Unwavering Love

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, Pastor Pat opens with 1 John 4:10: “This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” He talks Christmas movies, from The Muppet Christmas Carol to 8-Bit Christmas, where a boy spends the whole film chasing a Nintendo but remembers the treehouse his dad built. “Gifts that cost us something communicate something.” If we don’t dig deeper, Pat says, Christmas love stays stuck in nostalgia and feelings. Real love is a choice and a command, and it costs.

Then he turns to Joseph, who never gets a song and barely gets a line. Matthew says Joseph “was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace,” so he planned to divorce Mary quietly. Pat explains betrothal: the couple was legally bound, and from the outside there were only two conclusions anyone in town could draw. Joseph had every right to defend himself. Instead he chose mercy.

An angel tells Joseph in a dream not to be afraid to take Mary home as his wife. Now he has to decide whether to apply the law the way he always has or trust God. Nobody had sinned, and yet obeying meant the town would think someone had. Pat admits he loves being right and being told he’s right, calling himself the mayor of Rightville. Joseph obeys and nobody ever hears his side of the story. Pat notes that some scholars think the stigma followed Jesus to Nazareth, though he says he can’t prove it.

Sacrificial love also listens and responds. Joseph gets up and marries Mary, then goes to Egypt, then returns to Israel, each time after a dream. Pat jokes that Joseph may have been afraid to fall asleep. His obedience opened the door for the promise that leads to the cross.

Pat brings it home. Sacrificial love lives at the dinner table and in staff meetings. It says, “I would rather be right with you than being right at all.” He warns that our culture disciples us toward disconnection, while noting that healthy boundaries are sometimes needed and should be discerned with Jesus and trusted people. He tells how his wife’s forgiveness and his own apologies to his kids after losing his temper have been some of the most beautiful moments in his family. Joseph didn’t get all the answers, just a next step, and Pat asks the church to take theirs.