Comfort for the Unexpected

WELCOME

Pastor Chris Paavola:

Well, hey everybody. Good morning. Good morning. Good to be with you guys today. My name is Chris Paavola. I get the honor of being the senior pastor here at St. Mark and we are in a series called Comfort and Joy, so you can experience just that. And today we’re talking about finding comfort and in the unexpected, but this is, I’ll be honest, this is the hardest day to preach, not just because they keep me contained up here and I can’t wander as much as I normally do, but because today I feel like the opening act and you’re all here to see the headliner and you’re like, okay, get off the stage. We don’t even know your songs. We’re waiting here for Pearl Jam. So that’s what it feels like.

So I’m not going to fight against that. I’m not going to fight. I know that you guys are here to see angel number five, do their thing. But what I do want to do, instead of fighting against that, I kind of want to give you guys a different way to think about the Christmas story that the kids are going to present for us, A different way to think about it, a different lens to look at it as you consider Christmas. And it has to do with this idea of the unexpected. Okay?

UNEXPECTED CHRISTMAS

So, in the Christmas story, there’s a whole lot of unexpected things starting with Mary. The unexpected thing with Mary is she’s got, she’s living her life doing her thing, and then all of a sudden she gets this unexpected news that she is pregnant or will be pregnant with God’s son.

And then that leads to all this joy of giving birth to the Messiah and amazing honor. And then there’s the unexpected angels that appear to the shepherds telling them that the savior has been born and they run off with great joy and see this thing. So that’s the unexpected news. And then there’s Herod to gets some unexpected visitors from the Magi who see an unexpected star that Harold’s the birth of the Messiah and their hearts are full of wonder and awe what could be happening. And then even the innkeeper gets an unexpected knock on the door and leads Mary and Joseph to his barn and gives the animals some unexpected entertainment for the evening. And all of these things are great, but then there’s Joseph, and Joseph gets the unexpected as well. But what makes Joseph’s unexpected different than everyone else’s is his is the only unexpected that deals with disappointment. 

JOSEPH’S UNEXPECTED

Like everyone else’s. Unexpected is surprise and joy and wonder. But Joseph’s unexpected is, Hey honey, you need to sit down. I’m pregnant and it’s not yours. And Joseph deals with this disappointment. And when we look at the story, I think it is powerful because God gives him comfort in the midst of his disappointment. And that’s my hope for you today as well. Whatever you’re going through, whatever unexpected disappointments you may be facing that today, you could walk out of here with comfort because of the story of Joseph. And we know what we know about scripture, about Joseph is basically what you just heard in our reading. That’s pretty much what we know about him. But don’t be fooled by the 2000 miles or 10,000 miles of difference and 2000 years of difference. Joseph has aspirations very similar to your own. He wants a good life with a good marriage and a good home and good kids and a good job.

He has the same aspirations that you do. And then unfortunately, the disappointment sets in, and we read about it in Matthew’s biography of Jesus in chapter one, verse 18, that Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. And because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly reason I highlighted the word and yet there or the words. And yet, I mean really, it’s a story full of and yets Joseph, he’s building a home for his wife because typically in Jewish cultures, you would get engaged and then you would spend a year or so building a home or an addition onto your father’s house with many rooms where you and your bride would live.

And when you got done with the construction, then you would go forward with the wedding ceremony. And so he’s working hard to build a home for his wife, and yet she breaks his heart. And then he’s also don’t be fooled by his kind of gruff blue collar exterior and the sawdust in his beard. He is a very devout man, a very in touch with who God is, and he’s faithful to the law. He believes that by his observance, they’re ushering in the Messiah to come and preparing Israel for that.

RELATABLE

So, he’s a very devout man, and yet God rewards him with public disgrace in spite of all of his faithfulness. God gives him this disgraceful moment and an empty home. And now he walks through the marketplace and people whisper about him and he, yet he doesn’t take it out on Mary, he could. He’s legally allowed to levy the full weight of the Jewish law and could have her publicly stoned for her act of adultery.

And yet he doesn’t. He doesn’t. And he spares her life. He takes his disgrace and keeps it for himself. It’s a remarkable moment. And I think that’s what makes Joseph so relatable is because you and I can identify with, and yet I’ve tried to raise my kids, right? And yet they don’t make choices that I agree with. Or maybe you’re a kid. I’ve tried my best to honor mom and dad, and yet they don’t respect my boundaries. They don’t respect my choices. They still treat me like I’m a middle schooler. I’ve tried hard to be healthy and fit and eat right, and yet the test results came back positive.

