Funny coincidence this week: On Tuesday I visited a Marine in the hospital.  And that night Cousin Fergy called.  He and Gerty adopted a dog and because he’s such a faithful guy, they named him Semper Fido.  You know the Marine Corp motto, Semper Fi short for Semper Fidelis, is Latin for always faithful.
Even before the Marines got hold of it in 1883, it was the family motto of many Scottish families like the Stewarts.  Always faithful was probably part of the mindset of the Scottish settlers who started this church.  So if you are like your ancestors I’ll be speaking to the choir.
Semper Fi was also part of the mindset of the Messiah’s father: Joseph the carpenter from Nazareth.

      Matthew 2:13-23.
      13 After they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph and said, “Herod will be looking for the child in order to kill him. So get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you to leave.” 
14 Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and left during the night for Egypt,  15 where he stayed until Herod died. This was done to make come true what the Lord had said through the prophet, “I called my Son out of Egypt.” 
16 When Herod realized that the visitors from the East had tricked him, he was furious. He gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its neighborhood who were two years old and younger—this was done in accordance with what he had learned from the visitors about the time when the star had appeared.  17 In this way what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true:  18 “A sound is heard in Ramah, the sound of bitter weeping. Rachel is crying for her children; she refuses to be comforted, for they are dead.” 
19 After Herod died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt  20 and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go back to the land of Israel, because those who tried to kill the child are dead.” 
21 So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went back to Israel.  22 But when Joseph heard that Archelaus had succeeded his father Herod as king of Judea, he was afraid to go there. He was given more instructions in a dream, so he went to the province of Galilee  23 and made his home in a town named Nazareth. And so what the prophets had said came true: “He will be called a Nazarene.”
 It’s 60 AD and you’re having breakfast at the Jerusalem Diner.  At the next table Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are talking about Jesus escape to Egypt and wondering whether to include it in their gospels.  How would you vote?  After looking at it from all directions three of them shrugged philosophically and asked: Who cares?
Do we?  Did you ever say to your children, “Now remember how Joseph took Jesus to Egypt?”  Except at Christmas, did a friend ever say it might be helpful for you to read this story?  Or have you ever seen those lists of verses to read for every occasion: loneliness or grief or shame or falling in love.  Not one of the verses we just read ever makes it to one of those lists.
Only Matthew cared.  He was the only one who reported the story.  Why?  We can only guess.
Matthew was writing to Jewish and Gentile Christians. Because the Messiah didn’t live up to expectations and because he didn’t usher in utopia, the responses to him were nothing to brag about.  The Magi had worshipped him but they were so different and rich you couldn’t relate to them. Everyone else opposed him or ignored him.  Matthew had no one to hold up as an example - except Joseph.  And in Matthew’s eyes Joseph made the response he wanted, the one he wanted to promote among the new Christians he knew.
      Let me explain how I’m interpreting this. What Joseph did for Jesus is what we’re to do.  Joseph was responsible to maintain the health, wellbeing and growth of the newborn king.  We are responsible for the health, wellbeing and growth of his kingdom. Joseph protecting Jesus is the same as us doing evangelism or mission. Joseph is our example.
Matthew saw in Joseph a prototype of the mission-minded person needed in his day and ours.    
 
1. Joseph has a dream; he jumps up and marries the child’s mother. 
2. Joseph has a dream; he jumps up and takes the child to Egypt. 
3. Joseph has a dream; he jumps up and takes the child back to Israel. 
4. Joseph has a dream; he jumps up and takes the child to Nazareth.

