Fr. Dale Matson
The Call to Obedience and the Voice of God
Matthew 2:13-15, 19-23
Now after the wise men had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, "Out of Egypt I have called my son." (Hosea 11:1) Here Matthew is quoting Hosea where God was calling the nation of Israel out of Egypt in the time of Moses but Matthew applies it to Jesus also. Just as Israel as an infant nation went down into Egypt, so the child went there. And as Israel was led out of Egypt by God, so also was Jesus.
When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, "Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life are dead." Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, "He will be called a Nazorean." For in the place where we read and translate, "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots," Although most commentaries say that Matthew was not quoting the prophets, that he was quoting oral tradition we have St. Jerome, the “Doctor of the Church” (b. 331 d. 420) stating that Matthew was quoting Isaiah 11:1 in the Hebrew idiom it is written thus, "There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse and a Nazarene shall grow from his root." “(Jerome, Letter 47:7)
I would now like to call your attention to three separate occasions where God speaks to Joseph within our Gospel lesson. 1. An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. 2. An angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph. 3. And after being warned in a dream…
Think about this for a moment. Given that Mary is referred to as “Mother of God and is venerated as the most important woman in Holy Scripture, why is God speaking to Joseph not Mary. It is because Joseph has been called by God to be the earthly father of Jesus the Christ. Joseph may be only the stepfather of Jesus but God has appointed him as the head of the house. He is the chief priest of the family. Let us never forget that this is the Holy Family not just a Holy Son and Holy Mother.
It is obvious that God is communicating with Joseph by way of Joseph’s dreams. God communicated with the Old Testament Patriarchs and Prophets through dreams and in the New Testament with Peter to mention only one example.
“The next day, as they went on their journey and drew near the city, Peter went up on the housetop to pray, about the sixth hour. 10 Then he became very hungry and wanted to eat; but while they made ready, he fell into a trance 11 and saw heaven opened and an object like a great sheet bound at the four corners, descending to him and let down to the earth. 12 in it were all kinds of four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, creeping things, and birds of the air. 13 And a voice came to him, “Rise, Peter; kill and eat.” (Acts 10:9-13) Here God has shown Peter that he should not call impure what God has created clean. This would be quite a revelation to you and me but even more of a revelation to a keeper of the ritual cleanliness laws like Peter.
My friend, the late Morton Kelsey a Jungian Analyst and an Episcopal Priest, authored over thirty books. Among them he wrote an excellent and scholarly book called “God, Dreams and Revelations”. He stated, “Neglecting the dream can separate us from one of the most significant ways that God reaches out to human beings” (p.10) “When we find that our dreams bring us solutions to problems that our best intelligence could not solve, we often begin to take revelation and the Devine more seriously.” (p.11). As someone who takes dreams very seriously, I would just ask that you too consider dreams as a way that God may communicate with you.
As Peter, quoting the Prophet Joel said in Acts,
“And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.” (Acts 2:17)
I guess this officially makes me an old man.
What are you dreaming about? Who is leading you forward? Are you looking for more security in 2021? Who are you listening to? Does it bother you that abortion clinics, marijuana shops and liquor stores are considered essential, yet church is not considered essential. Christians are put in the difficult place where we are told that if you don’t care about your own life, you should care about the person you could infect by going to church. Do we think about that when we go to Costco? I don’t think about it.
I’ve been reflecting on the Californian lockdown since it was first imposed as a temporary measure to “flatten the curve” on March 20th 2020. It has now been in effect to a lesser or greater degree for almost a year now. I believe epidemiologists, politicians and model makers fail to see the big picture. Do they fully appreciate the economic, psychological and spiritual harm the lockdowns are doing? Those accusing me of failing to be compassionate are using the Gospel as a club. When it is used in this fashion, it is no longer the Gospel. Many are motivated by fear…by fear of death. Covid has become the newest boogeyman. What are people willing to give up to lessen their chances of contracting Covid? People are afraid and confused. Unbelievers are especially vulnerable. They are desperate to find security and they are giving up their freedoms. Where is the church in this? Where is that same courage we see in calling out abortions. Are we to just roll over and obey our leaders who don’t even obey their own rules? Is justice being trampled underfoot? Our Declaration of Independence has a lot to say about despotic leadership. It is well worth a re-read. Not only is our faith under attack, our hope is being crushed also. How many live alone with little or no human contact? How many die alone in hospitals? How many have not had the benefit of routine medical care that would help prevent or treat a disease? Is the price of the means to defend against Covid still less than the cost?
Cardinal Raymond Burke had the following to say on December 16. “Then there is the mysterious Wuhan virus about whose nature and prevention the mass media daily give us conflicting information. What is clear, however, is that it has been used by certain forces, inimical [harming] to families and to the freedom of nations, to advance their evil agenda. These forces tell us that we are now the subjects of the so-called ‘Great Reset,’ the ‘new normal,’ which is dictated to us by their manipulation of citizens and nations through ignorance and fear. Now, we are supposed to find in a disease and its prevention the way to understand and direct our lives, rather than in God and in His plan for our salvation.” https://www.vanthuanobservatory.org/eng/cdl-burke-covid-is-being-used-for-great-reset-to-attack-freedom-and-families/
I quoted Cardinal Robert Sarah in my previous sermon. Here is another quote from his most recent book, The Day Is Now Far Spent (2019) “I must no longer remain silent. Christians are disoriented. Every day from all sides, I receive calls for help from those who no longer know what to believe. Every day I meet in Rome with priests who are discouraged and wounded. The Church is experiencing the dark night of the soul. The mystery of iniquity is enveloping and blinding her.” (page 8, Kindle Version)
Archbishop Vigano also had this to say mid-December, “The Lord will give us the victory only when we bow down to Him as our King. And if we cannot yet proclaim Him as King of our Nations because of the impiety of those who govern us, we can nevertheless consecrate ourselves, our families, and our communities to Him. And to those who dare to challenge Heaven in the name of “Nothing will be the same again,” we respond by invoking God with renewed fervor: “As it was in beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.”
The Roman Catholic Church has its share of problems but there are still some very courageous and vocal prophets speaking truth for the their church today.
In a November 2020 Washington Post article, the following is stated, “Since the coronavirus arrived, depression and anxiety in America have become rampant. Federal surveys show that 40 percent of Americans are now grappling with at least one mental health or drug-related problem. But young adults have been hit harder than any other age group, with 75 percent struggling.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/11/23/covid-pandemic-rise-suicides/
But the church is not cited as even one answer in the article.
In the Epistle lesson for today we read Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.
He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, we are God’s children with Christ as our head. We need to keep this in mind when we make decisions in our life. Where is God calling us to go? What is He calling us to do? We seek His guidance through circumstances, through being in God’s Word, through conversations with our spouse and friends and even through our dreams. Yes, even our dreams
I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe. (Ephesians 1:3-6, 15-19a) Lord, I believe, help my unbelief (Mark 9:25)
Amen
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