From Luke’s gospel, if you remain standing, if you are able, Luke’s gospel chapter one, we find the account of the angel coming to Mary to give her the good news that a savior will be born through her. Luke chapter one, beginning in verse 26. The gospel says, In the sixth month the angel of Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. And Mary said to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. The word of the Lord.

You may be seated. If you have a copy of the scriptures in front of you, let me invite you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. I’ll begin reading in verse 18 in just a moment. Matthew chapter 1. While you’re turning there, can you believe it? A newsflash. Three and a half weeks until Christmas. The most wonderful time of the year. Amy Grant’s Christmas songs are among my favorites. Perhaps they are yours as well. But there is one particular song that she sings that just hearkens to my heart and makes me ponder and think about this time of year in terms of how the world celebrates Christmas. And that song is I Need a Silent Night. I wonder if this song describes you this morning. I’ve made the same mistake before. Too many malls, too many stores. December traffic, Christmas rush. It breaks me till I push and shove. Children are crying while mothers are trying to photograph Santa and sleigh. The shopping and buying and standing forever in line. What can I say? December comes then disappears faster and faster every year. Did my own mother keep this pace? Or was the world a different place? Where people stayed home wishing for snow, watching three channels on their TV, look at us now rushing around trying to buy Christmas peace. I wonder if you can relate. If so, you’re not alone. The California Department of Mental Health Hygiene observes, quote, the Christmas season is marked with greater emotional stress and more acts of violence than any other time of the year, close quote. So what happens when preparing for that most wonderful time of the year? Well, it doesn’t feel so wonderful. For Joseph and Mary, preparations for that one holy night was complicated. Come with me, if you will, into their world as they prepared for that one holy night.

Matthew chapter one, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, Do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgins shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel. which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.

Let’s pray together. Father in heaven, as we approach the gospel account of the announcement given to Joseph and also to Mary, we pray that even though this story is familiar to most of us, that it would resonate in our hearts in new ways, that we might cast our eyes upon the Savior, and savor him for all of his beauty and all of his glory. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

In February of 1966, John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s song, Nowhere Man, hit the U.S. markets and quickly became number three on the Billboard 100. The lyrics tell the story. He’s a real nowhere man sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody. He doesn’t have a point of view, knows not where he’s going to. Isn’t he a bit like you and me? We don’t really know who they were singing about, but it doesn’t really matter. It could very well describe Joseph and, to some extent, Mary. Joseph was a small man of no significance. He was a laborer and a carpenter by trade. Mary, she was a teenage girl, and they lived in a small town of Nazareth that nobody cared about. In fact, you might even say that Nazareth was on the other side of the tracks. Can anything good come from Nazareth? People would ask. There is so much in this passage, but I don’t want you to miss the bigger picture that is here embedded in this story. This is a small story about a big God who moves a small story forward. That’s what this story is about. It’s a small story with a big God moving it forward.

I wonder if you’ve ever stopped to think just how amazing this story really is, if you’ve taken time to kind of study it and to think about some of the details. There are so many moving parts in this story, details and circumstances, all of which had to be orchestrated and executed to fulfill specific predictions and prophecies made some 700 years earlier. You can’t make this stuff up. Two small people, a laborer, a carpenter by trade, and a teenage girl living in a town that no one wanted to live in. And yet God would choose them out of this small town to bring the Messiah into the world. Let that sink in for just a moment. For God’s word spoken through the prophet Micah to be fulfilled, the Messiah would have to be born in Bethlehem. Problem. They lived in Nazareth. There had to be a significant reason for Joseph and pregnant Mary to leave Nazareth, travel by foot to Bethlehem where the Messiah was to be born. And not only that, but just at the right time. That is when Mary would be ready to deliver. Not an early labor or delivery and not a late one, but just at the right time. And God would move a pagan leader, Caesar Augustus, to decree in all the world, all the Roman world, that each one needs to return to their hometown in order to be enrolled. A decree, think about it, a decree for the entire world to move two people 90 miles. I don’t know if you realize this, but you’re just one in seven billion people on the face of the earth, just one. All the news that you hear about big political, economic, social movements and famous people full of power and prestige, it’s so easy to feel so small and so insignificant in a world like this. It’s understanding how you may feel helpless under the weight of adversity, especially when you’re dealing with insurance companies, right? Where is the hope? Where’s the joy? Where is the peace that we’re supposed to have in this most wonderful time of the year? Well, the story of Joseph and Mary can restore your hope, joy, and peace in a world where you may feel small, where you may feel insignificant, where complications and chaos seem to be the rule and not the exception. But know this, in spite of all of those things, in spite of how you might be feeling, unknown to all the current kings and presidents and premiers and chancellors and chiefs of the world, they follow the sovereign decree of an Almighty God to fulfill His word and to bless you out of seven billion people. Your story, whatever it is today, your story, whatever it will be tomorrow, is not so small, and it is certainly not so insignificant that it will stall or fall off the grid. Your story is always perpetually on God’s radar. He is moving your story forward in ways that you may not be able to see now.

