12-21-2025

“NOTHING TO FIGURE OUT”

Text: Matthew 1:18-25 – Advent 4

Sunday December 21, 2025

Trinity - Creston

       Grace, mercy, and peace is yours from God our Father and from our crucified and risen Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

       Our text for this 4TH Sunday in Advent is the Gospel Lesson from Matthew 1 that was just proclaimed.

Let Us Pray:  Dearest Jesus, send your Holy Spirit to remind us that as we wait for your final coming, we do wait without wondering how our life ends or worry about what will happen between now and then.  We are your redeemed and loved by you.  Amen.

Dear Fellow Redeemed in Christ:

The waiting is almost over—only four more days until Christmas. But, of course, much of the Christmas celebration has already been with us for many weeks.

Those in the church sometimes lament the rush to Christmas and the consequent neglect of Advent, but this week the lectionary itself rushes to Christmas.

In Matthew’s Gospel, it is Christmastime—well, as much Christmas as Matthew ever gives us. This text is really more of the story of Joseph.

And though he never says a word, Joseph is the center of attention as first he confronts a confounding problem that was not his own doing and then watches his carefully worked out plan get crumpled up and tossed away.

Turns out Joseph is okay with that, because, of course,

God’s Right Thing Is Always the Best Thing to Do.

I.   Man proposes—the human decision-making process.

A.  Joseph establishes the standard human pattern: Shocked with the problem of a pregnant fiancée, he starts planning.

1.   He wants (θέλων) to do what seems right, meaning he can’t marry an unfaithful woman.

2.   He plans (ἐβουλήθη) to do what makes sense. For Mary’s sake (and his own), he wants to deal with this mess quietly.

3.   He is thinking about (ἐνθυμηθέντος) his plan and its implementation nonstop, making sure it really is what he wants to do.

B.  We also feel we have to figure out how we’re going to live life.

1.   Sometimes we’re surprised by a crisis.

2.   More often, we’re forced simply to grind through life and face the routine challenges and difficulties at home, work, school, and neighborhood that come with living in this broken world.

3.   We do this following the same standards and techniques of Joseph.

II.  God disposes—the second half of the famous phrase from Thomas à Kempis. In other words, God is always the only one who determines the actual course of all events.

A.  Joseph woke up and started doing God’s plan.

1.   We can only wonder what made Joseph trust a dream over Mary’s own words. This gets to the heart of the challenge of taking God at his word: How could Joseph be sure it was God’s Word he was hearing?

2.   God’s plan would prove to be much more challenging than his own. It meant dealing with the complications of a pregnant fiancée. It would mean more dreams and living on the run (Mt 2:13–15, 19–23).

B.  It’s time for us to wake up and do God’s plan.

1.   We can be sure it is God’s plan because it comes from Jesus and is written down! The revealed will of God is more than sufficient to guide us. Waiting for dreams or special revelation is going beyond what God has promised.

2.   God’s plan is often challenging and frequently goes against what we would like to do, or what makes sense, or even what may seem right to us. But it is God’s plan, so we do it. God’s right thing is always the best thing to do.

III. Christ transposes—he fully accomplishes God’s plan for the sake of Joseph and all of us.

A.  Jesus, the obedient Son, does all that the Father has planned and saves us from our sins.

1.   He does this by transposing himself with us, taking our sin to the cross so that we become his righteousness (the full AC IV righteousness that brings God’s grace).

2.   He covers even the sins of our reluctance and failure to follow and do God’s plan.

B.  Jesus saves us from ourselves by changing (transposing) us.

1.   We are no longer obsessed with having to figure out solutions to our situations and thinking inter­minably about our problems. )

2.   We are set free from our own fears and hesitancy to follow Jesus because God in the flesh is still with us as we follow God’s plan.

Conclusion: We don’t have to wait for a dream to know what God wants us to do. He’s told us: We are to follow Jesus and do God’s will as expressed throughout the Bible.

That means we also don’t need to become consumed with our problems and trying to figure out solutions.

God has the plan and the answer.

Instead of relying on our own feelings, ideas, and instincts, we rely on God and his plan and his Savior, our Lord Jesus—God still with us in the flesh. Amen.

The Peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior.  Amen.