Advent 4 A at Coventry Cathedral, 22nd December 2019

Are you a rule-keeper or a rule breaker?

I find myself irritatingly set on being a rule keeper on the whole. I will walk dutifully around 3 sides of a lawn if there’s a “keep off” notice, and get dreadfully anxious if I think that I might have accidentally infringed a rule I somehow didn’t know about…

I really don’t want to be a nuisance in any way, stepping over the line is a definite “No”, so – it’s just as well that I wasn’t involved in those early weeks of Mary’s pregnancy. I would probably have wanted to hide because, you see, anyone could tell things weren’t as they should be.

Matthew starts the story in such a calm, matter-of-fact way

“Now the birth of Jesus took place in this way...” Engagement preceding marriage. Utterly respectable until – WHAM -

“Mary was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit”

WHAT?

Let me read that again.

It sounds so undramatic, even ordinary – and because we’ve probably heard these words a thousand times, they may not have much impact.

But for Joseph – they rocked his world.

How on earth could he, how could anyone muster up enough faith to trust Mary’s outrageous claim?

A child from the Holy Spirit?

It beggars belief.

And it’s definitely not the right way to do things, is it…Not in accordance with the laws of Israel, which would have Mary AND her lover stoned to death without further ado.

Joseph is righteous. He wants to do things properly – but with compassion too.

Clearly, his hopes and dreams for the future are in tatters, but he isn’t one to be vindictive.

You can imagine the turmoil.

It’s scarcely surprising that he has difficulty sleeping, or that his sleep is troubled by extraordinary dreams.

Dreams that rekindle hope – if only he can have faith and courage.

This beginning of the Jesus story is not being played by the rules…

it’s an almighty mess, frankly (and of course, we know that worse is to come)

What should Joseph do?

He doesn’t have to be a part of this mess. He could save himself a lot of trouble by steering well clear – but somehow, faith triumphs, giving him strength to accept the scandal, the gossip, the risk that he too will be seen as a troublemaker, refusing to play by the rules.

Actually, he may be engaging deeply with the rules, the truth, of how things actually ARE, rather than the perfect pictures of how they ought to be.

Yes, there is mess...There is disappointment...but that’s the world into which God will soon be born to an unwed teenage mother.

Born into scandal and shame.

Born into risk and fear.

Just the way that God has always planned it.

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall name him Emmanuel. God with us”

Too often we seek to deny the messiness of our very human lives.

The shiny Christmas decorations, the myriad lights that seek to drive back or distract us from the darkness of poverty and distress here in our city and beyond can be part of that denial, like all those ads encouraging a perfect family Christmas, a world away from tetchy, exhausted parents, and over-excited children greedy for the next present.

But, you know, Immanuel, God with us, is there in the reality.

In the frantic preparations that never quite seem to be enough

In the anxiety over family gatherings where not all the family is really that thrilled to find themselves together.

In the disappointment and the loneliness of those who had never imagined it would turn out like this.

God with us -

I’m going to date myself now by admitting a fondness for the 90s track by Joan Osborne, “What if God was one of us”.

In case you don’t know it, let me share the chorus

“What if God was one of us. Just a slob like one of us. Just a stranger on a bus trying to make his way home.”

I have never dared to investiigate whether the song was written in faith or in irony – and if you know, please don’t tell me.

Because, of course, this is the heart of everything.

God IS one of us...whatever that might look like.

Immanuel.

God with us in the endless business of the Cathedral at this time of year..in the hard-won beauty of the choir singing away the dark on Advent Sunday...in the weary scraping of candlewax from the floor...in the stickiness of a thousand Christingle oranges…and the starling-chatter of school-children filling the nave for their end of term celebration.

God with us in the patient preparations and proof reading for service after service after service...

God with us no less in the barely suppressed grumpiness of overtired staff and of volunteers who’ve agreed to do just one more event, because “we know you’re stretched at this season”

God with you, Paul and Sheila, in what must surely be an emotional roller-coaster as you prepare to bring so many years of loving service here to an end.

God with you in the next adventure as surely as God has been with you shining through all that you have brought to the life of this place.

God with us in our hopes and our fears, for ourselves and for our country.

God who has NEVER played by our rules, but turns them upside down in every way….living his manifesto, Mary’s Magnificat..

God the rule-breaker stepping down from the throne of glory that we would surely cling to...setting aside everything but love to be with us in our triumphs and disasters, our moments of faith and our days of doubt…

When Joseph broke the rules and joined Mary on the side of God’s wild subversion, he can’t have known what the future might hold.

I wonder how often he comforted his wife, comforted himself, by repeating Isaiah’s words

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son and they shall name him Immanuel”...how often he fell asleep, using that name as a prayer as he tumbled into darkness

“Immanuel”...God with us…

Here, now and always.