We light the fourth Advent Candle with eager anticipation. May we approach the manger with a sense of awe about the sheer goodness and love present in Jesus Christ. In Christ we get a glimpse of the life you intended for us. May we be ready for opportunities to make your love known in the world. Amen.

 

 

 

 

I heard a fascinating thing a week or so ago. It had to do with starting a small business. Has anybody here been involved in any business enterprises? Yes, I thought maybe you had. The upshot of what I heard was this: If you want to start… indeed, if you want to survive… more importantly, if you want to succeed in a small business in today’s environment, you need to remember the Law of Two. Do you know the Law of Two?

 

The Law of Two goes like this: It will take twice as much time as you think to ultimately succeed. It will take twice as much money and twice as much energy than you have been willing to invest. You will sacrifice twice as much as you planned. You will struggle twice as much as you succeed. Your success will taste twice as sweet as you dreamed it would.

 

Have you ever hard of that? The Law of Two. I had not heard of that before. Of course, it’s not only true in business; it is also true in music, certainly in the arts. It is true in academia, in school. It is true in sports. It is true in our family lives. It is also, I suggest to you, true in terms of our faith.

 

You have to put twice the effort believing, twice as much as you think you are able. Trust God twice as much as you comfortably prefer, and expect to go twice as far as you have already gone. That’s true not only in life but also in faith. The Law of Two.

 

Take a look at Joseph today. Take a look at this guy in our text. Who in the world was Joseph? Well, before the angel visited him, not much. Not much of a place, really, in the grand scheme of things. He didn’t have much press. He’s pretty much a footnote in the Bible commentaries today, even 2000 years later. 

 

What do we know about Joseph? Again, not very much. Joseph was a carpenter, it says. He lived the lifestyle, I guess, of the not-so-rich-and-famous. He probably punched the clock, or whatever they did in those days. He paid his dues. That would be my guess. He did his job, and at the end of the day, he probably hung up his tools and settled in for the evening. When he wasn’t at the shop, a good guess is, he was hanging out with Mary. You know, wandering around the mall, catching a movie. Going downtown, maybe taking her to the Food Court on payday, or something. I don’t know.

 

Joseph had a pretty simple life, folks. It was a good life, but a simple life. Scripture says, not only did he have a simple life being a carpenter; he did just about everything right. It says in the Bible that he was a righteous man, a man of faith, a believer. When the Bible talks about a person being a believer, what it means is he is a person who trusts in God – genuinely trusts God.

 

You get the feeling that Joseph wanted nothing more than to marry this young woman in his life, build a family, settle down into their life together. I don’t know this but I guess, Joseph, like most of us, had plans. They were honorable plans, probably not great plans, not cosmic plans, but good plans.

 

Then according to Matthew, God showed up and laughed. “Joseph, I’ve got some plans for you. You have no idea what they are about.”

 

Now, we have heard this text so many times, but what you need to remember about it is this: the news for Joseph was not good. Mary is already pregnant, and Joseph is not the lucky guy. Couldn’t be. Wouldn’t be. No possible way he might be, and it was a mess. It’s always a mess. But, according to the text, there’s a way out.

 

There were provisions governing these kinds of situations in that day. It wasn’t pretty, but it was the right thing to do. It says so right there in the Book. If he wasn’t the father of this child, it was his responsibility to pull the plug on this relationship. Tell everybody in town what had happened. Dump her, and see that she is punished. It is right there in the Book, Deuteronomy 22. Read it for yourself. It was the law. It’s the way things were, and in its day, it was the right thing to do.

 

Every once in a while, folks, I still see that bumper sticker around. Maybe you’ve seen it. It goes something like this: “God said it. I believe it. That settles it!” Have you seen that one? I appreciate the intention of that bumper sticker, but I have to tell you, if you buy into that kind of thinking, you are going to have a really tough time being a follower of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes it’s simply just not that simple. And you know something? I think the whole history of the world would have been very different today if Joseph had bought into that bumper sticker.

 

Sometimes, sometimes God changes the rules. Did you know that? It’s not that the rules aren’t important. They are. We are a people, a humanity, that doesn’t do very well without order and without rules and without structure.