No matter what you’re experiencing in life, he is moving your story forward to bring blessing in your life and to ultimately bring you to glorification as he has promised. It’s really important that you believe this. It’s really important that you as kids and as teenagers As retirees, it’s really important that you believe this wholeheartedly. Why? Because life is complicated. These complications typically don’t come slowly, and they certainly don’t come one at a time. They come like unsuspecting tsunamis. We can become stressed out fathers. We can become overwhelmed mothers. We can become anxious kids, even at the drop of a hat, just like that. The disease in our body that we know about, or maybe don’t know yet about, makes it hard to sing joy to the world. We can find ourselves like George Bailey, having lost everything in life, standing on the bridge, ready to jump. If we don’t believe that we have a sovereign God moving our story forward to bring blessing, then these complications and these adversities and these trials that come over our lives will obscure the hope and the joy and the peace that God promises us. But instead, we learn to look through them and see a loving God behind them who has our best interest and our greatest needs in mind. That’s why you and I need the small story of Joseph and Mary. It reminds us that no matter how small, or insignificant we may feel, or just even how complicated my life can become. We have a God who pays attention, even to the little details of my life. Ever wondered why the Christmas story is often reduced to that which is idyllic and a serene manger scene? It seems to be at times what it’s reduced to, and it’s certainly one of the most painted scenes in all of history. But it was anything but that, idyllic and serene. With the announcement that Mary would bear God’s son, the lives of these two small people would change forever. No longer would Joseph be primarily concerned about his woodshop, nor would Mary the simple pleasures of teenage life. They were betrothed to each other. And that’s where the complication begins. Betrothal means, if you’re not aware of that term, betrothal means having made vows in front of witnesses. That was the betrothal act, much like our wedding ceremony today. But it was very customary at that time not to live together and consummate their marriage for up to as long as a year. And notice, though, that in our passage they are regarded as married during this betrothal period. They’re married. We know this because of verses 19 and 20 of our passage this morning where Joseph is called Mary’s husband and Mary is called Joseph’s wife. To be unfaithful during the betrothal act or during betrothal would make one liable to stoning. We don’t know when Joseph found out that Mary was pregnant. For Mary, we know that Gabriel came to her before she conceived, according to Luke chapter 1, the passage that we read earlier this morning. And we know that it was in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, but scripture doesn’t give us any more than that. And we also know Joseph and Mary’s reactions. Joseph was a good man. He loved Mary, but he was a righteous man, a man of principle, and he didn’t want to take home with him a wife who was carrying another man’s child. Scripture says that he considered what to do. And yet I wonder, in terms of this word consider, I wonder if behind that was he was in anguish. He loved Mary. What do I do? He must have agonized over what to do. And so after much consideration or much anguish, he finally resolved to divorce her quietly. That was the kinder option, believe it or not, in that day. A lawsuit against Mary would have subjected her to stoning. And so Mary’s reaction at first, according to Luke’s account, was one of fear and perplexity. She was only a teenager. I don’t know if we have any teenage girls here. We might have some teenage girls here, but imagine you’re looking down on your cell phone, you’re just texting away, and all of a sudden there’s a shadow that comes over you. You look up and it’s an angel that announces to you that you’re going to carry God’s son. You’d be startled as well, I would think, if that were the case. Remember, Mary was only a teenager and the angel comes to her and tells her that she will bear the Son of God. That’s a heavy load to bear, figuratively speaking, as well as literally. I mean, think of the public ridicule and skepticism that Mary and Joseph would experience. Joseph would be known as a divorced man. Mary, his betrothed, would become a single mom. Think of the chatter around Joseph’s woodshop or the gossip that occurred in the marketplace. Think of the snickering that occurred. She says that she hadn’t been with Joseph, but why is she pregnant? Joseph’s not the father. And Mary says that she hasn’t been unfaithful. What’s the deal? And to make things even more complicated, Joseph and Mary would have to say, the Holy Spirit did it. Right. Try selling that for nine months. By the fact that there was no effort at all to make room in the inn for this special couple, and the fact that the birth of Jesus had no fanfare, that it was a very private matter, it would be surprising if there were many people, even among the family members, who believed them. There was no DNA testing. This small couple, insignificant couple, was stuck with people’s perceptions and their judgments and the talk around town. But their complications don’t stop God from moving their story forward at all. It was after Joseph resolved to divorce Mary quietly that an angel of the Lord came to him and said, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife. For that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus.” What a message to hear. Literally, according to the verb that’s used here, it reads, do not become afraid. Another way of putting it is this way, Joseph, do not hesitate to do what you are longing to do within your heart. Do not hesitate. You know, I’ve often wondered if the angel had not spoken to him, he probably would have divorced her. But God’s timing is always perfect, and God’s plans can never be thwarted. We know that after the angel came to both Joseph and Mary, that they believed God. You might be sitting here this morning thinking, well, you know, if an angel visited me and told me good news, I would believe God. But remember, Mary and Joseph, they still had to live through the complications of life. It wasn’t rosy for them at all, even any stretch of the imagination. They still had to walk from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Probably nothing or not a big deal for Joseph as much, but for Mary, who was probably in her third trimester of pregnancy. That’s like walking from Fort Wayne to South Bend, Indiana, on foot, at times at night, where robbers would hang out by the side of the road. They still had to live through the complications and trials and adversities of life to make that 90 mile trek, for example. You know, if we choose to open our eyes of faith, we will see God helping us through the tsunamis of our own life, whatever they might be. Not always, not always in our timing or always in the way that we would imagine, nor in spectacular ways. But oftentimes in simple, small, quiet ways, the shepherd, the great shepherd, carries us through the hardships and complications of our life, whatever they might be. I’m sure that there are stories that we can all tell of times when we found ourselves in a pickle with our backs up against the wall and somehow and in some way, God provided someone or some way or something to help us through it. Not all the time, but many of the times. And we sit back and we wonder in amazement how good God must be. for what he’s done in my life. How wonderful that not only does a big God care for a small person like me, but he doesn’t abandon me when life gets complicated for me. God never sits back twiddling his thumbs wondering what am I going to do? He never abandons us. God moves my story. He moves your story forward little by little, no matter how small I may feel or how complicated my life can become.

