Between What I've Learned and What I've Lived, Rev. Dr. Joshua L. Mitchell

0:33 For the Lord is good. For the Lord is good. This mercy endures forever. As we give God praise, we also give God praise. And will you help me to give God praise for your pastor, my big brother and mentor, the person of the Reverend Dr. Howard John Wesley. Amen and amen. I shared with the other services, I love your pastor, and I've been grateful for it. Since 2016, I counted the opportunity to come here every year. My daddy used to say, people don't have to be kind to you. And so I'm grateful to you, pastor, for your words of wisdom, for your encouragement, and for gracing me with the opportunity to stand in this sacred space. To Dr. Judy, who was my professor at the real HU, Howard University. Hallelujah. Yes. Yes. Dr. Judy, to all of the staff that is here, to Lottie Dottie, everybody, Buck Buck, Newt Newt Shaquanna in them. It's good to be in the house of the Lord one more time. I want to invite you to stand with me as we jump back into the word. Matthew chapter one, getting at verse 18. Matthew chapter one, getting at verse 18. When you have it, when you say, I've got it, if you're still looking, say, hold on, Rev. I'm waiting. I heard you. I heard you.

1:51 And even as we stand, I give honor to my pastor and the person of Reverend Dr. Marcus D. Cosby. Allow me to slip away this weekend to come home, and I appreciate that. My wife is here today, and I want to acknowledge her, the beautiful Dr. Lori Mitchell. Glad to have you here. Amen. Our son was here at the earliest service, and it's just been good to be here today. Matthew chapter 1, beginning at verse 18, it reads this way from the New International Version. This is how the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law. Everyone say faithful to the law. Because he was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace. He had in mind to divorce her quietly.

2:48 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son and he gave him the name Jesus. You may be seated in the presence of our God. verse 19 is our key verse it says because joseph her husband was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her time that's out to share together on this sunday afternoon i want to preach from the subject between what i've learned and what i've lived between what i've learned and what I've lived.

4:12 Would you turn to somebody and say, what do you do when there's tension between what you've learned and what you've lived? God, we thank you for this day and we thank you for opportunity to come into your house one more time. I thank you that you have graced me with this opportunity to preach your gospel in this sacred space. Now I pray that you will give me what I need to complete this assignment that you placed in my hand. Will you anoint me afresh? Will you give me preaching power that I might preach as I have not preached before? And as we stand in anticipation of your word, will you open our hearts? Will you open our ears that we might be receptive to what your spirit asked to say? For ultimately, God, it's your thing. Do what you want to do. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. because Joseph, her husband, was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her.

5:13 Sister Lauren, they tell me that a baby changes everything. Since the last time I had the opportunity to preach here, December of last year, my wife and I welcomed our now 10-month-old son by the name of baby Jordan. Yes, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Born in February and baby Jordan, though he is a handful, it's probably one of the best things that's ever happened in our lives. He is handsome like his daddy. Yes, Lord. He's handsome like his daddy. He loves his mama. He laughs and he's full of strength. But Mike, I think that what people observe that meet him for the very first time, they always say the same thing. And they say, your son is a church baby. My son goes with me to church every day.

6:07 He's at the daycare at Will Avenue Baptist Church every day. He's with me in Bible study. He's in all four services on Sunday on the avenue. My baby is a church baby. And it has been amazing to watch him raise up and grow up as one who's grown up in the church. Because it reminds me of how I came up in the church. I was groomed in the church. I grew up in the church. I'm a church baby. My family was my church family and I learned and I grew in the church. I learned that when the music was cranking and I'm on the battlefield that in the black church we didn't clap on the one and the three. We would clap on the two and the four because I learned some of the traditions of the church. It was in church that I learned that if the Bible study was getting a bit too boring or the service a bit too long, all I had to do was lift one Baptist finger.

7:09 If I put my head down and walked out with my finger up, then there was a magic that happened that excused me from the worship experience. I learned some traditions in the church. I learned that when it was first Sunday at Rise and Sun and communion would come forth. It didn't matter how hungry I was. If I was not a baptized believer, I could not have the wafers nor the welchers grape juice of communion. And speaking of communion, I learned that no matter what was going on, you better not touch that communion table that said in remembrance of me. I'm a church baby and I learned some traditions in the church. But Dale, I didn't just learn traditions in the church. I learned some enduring truths in the church. It was in the church that I learned that God was spirit and that God was the maker and supreme ruler of heaven and earth.

