18 December 2013 - hope of ages

18 December 2013 - hope of ages

“Joseph, son of David,
do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home.
For it is through the Holy Spirit
that this child has been conceived in her.

Joseph has a heart that listens and obeys.  It is amazing how open his heart is to something coming from so far beyond the realm of his usual experiences.  He does experience that normal human reaction to the pregnancy of Mary.  He "decided to divorce her quietly".  But when an angel appears to him in a dream he is willing to set aside all of his normal preconceptions.  He is willing to take God at his word.  What a dream it must be to stand out enough from normal dreams that he knows that he can trust it as revelation. 

There is something about what the angel tells him that just can't be denied.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus,
because he will save his people from their sins.”

He hears the name Jesus.  He hears of salvation for his people.  And he remembers:

Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD,
when I will raise up a righteous shoot to David;
As king he shall reign and govern wisely,
he shall do what is just and right in the land.
In his days Judah shall be saved,
Israel shall dwell in security.

It isn't just a dream.  This is too important.  The necessity of this hope is too real.  And it is not, in the end, entirely out of nowhere.

All this took place to fulfill
what the Lord had said through the prophet:

Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,

which means “God is with us.”
It is part of a hope which God has been building in the hearts of his people since the beginning.  It is a hope which is very specific: to have him with us.  As he tells us, "My dwelling place shell be with them" (cf. Eze. 37:27). 

It is the power of genuine supernatural hope to allow Joseph to set aside his preconceptions to see the plan of God in action.  Hope is like this is so different from worldly wishful thinking.  It "does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit" (cf. Rom. 5:5).

We often complain of difficulty in perceiving God's plan.  Do we lack the hope to make it evident in the face of the mundane and the mediocre?  Do we really long to see Jesus face to face?  To we really desire heaven for ourselves and our loved ones?  This hope can be a blazing light to guide us on our way.

Justice shall flourish in his time, and fullness of peace for ever.