 

But here’s what I want you to hear on this Fourth Sunday of Advent. Sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes God changes the rules. The reason we know this is the text we read today. It’s one we have heard since we were children. A powerful text. There’s a lot going on in it. Apparently that is what God did in the story of Joseph. 

 

According to Matthew, God showed up one night as an angel and said, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. I know what the Bible says about that. I know, because I helped write it, but what I had to say back then is not what I have to say to you today. The child that is conceived in Mary is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you, Joseph, you will name him. You will name him Jesus, because he is the one who will save his people from their sins. And you, Joseph, you are going to be this child’s father. You will do this. You will not walk away from this. So go on, take her home. Take Mary to be your wife.”

 

Folks, it was the biggest decision Joseph ever made in his entire life. The decision not to do what was expected… The decision not to do the usual thing… The decision not to do the prescribed thing… in order to do the right thing. In order to do God’s thing. To chuck his plans and his way of life in order to accomplish God’s plans and a new way of life. In short, to take a risk. It’s the Law of Two all over again.

 

For Joseph it was going to take twice as much faith, twice as much courage, twice as much trust and risk in order to be twice the person he ever dreamed he’d be. That’s the way life it. It’s the way faith is. It’s the Law of Two.

 

I think that’s what Joseph did, and I think that is what we are called to do as well. When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him to do. He took Mary as his wife, had no sexual relationships with her until she bore a son, and he named that child Jesus.

 

Life is full of risks. It’s full of risks everyday. Larry Laudan, in his wonderful book, The Book of Risks talks about life’s dangers. I don’t know whether you know this or not. One in every 400 Americans is going to get injured in bed. I’m not going to go there, but I’m just going to tell you that is the truth. One in 400 is injured in bed! One American every single day is going to die falling out of bed! Today, somebody is going to die falling out of bed!

 

Here is one that will surprise you a little bit. One in 6,500 of us are going to be injured on our toilets this year. It doesn’t tell me how. I’m just reading the book.

 

OK? Life’s a risk. By the time you got here today, you had beaten the odds. You did wonderfully. Now, you’re not out of the woods yet. I’ve seen some of you drive! Eating, drinking coffee, shaving, putting on make-up, chatting on your cell phone. All the time! I saw four accidents on Broadway Friday afternoon. Four! I just wanted to get home to someplace safe. But you are here. You defied the odds by being here today.

 

Life is a risk. Life is full of risks. It is like Wayne Gretzky, the great hockey player said, “You know, the fact of the matter is, you miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

 

That’s the quote of the week. I want you to quote “St. Wayne” this week. “You miss 100% of the shots you never take.”

 

Wow! Practice the Law of Two.  Find someone this week. Just find someone in your life who is half as whole as you are, and then I want you to offer that person twice as much love and support as they have any reason to expect from you this week. I’m going to ask you to find someone this week who deserves half of the love you have already shown them, and then I’m going to ask you to give them two times more. Find someone who has worked twice as hard as you have in this world but has only come half as far as you have, and give that person this week twice the amount of support they need. Dads, give your kids twice the amount of time that you did last week. Moms, give them twice as much patience as you did last week. And kids, tell your parents twice as often that you love them, twice as much as you have shown them last week.

 

It’s the Law of Two. It doesn’t come naturally, and that’s why I am asking you to work twice as hard to practice it. And if you are willing, it says the return on that investment will grow exponentially.

 

I know it is risky. Life is full of risks. It’s the risk of going beyond the expected so that your life… so that our life… so the life of this community of faith will count for twice as much as it does today.

 

That’s what Joseph did. It’s what Jesus did. And I ask you to think about yourself today. Are you willing to do that very thing? The Law of Two. I believe you are. 

 

My question to the congregation: Will we become twice the congregation we are today? Knowing this congregation as I do, I believe we will.

 

And we all say together… “Amen.”

 

God of the Ages, help us to listen for your call. We are not always ready to risk what responding to that call may cost us. Please give us the courage and conviction to rise up and say, “Ready or not, here we come!” Amen.