Get Woke, People! A Word for the 4th Sunday of Advent

Sunday, December 18: Advent 4

Isaiah 7:10-16; Romans 1:1-7; Matthew 1:18-25

I know my kids love it when I’m hip and cool. And there’s nothing hipper or cooler than a grown adult using some “urban slang”---especially when that term is no longer used very often.  So I’m going to make my kids proud today and be totally hip and cool.

In today’s Gospel reading, man, that dude Joseph is totally “woke.”  Yeah, man, the dude got woke!

In the Urban dictionary, woke means: being aware. Knowing what’s going on in the community.  And even though it may seem strange that it happened with a dream, Joseph got woke today.

The angel in the dream woke Joseph to a spiritual reality that he is being called to live, and this spiritual reality is at complete odds with the worldly reality he finds himself living day to day.  Joseph and Mary have committed themselves to one another; there seems to be a marriage contract, arranged by the parents and including a bride price, which makes this couple legally bound to one another. All that would be left to finalize this contract is a ceremony, after which Mary will move in with Joseph.  But now, Mary finds herself pregnant, and Joseph is perfectly justified to dismiss her. It would even be perfectly acceptable (and somewhat expected) to shame her, and leave her without any further regard or concern.  After all, she’s made her bed, she should just lie in it…..right?

We already know Joseph is a different kind of guy because he chooses not to do the expected.  He sees no other way except to divorce Mary, but he refuses to shame or disgrace her. This will be a quiet leaving.  This simple act of compassion tells us, tells the world, signals to the Holy Spirit----there’s a God-shaped heart here in this Joseph.

So God goes to work via one of his special messengers, and taps on that God-shaped heart to a different possibility, an alternative reality---God’s vision and dream for Joseph.  And through Joseph, for the world. And Joseph gets woke.  Woke to an entirely different path that will have a completely different outcome.

First of all, let’s recognize that in order for Joseph to be “woke” to this divine reality, a predisposition is required---that God-shaped heart has had to be formed.  A predisposition means one is susceptible to something; one has a tendency or an inclination toward something.  Joseph is susceptible to God’s movement; Joseph has a tendency, an inclination, toward God’s message.  So when the messenger arrives to tell God’s tale, Joseph can see God’s movement, can hear God’s message, and is able to believe and trust—to take action and make choices---in favor of God’s movement and message.

Beloved, like Joseph, we need to get “woke.”  “Woke” to a whole different reality---the divine reality that we call the Gospel, the Good News. This divine reality that God is continually inviting us to live and reveal to the world, and beloved, it too is in utter conflict with the world’s reality.  Like Joseph, we are faced with a choice: will we be woke to God’s vision and reality or will we stay asleep to it by pretending it cannot happen, that it’s not our work, that we need not bother?  Which reality will we be woke to day after day, hour after hour, minute by minute?

The world’s reality proclaims that due to our National concerns and security, we don’t have to worry about the human carnage happening in Aleppo and the hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees.  That’s not our problem; we don’t owe them anything.

But the divine reality proclaims: For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who is not partial and takes no bribe,  who executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and who loves the strangers, providing them food and clothing. You shall also love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt. (Deuteronomy 10)  

Other translations for the word “stranger” in this text are: alien, immigrant, refugee.  Beloved, it’s about time we get “woke” to this reality, and it is time that we commit our efforts to these our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, God’s own children for the hour is at hand.

Our worldly reality is doing its best to have us believe that some people, and their human rights, are not as worthy, as important, as others.  Swirling around us, fighting for our belief, our action, our support are the ideas that:

• ·      our environment, this fragile earth our island home, is expendable if it means bigger corporation profits

• ·      not all our children are worthy of an exceptional education

• ·      if people can’t afford healthcare, that’s their problem

• ·      we are supposed to build walls instead of bridges

• ·      women do not deserve equal pay for equal work and

• ·      our national citizenship should take priority over our citizenship in God’s Kingdom

People, it’s time to be “woke,” Woke to this Gospel we proclaim each Sunday, this Good News that we express in our liturgy, our creeds, our Lord’s Prayer week in and week out.  Time to get woke to God’s command to love God’s people as God does---sacrificially, steadfastly, without exception, and with a love that takes action; action that insures that all God’s people have enough:  water, food, shelter, healthcare, clothes, security, dignity, safety, hope, and love.  Because in this alternative reality, in this Kingdom of God’s, all are worthy of having enough….all.

This means that whatever we do (or don’t do) to the least of God’s people: near or far, stranger or refugee, citizen or immigrant----is what we do or don’t do for God.

We proclaim: God’s Kingdom come, God’s will be done---some of us daily---but are we “woke” to what we are saying, what we are praying, what we are asking?  If we truly desire God’s will is to be done, then like Joseph, we require a disposition toward God’s vision.  If God’s Kingdom is to come---the completely different outcome we hear in the Christmas declaration: Let there be Peace on Earth and good will for all humanity----then we must be susceptible, we must be inclined to be moved into action by God’s movement, by God’s message, at God’s command.

Joseph and Mary were just regular folk like you and me. Maybe they weren’t the first couple God called on to do this scandalous, remarkable thing of giving birth to God’s love into the world. Maybe they were couple number 238.  But, we know their story, this story, our story---because they said “yes.”  Through the lives they led, they were predisposed to hear God speak and move in their lives…..and they said yes.

The day is at hand, the hour is here: will we allow the messenger of God to wake us from the all too-often nightmare of the world’s reality and get woke to God’s vision?  Are we willing to be susceptible to God’s movement and message? Like Joseph and Mary, are we saying yes?  Wake up! God is tapping on our hearts.