Good News! I am getting to practice…
Good news! I am getting to practice my craft of writing and follow my call to ministry. I have been invited to lead church services at the Brandon United Methodist Church two Sundays a month. December 18, 2022 was my first day.
The following are the scriptures from the Fourth Sunday of Advent along with the reflection I wrote and delivered to the congregation that day.
Scripture:
Matthew 1:18–25
Now 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. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But 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. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”
All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel,” which means, “God is with us.”
When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
Reflection:
Whose Child Is This?
By Vicki Disorda
So often in today’s world of “blended families” people seem to get sidetracked on conversations about which particular family member a child belongs to genetically and who has had “marital relations” with who when. Rather than simply referring to each child as ‘our’ child or their child, we -as a society- seem to need to identify whose DNA’s flows through each individual child’s veins, as if this has anything to with the love for a child.
One person in the story of the birth of Christ that has always resonated with me is Joseph. I have always been enamored by the love Joseph had for Mary and the Christ child.
In everyday conversation, I often go on faith that I understand the meaning of the words I use and that I apply them appropriately. But as a writer, I like to look up the exact definitions of words to make certain that I have used them correctly.
What’s funny about my word choice in saying that I have always been enamored with Joseph, is that when I checked the actual definition of the word, I found it to be this: Be filled with a feeling of love for.
Isn’t it wonderful my feeling for Joseph is love even though in my language, I express it by another word? After all, how often do we talk about love when it comes to a perfect stranger, or a person we have only heard stories of.
Why do I have feelings of love towards Joseph? Because Joseph reminds me of a real-life character that I love named Dan. Dan is my younger brother so I can say with exact accuracy, that I have known him his entire life. Dan has always marched to the beat of his own drum. This often got him into trouble, especially when we were young. The listening to and then marching to his own drum has caused Dan to do a lot of unpopular and unordinary things that the majority of the people around him seemed to have struggled to understand. Particularly our parents.
Our mother used to keep a “paddle” on the back of the kitchen stove. While it could have potentially been used on any one of us, we all knew that the paddle was Dan’s. All in the household actually called it “Danny’s paddle”. But regardless of how many spankings he got when we were children, my brother has grown into an admirable man. Of anyone I have ever known I have always thought of my younger sibling as the most Christ-like person I know. Not because he is anywhere near a saint, but because of his ability to love.
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This might seem odd because although my younger sibling and I both went to the same Sunday school classes in the same church when we young and had the same set of parents, Dan happens to use the word “alien” in reference to his higher power. But as Pastor John said last week, “We live by faith even when we don’t subscribe to it.” Whenever I have told anyone that my brother believes in aliens, I always follow it up by saying we love him anyway.
About twenty years ago, Dan met and fell in love with a woman and her three children. I say and the children because they were as important a part of his decision to commit and marry this woman as the Christ child was in Joseph’s decision to wed Mary.
Dan may not have been visited by an angel at night in his dreams, but, going back to last week’s refection by Pastor John, Dan listened to the melody in his heart.
I can tell you that twenty years ago, when this all happened, Dan took a lot of grief from the people who thought they were looking out for him. At that time, the concept of blended families had not come about and taking responsibility for another person’s biological children was an unpopular, and considered an unwise, thing to.
While it seems we -as a society- often get caught up on what’s popular rather than what is right or what we feel, Dan had the strength and the courage to follow the spirit that was in his own heart instead of listening to anyone else. Regardless of the lack of understanding or council he received from those around him, Dan loved, much like Joseph loved in the story of Christ. He stayed true to “the melody” that was in his heart, which was to love three children who existed with or without his own personal DNA.
The marriage fell apart years ago, but Dan’s love for these children has remained unchanged. He continues to live by his personal faith in love. He is every bit as committed to these now grown children as he was when he was married and helping to raise them. Spiritually, they are his. Just as spiritually, we each belong to God.
Keeping in that spirit, after the dissolution of his marriage, Dan fell in love with another woman and has accepted her children in this same way. Today, he loves his children’s children, his partner’s children, and grandchildren and each of their step siblings. Spiritually, each one is as much his child or grandchild as any man’s whose DNA runs through their veins. Love, true love, knows no bounds. Not flesh. Not bones. Not genetics. Not law.
This little group of individuals who decided to love one another all those years ago is still functioning as a family even with the lack of DNA or a legal decree. There is no marriage certificate to hold them together and yet, they remain steadfast in love.
Love multiplies when love abounds. Through love, Dan unknowingly followed in the tradition of the Christ family, and now he has not only the love of his original three children, but two others as well. Plus, the love of eleven grandchildren.
This may very well be the most Christ-like family I know.
It exits all because a man named Dan had the strength and the courage to march to the beat of his own drum. And even though he doesn’t identify himself as a Christian, Dan authenticates the infinite wisdom of the Bible by how he lives his life.
Dan proves, as Joseph did, that biology has nothing to do with love. Dan was years ahead of his time and at the same time unwittingly following in the footsteps of a man named Joseph who lived two thousand years before.
Love transcends marital relations and the laws of man.
And so, in this fourth week of Advent which is all about the love of the Christ family, I share this story of Dan. He is proof of the living Christ today, loving by faith, even when one does not subscribe to it.
Jesus came to teach us to love and to save us from sin, but a man named Joseph helped to lay the groundwork. By loving a child that was not biologically “his”, Joseph proceeded many Christ-like men who have followed this path. Joseph loved Jesus even before the teacher of love was born. This love that transcends all is why the story of Christ- and the Christ family- is so important and still relevant today.
Jesus taught us to love even when we are not “supposed to” by societal standards. Love is our freedom. When we choose to love, we exercise freedom. The story of Dan demonstrates the love of Christ in the world today.
Even when we do not subscribe to it, we as people still live by faith.
Last week, Pastor John reminded us that Christ resides within each of us. It is this spirit within us which enables us to march to the beat of our own drum, or to dance to the melody in our hearts, and love. This spirit gives us strength to do what is unpopular. This is the power of love.
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