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Another account of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, as it is recorded in the Gospel of Matthew, the first chapter, I begin at the verse numbered 18. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child

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of the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, 'Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy

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Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.' All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, 'Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and his name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us.' When Joseph woke from

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sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had born a son, and he called his name Jesus." And may God bless to us and to our understanding this reading from his word. Pray with me. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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I ask you to think with me tonight about Joseph, the man most often forgotten at the manger. Just north of Chicago there is a town called Oak Brook, and in that town there is a church called Christ Church, and in that church there is a chapel which they call the Chapel of the Carpenter. Now the chancel of that

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chapel, the worship area at the front, is made up of a carpenter's shop, which was purchased by that church in Nazareth and brought over just as it was, and placed in the Chapel of the Carpenter. When you look at that workshop from that little town so far away, you're struck with its simplicity, and with its poverty, and with

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its earthiness. There is nothing about it that is extraordinary. And so, Joseph, for Joseph is simple, and poor, and earthy, and not at all extraordinary. I want to think of his life tonight in terms of the four greatest nights of that experience. The first was the night of decision. Tomorrow is going to be a

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very big day for a certain young man who is sitting in your midst tonight, because tomorrow morning he plans to present a ring and an offer of matrimony to the girl he loves most. I know he's going to do this because he's been talking with me about it for the last three years. There had been many times over those

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months when I have thought he was ready to, using the parlance of the campus today, drop the rock. But one thing or another would come up. He would be unsure of himself, or he would be unsure of her, or he would question as to whether he would be able to provide for her as he wished. Sometime, to go back to

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the language of the campus again, he was just playing chicken. But here we are at Christmas, and he has decided that tomorrow is the day. He's seated right there among you, and I can address him directly because you will not be able to identify him, but I want to say on behalf of all of us, congratulations and a very

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Merry Christmas as you go out and begin to commit matrimony. My father told me on one occasion that no man should ever ask a woman to marry him unless he thought that woman was so wonderful that he would be the luckiest man alive if she would have him. Now, I don't know if that's good marital advice

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or not. That's the way my father felt about my mother, and it worked beautifully there, but I'm not sure of it as a general wedding counsel. But think of that principle, holding so high this one the man is going to ask to marry him, think of that principle as Joseph considered Mary. Mary, of all the women

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in history, has been honored by God above all others. She is that one of whom the scriptures speak, "Hail Mary, blessed are you among women." She is not perfect. There is no testimony in Scripture that she is perfect, but there was about her a special holiness and sanctity which was honored of God. And Joseph must have

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thought a long time before he was bold enough to ask for her hand. He probably had a lot of doubts like that young man who's here this evening, and I imagine that more than one piece of lumber was ruined in his workshop as he wrestled with this issue. But finally he decided, and he went to the home of Mary's father,

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and there he asked for her hand. And the father, following the custom which was already centuries old, took the hand of his daughter and put it into the large calloused hand of Joseph and said, "You are espoused, and peace be with you." And they replied, "And peace be with you." And they went out into the night, and I think

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I'm far within the mark when I say that the stars in their eyes were as bright as the stars shining in that Syrian sky. And there together they made pledges while in soft embrace that nothing would ever separate them, for they were betrothed and they were in love.

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The second night in Joseph's story is the night of despair. I have a friend who enjoys playing Frisbee very much. He enjoys playing it so much, in fact, that he sometimes describes himself as a Frisbeterian. I asked him what the principal theological tenant of Frisbeterians was. He told me it is the

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belief that when you die your soul goes up on the roof and nobody can find it. As I thought about that earlier this week, I was reminded of a group of Englishmen who were watching some Americans throw a Frisbee about. After watching it for some time, one of them walked over and said, "I say, Yank, we've

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been watching for 20 minutes. Tell us, who's winning?" They thought that in every such game there must be some competition, some score being kept, but Frisbee is not played for points, at least in a normal way of playing it. It's one of those things about which there is no competition, like friendship, like deep

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relationships, like marriage. You don't go up to a man or a woman, marry to one another, and say who's winning. First Corinthians 13 says we are to keep no score of wrongs, but on the night of Joseph's despair he must have felt that he was losing. It was several months after he and Mary were betrothed that

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Mary's father and Mary came to his house. He cleared a place for them, his house and the workshop were the same. He set the lamp in such a way that its lambent glow fell right on Mary's countenance. He noticed that she looked rather pale. He inquired as to whether she was ill. She made no response. Her

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father took up the conversation. "I bring you words that do not honor me or you, for Mary is with child." I wonder how Joseph felt. Did he feel as if the world had broken in half and fallen away? Did his brain become numb and his hands begin to sweat? Did his tongue become thick and stupid so that he could hardly

