As you can see from this mornings reading Joseph had a dilema to face.
To be quite honest it’s not really the sort of dilema that many of us will have to face,
I now for a fact that no one here will ever be told that there wife to be is expecting a child concieved by the Holy Spirit .
So I don’t think that I am the best qualified person to speak on Joseph’s dilema.
What I have done though is organised for a very special person to speak on Josephs dilema, probably the most qualified person to do it.
Could you please welcome our guest.
Joseph
INTROD. JOSEPH.
Good morning ,
its really good to be here this morning and I’m especially grateful to you all to get the opportunity to tell you about my dilemma.
I think its probably appropriate though for me to tell you the whole story.
Well it all started some time ago in a little town called Nazareth.
In case you haven’t already guessed Nazareth was my home town, and my fathers also.
My father Jacob had been the local carpenter in Nazareth all his life
so it was only appropriate that I should follow in the family foot steps.
This I did
I learnt my trade from my father and worked along side him till the day I became of age.
On that day my name was added to the sign above the door,
in bold letters for the whole world to see.
Joseph bar Jonah carpenter extrodinare,
all jobs considered,
free quotes given,
and of course our motto
our yokes fit first time every time guranteed.
I was rather happy working here by myself,
because it meant that I was my own boss,
I had no one to answer too,
but of course it did get lonely sometimes,
I often thought it would be really good to have a son running around like I had with my father, Unfortunately I was still single and little miss right had not yet crossed my door step.
It was just that I had never met the right girl,
The sort of girl that makes you want to sing and
dance.
It was on one of these lonely days when it happened Out of the blue she walked in to my work shop.
She was wonderful
everything I had ever dreamed of
and more beside.
I remember it well
it was a Monday morning just before smoko when she walked in.
Her father
had sent her on a message,
I think it was a foot stool,
Oh Yes !!! that was it
what a happy day when that broken foot stool came my way.
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It was quite funny because I had never ever taken any notice of her before,
she was younger than me but not too much, rather giggly and immature in some ways,
but when our eyes met it was amazing.
This was the one ,
Mary the girl I would marry.
That day when she left my shop I felt like my life had been changed
it was almost like an angel had been to visit me,
but that feeling was never to leave me
there was a song in my heart that day
a love song about Mary.
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Now you must understand I was a really good catch for anyone
with my own business and that
So when I went to visit her father to ask for Mary hand in marriage
he joyfully accepted
And so our courtship began,
a match that was made in heaven.
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In due time we were engaged,
back home in our culture that meant that I had to pay quite a large sum of money to Mary father,
but she was worth every last penny of it.
Now she was mine
and of course I was hers,
my wandering eyes were laid to rest
because I only had eyes for Mary.
And so we waited for that day when our union would be made final
and we would become one flesh.
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But something went wrong
Of course something had to go wrong
it was almost like it was to good to be true.
Today I still struggle with it,
I struggle to understand what happened
and why God would call us as he did ???????????.
But I am jumping ahead a bit,
I better go back to the story.
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One morning Mary came to me,
of course she looked beautiful as always
but today there was something odd about her
you see it’s almost like she was glowing,
YES that was it
she was glowing.
Her expression though told a different story,
she looked quite uneasy as she approached me. being a loving caring husband to be I asked her what was wrong,
things were rushing through my head so fast that I almost missed her reply.
"I ’m pregnant "she said
"how can you be " was my reply,
"you must just be under the weather or something".
Then she said it again
"no Joseph, I am pregnant".
My heart sank within me
this angel
the women I loved was pregnant
and I hadn’t even laid a finger on her.
"Who was it" I cried
"were you raped. Tell me Mary were you raped"
I was so angry I was going to hunt this man down and tear him limb from limb,
then take his broken bones and carve them in to an ornamental coffee table.
But Mary interrupted me as I was telling her what I would and wouldn’t do to this guy
Mary said "No I wasn’t raped".
This mad me sick really sick
and the words of Moses from deuteronomy 23 echoed in my head.