I’ve tried hard to work all my life, and yet my bank account doesn’t have very many commas. You know what? And yet feels like disappointment. And in this season of life, maybe it’s recent or just kind of in the past year, if you look back on it, you’ve got, and yet you’ve got unmet expectations. The unexpected has happened and it’s left you with disappointment. But it’s that disappointment that God visits Joseph and gives him this distinct comfort. And that’s my prayer for you as well today, whatever. And yet you’re dealing with, and it happens in the next verse. So Joseph gets this horrible news, wife breaks his heart. And then verse 20, after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in hers from the Holy Spirit?

Do not be afraid. And this is a little bit of a side quest like Sidetracks just spare me, but kind of a parenthetical thought. But they’re in the gospels and the biographies of Jesus, two of them specifically detail Luke and Matthew detail the birth of Jesus and how it all came about. And when you look at ’em together, there’s four times in the accounts, four times that we see this phrase. Do not be afraid. Four times it happens. When Zechariah and Elizabeth specifically, they’re the parents of John the Baptist who’s the forerunner for Jesus. Zechariah sees an angel, and the angel tells him, do not be afraid. Mary has a visit with Gabriel and he tells her to not be afraid. And then the shepherds see the angels like a legion of armed militia angels in the sky. And they tell them, do not be afraid. And Joseph is told, do not be afraid. But the difference is, is with Zechariah Mary and the shepherds, they’re told not to be afraid because these are powerful towering figures, brandishing swords, they are terrifying. The angels are not cherubim wearing diapers. They are military soldiers, terrifying figures. The heavenly host is a military term, and that’s who they see. And so when they see them, they’re told, don’t be afraid because these things are terrifying.

But when Joseph sees the angel, he doesn’t tell him to not be afraid of the angel. Isn’t that interesting? He tells him not to be afraid to do what Mary has told him to do or to take Mary as his wife. He’s told not to be afraid to follow through with the Lord’s plan. I know this is hard, Joseph, I know you’re disappointed Joseph, but I have a plan that’s greater than your plan for you. I have a plan that’s bigger than you and you’re a part of it, but this is more important than just you, Joseph. And suddenly his disappointment is taking on perspective. And then we get verse 21, this Mary, your wife, your fiancée, will give birth to his son and you’re to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. Now, this is a good of time as any the name Jesus, I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this, but names have meanings, and there’s a meaning behind your name, whatever it might be. And the name Jesus. This account is written in what’s called coin a Greek or like a Hellenistic Greek. And the name Jesus is Jesus and Greek. And then in Aramaic, which Jesus spoke, it was the common language at the time. His common language is yes, is how you would say Jesus. And in Hebrew, which Jesus is Jewish in Hebrew, the name that he’s saying here is Yeshua.

And that’s where we get our name. Joshua. You can kind of hear it. It sounds similar. And what it means is yah, as in the name, God, Yahweh and the cut in a half, they don’t want to profane his name. So with respect, they only say half of it. Yah is. And then so say or salvation. So yah is salvation or God saves. That’s what the name Jesus means. God saves. And this means that every time you hear the name of Jesus, every time you say the name of Jesus, even when you’re angry and driving down Beckley on Christmas Eve and it’s the sleet snow thing happening, and you say the name of Jesus at that moment, even then you’re saying God saves, you’re declaring a truth over that reality. Now doesn’t mean you should go cursing his name, you should honor the name of the Lord. That’s one of the big greatest hits of commandments. But the point is, is that every time we speak the name of Jesus, even when his name is derided, it’s declaring a truth over that reality. God saves.

I think that’s powerful. But in this moment with Joseph, now he starts to open his eyes and his perspective is raised to a bigger reality. God wants to save. Oh, look at that. Save his people from their sins. That’s why he’s Jesus. And we start to see though, that in this account, Joseph is no longer just thinking about his life and what people in Nazareth are whispering about him. Now he’s thinking about God’s great plan to save the world from their sins. And you and I think about sin, like when we think of the word sin, we tend to think of it as this religious word for when we do bad. And that’s part of sin. Yes, but that’s not the full definition of it. That’s not the full meaning of it. When you read scripture sin, yeah, it’s what you do. But listen, this is actually, I think if you’ve never heard this, this is really liberating. You’re not a sinner because you sin.