8:10 That God provided God's Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, to correct us, and to give us the truths that we needed in time of trouble. and also that God when my soul was in need of saving that God clothed God's self in human flesh was born of a virgin dwelt among us teaching and healing and liberating and finally dying on an old rugged cross for your sins and mine I learned family some traditions in the church I learned some enduring truths of the church but can I confess to you on this Sunday afternoon that though I learned tradition and though I learned some truths there were some things that I learned in the church that also caused some tension the older I grew and the more I engaged in the society that we are living in I came to confess that there are some things that I learned in the church that caused some internal tension when considered in light of some of my own lived experiences and the experiences of those around me that if I'm honest today that there was some things that I learned that caused some internal tension as I had learned to pray for and to follow the commands of those in authority over me and yet it seems that it's these same authorities who are the ones that continue Siobhan to kill unarmed black and brown bodies there's some tension I experience I learn when there are scientific discoveries and an experimentation that doesn't neatly mesh with the scriptures that I learned in Sunday school I've experienced tension as I learned that God knew me before I was formed in my mother's womb and he made me good but then I hear the stories of my transgendered brothers and sisters who feel

10:18 like they're born in the wrong bodies I have experienced tension as my small group leader taught us the mandates for marriage in Ephesians chapter 5 but my lived experience has put me in fellowship with brothers and sisters whose marriages doesn't fit neatly into that model I have experienced tension as I have learned and read the writings of Paul and others in the canon who seem to minimize the roles and the leadership of women. And yet I live in a time and a society where my sisters are saying time's up, where my sisters are operating in black girl magic and are crushing in every field of endeavor. And my question this Sunday afternoon is how do we proceed when there is tension between what we've learned and what we live? I think that brother Joseph is faced with a similar question when we revisit the story here in Matthew chapter one, verse 18 through 25.

11:24 Not much is known or said about Joseph in scripture. In fact, there are no distinguishable scenes with this brother after we see him and Mary searching for Jesus in the temple when Jesus is 12 years old. But these verses give us at least three distinguishing traits about Joseph. Verse 20 tells us, family, about his lineage. Let the church say lineage. That he is a descendant of the line of King David. but not only do we know about his lineage we also know something about his love life verse 18 tells us that he is pledged to be married to this sweet sister by the name of Mary but finally the text reveals something to us about his relationship with the Lord because verse 19 describes him as a man who is faithful to the law now family though Mary and Joseph are intertwined in a Hellenistic culture that is ruled by an insecure irresponsible inhumane and impeachable emperor by the name of Caesar I don't know who you thought I was talking about the implication of this text it's not that brother Joseph is allegiant to the law of Rome but it's faithful to the law of God that the text is the text suggests it doesn't give us details but if I use my spiritual imagination I imagine that Joseph because he is faithful to the law is one who grew up as a church baby that Joseph grew up in the temple he was going to Sabbath school and he showed up to 11 30 worship every Sabbath because he knew that a praise break would break out that Joseph was the kind of brother who would go into the temple and when it was time for the reading and the expounding on the word that joseph was the first one to say amen when he would hear his rabbi say now can i teach torah that here was a brother who came to torah study every tuesday with

13:30 dr judy of judea when he was a teenager he went to a true love weight conference in tarsus where he promised he would not do the wild thing without a wedding ring kiera on the first wednesday of every month he would go to kaya in capernaum he consumed the word of god as often as he could he loved and honored god so much that he did not just want to hear the word he wanted to live the word that he took what he had learned in the temple and in his secret devotion seriously and out of a deep reverence and love for god he wanted to live his life by the letter of what he had learned and had been taught until life happened and the text says that at this time Joseph and Mary are in the final stages before their wedding is supposed to happen Joseph was excited because he had been waiting patiently on the Lord for relief from the fire in his loins and he was delighted that in just a few months he would marry this fine mamacita by the name of Mary and Mary said she was going to stay with her family for a few months and Joseph says cool baby that works for me I've got some projects at work in my carpentry shop that I need to finish and like some of us he's already booked his bachelor weekend with the boys in Sodom or Sin City and he could not wait for three non-stop days of praying and fasting and bowling with his boys but when Mary gets back home the sight of her lets all the air out of Joseph's balloon here is my betrothed here is my pledge bride the one that I've been waiting for who told me that she had never touched a man and now she's pregnant and to add insult to injury when I asked her about the who's and the how's she came up with this story that she got pregnant by the Holy Ghost good googly moogly