"Suppose a man is caught in a town having intercourse with a girl who is engaged to someone else.
You are to take them outside the town and stone them to death.
The girl is to die because she did not cry out for help".
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This was my dilemma
what was I to do.
My head said she must die
but my heart said,
well my heart said nothing,
because it was broken,
shattered lying in pieces.
--------------------------------------------------------------This all seemed to be a bad dream and what’s more it was getting worse.
You see if it wasn’t bad enough that Mary did this,
she started making excuses to cover it up.
Before to long she was claiming that it was a child conceived by the Holy Spirit.
That was ridiculous I told her.
What would the most high God want with you Mary, What would the one enthroned in the heaven do that for Mary.
Beautiful you may be
angelic you may be but that is ridiculous.
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What was more ridiculous was that she also claimed that God wanted me to be involved in bringing up this child.
Me little old me,
a carpenter from a dead end town like Nazareth.
A man of faith I may be
a righteous man I may be
but what part could I possibly play in the plan of the most high God..
me in God’s plan I had never heard anything so stupid.
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I finally told Mary that she was going mad,
denying the truth,
and dreaming up the wildest excuses to cover up the facts she had been unfaithful to me.
Then she turned round to me and said that It was I Joseph bar Jacob
was the one who was denying the truth,
and this child was the child of God.
I couldn’t believe her you understand,
she had never lied to me before but I couldn’t believe her.
I couldn’t believe that God would want anything to do with us
but can you blame me can you
would you believe her,
if you were me would you believe that God would want to use your life.
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The next few days were hell for me
my dilemma was becoming a nightmare,
I couldn’t eat,
I couldn’t sleep
and my work was falling apart.
You see I wanted to forgive Mary
to take her as my wife,
but I couldn’t bare the thought of the shame,
the effect it would have on business
cause news soon travels in a small town.
But the main reason I couldn’t come to forgive her was because she wasn’t telling the truth,
she couldn’t be telling the truth
she would not face up to the truth,
or would she?
I just got so confused in the end I decided to divorce her quietly,
break of the engagement without any fuss.
Maybe then I could leave town with my name intact, avoid the shame and end my dilemma.
EXIT JOSEPH
What we have heard here is Joseph’s story.
The struggle of a good and righteous man
the struggle to come to terms with the fact his wife is pregnant and he is not the Father.
The truth though is that this pregnancy was only a part of Josephs dilema.
The rest of the dilema lay in the fact that God may have a place for Joseph in his divine play.
a place that only Joseph could fill.
Joseph despite being a man of faith just could not believe that God would want anything to do with him, and his simple life.
He couldn’t believe that this living God that he worshiped reguarly every sabbath day
would want anything to do with his tiny little life.
In Gods plan he saw himself as insignificant,
after all he was just a carpenter wasn’t he,
just your normal everyday person,
he wasn’t anyone special was he.
if Gods plan had been a chess game
he would not have even considered himself to be a pawn worthy of sacrifice.
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How dense could he be,
how stupid could Joseph be to actually think that this Living God could not use Joseph.
How idiotic could Joseph be to think that God could not find a part for him in this Divine play.
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I think we are all pretty stupid times.
We can all be rather dense like just like Joseph.
We may not face the dilema that Joseph did.
But as men and women of faith we often just can’t believe that God would want anything to do with us, and our simple lives.
After all we are nothing special either.
We often can not believe that this living God that we worship would want anything to do with our tiny little lives.
In Gods plans we see ourselves as insignificant as Joseph saw us,
how can we be so silly.
What Joseph needed was a wake up call, something to bring him back to his senses.
I am glad to say that as Joseph tortured himself over this dilemma
God gave him a wake up call.
One night an angel came to him in a dream,
an angel that set the alarm bells ringing in Josephs life.
An angel that gave him a wake up call,
an angel that told Joseph that he did have a part to play in God’s divine play.
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It took an angel to convince Joseph of his importance in God’s plans
What it going to take for you.
what will it take for you to wake up and realise how important you are in God’s divine plan.
What sort of alarm call will it take.
