Well, what do you think is the weirdest thing people have bought insurance for? I think I’ve found it. The London insurance brokers Goodfellow Rebecca Ingrams Pearson sell insurance to women against the risk of having a virgin birth. 300 women have paid the premium of 100 pounds, and if any of them do have a virgin birth, verified by an independent panel of gynecologists, the insurance company will pay her 1m quid. That company also insures women against becoming pregnant by an alien – and that policy has been bought by 723 people. The managing director of the firm, a man named Simon Burgess, summed it up perfectly when he was quoted as saying, “You must never underestimate the stupidity of the British public.”
Now we all laugh at that because we know that women do not become pregnant without a man being involved somewhere, even if it’s only as a donor. I mean it’s absurd to imagine otherwise, isn’t it? Don’t take my word for it. Take the views of a sensible, practical man like Joseph the carpenter. He’s not the sort of irrational person to believe in such nonsense as virgins getting pregnant. Imagine the scene.
“Joseph?”
“Mmm?”
“Can we talk?”
“Of course, Mary.” Joseph puts down his lathe, walks over to where his betrothed is standing and looks her gently in the eyes, that kind smile of his that won Mary’s heart all those months ago when they met.
“I don’t know how to say this. You won’t be cross will you? It’s just that, well…”
“Mary, what is it? You’re frightening me. My darling, whatever it is you know can tell me.”
“Well, it’s like this. I was in the kitchen baking some bread and suddenly the house filled with light, and there was this angel, see, Gabriel his name was, and he spoke to me and said some really strange things, and I sang the Magnificat, and …”
“Whoa, slow down, Mary. Take a deep breath, you’re not making sense. What are you talking about, ‘angels, strange things, and what’s the Magnificat – the Book of Common Prayer isn’t going to be written for another 1600 years!”
“O Joseph please try to understand. I’m pregnant.”
“What?”
“Pregnant. I said I’m pregnant. But it’s not what you think.”
“Not what I think? And how exactly is it? Who is he? Do I know him? Is he family?”
“No. Joseph. Listen. I don’t have another man. There is no one else, Joseph. Only you.”
“You mean someone forced himself on you. Who was it? I’ll kill him. It was one of those Roman soldiers, wasn’t it? I’m going straight to the authorities. Did you get a look at his face? Could you identify him?”
“No, Joseph. Listen to me. No one has touched me. It’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. There was this angel. Gabriel was his name. And he just suddenly appeared when I was baking. He was just there. You can imagine how I felt. I was petrified. I mean angels. You expect them in the Bible, but not in the kitchen. And he was all bright and shiny, but gentle with it. And he said to me, ‘Mary, you are highly favoured. The Lord is with you. Don’t be afraid. You have found favour in God’s eyes. You will become pregnant. God will cause this to happen; and you will have a son. No ordinary boy, this. He will be great and will be known as the Son of God. He will be the Messiah and will reign for ever and ever’. Well, it was weird. This strange feeling came over me. It was like I wasn’t scared anymore; like this was really real; like God had this amazing plan for us, Joseph; and I just knew that everything was going to be OK. So I said to Gabriel, ‘all right. I am God’s servant. If this is what he wants then count me in.’”
“You expect me to believe that? I’ve never heard so much garbage in all my life. Now tell me the truth. Who is he? You know what this means don’t you? We’re finished. The end. You do know what I could do? I could turn you in. Then you’d be stoned to death. And it’s no more than you deserve. But I won’t. Instead I’ll make a few arrangements. No one will ever hear of this shame you have brought on my good name.”
And with a broken heart, and a soul torn by anger and betrayal Joseph crashes out of the house, turns his back on his beloved and begins a new life. And God’s unimaginable plan to rescue the world from sin and death was at an end.
But of course, it wasn’t. Sure, we read that that is what Joseph decided to do, but God’s plan was too big and too wonderful to allow it to just die like that. Even when men and women decide in their hearts that they are going to go one way, God can change their hearts. And in his grace and mercy God saw into the heart of Joseph, saw the agony of this proud, heart-broken young man and soothed his pain and changed his mind.
He did it through another angel. The angel says to him in a dream, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ And Matthew continues, “When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.” And that is what makes Joseph the Carpenter such a remarkable man. He had his fears, he had his self-respect, he had his doubts, but he knew when he had heard God’s voice and he did what God asked of him.