15:37 and now Joseph has to figure out how to handle what he's seen and what he's heard you remember that he is a man who is faithful to the law that he lives by what he has learned from his Jewish upbringing and in this moment he is consumed with thoughts of how he remembers learning how God would handle this situation he no doubt remembers scripture from deuteronomy 22 and 20 which states that if a man marries a girl who is claimed to be a virgin and then finds out that she is not they shall bring the girl to the entrance of her father's house where her townsmen shall stone her to death that was the word of the lord that was the law that was what he learned but there was something about Mary come on Cameron Diaz when I need you there's something about Mary there is something about this woman we don't know if he loves her so there's no indication of how long they've known each other in in a culture that had arranged marriages maybe it was the purity that he'd seen in her maybe it was the love for God that she modeled in their time together maybe it was the fact that she was so young we don't know for sure but there's something about his lived experience with Mary that made him say I know what I've learned about how this situation ought to play out and yet verse 19 says there is something in me that is screaming that there has got to be a better way to handle this situation and Joseph is faced y'all with a tense choice Am I faithful to how I understand the law and the religion that I have learned and lead my wife out to be stoned?

17:31 Or do I remain faithful to what my gut and my heart is telling me through my lived experience with Mary and find another way? And I think if we take just a couple more minutes to look back at Matthew chapter 1 verse 18 through 25, we can leave here, y'all, with some lessons on how to proceed beyond the tension between what we've learned and what we've lived. If you want to hear it, just say, preach on rev. I'm going to do the best I can. I got two. Then we're going to be through. Because brunch is on the way. The first thing that the text teaches me this afternoon is that when you feel that tension between what you've learned and what you've lived, Kiera, the first thing you got to do is discern God's voice and face your fears. Turn to somebody and say, discern God's voice and then face your fears. It's right there in the text, verse 18 through 20.

18:30 It says, this is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about. his mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph but before they came together she found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace he had in mind to divorce her quietly but after he had considered this an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit verse number nine family sets up the scene well as we find Joseph considering how he has learned to handle the situation and the nuances of his lived experience he is aware that according to the law he has learned or at least an interpretation of that law that the end of the scenario ought to lead to a public stoning of sister Mary and yet according to verse 19 there is something about Mary that makes him say I don't want to expose her to such a public disgrace and danger that maybe I can divorce her and potentially put her away or hide her quietly until all this blows over and he does what many of us do when we're facing a tough decision the bible says that he sleeps on it somebody say sleep on it bible said that brother joseph goes to sleep and while he is sleeping the text says an angel of the lord appears identifies joseph places him within the lineage of David and the first thing he says to Joseph is do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife and this right here y'all is a blessing to me because up to this point in scripture Joseph has been silent we know that Joseph is conflicted but we never hear him talking

20:40 about being scared but the angel shows up to remind us and to expose the fact that many times what keeps us from moving forward when we are standing in the tension between what we've learned and what we have lived are often the unarticulated fears that accompany the decision that we've been wrestling with God with and in Joseph's case we don't have the benefit of hearing him say what they are specifically but they are significant enough that the first thing God says to him is Joseph don't be afraid he addresses Joseph's fear in this decision-making process in my imagination family I see Joseph having a few potential fears though he has done nothing wrong he must be facing the fear of what the families will say that this ain't the kind of secret that you can keep hidden that eventually it's gonna show and joseph has to believe what is her daddy gonna say when he sees her pregnant he'll assume that i did this to her well what about my family if i'm crazy enough to go along with mary's story i'll look stupid to them and who knows somebody might take the decision out of my hands and drag her to her father's house without my consent.

22:05 He had to have some fears, number one, about what his family was going to say. But secondly, Joseph had to have some fears about the rumor mill. Turn to your neighbor and say, rumors, rumors. Now, I wasn't there. I don't know how the church folk got down in antiquity, but if they are anything like the church folk I done met in 2019. I ain't talking about here at Alfred Street. I'm talking about your cousins in Texas. If there's anything like that, then Joseph may have understood that neither he nor Mary had done anything wrong. But it doesn't have to be true for it to travel. Let me say it one more time. That Joseph may have understood that even though we ain't do nothing, it doesn't have to be true for it to travel around the streets. because if church locs love anything we love good preaching good music good eating and some good gossip and joseph said i don't want this to go down this way because it may reflect my reputation it may ruin marriage reputation in these streets he's got fears about the family he's got fears about the rumor mill but finally i imagine that he has some fears that are personal Can I handle this?

