz, the king of Judah, both not to be afraid of the threat posed by the kings of Syria and Israel and to trust in the Lord for deliverance, when Ahaz already had decided to trusting in the king of Assyria, just as Joseph was afraid to take Mary as his wife and apparently already had decided to divorce her quietly. Also, through Isaiah the Lord addressed Ahaz as “house of David”, as through the angel the Lord addressed Joseph as “son of David”, seemingly recalling for both the Lord’s promises to their ancestor, including those promises about the Messiah. And, the Lord’s being present with both Ahaz and Joseph, though present in different ways, presented both men with a unique opportunity either to believe the Lord and so do what He told them to do or to be judged accordingly for unbelief and disobedience.
To be sure, on account of our sinful natures and all of our actual sins, we all deserve not only to be judged for our unbelief and disobedience but also to be sentenced to temporal death and eternal punishment. Whatever they were thinking, both Ahaz and Joseph reasoned with weak human intentions and fallible human wisdom, until they were confronted by the Word of God. We might think that we would like an angel of the Lord to appear to us in a dream and to tell us what to do; maybe the angel would ease our decision making; or maybe the angel would tell us to do something that we do not want to do! As those who are at the same time both justified and still sinful, moved by the Holy Spirit, we must admit with St. Paul that we wretched people do not do the good that we want to do but that the evil that we do not want to do is what we keep on doing. So, like St. Paul we ask, Who will deliver us from this body of death? And, again moved by the Holy Spirit, we answer, thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! (Romans 7:19, 24-25.)
The sign that Ahaz impiously refused to name became for Joseph at least the sign that he could take Mary as his wife. An otherwise unknown virgin’s miraculously‑conceiving a Son had an impact as deep as hell and as high as heaven. God the Father makes God the Son become flesh of the Virgin Mary by the power of God the Holy Spirit (confer Luke 1:35). God, Who had been with His faithful people from the beginning, was now with them in the flesh of the developing baby Jesus, so named because He would save His people from their sins (confer Luke 1:31). As St. Peter preached, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among human beings by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). Prophecies such as that through Isaiah were fulfilled not simply because God had made them and so had to fulfill them in order to check them off His list, but prophecies such as that through Isaiah were fulfilled because of our loving God’s deep desire to save all people, including you and me. By Jesus’s death on the cross, Jesus does save us who believe from our sins. We are made “just” or “righteous” through faith in Him, as we receive His forgiveness, through the miraculous signs that He gives to us.
As the Lord spoke through Isaiah to Ahaz, and as the Lord spoke through His angel to Joseph, so in a similar way the Lord speaks through His pastors today to us. Even Ahaz’s false claim of piety reflects some knowledge, if not proper understanding, of God’s Word (confer Deuteronomy 6:16). So, pastors read and preach God’s Word to groups such as this group, and they apply God’s Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with bread and wine in the Holy Supper that are the Body of Christ given for us and the Blood of Christ shed for us and so give us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. In all of these ways, the Son of God in the flesh of Jesus, Immanuel, remains present with us in His Church always, to the end of the age (confer Matthew 18:20; 28:20).
Ahaz apparently did not heed the Lord speaking through Isaiah, but Joseph did heed the Lord speaking through His angel. For all the mentions of Joseph’s thoughts before the angel appeared to him in a dream, after the angel appeared to Joseph in the dream we are not told what Joeseph thought, but we are told simply that Joseph did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took Mary as his wife and acted as Jesus’s legal guardian, for example, by naming the Boy. Our fallen intents and fallen wisdom likewise should be checked by God’s Word. Any and all spiritual direction that we might seek and receive, no matter from whom we receive it, ultimately must be checked by God’s Word. Then, answering the call of tonight’s Additional Psalm (Psalm 135:1-7, 19-21; antiphon: vv.5-6), we, with His angels, as in tonight’s Office Hymn (Lutheran Service Book 520), praise the Lord, Who does whatever He pleases in heaven above, on earth, and in all deeps below.
After previously considering both how “Gabriel appears to Zechariah” and how “Gabriel comes to Mary”, tonight with how “An angel appears to Joseph” we have concluded this year’s Midweek Advent Evening Prayer focus on the “Angels of Advent”. In each case, we have realized both our sin and God’s forgiveness by grace for Jesus’s sake, and we have appreciated God’s sending His “messengers” also to us. May we thus be prepared with repentance: prepared to celebrate our Christmas observance of our Lord’s having come once in the past in order to save us, prepared to receive our Lord as He comes to us in His Word and Sacraments repeatedly in the present in order to forgive us, and prepared to be with our Lord when He comes a final time in the future in order to dwell with us in glory forever.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Amen.)
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +