First Words by Rev. Dr. Jay Marshall Groat – December 1, 2024, at Mount Vernon, Ohio, based on Matthew 1: 18-25

There’s one thing that I would like you to take away from this message this morning. I’m hoping that you take more than one thing. I’m going to offer more, but there’s one big one that I want you to take with you this morning, and I’ll let you know what it is in a few minutes. First words, first words. Advent. Advent comes from a Latin word, adventus, which means “coming.” Something is coming, someone is coming, we’re waiting. That’s what Advent is supposed to be, a time of waiting and a time of preparation. I asked the children, and I’m asking you and I’m asking me, how are you going to be Advent this year? How are you going to do that? I’ve got a place where you can start. I’ll come to that in a minute.

Waiting. Yesterday morning, I’ve done this before, depending on the Saturday morning of that particular year, but I did it again yesterday. Pastors know things about – I’ll just say it. We know about hospital parking, these are some things that we know about. And one of the things that I know is that on Saturday mornings at Ohio State, the Wexner Medical Center, there’s at least one parking lot every Saturday morning that has free parking. As you pull in way over there you can see it, it’s a huge parking garage, too many floors to count, but as you pull in you can look down there and see that all of those gates that are normally down are up. This includes days with home Ohio State football games. Not everybody knows about this. Like many people in Ohio, I just love the Ohio State Marching Band. And they have this thing called the skull session, do you know about this? Sometimes I go down and I take advantage of the free parking at the hospital, and I consider it my morning exercise. I walk over to St. John Arena, and I listen and watch the skull session. Yesterday I did. I don’t know if you’re aware of this, but we played Michigan yesterday. This was before the game. I looked around, by myself. I told Vicki, I’m going to do this again this year because it’s for exercise, it’s wonderful music, it’s energy, and it’s a very deep and profound anthropological study, it really is. By the time it started St. John was basically filled. I didn’t look up what St. John Arena can hold; I’m going to guess there were 8,000 to 10,000 people in there. And we all were sure that Ohio State was going to win. I intentionally looked for Michigan gear; I saw two. Oh, we have one in our midst. That’s OK. For the first time ever that I’ve experienced at a skull session the band was late. Maybe we should have taken this as an omen, the Ohio State fans, I don’t know. It’s supposed to start at 9:40, it always starts right on time. The MC in charge got up and said, “Ladies and gentlemen, the band is late. Please hold on, they’re on their way.” Eight to 10 thousand people.

I thought this was a great opportunity, so I went down onto the floor, and I asked if I could have the microphone – I wouldn’t make this up – and they said sure, anybody who wants to make an announcement. So, I got on the microphone and said, look, there’s eight to 10 thousand people, you’re waiting. And I said to them, I just want to remind you this is just like Advent, right? We’re waiting for the advent of the band. Well, I did in my imagination.

How are you going to prepare? I’m asking you to consider the possibility that this year can be different. Let’s not fall into that seductive trap, and it is seductive, to think that this is just another Christmas, this is just another Advent. This Advent is an unrepeatable miracle, and it will never happen again.

So, here’s a quick review. We’re getting close to the one thing that I really want you to take with you. I really want it to last more than just today. That’s what I’m hoping for. Let’s do a quick review. How many Gospels are there? Four. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. How many of the four Gospels have what we call a birth narrative, talking about Jesus’ birth? Two, Matthew and Luke. I have made the decision, because I can do this, I’ve made the decision that on the four Sundays of Advent – this Sunday and next Sunday we’re taking a look at Matthew, who talks about the birth of Jesus, and then the third and the fourth Sundays we’re going to take a look at Luke. What does Luke have to say? They’re two different stories. You’re probably like me – when you take a walk in the neighborhood and you see one of your neighbors has a nativity scene, do you do this? This is what I do, I go up and knock on the front door – again, I don’t make this stuff up, right? – I knock on the front door, and I complement them on the nativity scene and say, I think it’s great the way you combined two completely different stories, Matthew and Luke. They’ve got completely different stories. They’re both beautiful. I think it’s great the way you’ve combined them into one nativity scene. Well, I did that in my imagination too.

Jesus never mentioned the circumstances of His own birth, He never mentioned it. There’s no account of Jesus sitting at the coffee shop and saying to people, oh, by the way, I was born to a virgin, when I was born shepherds came, angels came, wise magi came. Jesus never mentions the circumstances of His own birth. Paul never mentions it. These are beautiful stories, and there’s one aspect of the story that I want you to take with you today. I want it to last more than one day. And Sandy just read it for us, I’m not going to read the whole thing again. “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 of the Holy Spirit.” You might remember that this betrothal, they were essentially married. We don’t really have anything on that in our culture today. But when we read that they were betrothed, they were essentially married. In Deuteronomy there are rules and regulations that when a couple was betrothed they essentially were married, and if the woman was found to be pregnant and the man was not the father, guess what the punishment was? Death. How about that? You can look it up, it’s in Deuteronomy. Death, by stoning. That’s what Deuteronomy says. The scholars tell us that by the time of the lifetime of Jesus the rabbis had mitigated away from that. You weren’t put to death anymore, but the marriage was annulled, and you were ostracized and you were rejected. You had to leave the community. This is what happened to the woman. Ask me what happened to the man who fathered the child. Nothing.

Matthew is how Christianity begins. It’s the first book, it’s the first one. And we’re told right from the beginning that Joseph was a, quote, righteous man, and a righteous man followed the rules in the Torah. And what are we told about Joseph? I’m getting chills thinking about it. His form of righteousness is to quietly, without humiliation, to let Mary go. I wonder why he reacted that way. We’re not told why; we’re told he was righteous. Do you have any guesses as to why he would react this way, anybody? I have a guess. My guess is he loved her.

What do we do with people who we love, and they mess up? I think he loved her. And he, quote, resolves to divorce her quietly, he doesn’t want to humiliate her, he wants to be gentle. And then this poor guy, who in the New Testament hardly ever gets a good night’s sleep, Joseph goes to bed and is visited by an angel in a dream. Does anybody here dream? Do you remember your dreams? I know you do. And this is really pretty much as far as I’m going to go with this, and this is the takeaway that I want you to have. Matthew’s the first book of the New Testament. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Mark doesn’t mention a birth narrative, John doesn’t mention a birth narrative. Matthew and Luke do. Look, nobody loves the Bible more than I do. With all due respect, if you want to take a nap, read Matthew 1. It’s a genealogy, the beginning of 1, and then when we pick it up on 18, today, this morning, this is the first time we have characters involved. There are characters in play here, and the first entity that speaks in the history of Christianity is an angel. And this is the takeaway, and that’s why I entitled the message “First Words.” What are the first words of the New Testament? Anybody? “Don’t be afraid.” Joseph don’t be afraid. Take Mary as your wife. And he woke up, and he started the next day a changed man. And the world was never the same again. First words – don’t be afraid. Amen?