Mathew 1:18-23

St.Mathew 1:18-23.

We are missing the original signs and symbols of the First Christmas and now we have the signs and symbols of the market and materialism. Somewhere we are missing Christ and most of the time we forget the individuals and communities who were used by God, in our greetings, wishes and Christmas gifts. These elements were hijacked by the market and its symbols. But this text portrays how God works through a simple human being for God' great incarnation.

In Matthew, there is no manger or inn, no trip from Nazareth, no shepherds abiding in the fields, no speech or songs of Mary. The focus is on Joseph, who speaks and repeatedly dreams. In fact, dreams are especially prominent.

1. Incarnation in the premise of  vision and divine discourses

• Jesus' birth narrations were presented in the context of divine revelations and discourses.

• God appeared to Mary, Joseph, Wise-men, Shepherds and initiated the discourses and these discourses enlightened and empowered them

• Christ is born in a space where divine vision and discourses were valued and listened

• Incarnation is a divine intervention and it will be initiated through divine discourses with the people who are ready to be used for incarnation

2. Joseph - A Visionary and Missionary

• A visionary will see revelations in the historical space

• A Missionary will take bold decisions and stands according to the divine revelations

• Joseph had revelation and he took bold decisions on right time

• A visionary will hear the divine voice in the midst of powers of death

• A missionary will initiate new journeys so that a new exodus will begin

• A visionary will identify God's face even it is vulnerable

• A missionary will be ready to be vulnerable for a Vulnerable God

• A visionary will see a new heaven and earth even in the midst of struggles, alienation and desperate journeys

• A missionary will strive for a new heaven and earth.

• Joseph was a visionary and missionary in all aspects

3. Challenging Presence of God - God of Exodus.

• God is with us through Jesus Christ - Emmanuel

• Walter Brueggemann found an etymological connection between the verb form in Exodus 3:14 and the name of God, Emmanuel, in Isaiah 7:14, which Matthew quotes in the nativity story (1:23). If that is true, then Matthew's ending, the Great Commission, has an Exodus connotation, "Lo, I AM with you always, to the close of the age" (Matt. 28:20). The promise of Matthew's nativity is not just the comforting presence of God with us, but the challenging presence of the Exodus God. It is the God of the Exodus who is ready with his new Moses to lead us on a latter day quest for the Promised Land, an aggressive and not a cuddly Christmas presence

• Challenging presence of God will energise us to initiate new exodus

• Liberation is an experience which helps us to come out of all false securities and parochial premises and this will due to the presence of the God of Exodus

• God of Exodus will embrace in the midst of wilderness experience

• God will guide us in the midst of humiliating experiences