23:28 Where's Usher when I need him? Can I handle this? Can I go along with this? Looking at this baby every day Knowing all along that he ain't really my son Can I sit up and play daddy to the son of another man Much less the son of God Can I quiet out all the noise of the community around me And stand with her and love her even though I know we're the topic of conversation in the Kaya group meet, even when I know we're the topic of conversation on Facebook and text message threads. And every time we walk in the room, they're giving us that look. Can I handle it? And I'm wondering if there's anybody in Alfred Street today who has had, you've had to live in the tension of what you've learned and what you've lived. And the thought of proceeding with what is on your heart seemed impossible because of the unspoken, unarticulated fears that came with going against the grain, where you wanted to make a move that was different than you learned, but you thought to yourself, you were handcuffed by fear. What will my family think? What would grandma and grandpapa say? What will they say about me in the rumor mill if we handle it this way? How will this affect my reputation or or if we're honest i'm still trying to figure out how i feel about this can i do this can i handle the weight of what comes with this but what blesses me y'all is that god shows up that god through an angel tells joseph like god is sharing with us today that i know that what you're thinking is not in line with what you've learned and that this is not the life that you signed up for but don't be afraid face your fears because my hand is in the midst of this i've got a plan and i have ordained this and i will take care of you and i came all

25:33 the way from houston texas to tell somebody who's been wrestling with the verse 19 in your life where you're trying to decide whether or not to follow what you've learned or what you think God desires based on what you live. You have to dare to face your fears and you don't face them blindly and you don't face them irresponsibly. But if you can hear the voice of the Lord telling you that God is in the midst of it, if God orchestrates it, God is obligated to it, to take care of God's children and my fears ultimately don't have the final say. I've got some Bible for that. Where's Paul when I need him? For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Is there anybody in this place who say as long as I hear God's voice, I'll face my fears because if God called me to it, God will see me through it.

26:37 When you're living in that tension between what you've learned and what you've lived, you must first discern God's voice and face your fears. But secondly, and then I'm going to go, and please don't run me out of here. I want to come back in Jesus' name. The last thing that the text shows me tonight, this afternoon, is that when you're living in that tension between what you've learned and what you've lived, You may cause us to rebel out of reverence for God. Turn to somebody next to you and say, sometimes rebellion is reverence. May cause us to rebel out of reverence for God. It's right there, verse 20 through 24. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit that she will give birth to a son and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins and all this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. And when Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. Somebody say rebel. We are reminded that in verse 19, it introduces us to Joseph who is faithful to the law, faithful to the word and the tradition that he had learned. And yet after finding out she is pregnant, he is aware of how the law could potentially be used in this case but he does not want to expose Mary to public disgrace now if you were with me during my introduction you heard me say that given Joseph's understanding of the law he may have assumed that how he was supposed to handle the situation

28:46 was found in Deuteronomy 22 and 20 which states that if a woman claimed to be a virgin but was found to be otherwise in marriage that she was to be taken out of her father's house and stoned to death but when the angel shows up he throws a monkey wrench in the deal by revealing that mary isn't pregnant because of scandalous foul play but mary is pregnant as a result of supernatural favor from God which means that Mary in a plot twist that only Toni Morrison could put together it means that Mary y'all is indeed pregnant but she's also still a virgin and that presents a dilemma Siobhan for Joseph because if it's true then there's no prior precedent in Joseph's religious tradition that he has learned to handle this exact situation hear me good they know how to handle the situation if a sister was given away with the understanding that she was a virgin and later it was discovered that it wasn't true that's Deuteronomy 22 and 20 there was Torah for that that they knew how to handle the situation where a brother married a virgin didn't enjoy the sex and then tried to bad talk her in the street start a rumor that she wasn't a virgin so he could wiggle into divorce that was deuteronomy 22 verse 13 through 18 there's torah for that but there wasn't one scripture there wasn't one law part of their religious tradition nowhere that spoke directly to how to handle a situation with a scandalous pregnancy where the woman was still a virgin because she had not been touched by a man and as crazy as that idea was verse 24 tells us that when joseph wakes up he obeyed god and did what the lord

