As someone with a civil engineering education I’ve always been proud of the little joke where the engineer says, “God made the earth from chaos in seven days, so engineering must be the first profession.” But a politician replied. “No, politics was the first profession. Who do you think made the chaos in the first place?”
The world may seem like chaos; even without the assistance of politicians. Natural disasters, societal shifts, scientific developments, and yes, even mistakes made by engineers can all make life unpredictable. It can be hard to know where the world is going. In the last several months I’ve heard many people ask, “Where will we be ten years from now?” Or even, “…three years from now?” But it is hard to know. Many things we took for granted are now up in the air. That goes for more than just our current national politics. The entire world order that was established in the years after World War 2, and then adjusted with the end of the Cold War, is unraveling.
Anxiety is high throughout the world. That is understandable. Perhaps something that we need to accept is that the stability that most of us grew up having, and thinking should be the norm for human life, turns out to be the exception. For most of human history life has been highly unstable for just about everybody.
If I can I’m going to take some engineering liberties in interpreting the gospel of Matthew. In a way, Matthew writes like an engineer who is trying to bring order to chaos.
Last week we read the very beginning of Matthew. It was the genealogy of Jesus. That’s a good and orderly way to start a story and introduce the main character- tell us where the main character comes from. Like any good engineer, Matthew likes to show that things are orderly. You may remember that the genealogy was broken into three sets of fourteen generations: Fourteen generations between Abraham and David. Fourteen generations from King David to the deportation to Babylon. And fourteen generations from the deportation to Jesus.
Unfortunately for my claim that Matthew is like an engineer, Matthew doesn’t actually list fourteen generations each time. He only lists 13 generations one of those times. Apparently, his counting gets a little shaky once he runs out of fingers! So I guess he wouldn’t make a great engineer. Still though, we get the idea. History, and God’s interactions with it, are orderly.
At the risk of dwelling too much on what you covered last week, there is another thing that must be admitted about that genealogy. It has basically zero chance of being historically accurate. Other parts of Matthew’s gospel do ring true to history. The genealogy, however, is unverifiable.
But that’s actually noteworthy. Many of the people Matthew lists are obscure. They don’t show up anywhere else in history. Nevertheless, even though they are not noteworthy people, God was steadily and consistently working through them to bring about the great acts of salvation by Jesus. So, let’s not expect God to work through big and powerful people or ways that appear big and powerful. And let’s not discount our own importance in God’s plans just because we don’t feel extraordinary.
That takes us to what we read today. We meet Mary and Joseph. Neither were people of any consequence whatsoever. They were just ordinary Joe and Mary. Like most Jews of the time, their lives weren’t stable. We remember that the Jews lived at the extreme eastern edge of the Roman Empire. If you go just a bit father east you enter the vast and powerful Parthian Empire. At the time of Jesus’ birth the Parthians were on the decline a bit, but they were still about equal to Rome in size and power. Jewish territory was a bit of a buffer zone between the two great empires. So, it wasn’t exactly a safe and stable place to call home.
Next week we’re going to read about wise men coming from the east. They are, of course, Parthians. So, what happens when visitors from the rival empire next door come to pay homage to a supposedly newborn king? The birth of Jesus starts having implications for international politics. We’ll talk about that more next week, but you know the story. Jesus and his parents flee. They flee farther west into the Roman empire. But many who stay will be killed. Such is the chaotic world in which they lived.
Joseph’s life becomes even more chaotic when he discovers that Mary is pregnant. Given that a betrothal was considered to be an equal commitment to the marriage, the community would not have been shocked that she was pregnant. Joseph, of course, knows a thing or two about the birds and the bees. There’s no way this story adds up! How could he possibly form a solid marriage with a woman who is so obviously unfaith and untrustworthy? If he continued his life would almost surely be unstable at best, and probably have a very troublesome home life.
We’re told that an angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and lays out the truth to him. That gives him the validation he needs about Mary and so he keeps the engagement. So, from Joseph’s point of view, the problem is solved. The story can continue on happily. However, for us the idea of dreams and angels and immaculate conceptions may stretch our sense of reality. They certainly don’t meet the burden of proof an engineer would want before designing something! But offering historical and statistically verifiable truth is not Matthew’s agenda at this point. Ultimately the historical reliability the details don’t matter all that much at this point in the story. The need for historical reliability comes up later. For this part of the story what matters to Matthew is that he shows that God is coming into a world of chaos and instability. You don’t need to have a whole lot of proof to believe that! So into that chaos Jesus comes to the ordinary Jewish couple of Joe and Mary.
God is not a god in chaos. God brings order to a world that is in chaos. Or perhaps it would be better to say that God’s orderly plans for salvation are in no way hindered or weakened by the instability of a nation, or a society, or even the whole world.
Joseph and Mary’s life will not become easier with the birth of Jesus. If anything, it will get worse for many years.
We have to remember that being God’s people, and doing God’s work, does not lead to an easy, stable, predictable life. We may long for an easy, stable, predictable life, but that is unlikely to be God’s agenda for us.
A contrast has formed for Americans. There has been the belief that a stable, easy, predictable life was what God wanted for people; and that it was a sign of God’s blessings. It was proof that you were living right. Many people pursued it. Many people made it their lives’ goal. And many believed it was God’s will.
The thing is, search the scriptures and you’ll find no such teaching in the New Testament. You will find it in a number of places in the Old Testament. But in those places you need to keep the context in mind. God never promises that a life of faith will be an easy life. What scripture really teaches, and especially throughout the New Testament, is that a life of faith is likely to be tumultuous. We’re going to see that in a lot of what Jesus teaches as we read onward in Matthew.
What we find more often, is that a life of faith is indeed rooted in God’s peace and stability, but living out that faith takes us into the world of chaos.
So, when life feels like it’s more chaotic and scary than it’s supposed to be, don’t shrink back from it. Realize instead that God is giving you a nudge. That restlessness and fear you feel is calling you out into the chaos to do something about it.
Remember what Matthew’s gospel teaches. God is indeed at work in stable and steady ways. God always has been, is now, and will be in the future. We are safe no matter what happens and what the world does to us. Our focus is forward to God’s promises of eternal life. That is our energy and ultimate destiny. Therefore, everything here in this life is temporary, fleeting even. So, God sends us to invite others into the stable ultimate reality God provides.
That is where God’s promises do come to life in this world. When more and more people’s perspectives are on God’s future then this world also becomes more stable. Chaos fades. When too many focus on this life being all there is, then there is fighting, conflict over limited resources, fear, and chaos.
Trust in God’s promises just the way Joseph and Mary did. Even if God doesn’t come to you in a dream with a clear message, let the unsettledness of your heart be the recognition of God’s call. The world is broken. God is always at work using ordinary people like us to fix it. So let’s not shrink from the challenge and the privilege of the task.