It’d be funny if it hadn’t been so deadly serious. Joseph had made necessary commitments to wed Mary.  Then he got the news that she’s pregnant and he’s not the father.  Just before he divorced her, an angel told him what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (1:20).  He named the baby Jesus because, he will save his people from their sins (1:21). Joseph took one for the team because he’d been entrusted with the Messiah.  What he did advanced the Kingdom of God because Jesus is the embodiment of that kingdom.
Mary gave birth and Joseph hoped life would return to normal.  Who wouldn’t?  But Bethlehem and the Magi aren’t the end of it.
       Remember Joseph is a carpenter.  Chances are his father was also and his father before him.  He had a regular clientele.  He had a standing in the community as a respected craftsman.  He had orders to fill.  He had a house and shop to take care of.  He had tools to sharpen.  He had a house that needed readied for a wife and child.  He had a garden to tend.  He had parents and cousins and friends back in Nazareth.  But he left it all to protect the child.  Herod was coming with his storm troopers and Joseph had to get the child out of there.  He might have suggested leaving Bethlehem and going back to the safety of Nazareth.  But the angel specified, “Escape to Egypt.”  And since Herod’s sword was only five miles away, Joseph packed up and took off in the dark.  The angel also told him to take Mary.  The child was the one in danger but the angel knew the child needed his mother and just in case Joseph wasn’t thinking straight at 2am, the angel told him to get up, take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt (13). 
It was a good thing Joseph acted without arguing and without delay and without offering a better idea, because Herod’s henchmen killed all the boys two years old and younger. 
There were two more dreams and two more journeys before Joseph finally got to settle down.
 Matthew gives us Joseph and I think he expects us to figure out how we can follow his example.  Here are some thoughts.
Let’s start with the trip to Egypt.  We read about it likes it’s a camping trip in Vermont.  But think about it.  I wouldn’t like getting up in the middle of the night to go to the drug store.  But Joseph had to do that plus all of these:
1. Get up in the middle of the night.
2. Wake his wife and say, “Pack up dear we’re leaving the country right now and I don’t know if or when we’re coming back and you can’t tell anyone we’re leaving. Please MapQuest Egypt while I saddle the donkey.  I’ll meet you and the baby outside in five minutes.
3. When she asked why, the only explanation he can give is an angel and an obscure verse: Hosea 11:1  “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

If we were asked to do something like that, we would probably say, “You’ve got to be kidding!”  We don’t like it when scripture inconveniences us or makes life more difficult.  If it’s something I normally do anyway, okay.  But if its going to cost me something or if it’s new, forget it. 
That’s why Matthew included this story. Joseph acted selflessly to advance the gospel.  He did his part by protecting Jesus.  Nothing he did was for his own benefit.  Going to Egypt didn’t advance his career or enhance his life. It was all for the Kingdom of God.
To be like Joseph, we have to be wiling to place the highest priority on the advancement of the gospel.  To advance the kingdom we have to give our lives not just our offerings.
We have choices to make everyday.  Am I going to do what’s good for the kingdom or am I going to put that off and do what’s good for me?  Am I going to meet my social needs by seeing old church friends or am I going to reach out to an unchurched person? Am I going to engage neighbors with the same old small talk or am I going to bring in something spiritual or invite them to church.
It’s like those spinners in diners that the waitresses pin their orders to.  Then the cook grabs it and makes it.  We’re like that cook. God pins up assignments for us that will advance the kingdom.  We can take one of those orders and fill it or we can say, “Nah, I’m too busy.  I need to cook something up for myself.”
We also need to ask ourselves: What’s my Egypt?”  Where does God want me to go?  What verse of scripture have I been ignoring?
When a man or woman enlists in the Marine Corp they take an oath that begins: I do solemnly swear I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States . . . I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and obey the orders of the President. . .   
      Can we do any less for Jesus and the gospel?

    Did you ever meet someone for the first time and wonder what kind of a person he or she is?  Is he safe?  Is she funny?
    Today, we’re going to ask the question, What kind of person is Jake?  Since we can’t follow him all over the place for the next couple of weeks, we’ll just have to operate.  Jake, please hop up here on this table.
    Let’s look this guy over and see what we can find.  Examining eyes, ears, nose, toes, tummy and pockets, we find the letters  IBSOSEPRLE.  These letters must be trying to tell us something about Jake.  What do they spell?  BISON REPELS?  That can't be it.  How about:  ROBINS SLEEP? No.  Or BONES PLIERS.  We could have used those for the operation but that's not it either.  Maybe R E S P O S I B L E.   Yes, that's it Jake is responsible.
What does it mean to be responsible?
Doing what you’re supposed to. Doing a job to the best of your ability.  Not doing something bad.  Taking care of property.  Basically it means that if your mom asked if you did what she asked you to do you will be able to say, “Yes!” every time. Or if you have a cat, you can always say 24/7,  “Yes, Dad, Fluffy has food and water and a clean litter box.”  That’s what it means to be responsible.
    We are responsible to our parents and teachers and the police and we are also responsible to God.  God doesn’t give us pets to take care of but he does give us love to