Setting Aside the Rules

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

December 23, 2007, Fourth Sunday in Advent

Bernie, a young Jewish boy, decided he wanted to be an aeronautical engineer and build airplanes. Over the years he studied hard, went to the best schools, and finally he got his degree. It didn’t take long before he gained a reputation as the finest aeronautical engineer in all the land, so he decided to start his own company to build jets.

His company was such a hit that the President of the United States called Bernie into his office. “Bernie,” the president said, “the President of Israel wants to commission your company to build an advanced jet fighter for his country. You have our approval—go and design him the best jet fighter ever made.”

Needless to say, Bernie was tremendously excited at this prospect. The entire resources of his company went into building the most advanced jet fighter in history. Everything looked terrific on paper, but when they held the first test flight of the new jet, disaster struck. The wings couldn’t take the strain—they broke clean off of the fuselage. (The pilot parachuted to safety, thank God.)

Bernie was devastated; his company redesigned the jet, but the same thing happened at the next test flight—the wings broke off again.

Beside himself with worry, Bernie went to his schul to pray…to ask God what had gone wrong. The rabbi saw Bernie’s sadness, and naturally asked him what the matter was. Bernie decided to pour his heart out to the rabbi.

After hearing about the problems with the jet, the rabbi put his arm on Bernie’s shoulder and told him, “Listen, I know how to solve your problem. All you have to do is drill a row of holes directly above and below where the wings join the fuselage. If you do this, I absolutely guarantee the wings won’t fall off.

Bernie just smiled and thanked the rabbi for his advice…but the more he thought about it, the more he realized he had nothing to lose. Maybe the rabbi had some holy insight. So Bernie did exactly what the rabbi had told him to do. On the next design of the jet, they drilled a row of holes directly above and below where the wings met the fuselage. And…it worked!! The test flight went perfectly!

Brimming with joy, Bernie went to the schul to tell the rabbi that his advice e had worked. “Naturally,” said the rabbi, “I never doubted it would.”

“But rabbi, how did you know that drilling holes would prevent the wings from falling off?” “Bernie,” the rabbi said, “I’m an old man. I’ve lived for many, many years and I’ve celebrated Passover many, many times. And in all those years, not once—NOT ONCE—has the matzoh broken on the perforation!”

Some things just defy the rules, be they natural rules, or human made rules. You know the old saying; Rules are made to be broken. There are times when that is most definitely true; otherwise the wings of your life will fall off. This is what we see in both our passages today from Isaiah and from Matthew.

Let’s begin with Isaiah. Ahaz was king of Judah, and he was going to be attacked by Israel allied with the Syrians. God asks Ahaz to ask whatever he wanted of God. Ahaz though, knew the injunction against putting God to the test and thus being guilty of what Scripture elsewhere denounces as spiritual presumption. God then tells Ahaz that if he won’t ask for a sign, then he will give Ahaz one, but it is one that announces another person will come whom god will be with, and during that time Judah will be defeated. It turns out that Ahaz’s modesty is a pretext for avoiding responsibility. Ahaz was told by the prophet to in essence break the rules and ask God for a sign, but Ahaz refuses to do that, and Judah went into the exile of Babylon.

Now we turn to Joseph in our Matthew reading. Joseph finds out that Mary is pregnant. In ancient Jewish society betrothals had a large set of customs and rituals that went with them, much more than our understanding of “engagement” today. And there were rules to follow. Here's the rule about what happens if you think the woman to whom you're engaged is bearing someone else's child: both the woman and the man whose child it is get death by stoning. That is what the law said that Joseph could, and should do. Had Joseph talked to others, they would have more than likely told him to stone Mary, not only because of what she did, but also to serve as a reminder to other women and men. Joseph would have been told he must follow the law. And we, more than likely, would be Jewish or nothing today. The wings would have come off the Church even before it got into the air.

Sarah Breuer writes the following concerning this story:

There are a few other rules that get broken in this passage. They're rules of far less importance in ancient Mediterranean cultures, but they are important in some cultures we encounter -- rules like, "the written word -- especially in Scripture -- is of utmost importance, and all pious people must be faithful to it." They whole "THEY shall call his name Emmanuel" thing is not in Isaiah 7:14; Matthew was either quoting from a version of that text which is not preserved in any version of what we Christians or Jews call scripture, or the author was taking liberties with the biblical text -- something that many 20th- and 21st-century people find uncomfortable.

We can imagine that Mary told Joseph the whole story about what happened about the visit of the angel Gabriel, her visit with Elizabeth, and one can only wonder what Joseph thought after hearing all of this. But how much do you think Joseph heard and believed? He was probably stunned from the news. Maybe even thinking she was mad. He makes the decision to quietly divorce her. Which helps him out, but it would consign Mary and her baby, the Messiah, to a life of utter destitution.

Then Joseph begins having dreams and hearing voices corroborating Mary’s story and telling him to not be afraid of what is to come, and to name the boy Jesus. so in the space of a few days Joseph goes from being happily betrothed to a young girl, to finding out she is pregnant by someone else, to wanting to divorce her, to accepting her as his wife and naming and raising the child! Rules broken all over and yet the wings stayed on the plane.

Shannon Kershner writes:

Thanks be to God, Joseph was not a biblical literalist. He did not just open it, pick up the verse, and slam it down on Mary’s head. Scripture tells us Joseph was a good man, a righteous man. He loved his Bible and he probably knew it backwards and forwards. But Joseph had also come to know a few other things about God that affected his interpretation of his beloved Scripture.

Joseph knew that God would sometimes work in ways that upset the applecart, in ways that were completely unexpected…Joseph knew already that God sometimes did things that were “just not done.” He already knew that in his own family’s history God had thrown some curve balls, showering down grace upon those considered undeserving and including those considered outcast and powerless.

Today is about taking chances and not following the rules in order that a larger good might be able to materialize; in order that other people might be able to play their role in the larger scheme of things. Today we are reminded that not everything is as white and black as we think it is. How easily the wings could have come off this story if Joseph had followed the law, or he even quietly divorced Mary. I’ve often thought that Joseph’s story and faith are much more dramatic in some ways than Mary’s. But compassion is like that. All we have to do is look at the life of the one whose birth we are celebrating. The biggest complaint against him was that he did not follow the laws. Where the laws and compassion came head to head, compassion always won. He ate with the sinners rather than dismiss them; he saved the adulterer rather than pick up a stone and join in the pitching contest. I wonder if he thought about what Joseph could have done to his mother when he was saving the woman. Even on the cross, when the thief asked to be remembered he could have said “forget you,” rather, he welcomed him into paradise. Jesus was always upsetting the apple cart, but that is natural, because that is the kind of people his father and mother were, not to mention that is the kind of being his God was.

We all have been given the same grace that Jesus was given. The problem is that too often we stick with the laws, and leave the grace behind. Is it any wonder then that we live in a world where there seems to be so little grace and compassion? All for one, but forget about the one for all. Today Joseph challenges us to lay aside our prejudices, our “they made their bed now let them lie in it,” mentality and let loose our compassionate side. Let us lay aside who is right and who is wrong in terms of how they live their lives and who they live their lives with, and see them rather as people God loves and cares about. If we can do that then we might be able to help people keep their wings on and fly.

Amen

© 2007 Rev. Dr. Thomas T. Peters