Year
A, Fourth Sunday of Advent
“Adoption”
Matthew
1:18-25
Object: Gather at the manger scene and focus on
Joseph.
Today, I want to talk with you about
adoption. You might know some children
who are adopted. They needed parents,
and some very good adults did a wonderful thing to welcome children into their
lives as a real part of their family.
Our sons are adopted. Before we could adopt them, they had to live
with us for a little while as foster kids.
They actually came to live with us one week before Christmas. A few months later, it was time to adopt the
boys as our sons. We had to hire a
lawyer and go to court so the boys could legally become our sons. That was a busy and important day, and we
were a little nervous because we had never done this before and we didn't know
what would happen.
As part of the adoption, we decided to
give our sons middle names which were names from our families, and they would
share our last name, too. During the
adoption procedure in the courtroom, the judge got to the part where the new
names would become the boys’ legal names.
She asked me, “I see you are changing the boys’ names?” I said yes, and then she went on, “Starting
with the oldest boy, please tell me their new names.” I began to recite my sons’ new names—and then
it caught me! I was doing what all
parents had done for ages. I was naming
my children, and on this particular occasion, I was telling the whole world
they were mine—and their mother’s too, of course. I have to tell you, that was a very amazing
feeling. I cried a little bit. OK, I cried a lot.
In the story of Jesus’ birth in the
gospel of Matthew, Joseph finds out that Mary is going to have a baby. An angel tells Joseph that the child is not
his, but is from the Holy Spirit.
Matthew tells us that Joseph was a righteous man, so he married Mary,
and when the baby was born, he named the boy Jesus. Now here’s something wonderful that we might
not notice when we read this story every Christmas. When Joseph named the baby, do you know what
he did? He adopted Jesus. He gave him his name, and by doing so, he
made a clear and loving choice to welcome Jesus into his life and into his
family as his very own.
Joseph is a good example for us. He looked a Jesus and said, “He is mine.” Funny, Joseph adopted Jesus and that Child became the way through which God adopts all of us. Through Jesus, God says to everyone, “You are
mine.” And now, it is important for us
to respond to such good news. God would
love nothing more than for each of us to welcome Jesus into our lives as our
very own, to see the Savior born in Bethlehem and say, “He is mine, too.” When
we “adopt Jesus”, we find out that God did the very same thing for us a long,
long time ago. God made the clear and
loving choice to welcome us as his very own children.
Dear God,
Thank you for loving us and claiming us as your
family. Bless us and bless our families
as we celebrate how you chose us all to be your children. It’s in the name of your Son, our Brother, we
pray. Amen.