30:52 commanded him to do and if joseph obeyed the angel and went forward after hearing the word It means that Joseph dared to believe God, that in believing God, he is believing that God was able to impregnate Mary. That he is also by implication believing that God could and that God was doing something that their tradition that he learned had no precedent for. that God was so much God that God was even able to do something outside of the well-intentioned religious box that shaped his culture and shaped his tradition and by taking Mary as his wife he rebels against the interpretations of the law of his tradition in reverence to a God who he believed was bigger than the law and I ain't come to mess with nobody nobody's religion today but the message that I learned from Joseph in the text is sometimes life will throw some stuff at us that your Sunday school teacher doesn't have a precedent to address that your Bible study can't provide a baseline for and the question is that if you have heard from the Lord can you believe that God can do something that you haven't read about, that you haven't read a sermon about, that you haven't read a book about?

32:24 Can you believe that you serve a God that's bigger than the box that you learn to put God in? I got to go, but I was reminded after 9 o'clock of something that we do at Wheeler every year. That every year around Christmas time, we have our Christmas staff party. Now at our Christmas staff party, Dr. Wesley, we have what we call our white elephant experience. That at the white elephant experience, we are encouraged, each of us, to bring a present to the party. we wrap those presents and then based on what we see we pick out a present that we then go home with and I'll never forget y'all that there was one year where a sister had wrapped a present in a box that was the size of a card and I'll never forget one of our staffers at Willa Avenue picked up the box and as soon as she opened the box she was angry to the high heavens because when she opened up the box all that was inside of the box was a piece of paper turn to somebody and say piece of paper and when she opened the box it was just a piece of paper and she started to protest she said who was the one that packed this gift that we have speculations on how much the gift is supposed to cost how is it that i open the box and it's just a piece of paper and the person that packed the box pulled up on the scene and said baby did you actually read the paper that was in the box and when she looked at it again she recognized that the paper was a receipt and the sister told her that the receipt is a preview of what is to come but what I have for you was way too big to fit in the box.

34:24 And I gotta go Alfred Street. May the Lord, God bless you real good. But is there anybody in this place that believes at the end of 2020 that we serve a God that's bigger than our box? Come here, I got some examples to help us today. That in the beginning, when darkness hovered over the face of the deep and the earth was without form and void. There was no precedent for light or life. But God stepped out of nothingness and began to speak. Let there be, and creation came together because we serve a God who's got power over precedent and can blow your mind beyond your box. Come here, Moses.

35:17 When God sought to deliver God's people, from Egyptian bondage. He led them to the promised land. God breaks the law of physics. He turns sea into blood. Turns the waterway to I-95. He provides bread from the sky and water from a rock in the desert. Because we serve a God that is bigger than the boxes that we have placed God in. That in various ages of male-dominated leadership for the people of Israel. God made a prophet out of Miriam, a judge out of Deborah, and a deacon out of Phoebe, because we serve a God that's bigger than the boxes that we've learned to place God in. And I know it isn't Resurrection Sunday, but can I tell you one more thing that I make you shout on today, because when I consider the stain of my sin, when it was too much to stomach and too lethal to leave alone there was a precedent that sin had to be removed through the sacrifice of animals through goats and lambs through sin offering and guilt offering but one day God said let me do something do something that the law had no precedent for that God began to talk to God's self and said it's time to send my son in the world.

36:49 He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. He was carried by a virgin named Mary. He was named by a man named Joseph to fulfill God's plan that there was no precedent for. When the precedent was for princes to be born in palaces, we had a Messiah that was born in a manger. And on this Christmas Sunday, as we celebrate his birth, can I get 45 more seconds so that I can give you a teaser of how he finished his assignment. That this child named Jesus grew up in favor of God and favor with men. That this child gave sight to the blind, turned water into Chardonnay, healed the sick and raised the dead. In this child, when my soul was in need of saving, one Friday on a hill called Calvary, he died to save his people from his sins.

37:59 And they laid him in a borrowed box that they called a tomb. But early Sunday morning, he broke out of the box to show off God's power to do the unprecedented in our lives. Merry Christmas, Albert Street. May the Lord God bless you real good. But is there anybody that's grateful that you serve a God that's bigger than the box? Is there anybody that knows we serve a God that is bigger than the trapping of our tradition and our interpreted truth that Hannah is a testimony as she walked in here that God is bigger than the boxes of prognosis and dying.