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Adopted into Love; Joseph

December 2, 2007

Our theme for this Advent Season is “Adopted into Love; God’s Chosen Family” and today we are going to look at the story of Jesus’ dad, Joseph.  I know that Jesus is the Son of God but I also know that it was Joseph who raised him and provided the home within which Jesus could grow to become the man that God intended in his birth.

We always see things through the lens of our own experience so please indulge me for a moment as I describe the lens through which I read the story of Joseph and Mary and Jesus.  I know a man named Jim. Jim’s father, whose name was Joe, was a devout German Catholic and, indeed, his whole family was and continues to be strong, devout, German and Catholic. It regularly happens that a person in that family will hear the call to become a Nun or a Priest.

Jim’s mother was a strong devout Baptist who, for the love of her husband, agreed to participate in the Catholic faith though, in real ways, she never got over being Baptist. 

Within 2 years of Jim’s birth, Jim’s dad died leaving his mother to raise him as a single mom. His father’s family, the strong and devout German Catholic family, was always supportive but still, his mother bore the primary responsibility of working and raising this toddler boy.

She met another man, Ray, who was a strong and devout Dunkard. The Dunkards are a lot like the Mennonites and a lot like the Baptists. Ray married Jim’s mother, and accepted the responsibility for raising Jim. He never adopted him legally. He wanted him to always continue his relationship with his German Catholic family, which Jim did, but he loved him and supported him and provided all of the necessities of life for him. While there was never a biological connection, and while there was never a real legal responsibility, in every way that matters, spiritually, emotionally, physically and materially, Ray became Jim’s dad. In every way that matters, Ray adopted Jim and loved him as a father loves a son until he died.

Jim was my dad and my names are Joe and Ray. I see Joseph adopting Jesus as Ray adopted Jim.

Can you imagine that day when Joseph was working in his carpenter shop and Mary’s father came to visit. (This is not in the Bible and is purely the product of my imagination.) Can you imagine when Mary’s dad walked in and said, “Joe, we have to talk.” I have some very bad news. Please sit down. Can you imagine the moment when Joseph first heard the words, “Mary is pregnant”?  

Did he suddenly become defensive? “I didn’t do it! I haven’t touched her.”  Did he become angry? “How could she do this to me?” Did he just become silent and walk away? Nobody knows. 

We do know that he did consider breaking the engagement and “quietly putting her away.” I think that means that she would have been sent to another village to quietly have the child and live her life of shame away from Joseph and her father’s family.

Then, there is the story of that fateful dream in which Joseph was told to take Mary and his wife and to adopt Jesus as his son. And he did! In every way that matters, he adopted Jesus as his son.

It wasn’t easy. Can you imagine that walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem, a walk of over a hundred miles? Mary was pregnant! Can you imagine that walk? She was very pregnant. She had the baby soon after they arrived. Can you imagine that walk?

Can you imagine the birth, in a stable, amongst the animals? Adopting Jesus was not an easy thing.

Can you imagine the escape into Egypt? They were running for their lives…because of Jesus and Herod’s paranoia.  Joseph’s life was turned upside-down and inside-out because he adopted Jesus into love.

A few weeks ago, trying to get home from New Hampshire, I sat in the Philadelphia airport next to a man from Pittsburgh. Across from us sat a girl, maybe ten years old, who was most certainly from Asia. She was doing something with a paper and pencil when she looked up and called across the aisle, “Dad, look.” She had obviously been adopted into a family of love.

My friends Dave and Sandy adopted two sons. Dave and Sandy are white. Their two sons are black. From time to time, in their growing-up years in Michigan, the boys would be the focus of some cruel racial remark. The words would strike the boys and Dave and Sandy would bleed. They had adopted those two boys and they were theirs and the loved them with every ounce of their being. Adopted into love, they were a part of a chosen family and biology did not matter at all.

Do you remember the traditional Christmas scene? Joseph and Mary and the baby Jesus were not your “traditional family.” The three magi were foreigners who spoke strange languages and wore strange clothing and brought strange gifts and worshipped God in a different way and they were invited, adopted into God’s family.  The shepherds slept in the fields and were considered to be ritually unclean for religious purposes but they were invited into this most holy of places, adopted into God’s family of love.

Now for the personal part: Just as Joseph adopted Jesus and just as God adopted the Magi and the shepherds I believe that God is inviting you and me into God’s adoptive family.

When I am honest with myself, I realize that I do not deserve to be in God’s adoptive family any more than those ancient magi. They did not deserve to see that brightly shining star. It was a gift. It was a gift of love. They were adopted only because God choose to invite them into that holy of holies where Jesus was born.

You and I, we do not deserve it any more than those ancient shepherds deserved to hear the angels sing. It was a gift, a pure and simple gift from God to them. They were invited because God choose to invite them into that ancient holy of holies where Jesus was born.

Did Joseph deserve to become Jesus’ dad? I don’t think so. He was chosen by God to fulfill that remarkable privilege. It was a costly privilege but it was a remarkable gift of grace to be able to adopt Jesus. Being in God’s family is sometimes a very costly grace but it is pure grace nevertheless.

To outside eyes, you may look like an Asian child with white parents or you may look like the black sons of white parents but the simple truth is that you have been adopted into God’s family and when you are wounded God bleeds and when you are hurt, God sheds tears from his own eyes.

When you are adopted into God’s family, it is not because of your ancestry or your personal credentials, or the way you look or the place you work or place in the social registry or any thing other than the fact that God has chosen to love you and God has chosen to invite you into God’s chosen family of love.

And the only question is this, will you join the family. Will you follow the star to that place where Jesus is born? Will you listen to the angels sing? Will you go to that holy of holies where Jesus can be born into your life and heart? Will you allow yourself to be adopted into God’s family of love?