You sin because you’re a sinner. It’s this condition. It’s who we are. We are conceived in sin. Sin is ever present. Like in joy of the world, we sing. As far as the curse is found, it’s referring to sin. Sin has corrupted everything. Everything is corrupted by sin. Your own life included. Sin corrupts. So sin has corrupted your health with sickness. That’s why you get sick and die. It’s from sin. God didn’t make you this way. It’s sin. Sin corrupts your relationships. And now there’s conflict. Sin corrupts life and ushers in death. Sin corrupts our relationship with God and the community we have with him, with this enmity, this distance between us and sin has even corrupted your wisdom, your minds with selfishness and conceits and confusion.

That’s a much bigger definition of sin than most of us have and what we need to be rescued from. See, Jesus didn’t come to just make it’s okay to want to a good home and good kids and a good marriage and a good paying job and a good life. That’s okay. But then we have lowered when we have unmet expectations and disappointment. Jesus didn’t come to make our good things better. He came to save us from our sins. He didn’t just come to give us what we want, but he came to give us what we need. If that was the case, God would’ve sent a banker.

God would’ve sent a comedian. God would’ve sent a financial advisor or a life coach or a military general. If our problem was that good could be better. But God sent a savior to save us from sin. And in this encounter with Joseph, he’s raising his eyes. He’s putting his hand under his chin and raising his eyes to not necessarily what he wants, but what he needs. He’s raising his eyes from the finite to the infinite, from the temporal to the eternal, from the mundane to the divine. And that’s what he wants to do for you too. 

RAISING EXPECTATIONS

I think sometimes when we have unmet expectations, we can do things like lowering our expectations, right? That’s one option. But I think the Christmas story tells us that it’s not that our expectations are too high, it’s that they’re not high enough. You were made for so much more. You were made for perfect. You were made for the uncorrupted paradise. And that’s what God wants for you, is to raise your expectations from just your life being good. He’s trying to redeem and rescue the world.

18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order for you to know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people…

Ephesians 1

And this is honestly a theme we see all throughout scripture, all throughout scripture is this idea of just opening our eyes and to a bigger reality. It’s why we pray thy will be done, thy kingdom. Come on, earth is in heaven and trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean out in your own understanding or these words from the apostle Paul in Ephesians one, verse 18, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be opened in order, that you may know the hope to which he has called you.” Raise your eyes to a higher standard that God has for you, the riches of his glorious inheritance for all his holy people. That’s my prayer for you too, this Christmas.

DISAPPOINTMENT IN PERSPECTIVE

Now I know, I know, I know. Especially if you’re going through a hurt right now, you’re thinking something. And so I want to give a voice to what some of you in the room are thinking. Yeah, but it still hurts. It still hurts. I’m not okay. It’s still painful. I’m still disappointed. I know I don’t mean to minimize your pain or make less of it, but this message does put it in perspective. And when pain is put in perspective, when disappointment is put in perspective, you know what word that is? You know what we call that comfort? Think about if a kid scuffs their knee and they see blood for the first time and they freak out, I’m going to die. And you’re like, no, no, no, honey, let me clean it. Mommy. Put a band aid on perspective. You’ll be fine. Or if you have a loved one who’s hurting and you go up to them and you tell them, I am so sorry. I know what you’re going through. I’ve been there too, you’re going to be okay. That’s perspective, that’s comfort. And that’s exactly what happens in the Christmas story when Joseph is reeling from unmet expectations and disappointment. God gives him perspective. He gives him comfort. And that’s my hope for you today too, that whatever you’re reeling from, whatever disappointment you have, comfort you were made for so much more.

That’s what I want you to look for as you consider the Christmas story in just a few moments as you consider the Christmas story in the next few days and on Christmas itself, just a new perspective, a different way to look at the story, a new lens. Let me pray for us.

PRAYER

Heavenly Father, I pray for any person who can hear the sound of my voice right now, reeling from disappointment of unmet expectations and that you would comfort them with a perspective that you came to save us from sin. Forgive us when we try to make you into a genie in a bottle or some kind of therapy session, or just a parachute when we need you and making our good life better. Raise our eyes, Lord, and just we make ourselves available to you today and in the days to come by the power of your Holy Spirit and press on our hearts this idea that you came to bring us a comfort and joy that is far, far greater than what we want. You can bring us a comfort and joy. That is what we need.

And as people longing for perspective, your son gave us these words to pray. And so we pray these words, finding great comfort in them. As we say together, our father who art in heaven, Hollywood, be thy name, thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.