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Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent – December 21, 2025
Matthew 1:18-25
Dear friends, grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
When my oldest son was little, maybe six or seven years old, he was an angel in the Christmas program. After the program we were in the fellowship hall. He was still in his angel costume when an older gentleman from our church came up to him and with a twinkle in his eye asked him, “So, are you always a little angel?” And our son looked up at him and said, “No, sometimes I’m Joseph.”
This is a Sunday for Joseph. It is easy to overlook Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. We live in a culture where fathers are often dismissed as unimportant. I’ve had pastoral conversations with fathers who tell me they feel invisible and unappreciated. In popular culture fathers are regularly ridiculed as fools or reviled as patriarchs. We have gone from “Father Knows Best” to fathers being seen as an optional accessory. In a time when fathers and fatherhood aren’t as valued as they should be, it is easy to overlook the importance of Joseph.
But this is a Sunday for Joseph. We get one Sunday for Joseph every three years, so I’m going to lean into it. Today we hear the story of Jesus’ birth from Joseph’s perspective. In this story we see the great lengths God went to in order to keep Joseph in the picture. We see how God helped him take up his vocation as husband to Mary and as the earthly father of Jesus. We see how God intervened in order to form what the church from the very beginning has called The Holy Family. God thought Joseph was important, and so we should too!
One of the first things Matthew tells us about Joseph is that he was engaged to Mary. Engagement, or betrothal, in those days was a legally binding contract in which a bride and a groom were joined together legally. It might be a year before they moved in together and consummated their relationship, but once the betrothal was made, the marriage was official.
So, Mary and Joseph had already committed themselves to one another. Joseph had promised to be Mary’s husband. Mary had promised that she would be Joseph’s wife. They had promised each other that they would give themselves to each other in that special and exclusive one-flesh relationship. It was just a matter of time. But then Mary came to him with a baby bump and a story that had to be very hard to believe.
We don’t actually know what Mary might have said to Joseph or what he might have heard, but we do know that Joseph was aware of Mary’s pregnancy, and because he knew that he had nothing to do with the pregnancy, he assumed their relationship was over. The scriptures tell us that he planned to dismiss her, cancelling the betrothal and ending the marriage.
It isn’t a stretch to imagine Joseph being deeply hurt by Mary’s unplanned pregnancy. It isn’t hard to imagine him feeling confused and betrayed and heartbroken at this turn of events. What else could he do but end the relationship?
But God intervened to keep Joseph in the picture. God values fatherhood. God knows what babies need in order to thrive and knew that his own Son would need an earthly father. God knew that Mary would benefit from having a husband in her life to help her carry out what he was asking her to do. And so God sent an angel to Joseph to keep this Holy Family intact.
My wife and I have been supporters of the Whidbey Island Women’s Clinic, our local pregnancy resource center, pretty much since we moved here 15 years ago. We have attended many of their Fall fundraising banquets along with several members of OHLC. Every year at the banquet one of the staff from the clinic tells a story of how they helped a client experiencing an unplanned pregnancy. The stories they tell are full of complicated and difficult life situations. Obviously, the stories are usually about the women they serve, which is understandable and appropriate, but some of the stories have also involved men. There is a lot of care provided by the clinic to scared young fathers too. Some of these men want to help, but they are confused. Some of them want to do the right thing, but they aren’t sure where they fit. Some of them want to step up, but often lacking fathers of their own, they don’t know how. And so the clinic also provides support for the fathers. They offer mentoring. There are parenting classes. More than anything, there is accompaniment. They come alongside these fathers-to-be with support and guidance and love to help keep them in the picture.
This ministry is a good illustration of what God is up to here with Joseph. This is a complicated and confusing situation, to say the least. Joseph is in a tough spot. We can see that Joseph is one of the good guys, because despite any hurt feelings he might have had, he was still kind towards Mary. He didn’t want to expose her to public disgrace. He didn’t want her to face the possibility of being stoned to death for adultery, which was the punishment prescribed by the law. Can we say that despite what looked like a terrible betrayal, he still loved her? I think we can. And so, he decided to make it easier for Mary. He decided to end things quietly.
But God intervened to keep Joseph in the picture. God sent an angel to Joseph in a dream. This messenger from God told him to take Mary as his wife, explaining that the child conceived in her womb was indeed from the Holy Spirit. The angel told him that this was exactly what the prophet Isaiah said would happen – that a virgin would conceive and bear a son, a son who would be called Emmanuel, which means “God is with us.” Emmanuel is more of a description than a proper name in this case, because Joseph was further instructed to name the baby Jesus. “For he will save his people from their sins,” the angel said.
And, remarkably, when Joseph woke up from this dream, he said, “Okay!” Joseph said, “I’ll do it!” Joseph trusted the word of the Lord and obeyed it. He took Mary as his wife. And once Mary delivered her baby, Joseph claimed her child as his own. In the ancient world, a father established parentage by naming the baby. This is what the angel told him to do, and this is what Joseph did. With God’s help, he stepped up. With the accompaniment of the angel encouraging him along, giving him guidance, he carried out God’s will. He took up God’s calling to be a husband to Mary and an earthy father to Jesus.
God’s intervention to keep Joseph in the picture in order to form this Holy Family is important for how it lifts up the vocations of husbands and fathers. St. Joseph is a beautiful image of kindness and mercy and sacrificial love and obedient faith for husbands and fathers to follow.
But Joseph’s story is for everyone – male or female, single or married, parent or child. Joseph’s story is for everyone because we all have life situations that come along which are complicated or confusing or painful. Granted, Joseph is the only person in the history of humanity to be asked to marry a pregnant virgin and then raise the Son of the holy, Almighty, and ever-living God. So, there’s that. But even so, there are so many stories which are like Joseph’s, stories like the ones told at those banquets, life stories that are fraught with uncertainty and anxiety, with turmoil and complexity, full of knotty problems and twists and turns. There are so many stories like that in our congregation. In fact, I’ll bet each of you has a story like that. Maybe it is a story you are living through right now.
Joseph’s story shows us that God accompanies us through these difficult situations in life. God comes alongside us. God sends messengers into our lives, which is what angels are – supernatural or otherwise. God sends messengers to give us encouragement and guidance and support. God intervenes in our lives through his Word, teaching us to do his will, guiding us into obedient faith. The God we come to know in Christ is truly Emmanuel, God with us!
And not only that, but Joseph’s story is our story because along with Joseph, God has given us Mary’s baby. Just as God laid Mary’s baby in Joseph’s arms, so too has God given us his Son. God has given us Mary’s baby to be our savior. Mary’s baby was named Jesus because he saves us from our sins.
And so, no matter how complicated or painful your own life is, or has been, in Jesus there is hope. In Jesus there is forgiveness. In Jesus there is new life. No matter how messy or broken your own family life might be, through Jesus God calls us all into the Holy Family of the church, where we are loved and cared for by brothers and sisters and live in communion with our Father in heaven, who loves us and will never let us go.
“Are you always a little angel?”
“No, sometimes I’m Joseph.”
Sometimes we are all Joseph. Life gets messy. Life can be confusing. But God has intervened to keep you in the picture. God sends his Word to guide you into obedient faith, and God has given you Mary’s baby to save you from your sins. Through him we have all been made part of his Holy Family, today and forever.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Rev. Jeffrey R. Spencer
Oak Harbor Lutheran Church