A common and spellbinding sight in the British countryside is a Border collie working sheep. And the American missionary Elizabeth Elliot tells the story of visiting a village high in the mountains of North Wales, and seeing a shepherd named John Jones with his wife Mari and his border collie Mack. She says, “I stood one misty summer morning in the window of their farmhouse watching John herding perhaps a hundred sheep with Mack, moving them across the dewy meadow towards the pens where they were dipped. Mack was in his glory. He came from a long line of working dogs, and he had sheep in his blood. This was what he was made for, this is what he been trained to do. And it was a marvelous thing to see him circling to the right, circling to the left, barking, crouching, racing along, herding a stray sheep here, nipping at a stubborn one there, his eyes always glued to the sheep, his ears listening for the tiny metal whistle from his master, which I couldn’t hear. Mari took me to the pens to watch what John had to do there. When all the animals had been shut inside the gate, Mack tore around the outside of the pens and took up his position at the dipping trough, frantic with expectation, waiting for the chance to leap into action again. One by one John seized the rams by their curled horns and flung then into antiseptic. They would try to climb out of the side, and Mack would snarl in their faces to force them back in. When the rams had been dipped John rode out again on his horse to herd the ewes which were in a different pasture. Again I watched with Mari as John and Mack went to work, the one in charge, the other obedient. Sometimes tearing at top speed around the flock, Mack would jam on four-wheeled brakes, his eyes still blazing but still on the sheep, his body tense and quivering, but obedient to the command to stop.
“Do the sheep have any idea what’s happening?” I asked Mari.
“Not a clue!” she said.
“And how about Mack?” I’ll never forget Mari’s answer.
“The dog doesn’t understand the pattern- only obedience.”
There were many good reasons why Joseph could have said, ‘no thanks, God, I’m out of here’.
First, there was his reputation. What must this have looked like to his village – it was obvious to everyone that Joseph had been a naughty boy, and got his betrothed pregnant before their wedding. And there would have been nods and winks when he walked down the road. The guys in the tavern would have been making fun of him. And the gossip on the street, “Ooh, that Joseph, you never know what he did …. Ooh he never … ooh I say.” If he were to carry on and marry Mary his reputation would have lay in tatters, given the culture they were living in. But that is what he chose to do because he knew that God was asking him to do it.
Second, there was the plain old hassle and sacrifice of following God’s plan. Joseph was a young man; he could have said ‘no’ to God and drawn up new plans for his life and his business – one that didn’t feature diapers in the next nine months. After all, out there somewhere there was a young woman who would marry him who was not pregnant. He and Mary had had no real time together. What did they want with a child already, before they even married? And what about this baby – he was going to be extraordinary. He was going to be the Messiah. What sort of hassle would that mean for his poor old dad?
With his reputation on the line and with the prospect of putting himself out and making sacrifices it must have been very easy for Joseph to run away from God and to have nothing to do with these amazing plans. But he didn’t. He obeyed. And the result was the salvation of the world, eventually.
So the example of Joseph cries out to us this morning. When God speaks to us how do we respond? Do we kneel and say ‘yes’ despite the hardship that might follow? Or do we run away, unwilling to put ourselves in the way of difficulty for the sake of Christ? Because he does talk to you. Day by day he tells us things, if only we would train our ears to hear his voice, like the Border collie and the shepherd’s whistle. When we read the Bible or hear it read do we do what God says? When God speaks through the pinprick of conscience do we do what God says? When someone says something to you and you know it’s right, you know it’s God talking to you through that person do you do what God says? When you’re praying about something and you just suspect deep down that God is asking something of you, maybe to change in some way, do you do what he says? OK, it’s unlikely that you’ll have a dream of angels like Joseph did, but in these other ways when you hear the words of God don’t run away. Follow in the footsteps of Joseph. Our obedience won’t result in the salvation of the world – that’s already happened, but it will result in our lives being better, and other people’s lives being made better. And it will bring joy to the heart of God.
Imagine, if you will, that you work for a company whose president found it necessary to travel out of the country and spend an extended period of time abroad. So he says to you and the other trusted employees, "Look, I'm going to leave. While I'm gone, I want you to pay close attention to the business. Manage things while I'm away. I will write to you regularly. When I do, I will instruct you in what you should do." Everyone agrees.
The boss is gone for a couple of years. During that time he writes often, communicating his desires and concerns. Finally he returns. He walks up to the front door of the company and immediately discovers everything is in a mess - weeds flourishing in the flower beds, windows broken across the front of the building, the person at the front desk dozing, loud music roaring from several offices, two or three people playing cards in the back room. Instead of making a profit, the business has suffered a great loss. Without hesitation he calls everyone together and with a frown asks, "What happened? Didn't you get my letters?"
They say, "Oh, yeah, sure. We got all your letters. We've even bound them in a book. And some of us have memorized them. In fact, we have 'letter study' every Sunday. You know, those were really great letters." I think the president would then ask, "But what did you do about my instructions?" And, no doubt the employees would respond, "Do? Well, nothing. But we read every one!"
Joseph did not just hear the message from God, he obeyed it with wonderful consequences for everyone. How about us? May God give us the resources we nee not just to hear, but to obey.
