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Addressing the Fear


          But after he had considered 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 home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (Matthew 1:20-21)

          “Do not be afraid.” Angels seem to need to say this often, but usually, it’s reassurance about themselves. Today’s admonition against fear deals with the situation in which Joseph found himself. Here he was, a young man engaged to a young woman who is pregnant. It’s not his child. By all rights, he should demand the name of the father. He probably did and was told that the Father was the father. What sort of nonsense was that? By all rights, both she and her lover should be stoned to death.
But he loved her. He may not have been in love with her. He may have been deeply hurt by her infidelity, but he loved her. Instead of taking her to court and displaying his innocence and her guilt before the community, he was thinking of quietly disentangling – of giving her a divorce so they would both be free: she could marry the father; he could find a new bride who was faithful. The whispers for both would probably disappear faster. It would also make him the victim, which might have seemed preferable to being one of the sinners.
          The angel addresses the fear and reframes the situation. He changes everything but changes nothing. And, he adds a huge burden. This child wasn’t some base-born bastard, He was from God, by God, and destined to be the long-awaited Messiah. One the one hand, “Whew! Mary’s not what I was afraid she was.” On the other hand, “No one will believe this and how are we supposed to raise the Messiah?”
          What would we see if we tried to look at things more from God’s perspective? Granted, we may not know what it looks like from His perspective, but how often do we ask Him about it? We ask for the storm to be calmed, or at least for Him to calm us. What would happen if we asked, instead, to see the storm through His eyes?

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