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say, "Mary, is this so?" She replied, "It is so." Did he fall on his knees in the shavings and reach out and take her hands and perhaps hold them too tightly and say, "Whose child is this?" And then maybe he let go of the hands and unconsciously he felt about on the floor for some piece of wood which he could

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use as a weapon against the one who had done this thing. Mary sat silent. Did he think to himself, "This must be a bad dream. I had too much wine or there were some rotten olives." No, it had to be true. They were there and he'd heard the words. So he threw his cloak about him and he ran out into the night and he

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left behind him Mary, the one he loved and the one he thought loved him. Perhaps even the moon drew a shawl of clouds across its face in modesty at the scene and some of the valleys about Nazareth heard the crying of Joseph that night and the crying of a strong man is the hardest of all cryings to hear. The next

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day he went to the house of Mary's father. He said that because he was a devout man and was obedient to the law of God he would have to divorce her. He wanted to point out that he would not bring her to shame. He would do it in secret. The law required two witnesses but he had two good friends whom he was

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sure would do it and would not tell others. He regretted what was necessary but God's law must come first. Ever think about how many times people mistake the love of God for some cruel intrusion of his law? I've heard some people address very hard words to God because they thought they understood what was going

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on when in fact they didn't understand it at all. Fellow and his family out for a Sunday drive having a good time until one of the youngsters said, "Oh daddy, daddy look there by the side of the road a little kitten." And father kept on going, "But daddy you just can't leave the kitten there by the siding of the road."

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"Oh yes I can, watch me I'm going to do it right now." "No daddy you've got to go back and and pick up that kitten. If you don't pick up that kitten it may die. Our house is already like a zoo." said daddy. "I'm not going to stop." "But daddy you can't be so mean." And then his wife said, "Dear you've got to do something." So he

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turned around and went back. The cat was nothing but skin and bones, many many fleas, sore eyes and as he bent down to pick it up it extended its claws and reached out to scratch him and tried to bite his hand. But he got a grip on it by the nape of the neck, brought it back to the car. "Don't touch it," he said, "it

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probably has leprosy." Dropped it in the backseat. They went home, gave it four baths. It drank about a gallon of warm milk. And then the youngster said, "And daddy this this first night we can't put we can't put the cat out in the garage it'll have to stay here in the house." And he said, "Oh yes, give it my bed. The whole

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place is a zoo anyway." And a few weeks later he comes home from work and he's standing by the table in the hall leaping through the mail and he fears some feel something brush against his leg and he reaches down and it's a cat. And making sure that nobody is looking, he bends to pat it and it

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arches its back for his caress. Now it's the same cat but it's different and we all understand why it's different. And I tell you this because a few weeks ago God reached down into my life to bless me and I noticed that his hand was covered with scratches. In fact the hand of love is always covered with scratches

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because people like me and Joseph and you will sometimes rethink we understand when we really don't. The third night in Joseph's life was the night of the dream. A lot of men feel you know when their hearts are broken that the best thing to do is to wear themselves out with hard work and maybe that's what he did.

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Working from dawn to dark and then falling upon his palate and going into a deep sleep and one night in such a sleep he dreamed a dream and in that dream he saw an angel. Now I don't know how you feel about angels. The Bible mentions them in more than 300 places but we all have a tendency to doubt those things

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which we have not ourselves experienced. There's a wonderful story which comes out of the history of missions about a group of missionaries from New England who were working in the Hawaiian Islands and were being very successful until one day one of the missionaries said to the king of the island where they were, "You

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know in the wintertime in my homeland the water becomes so hard that people can walk on it." And the king thought that's so laughable and absurd that he was ready to order the missionaries off his island. We have a tendency to doubt the things that we haven't seen. Scripture speaks in unbroken succession

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of the angels and there are many stories about angels. I could tell you some and others here could tell you but call the experience whatever you want to experience. The point is that in this dream Joseph heard an angel and the angel said to him, "Joseph thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary as

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thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost and she shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins." And as quickly as the angel was there the angel was gone. Now I don't know how astute theologically Joseph was but even the

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most average Jew of his period, average in terms of his knowledge of the faith and Joseph was obviously serious about the faith else he would not have said about divorcing Mary, even the most elementary understanding of Hebrew thought taught that the Holy Spirit was the one who revealed God. So when he

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heard from the angel the words that that which was conceived in Mary was of the Holy Ghost, he had to understand that the same Spirit who had led his people always into truth, that same Spirit who had guided Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David, his own spiritual father, that same Spirit had now in some way come

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upon Mary so that her child would be nothing less than the portrait of God. He would be God with skin on his face. But more than that Joseph would also recognize out of his knowledge of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit was not only the one who revealed God but who also opened the eyes of men so that they

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could see that revelation. The fact of the matter is that we are largely sightless. We're blurred by our blasphemies, we're made blind by our sins, we live in the shadows of all kinds of mean and sniveling and unattractive things that we think and say and do. And until the Holy Spirit goes into a heart

