Prepare the Way: Story
The Story of the Bible is Our Story
Matthew 1:18-25
Rev. Tim Callow
Preached Sun. Dec. 21st, 2025
When I was on the Isle of Man this summer I stayed in Douglas, the capital city. Above Douglas Harbor is a bluff called Douglas Head. It’s a beautiful view of Douglas and the ocean. If you’re lucky you can catch sight of the Dolphins playing in the water. I wasn’t so lucky. Maybe I didn’t have the patience to wait long enough. But Douglas Head also has a small park and a number of monuments. Among them was a monument dedicated to the “gallant manxmen” who served at Trafalgar under Admiral Nelson. The Battle of Trafalgar was a naval battle between the British and napoleon’s forces. Though outmanned and outgunned Nelson’s forces defeated the french and Spanish and secured Britain’s naval supremacy. On the back of the monument was a list of the names of the Manxmen who fought in that battle. And I was surprised to see among the names a certain William Callow.
Now, Callow is not an uncommon name on the Isle of Man. But there also aren’t a lot of manxmen around. So I had to look him up to see if there was any possibility I had a cousin at the Battle of Trafalgar. But, as it turns out, William Callow came from the parish north of my family. Any meaningful relation is unlikely. I figured that had to be the case. Given my family’s interest in genealogy there is no way I could have grown up not knowing I had a cousin at the Battle of Trafalgar. Those are the sorts of things a family brags about for generations. Like those families in our own country who are lucky enough to have ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War, or in the Civil War. You never hear the end of it at family gatherings.
I can’t imagine it would have been much different for Joseph’s family. We are told Joseph was from the line of David. When the angel of the Lord addresses him in his dream he is addressed as “Joseph, Son of David.” I’m sure if you went to a family reunion in Bethlehem (when things weren’t busy due to a census) you’d hear all about how they are from the royal line. And Joseph would have grown up knowing that he is royalty.
But Joseph did not lead a royal life. No, that was reserved for Herod’s kids. Joseph was a “teknon” which means he was some sort of skilled craftsman. Traditionally we have called him a carpenter. He worked with his hands and made a living working with his hands. He was likely involved in the many building projects around Nazareth. Building projects funded by Herod and other wealthy people.
But as he worked on whatever project he could get paid for he would have known who he really is. A member of David’s ancestral house. Israel’s great King. The one who received the promise from God that there would always be a king sitting on his throne. The one who slew Goliath when all of Israel quaked in fear. The one who built a great and mighty nation.
And he would have known about the other mighty kings of his line and how God had worked through them to maintain covenant faithfulness. He would have known about the wise Solomon whose fame spread so far and wide that the Queen of Sheba arrived to test him and was amazed at his wisdom. He would have known about the great King Josiah who restored the Law of God and was treated with great favor. He would have known about King Hezekiah who turned to God alone in the face of Assyrian invasion, and God turned the invaders away.
He would have known about the Exile of his people, his ancestors treated as trinkets in the court of Nebuchadnezzar. But he also would have known about God’s faithfulness to restore his family to their ancestral lands.
But perhaps the one thing he would have doubted is whether God was still so active in his own day. If there were another David or Solomon among his people. If the great deeds done in days of old could happen in his time. When he ate the Passover Sedar, would he have been so certain that the God who delivered his people then would deliver them now?
He would have grown up soaked in the stories of his people. Soaked in the stories of his own descendants, his own heritage. But did that mean that he was an extension of that same story? Could the story come alive among the hewn stones and cut lumber?
This morning Joseph’s story joins the story of his people as he learns that his wife-to-be is pregnant. He resolves, then, to divorce her quietly. We are told this is because he’s a righteous man and unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace. But that night in his dream he receives a message from the angel of the Lord, “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.”
This pregnancy, he is told, is not an ordinary pregnancy. But it is a conception by the Holy Spirit. This child, is no ordinary child, but the one who is to save Israel from her sins. That name, Jesus, comes from the hebrew Yeshua. But we have another way of rendering Yeshua in english: Joshua. As in, Joshua son of Nun. The successor to Moses who conquers the promised land by the power of God. This is who the one in Mary’s womb is to be, a second Joshua. But a more perfect Joshua because he is the very incarnation, the very presence, the very person of God.
And the story continues on.
Joseph accepts the message of the angel. He accepts that he is part of the story that begins in Abraham and continues through Moses and David. The one who grew up in the house of David discovers to his astonishment that the God who called his ancestor calls him as well. The story is true. And it continues. And he belongs to it as a character of tremendous faith.
The story continues on. It is our story. We are children of Abraham. We are descendants of David through Christ. We are those our brother Jesus has called. And we are those our Lord Christ has sent out. When we meet again on Wednesday night it will be to tell the story of his first coming. In anticipation of his second coming. And to remember the story we tell is true. Not a fable. Not something we put on screens to entertain ourselves. But the story we find ourselves in, of which we are characters. Like Joseph who in his own way came to say, “yes.”