You know, in spite of the busyness and the stress of this time of year, the Christmas season really does, in a sense, bring people together with hope, joy, and peace once again, to perhaps inspire the world for a moment in time. There’s generally, as you probably have experienced, a feel-good story to experience and share with each other during this time of year. People are more giving. They’re more forgiving. The music just warms our hearts. The lights and the decorations, they dazzle our eyes. The cinnamon rolls somehow taste better. The Charlie Brown Christmas takes us back to a time when life was simpler. Oh, how wonderful this time of year. If only it would last.

But the sentimental sights and smells and sounds of a worldly Christmas, they don’t last. The Christmas truce of 1914 was one of the most unique and never repeated moments of humanity amidst one of the most violent events in human history, World War I. It was Christmas Eve, 1914, when the Allies on the Western Front heard the Germans singing Silent Night. The Allies decided that they would join in before long. Each side would be singing Christmas carols to each other across the trenches. As Christmas Day dawned, the Allies watched a number of the Germans slowly lay down their guns And they began walking across no man’s land, calling out, Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas, in each of the Allies’ native tongue. So you can imagine at first the Allies thought it was a trick, but then they slowly ventured out and eventually shook hands with the Germans. And then they began to exchange gifts like cigarettes and plum pudding and headgear. They even played a friendly game of soccer. Later in the day, each side participated in burying each other’s men who had fallen the previous day. But consorting with the enemy was one step away from treason and execution.

And so with this pressure on them, the hope, joy, and peace soon disappeared and the fighting resumed the day after Christmas. In 1999, a cross was placed in the location of the Christmas truce with the following words, quote, 1914, the Khaki Chum’s Christmas truce. 1999, 85 years, lest we forget. And we’re left scratching our heads. How could they do that? How could they abandon hope, joy, and peace and go back to fighting after celebrating Christmas with each other? It’s really hard to know. But it does serve as an important lesson for all of us. Getting caught up in the sentimental mood of the season and singing Christmas carols doesn’t guarantee hope, joy, or peace. But this simple story of two small people, two insignificant people living in a small town that nobody wanted to live in, points to a Savior who moves our story forward. And he is the only one who can give lasting hope, joy, and peace to small people living with complicated lives. The manger and the cross stand as a reminder that God sent his son across the trenches of no man’s land to bring that lasting hope, joy, and peace that does endure for all eternity. Let this truth crowd out the complications of your life as you spiritually prepare this Advent season for that one holy and silent night. Let’s pray.

Father in heaven, we come before you and oftentimes we confess that we doubt you. Sometimes the circumstances in our life seem so unique that we might think, God, you don’t understand. There are times that we feel small and insignificant because of circumstances in our life that we wonder, why am I important? I must not be important. And all the trials that we have and the struggles that we have with our friends in school and in the neighborhoods or even with family members, at times we feel so small and insignificant. And yet, Lord, we are never out of your sight. We are never out of your control and guidance in our lives. And so we ask, Lord, that even in this Advent season, you might enable us to prepare spiritually to anticipate and celebrate the birth of our Savior, that you would cause us to be introspective of our lives, to be humbled, that the God-man would take on flesh and become like us. May the wonder and mystery of the great incarnation captivate us and draw us even closer to the Savior. For we pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.