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so darkened and so blinded and so shadowed and illumines it and gives it the power to see, then not even God's revelation will be seen. A thousand years before this happened to Joseph, a young Pharaoh in Egypt named Tutankhamun died and he was buried in the Valley of the Kings and they buried with him some of

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those things they thought he would need in eternal life and one of those things was a basket of wheat seeds. And some decades ago that tomb was found and some of those seeds were brought out and they were planted and watered and the sun fell upon them and they sprouted. After being there in that tomb for 3,000 years,

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30 centuries of dusty darkness, they sprouted. The germ of life was in them always, but notice please, they did not sprout of themselves. For 30 centuries they had been there in darkness and had not sprouted. It wasn't until an outside agency brought them earth and brought them water and brought them sun, then

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that which was within could begin to flower and so it is with us. We do not have the power in and of ourselves to do what we ought to do, but when the Holy Spirit comes upon us and waters us and nourishes us, and Joseph you see understood this, he understood that this angel told him that God was revealing

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himself in this child and that the world would see it to be so. You know, the scriptures are not a textbook on science. They're not much concerned with the laws of nature, but when God came that night and laid a baby on the world's doorstep, he gave us in that act certain spiritual formulae which are as dependable as any

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formula you might find in any other discipline. Here was the expression of God's love. Here was the method on how to know it. Here was given to us the way to let go of evil and reach out toward good. Here is discovered that which can rid us of fear and tension and anxiety. Here is that which is wonderful and victorious

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and love-motivated and can make us the same. In that child was a new Genesis, the gift of beginning again. I don't know how Joseph would have absorbed all of this. Perhaps when he wakened, he was in a sweat and his knuckles hurt from the way his fists had been clenched. Maybe he was too weak to get up from his pallet.

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Eventually, of course, he realized that this meant he could take Mary again to be his own. And so he got up finally and went to the house of Mary and he told her what had happened, how she was to be the mother of this incarnate one and he was to be the holy child's father at least for a little while. I suppose there

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was much weeping, much joy at forgiveness and the newfound knowledge, and they mingled those two, their prayers and their smiles, together as they waited for the dawn. Well, that brings us to the fourth night and we all know about that. It was the night of deliverance. It was probably cold in Bethlehem at that time

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of the year and the two could find no shelter at first, but eventually they did and soon there were not two but three. And Mary delivered her child herself after the custom of that day and then she put the little one, wrapped in some clothes, into the arms of his earthly father. This crying child, this

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wrinkled child, this red child still wet with the blood of its mother. And Joseph held it very close and said, "Thou shalt be called Jesus for thou wilt save thy people from their sins." Well, I have a minister friend who got a call one night from a man who said he

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needed counsel, so he made an appointment and came and the man said, "Tomorrow I go for major surgery and my chances are, well, not so good. Would you pray for me?" And the minister said, "I will be happy to do that." And he put his hand on the man's shoulder and as he began to pray he felt the man trembling, so he stopped

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and he said, "I feel there is more on your heart and conscience now than just this surgery. Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?" And the man poured out a lot of things that he'd been carrying for far too long. And this minister friend of mine said, "Why don't you right now invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord?

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You've wanted to do this and other things have gotten in the way. The Holy Spirit is with us here. Why not now?" And so the man said, "I'll do it." And on his knees he prayed this prayer, "Oh Lord, please forgive me for all that I have done, for all that I have not done. And if you will give me life, and if you

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cannot, then take me to be with you in eternity." Well, the operation was a success and the man and his wife later joined my friend's church. And some years after that, this minister colleague of mine, he organized a tour of the Holy Land for members of his congregation. And Jim, the

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fellow who had come for the prayer and gone through the surgery, and who now belonged to the church with his wife, they went on the trip. And they were standing on a low ridge looking over at Bethlehem, across the fields where the shepherds were, and where shepherds are tonight, for they still tend their sheep

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there. And looking at Bethlehem, Jim said something to his pastor, but he said it so softly that the pastor couldn't hear. "What did you say?" "I said this, 'Whatever would have happened to me had he not been born over there.'" That's the ultimate question. "Whatever would have happened to me had he not been born over there."

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Give that question some thought as you meditate on that Christmas so long ago. And remember, no ear may hear his coming, but in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him still, the dear Christ enters in. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank thee for Joseph, a man like any other man. We pray that in

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his experience we may find a paradigm of our own. Grant that we might love. Grant that we might understand even the darkest nights of our lives to be but other expressions of thy love. Grant that the Holy Spirit might make our hearts into mangers welcoming the Lord, the Master. And grant, O God, that we

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might never stop pondering the question, "Whatever would have happened to me had he not been born over there?" This is our prayer, and we pray it in his name. Amen. P.S. All right.