Faith is Risk - A Sermon for Shepherd of the Hills, December 21 2025

Gospel: Matthew 1:18–25

The gospel is announced.

The holy gospel according to _____________.

Glory to you, O Lord.

¹⁸Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.  ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.  ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "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.  ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."  ²²All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

²³"Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."  ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,  ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

The gospel concludes:

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

I’d like to share with you the story about when my son, 

Toby was born.

It was a warm August evening,

and I was awoken with an expected

“Aaron, I think it’s time.”

I was in a deep sleep,

so it took me a little while to get with it.

I got dressed,

I checked on our daughter, Isabelle,

who was 2 years old at the time.

I took my wife by the hand,

and guided her slowly down the stairs,

out the door and into the truck.

I drove pretty fast,

though the hospital was only ten minutes away.  Feeling anxious and excited,

I pulled into the park-aid

and I was quite proud of myself

for finding a spot right up front.

Perhaps the spot was available

because it was 5:30 in the morning,

but I was still proud of myself.

I took my wife by the hand and guided her to the doors,

and it was slow going!

I thought she was going to give birth in the parking lot!

and she almost did.

Turns out I had made a mistake -

I parked at the wrong park-aid!

I took a risk, and ran to find a wheelchair.

The risk paid off,

and I rushed back and got her in the wheel chair.

My wife was in the hospital bed

less than ten minutes,

and out came the baby!  (pause)

There’s something missing from this story.

This birth story is all about me -

not much about my wife?

what about my son?

You know - the parts of the story that actually matter!

What kind of birth story is only about the husband?

Sure, sometimes there’s a funny

husband related punch line,

like parking in the wrong park-aid,

or passing out at 10 centimetres dilated,

or breaking a finger because

mom squeezed his hand too hard.

But a birth story is supposed to be about the mother,

and about the baby.

So I had to ask myself,

why does Matthew’s nativity story

concentrate on Joseph?

Why not Mary,

or the baby Jesus?

It seems as though something is lacking.

At the same time,

Matthew, misguided as he may be

from time to time, 

writes with intention.

There must be good reason

for Matthew focusing on Joseph

with the nativity story.

The way Joseph acted was very risky.   

Joseph was well within his rights to divorce Mary.

Based on the custom of the day,

Mary and Joseph were not engaged in the same way 

that we might understand an engagement today.

If you are engaged to be married today,

and you found your fiancee to be unfaithful,

you could simply break up.

Mary and Joseph were more than engaged,

they were more than betrothed.

Given the culture, they couldn’t just break up,

and not just because it was an arranged marriage.

The languages used in our text for “dismiss quietly”

is also translated as divorce quietly -

Joseph planned to divorce Mary quietly,

and we are told he was righteous in this

because Joseph was unwilling to

expose Mary to public disgrace.

The law was clear - Joseph had to divorce Mary

given that she was pregnant before marriage.

But Joseph doesn’t do that.   

Joseph does something very risky by not divorcing her.

God’s messenger appears to Joseph and convinces him,

not only to continue with his marriage,

but to take this child in as his own.

This is risky because,

in that patriarchal culture,

everything hinged on the first born son.

The first born son was crucial to the family line,

and the father’s property would go

to the first born son.

Joseph gave up his right to sire his own first born son -

Mary’s baby, conceived out of wedlock,

becomes Joseph’s first born son.

Further to this,

the fact that Joseph named the baby Jesus was risky.

This baby boy, conceived out of wedlock

is named YHWH Saves - God saves.

In naming him Jesus,

Joseph points to God’s work in the world,

Joseph tells the world that YHWH saves,

that God is with us -

Joseph takes on great risk to be

a sign of the kingdom of God at hand.

Being a person of faith today can be risky -

we could lose friends and family over it.

We could lose income, employment,

we could lose popularity.

The life of faith is not all smiles and fluffy bunnies.

Sometimes being a person of faith is stressful,

we may feel anxious about the future,

or even the present.

I can really only speak for myself here, but as a pastor,

I am called to take risks in faith all the time:

It was risky for me to leave my last two congregations.

Let alone taking risk in a new call.

It was risky for me to leave a decent job back in 07

to go to seminary.

We are all putting in efforts

for our Christmas celebrations:

running the risk of empty pews

and returned gifts.

You know better than I do,

the risks of serving faithfully

with Shepherd of the Hills.

Faith is risk.

What risks might you be called to take in this time?

Through Jesus’ ministry,

we are called to be signs of the kingdom of God.

We are called to be signs of Emmanuel -

signs that God is with us.

And sometimes we are called upon to be bold in our faith,

to be risky in our faith.

Like Joseph,

sometimes we are called to go beyond or against

the customs of the day in order to be people of God,

to be signs in the world that God is with us.

But at the same time, it is simple -

We need simply be a sign of the kingdom of God.

That’s why we do what we do.

We do Christmas to be a sign of Emmanuel,

to be a sign that God is with us.

We do Easter to be a sign that death is not the end:

to be a sign that God is in the resurrection business.

We do communion because it is a sign

of God’s real presence in the world.

We do baptism because it is a sign

of God’s love and acceptance for humankind.

How might you be a sign of Emmanuel?

How might you point to the God who is with us?

Perhaps it is making pies,

or continuing to partner with St. Edmunds.

Or when someone is sick,

we can visit them.

We can be risky with our money and tithe to the church,

to give generously to God’s mission,

so that we can continue to be signs in the world

that God is with us.

Faith is risk - what risk might God be calling you to take?

(Pause) If we are honest with ourselves,

sometimes we just don’t want to take the risks.

We know Jesus took on the greatest risk for us.

Jesus risked his life,

laid down his life,

so that you and I and any

might have abundant life,

eternal life,

resurrected life.

Maybe Jesus learned a little bit

from earthly father Joseph about taking risks.

Maybe we can learn from Joseph too.

It is hard to find courage

when we don’t know the outcome.

Yet Great things happen with obedience to God.

Like the birth story I shared at the beginning,

We can take comfort knowing that

when it comes to God’s work in the world,

it is not all about me.

You are not alone in the wrong parking lot,

God is with us.

We are all in this together.

May we be signs of Emmanuel,

God with us.

May our hearts be open to God’s voice and leading

for us and for Christ’s church.

And May God give us courage

to be risky in faith.

Thanks be to God. Amen.

Speaking of risky faith,

we turn to our hymn of the day, #251.

We’ve heard enough from Joseph,

now we turn to mom, we hear Mary’s Song,

Mary’s Magnificat.

She sung this hymn of praise

after being visited by the angel,

and told that she would bear God.

Perhaps no human has taken greater risk in faith

than Mary.

Singing this song is risky - in Guatemala and Argentina,

in the 1970’s and 80’s

Public recitation of Mary’s Magnificat was banned.

Yet what we sing is the Gospel,

this is God’s reversal,

this is God’s work in the world.

so let us continue to proclaim the gospel in song,

My Soul proclaims your greatness, O God. #251