So You’re a Priest: Will One Thing

Second Sunday of Advent!

The Advent reading for this Sunday was Matthew 1:18-25.

For today’s sermon, and its relevance to Joseph, check out the preceding verses: the "begats", i.e. the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1:1-17).

This is part 11 of a sermon series through 2 Corinthians. For weeks now, Paul has been contrasting two different kingdoms, two very different ways of living. We live in the cusp, the no man’s land between a world of death and a world of life—a kingdom in opposition to God that seems real, but is really no more substantial than vapor, and the kingdom of God that seems to be an apparition, but is becoming more real every day.

You live in both worlds, both kingdoms—that is what it is to be human—but in which kingdom does your heart live? Søren Kierkegaard, 19th-Century Danish philosopher and theologian said in a book by the same name, "Purity of heart is to will one thing." In today’s Scripture, Joseph struggles between his plans for himself and his family and God plans, God’s call on his life. What does it mean for him to follow God?

2 Corinthians 5

Commentary

v7 by sight. Previously we read "what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). "Living by sight" means being guided by what makes sense in this world, making decisions based on the consequences this world has to offer. We are called to make choices based on a different standard.

A better translation of this verse might be, "We walk by faith, not by appearances," which better reflects the insubstantial nature of some of the worldly things we erroneously depend upon.

v9 we make it our goal. "Ambition" is too small a sense of the action; what is going on here is some more like one’s life ambition, or highest aspiration. (This sort of ambition is also found in Rom 15:20 and 1 Th 4:11).

v10 things done. This is far too nonspecific—the verb here means something more like "the things we practiced" (i.e. the things that consumed our time, that we were accomplished practitioners thereof (e.g. Rom 1:32; Phil 4:9; Col 3:9). Specifically, the verb here denotes action directed towards a specific end, as opposed to random action. The implication is that the judgment that we stand under is not for the occasional, unfortunate sin in our lives, but rather the sins that are deeply sown and repeated throughout our lives.

Application

When my two college-aged children and their friends came home for Thanksgiving, we played a game called Would You Rather?. The game consists of pairs of questions involving perplexing, and sometimes disgusting, choices, e.g.:

Would you rather eat a small can of cat food OR 7 whole lemons, seeds, pulp, juice, and rind?

Would you rather have 14 fingers OR 16 toes?

Would you rather age only from the neck up OR age only from the neck down?

Kierkegaard—and Paul in 2 Corinthians, and Matthew in the Advent reading—all speak to the war between the two kingdoms which is waged in our hearts, and minds. In this war, who will win our hearts and minds? In this war, how long will we be torn, being two-faced lovers, double-minded devotees?

Would you rather spend eternity in heaven OR would you rather burn forever in hell?

This is the way religion frequently introduces itself, but this choice is no choice at all. Practically speaking, this is not the Would You Rather? dilemma that demands our attention every day. Our daily choices are more mundane, e.g. Would you rather win tonight’s argument with your spouse, but repeat the argument again tomorrow night OR would you rather lose the argument and never repeat the argument again? Kierkegaard maintains that heaven versus hell is not a real choice and demonstrates no real purity of heart. The desire for rewards, seen or unseen, changes nobody’s heart. Perhaps this is why so many who respond to an altar call, or parrot a sinner’s prayer, have no lasting change in their lives. They are still double-minded, acting religious only when it’s in their best interest to do so.

As Joseph, would you rather raise the most famous child in history, although you are not really the child’s father OR would you continue the line of your ancestors, being the child’s biological father, but raising a child destined for obscurity?

On one level, this is the choice that Joseph has to make. It is no mistake that sudden discovery of Mary’s pregnancy in Matthew’s account comes right on the heels of the genealogy of Joseph, which mentions five women in passing:

Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar ...

Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,

Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth ...

David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah's wife ...

and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.

The first four women, all noteworthy women to be sure, are all mentioned in passing—but the line of the ancestors remains unbroken through the men. In fact, some of the mothers were not even Israelites! However, for Joseph, the refrain changes. Joseph is not called the father of Jesus; rather, he is simply "the husband of Mary" through whom the blessing comes. Adding insult to injury, Joseph is never heard from again in the gospel accounts after the one event in the life of the adolescent Jesus recorded in the gospels (Luke 2:41-50).

We are not Joseph. The great deeds presented to us are somewhat smaller: Would you rather work in obscurity, never knowing that your kindness and mercy helped change hundreds of lives OR would you rather be praised during your lifetime, never knowing if the praise was sincere or hollow? Paul appears to exhort us to strive to please God. However, ambition for good works and great deeds is not to will one thing. The ambition for great deeds is still the mark of the desire for reward and praise.

Would you rather do good OR be good?

Matthew 1:19 says Joseph was a righteous man. A fuller sense of biblical righteousness is "having the character of God." The goal of Christians is not to do good, not to earn rewards, but rather to be conformed to Christ—to think as Christ things, to feel as Christ feels, by the transforming power of the Spirit. This is a gift from God—not something we can manufacture on our own. So our ambition in Christ is not to do good deeds for the sake of doing good deeds, but rather to have the mind of Christ. If this happens, good deeds will follow.

In ethics, this is known as trait-deontological ethics. We don’t try to do good deeds to achieve good ends. We don’t try to do good deeds because we ought to. Rather, our ambition is to be the person we are created to be in Christ ... and commit the results to God. This is walking by faith and not by sight.

Points to Ponder

v 7 says, "We live by faith, not sight." Would you rather take a chance of looking like a fool to your friends but knowing God intimately OR take no chances with your friends and trust that you’re ‘good enough’?

More on living by faith, not sight:

This Christmas season, would you rather have a gift of time and no material gifts OR your most coveted material gift and no time to enjoy it?

This Christmas season, would you rather do Christmas just like you always have, even if you feel like something has been missing OR would you rather try something new, not knowing how it will turn out?