Matthew 1:18-25
“What A Difference God Makes!”
By: Kenneth E. Sauer, Pastor of Parkview United Methodist Church, Newport News, VA
I was talking with a colleage of mine this past Tuesday morning, and he was telling me
about his family. He was telling me how excited he was that his children would be coming home
for the holidays.
During our conversation, he made a very interesting comment. He explained to me that
he and his children have grown especially close now that they are grown, and that they thank
him for the way that they were raised. They thank him that he and their mother took them to
church, and instilled values in them--values that last a life-time.
Obviously God made a big difference in the life of my friend’s family, and I beleive that
this is the case in most instances.
And this is an especially important fact to remember in this day and age when less and
less people claim affiliation to a house of worship.
There are literally millions of families in America today who do not attend any church,
and who do not make God a part of their family.
And we can see the effects of this all around us as more and more families are breaking
up, and as more and more children are turning to drugs and other forms of escapism in order to
fill the void in their lives.
My son Ben for example, came home from school one day and told us that right down the
street at Heritage High School there is a large contigent of students who are dabbling in Satan
worship and witchcraft.
One child came up to Ben and asked him to sign his name on a sheet of paper, but before
he could do this a friend of his warned him that this kid belongs to a group that is trying to win
souls for Satan.
And sure enough, when Ben took a close look at the paper he was being asked to sign, he
saw that it was a contract, and the words of the contract went something like, “By signing my
name, I hereby agree to give my soul to Satan.”
When Jeanne heard about this, she asked, “I wonder what church these kids go to?”, and
I answered, “That’s the problem, they probably don’t go to any church.”
I knew a young couple in Macon, Georgia who joined the church I was serving. They
were having all kinds of marital difficulties, and were just about ready to call it quits, but
decided to try attending church as a last ditch effort to save thier marriage. In essence, they
brought God into their lives.
Over time, this young couple became very involved in the life of the church, and the
husband even started a children’s choir.
And he gave that choir a name. One day I asked him why he had chosen the name he had
chosen, and he told me that he had named the choir after his home church.
He could have named the choir “The Happy Singers,” or something like that, but no he
decided to name the choir after the church that gave him his formative Christian roots.
Obviously God had been a part of his family, and that meant an awful lot to him.
This couple is still married, and last I heard from them their relationship had gotten much
better because they had invited God into their family.
So the question I want us to ponder this morning is: “What difference does it make if God
is in our family?”
If we take a look at our gospel lesson, it becomes immediately apparent that it made a big
difference in the life of Joseph and Mary.
Mary and Joseph had been pledged to be married.
Among Jews at this time, the marriage vows were made at something called a betrothal,
and the law required that only divorce could end them.
The normal interval of time between the pledge to get married and the time that the
husband and wife would live together and have a physical union was a year.
And during this interval Mary became pregnant.
And according to the law, this is a situation that could be punishable by death.
What an awful predicament for this young couple to have to face!
So our gospel lesson tells us that Joseph took this situation to heart, through much
consideration.
Imagine how difficult this must have been!
Mary was pregnant, but they were not yet living together.
How much gossip would there be?
What would the neighbors think, and what would Mary and Joseph tell them?
Now, Joseph could have decided to publicly accuse Mary--making a spectacale of her,
and thus causing her to be stoned to death.
After all, the law was on his side.
Joseph already had a career as a carpenter, and there were probably plenty of other fish in
the sea.
And I’m sure that these thoughts must have crossed his mind.
It would have made perfect sense, and the towns people might have been more than
willing to participate in a public stoning.
Joseph could have been a hero in the eyes of the people.
He could have decided to go along with the crowd, but Joseph bucked the crowd.
Instead, Joseph chose compassion over the law.
He decided to listen to his own voice, deep down inside of him, and his own voice told
him not to do this.
Verse 19 tells us that Joseph was “a righteous man,” and this implies that Joseph had a
religious background.
So Joseph decided to just divorce Mary in a quite manner.
Oh, how he must have loved her!
Oh, what a dilemma he faced, but in the midst of this desparate situation the picture
was changed radically by the entrance of God.
God’s will literally led Joseph in a direction that he did not expect to take!
In verses 20 and 21 we see that an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and
said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is
concieved in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the
name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
What a shocker that must have been!
But at the same time, it must have been an incredible relief!
A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me how it was that I decided to go into the
ministry.
I explained to him that I had grown up in a family who had invited God to be in it’s
midst, and I had felt the call of God to go into the ministry at a very early age.
And I had considered this for quite some time.
As a matter of fact, I had considered this for years, and after much consideration I had
decided that I was going to go in a different direction.
One night when I was walking down a sidewalk all by myself, I got thinking about God
and about life, and about choices.
And I felt God calling me to give my entire life over to Him.
At the time, I didn’t really know what the implications of this would be, but I decided
that I would give it a shot.
And what a shocker that was!
Pretty soon my entire perspective on life changed.
My priorities changed, and I began to look at people and the challenges of life in a whole
new way.
And what a relief this was!
Once I allowed God to take control of my life, I no longer had to rely completely on my
own understanding. I no longer was forced to follow the cravings of my flesh, and my natural
desire to follow the crowd.
And pretty soon, God’s will led me in a direction that I did not expect to take.
I started applying to seminaries, and now I am your pastor.
I have never been happier in my entrire life!
What a big difference God makes!
Mary and Joseph faced a huge problem, and this problem was leading them to a
precipous, but God entered their lives and led them into a wonderful situation.
In verses 24 and 25 we see that “When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord
had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she
gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.”
Now God had not only entered the life of Joseph and Mary through an angel of the Lord,
He literally entered their lives through what we as Christians call the incarnation--which means
that God became a human being. So Joseph and Mary got to know God in a very personal way.
And because of God’s incarnation, we too can come to know God in a very personal
way.
And as we come to know God in a very personal way, we come to find that God calls us
and leads us in a direction that we might not have expected to take.
An old friend of mine from high school emailed me not too long ago.
He’s been living in Michigan for the past several years, and he is very talented musically.
He told me that he and his bandmates used to pass by a small United Methodist Church
every day on their way to band practice, and that they would often make jokes as they drove by.
They would say things like, “I wonder how many snakes they are handling in there
today?”
Then he told me that he met a young woman who was a member of that church, and she
became his wife.
He is now a member of that small United Methodist Church, and in his email he told me
“They don’t handle snakes at all in that church.”
Then he said, “I have found the love of God through Christ, and have returned to school
in order to finish my bachelor’s degree.”
“Who would figure,” he wrote, “that I would become a member of the very place I used
to make fun of?”
He and his wife now have three children, and they are happily married. They are raising
their family in the church. They have allowed God to become part of their family, and someday
their children might very well thank them for the way they were raised.
What difference does it make if God is in our family?
Quite a difference I would say.
Have you allowed God to enter your family?
If not, it is never too late.
