11/27/2011 DISENCHANTED? BE NOT AFRAID!

DISENCHANTED?    BE NOT AFRAID!

            “Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes & Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:20).  Jesus made that declaration about righteousness in the most famous message he ever preached, the Sermon on the Mount. 

            Most Christians believe that when Jesus taught such things, he was speaking on behalf of his heavenly Father, making God’s will known when he spoke.  I wonder how much of what Jesus said came from his earthly father, Joseph, especially, that particular line about one’s righteousness.

            After we’re informed that Joseph was engaged to Mary, the very next thing we learn about him is that he was “a righteous man” (Matt. 1:19).  We’re not immediately told about his occupation.  We know nothing about the kind of family he came from at this point.  There’s no explanation of what he looked like.  He doesn’t even speak.  We do know he’s righteous.[1]

            As we get further into the story, readers come to learn more, put pieces together & figure out things about Joseph.  We know he was a carpenter, not a master carpenter crafting fine items for the home or even building houses, but one who made simple tools & farm implements.  Carpentry, by the way, was one occupation that was taboo in the Jewish temple.  A carpenter’s status was too low to be admitted to high places of worship, the Jewish scriptures tell us.[2]

We know that although Joseph currently lives in the hick town of Nazareth in Galilee County, his family’s roots are in Bethlehem, the famed “city of (King) David.”  Joseph’s hometown lineage oddly ties him to the long-awaited & predicted messiah.  A king related to the messiah fits, but not a carpenter.  Bethlehem was what we would call a blue-collar working town, serving the capital city.  It was Jerusalem’s “inner ring suburb” (in our lingo), comprised of humble, poorly-educated laborers.

Finally, based on the culture of the ancient near east, we can safely presume that the engagement of Joseph & Mary was arranged.  That’s what we know.

            Other assumptions about Joe are less well-grounded in fact. -- No one truly knows his age at this time.  Catholic & Orthodox Christians assume he was a much older man, not just Mary’s elder, but elderly, maybe a widower who fathered other children, maybe in his 90’s. 2^nd-century legends suggest that Joseph’s age hinted that he never consum-mated the marriage to Mary, affirming her status as a “perpetual virgin.”

Protestants, though, fare little better.  We, who pride ourselves on biblical proof, have no real proof for our presumption that Joseph was a young man of 14.  The truth is: Joseph’s age is undetermined. 

            What we do know, because the gospel-writer makes clear, is that Joseph was righteous.  The word righteous is not just a complimentary descriptor given without merit.  We’re told he was righteous because he was unwilling to expose his pregnant fiancée to public disgrace. 

            You see, Joseph knew Mary’s child was not his baby.  He also knew such indiscretion was worthy of death, a death by stoning, according to Jewish law -- the same authority, by the way, that barred his vocation from the temple.  Doing what was legally right – what was righteous by the standard definition of the day – meant that Mary would be killed for her infidelity.  Joseph could not do that.  A righteousness based on compassion could not allow for her disgrace & ignominious death.  Such righteousness as Joseph had exceeded that of the religious authorities, revealing a particularly radical bent.  Did Jesus learn that from Joseph, too? 

            Joseph, however, could be the one to cut off the engagement, never letting on what he knew.  That was a possibility.  He would be the one, then, to endure the public mockery, censure, & consequences of breaking a promise, a different manner of infidelity that made him the cad.  At first blush, tt sounds noble enough.  Further thought, though, means that when Mary eventually delivers & the child looks nothing like Joseph, folks would once again look at Mary through jaundiced eyes.  That idea doesn’t work.

Plus, what would Joseph’s decision to back out now mean for any future relationship he desired?  What woman & her family would ever trust him?  If he was an old man, these issues may not carry such import, but if he was a teen, the future looked exceptionally bleak. 

Maybe he should just dismiss her quietly.

Joseph despaired.

          Are you despairing?  Perhaps that’s too strong of a word.  Are you disappointed? Dejected? Disillusioned?  Discouraged? Down?  Are you disenchanted?

            “I’ve been out of work for years.  The increasing national unemploy-ment average is months.  For me, it’s years.”

            “I don’t read the paper or watch the evening news, anymore.  It’s too depressing.”

            “Washington… Harrisburg…Norristown.  They’re all a mess!”

            “This Penn State situation has grabbed the national psyche.  The children!  People are unnerved.  The Joe Pa thing has become another excuse for persons to become polarized.  Imagine being a member of St. Paul UMC in State College where Gerry Sandusky worshiped

            Add those concerns to the fact that the Middle East only gets scarier.   The Euro-zone may press us into a global economic crisis. 

And how about things not being great between you & your spouse, let alone that hush-hush child’s/grandchild’s situation?

            We think Joseph had problems & was feeling a bit disenchanted!

            “Disenchantment, whether it is a minor disappointment or a major shock, is the signal that things are moving into transition in our lives,” writes William Bridges, an expert on life transitions.[3]

            Things were definitely in transition for Joseph.  Unbeknownst to him at the time, he was at the epicenter of a worldwide transition.

Things are in transition for us, too.  Every 500 years humanity goes through a global transition, says Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence.  It makes for tough times.  It takes decades to resolve.  What do we do in the meantime?  What do we hold onto when everything’s changing, when the foundations, themselves, seem to be shaking?

Unexpectedly, amid nights of tossing & turning, of emotional stress, even fatigue, Joseph has an encounter with an angel.  Whether an actual vision or dream while asleep, the message he took away was clear. 

            Joseph approached life with integrity – righteousness the Bible calls it.  He didn’t haughtily think about his actions being righteous.  He just knew he had to do right.  That wasn’t always easy … but in this most extreme predicament with Mary, he was aided by faith.  Amid such very real fears, he received an angel’s reassurance to not be afraid to do right.

            So, Joseph decided not to blow the whistle on Mary, although that’s what the self-righteous religious laws pushed him to do.  He decided not to quietly divorce her, either, although that’s what self-interest & self-preservation pushed him to do.  There was a whole lot he wished was different, but it was out of his control.  How he responded was in his control.  His righteousness, this sense of compassion & doing what was truly most right, won the day.  Praise the God Joe relied on.

            Our lives sometimes feel as out of control as Joseph’s.  These fear-filled, worrisome, trying, disenchanting times come down to doing what is right, supported by our faith.  It’s a “righteousness that exceeds” the authority of law & the authority of the self. 

When things are not easy, doing right is not easy, either, but it’s best.  It encourages us to know we did right.  God is gladdened, too, because it ultimately makes a dark world a brighter & better place.   Sometimes, the only thing we know, all that we can count on, is the righteousness we have from God.  That’s what Joseph had:  himself & God.  That’s what he passed on to Jesus.  It sustained his son on the cross.   That’s what he gave to us, too.

We have righteousness.  Consequently, we have hope!  Hope!

In the Name….                Copyright 2011 by G.D.Knerr at Lansdale, Pa.  All rights reserved.