"Now the Birth of Jesus...."

Most of us receive the good news about the birth of Jesus from the Gospel of Luke. That is to say that all the TV specials often find the wealth of information about this event in Luke's telling of the birth and life of Jesus. But what about Matthew's Gospel? This often intriguing view of Jesus' public ministry and life is often quite challenging as we discover the crux of Matthew's own perspective for the community that received this good news.

And so, this week, I thought it pertinent to look at how Matthew's telling of Jesus' birth happens. Matthew wants to place Jesus more historically in the genealogy of the Jewish people and so he launches off his Gospel with a listing of the family tree. It is an interesting way of trying to combine the ancient life of a community with its present and future living. But then Matthew begins his story: "Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah began this way..."

For Matthew there is no beautiful Mary singing about her overwhelming joy of being chosen by God. Matthew begins his story with scandal at its heart. Matthew lulls us into a sense of comfort as he begins his phrasing with this opening statement. Here is a familiar story. It is a story we have heard before. But Matthew wants to point out something deeper that requires us to begin suspending our past.

For Matthew begins by pointing out that Joseph is a recently engaged man. He is going to prepare the way, for his wedding. He has arranged to marry this young woman, Mary. One day he goes to visit her and discovers that she is pregnant! How can this be? Joseph has every right to take Mary out into the square, condemn her and stone her. This was his right.

Joseph though shows an interesting, and scandalous character to the community hearing this story. We might think it fairly normal in our day and age. Joseph decides that the best thing to do is to backstep. He decides that he will just quietly say to Mary that he just cannot honor his contract with her for marriage and assume she will agree given the situation.

This is all normal don't you think? But before Joseph goes to tell her, one night he has a dream. Dreams and visions are important and can help the listener understand, or accept what happens next. It is in dreams where the holy and sacred enter into our world sometimes. In dreams we can tap into a spiritual awareness that we might not be able to see. It is in his dream that Joseph experiences his own angelic announcement. It is here where Joseph is given a glimpse of the future of this baby that is growing in Mary's womb. He is given an awareness of the connection of the present with a prophetic thread in the history of his people. God is about to do something amazing. "God has done something amazing and you are a part of it, Joseph."

The angel's words recall the sense of what Jesus' ministry will be. The angel tells Joseph that the baby's name will be "Emmanuel," meaning "God with us." It is a hint of the ministry that Jesus will be about. Jesus will come to turn the world upside down; a world that has a chance to rethink how it lives, breathes, and acts. It will be a world that discovers God's very presence everywhere in it.

This is something that By the Way experiences in the people we meet and the community we are forming. As we gather this week for the Service of the Longest Night, it will be a sign for us all that God is with us. That this place where we live, Nashua, is part of God's kingdom, and we together are signs of God's grace to one another in our deepest pain, and in our overwhelming joy in living.

God is doing something amazing and you are a part of it.