MATTHEW 1:5-12

18  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 from the Holy Spirit.

19  Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.

20  But just when he had resolved to do 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 as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

21  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins."

22  All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:

23  "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us."

24  When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife,

25  but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.

No one ever said that life would always be fair and you and I both know that it isn’t.  It isn’t always fair.   It isn’t fair when you work hard but you don’t get the promotion that you deserve.  It isn’t fair when you go out of your way to help a friend but the friend isn’t there for you in your hour of need.  It isn’t fair when you end up with lung cancer but you never smoked a day in your life.

Or how about the middle aged man who complained one day that life wasn’t fair.  When he was asked why it wasn’t fair he answered, “Because now that I finally have my head together my body is falling apart.”

Yes.  Life isn’t always fair.  Just ask Andre Dawson.  Andre Dawson was a baseball player back in the 1980’s and 90’s.  One day he got into a heated argument with an umpire after the umpire called him out on strikes.  Dawson’s outburst resulted in a $1,000 fine which he felt was totally unfair.  So, when he made the check out to pay the fine he wrote on the memo line that the check was a “Donation for the blind.”

Life isn’t always fair.  Just ask Andre Dawson.  Or better yet take a look at Joseph and what happened to him.   Poor Joseph.  What happened to him wasn’t fair.  He had his future all planned out.  Joseph was going to marry a beautiful young maiden by the name of Mary and the two of them were going to settle down in Nazareth.  Joseph was going to open up a little carpentry shop and Mary was going to raise their beautiful children.  That was the plan but then Joseph got the shock of his life.  It happened when he found out that Mary was great with child.  Naturally, Joseph thought that Mary had been unfaithful to him.  Talk about life not being fair.  He didn’t deserve that. 

So, what do you do when life isn’t fair?   There are lots of things you can do. You can mope and moan and feel sorry for yourself.  You can crab and complain and let it make you bitter.  Or you can rant and rave and get angry.  

That’s what happens in children’s book, "I'll Fix Anthony."  The book was written by author Judith Viorst and it’s about a little boy named Nicholas who doesn’t like the way his older brother Anthony treats him.  Nicholas complains,  "My brother Anthony can read books now, but he won't read any books to me. He plays checkers with Bruce from his school. But when I want to play he says, ‘Go away or I'll clobber you.’ I let him wear my Snoopy sweatshirt, but he never lets me borrow his sword. Mother says deep down in his heart Anthony loves me. Anthony says deep down in his heart he thinks I stink. Mother says deep, deep down in his heart, where he doesn't even know it, Anthony loves me. Anthony says deep, deep down in his heart he still thinks I stink. When I'm six I'll fix Anthony...Anthony is chasing me out of the playroom. He says I stink. He says he is going to clobber me. I have to run now, but I won't have to run when I'm six. When I'm six, I'll fix Anthony.

When life isn’t fair you always have a choice.  You can let it poison your heart with bitterness, anger and self-pity. In other words you can let it bring out the worst in you.  Or you can let it bring out the best in you which is the decision that Joseph had to make after the angel appeared to him in that dream.

Life wasn’t fair to Joseph and his original plan was to divorce Mary quietly.  Matthew tells us in his gospel that Joseph decided to do that because he was a just man and he didn’t want to put Mary to shame but let’s be honest here.  Joseph’s plan to divorce Mary quietly was designed to protect his reputation as much as it was designed to protect Mary’s reputation.  You see it would have been embarrassing for Joseph if people found out that Mary was going to have a baby and he wasn’t the father.

So, Joseph decided to divorce Mary quietly but his plan there’s no way his plan was going to work.  After all you can’t keep something like that a secret for ever.  Eventually, people would have put two and two together.  As soon as they saw Mary walking down the street with a little bundle of joy in her arms they would have figured out that Joseph divorced her quietly because she was pregnant and he wasn’t the father.  At that point it would have been embarrassing for Joseph and Mary’s life would have been in grave danger.  Because she was pregnant and wasn’t married yet Mary could have been stoned to death.

That’s why the angel appeared to Joseph in that dream and brought him that message from God.  The angel said to him, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.  She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”

In other words, “Joseph don’t let this situation bring out the worst in you.  Let it bring out the best in you.  Joseph there is so much goodness in your heart.  So, rise above the bitterness.  Rise above the anger.  Rise above the temptation to feel sorry for yourself. If you don’t Mary and the baby will be stoned to death.  Joseph, I know that you don’t understand what’s going on here but this can be your finest hour.  All you have to do is let the love in your heart come out; the love that I put in your heart on the day you were born.” 

That’s the message from God that the angel delivered to Joseph that day and that’s exactly what Joseph did.  He took Mary as his wife and because he did it led them to the amazing miracle that took place in the Bethlehem stable. Joseph probably felt that life was being unfair to him but because he let it bring out the best in him he was there on that night when the angels danced in the heavens and the shepherds came on bended knee to see God’s only begotten Son.

By the way, that holy child did the same thing that Joseph did many years later.

Jesus did the same thing in the final hours of his life here on earth.

When the disciples abandoned him after he was arrested did Jesus stop loving them? No.

When the soldiers drove the nails into his hands and feet did Jesus stop loving them?  NO.

When the people taunted him as he hung there on the Cross did Jesus stop loving them?  NO!.

What happened to Jesus that day was incredibly unfair but he didn’t let it bring out the worst in him.  He let it bring out the best in him which is why he looked down from the Cross and said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

When life isn’t fair let it bring out the best in you.  Let it bring out the courage and the forgiveness, the love and the goodness that God put into your heart the day you were born.  

That’s what Moss Hart wanted to happen one day when he was growing up. Moss Hart was a writer who wrote a number of successful screenplays like “Gentlemen’s Agreement” and “You Can’t Take It With You.”  In his autobiography Moss said that growing up his family was very poor.  That was painfully obvious to him when he was ten years old and his father took him for a walk one Christmas Eve.  His father took him down to 149^th Street and Westchester Avenue in New York City.  They walked past countless toy vendors and their pushcarts.  Young Moss looked at all the toys with envy and he describes what happened with these words.  “I looked up and saw we were nearing the end of the line.  Only two or three more pushcarts remained.  My father looked up, too, and I heard him jingle some coins in his pocket.  In a flash I knew it all.  He’d gotten together about seventy-five cents to buy me a Christmas present, and he hadn’t dared say so in case there was nothing to be had for so small a sum.  As I looked up at him I saw a look of despair and disappointment in his eyes that brought me closer to him than I had ever been in my life. I wanted to throw my arms around him and say, ‘It doesn’t matter…I understand…This is better than a chemistry set or a printing press…I love you.’  But instead we stood shivering beside each other for a moment; then turned silently back home.  I don’t know why the words remained choked up within me. I didn’t even take his hand on the way home, nor did he take mine.  We were not on that basis.”

When life isn’t fair let it bring out the best in you.  Let it bring out the courage and the forgiveness, the love and the goodness that God put into your heart the day you were born.   You’ll be glad you did.  Amen.

Rev. Dr. Richard A. Hughes

December 15, 2013