Three acts of advent: adoration, activism, and community-building. I’m struck in the advent stories of how focused they are on the people of God … and today’s text makes that abundantly clear. It comes from Matthew 1:20-21.<\/p>\n
20<\/a> <\/span>But
\nafter he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
\ndream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary
\nhome as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy
\nSpirit. 21<\/a> <\/span>She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, <\/a>because he will save his people from their sins.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\nWhat do we see here: Joseph is to marry Mary, in spite of what appearances are, because God’s Spirit is at work in the conception of the child.<\/p>\n
The birth of that baby leads to the naming of that child: his name is to be Yeshua (Joshua, Jesus).<\/p>\n
Why? Because he will be a Savior of “his people.” That people is undoubtedly Israel. <\/p>\n
The mission of the Messiah is to redeem, save, restore Israel. The work of God in Jesus is to create the people of God. God’s work is ecclesial<\/i>. We must observe that it does not say “he will save just individuals.” It is an ecclesial task.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three acts of advent: adoration, activism, and community-building. I’m struck in the advent stories of how focused they are on the people of God … and today’s text makes that abundantly clear. It comes from Matthew 1:20-21. 20 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":70,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\n
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