The Rev. Frank
Logue
King of Peace Episcopal Church
Kingsland, Georgia
December 19, 2004
Plan C
Matthew 1:18-25
Note: This sermon was accompanied by a
PowerPoint presentation showing the photos below with along with others. Some
of the photos below are linked to a larger version of the picture.
In the
mid to late 80s, I worked as a photojournalist. First the Warner Robins Daily
Sun, then the Rome News-Tribune paid me to spend my time documenting life and
I loved it. I saw people at their best and worst and was sometimes in the
thick of things,
feeling
involved, connected. I documented everyday life—kids playing, festivals, the
first day of school. I also got access to other events, including
photographing the Braves, the Falcons, Georgia Tech and the Georgia Bulldogs
from the sidelines. Then there were those odd moments, like the bride and
groom stopping off at a car wash to help make a clean getaway after friends
decorated their car at the wedding reception. I loved all of it. It was what I
wanted to do with my life. ![Frank's photo of a clean getaway](cleangetaway.jpg)
One odd little event stands out from this
time period—the strangest coincidence. In 1985, I was at Parris Island Marine
Corps Recruiting Depot to document how the Corps turns raw recruits into
Marines. Marine basic training was a great assignment and I would end up
getting a Georgia Press Association award for the series of photos.
While on the rifle range, the instructor
shown yelling at a recruit in this photo showed me and Terry Smith, the editor
with me, around the range. During the brief tour, the instructor showed us the
clips the recruits were using. They came in little
cloth bags held shut with
black safety pins. Terry suggested I hang on to one of the safety pins and the
instructor said that was fine. I tucked the safety pin in a pocket in my
camera bag and forgot about it.
A little over two years later I was
photographing a girl’s high school basketball tournament. Armuchee was playing
Coosa in a very close game. In the last seconds of the game, two girls ended
up tussling over the ball. One of the girls jerseys ripped. The ref called a
foul. She would get two shots, but everything stopped. The player was standing
in the middle of the court trying to hold her top on, with the strap on the
sleeveless jersey now torn. The referee turned to the officials’ table. I’m
sitting on the floor under it when he says, “Does anyone have a pin or
something?” I remember Parris Island and reach into my bag and there is the
black safety pin. I can’t avoid the conclusion that it was put there for this
moment as I walk the pin out to center court. The crowd applauds, the game
continues. The girl with the jersey pinned together with the Parris Island
safety pin sinks both baskets and wins the game for Coosa High School. I have
always assumed someone in the gym was praying for that pin.
About that time, my addiction to news
started to concern me. I enjoyed being around house fires and car wrecks for
the adrenaline rush of getting the news and I was pretty sure that was not who
I wanted to be. Victoria and I started planning and saving money to hike the
Appalachian Trail. Time to figure out Plan B for our lives.
After the Trail, it took a couple of years
of work to move to Plan B. In the meantime, I worked as an Art Director for a
trade association in Alexandria, Virginia for us to get one book written and
have a chance to move on. Plan B was that Victoria and I would work freelance
at writing and photography while raising our newly born daughter Griffin. We
were glad to get out of the Washington, D.C. area, pledging never to live
anywhere like that again.
Plan B was great, even if it did involve
never knowing where our next paycheck might come from. For six and a half
years Victoria and I shared duties in taking care of Griffin and wrote books
and magazine articles. But in the midst of living a dream life, God continued
to call me to full-time, ordained ministry. Already, Victoria and I were very
involved as volunteers at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church. I had ministries. I
even had a job I loved. But God was calling me to something in particular—Plan
C. Plan C meant going through a lengthy discernment process in the Episcopal
Church, then selling the 125-year old house we had just finished fixing up
after 4 years of work, and moving back to Alexandria, Virginia for seminary.
But God did know best and Plan C feels
like it was something God had in mind all along. I look back at the many
experiences I had and skills I picked up prior to seminary and see that like
that safety pin, God was tucking away things that would be needed later.
Our Gospel reading for today is Matthew’s
account of Jesus’ birth, up until the birth itself. In this reading, we are
introduced to Joseph, the earthly stepfather of God’s son Jesus. Joseph is
kept so busy following God’s dreams in Matthew’s Gospel that he has been
called the errand boy of the Incarnation. And in all that rushing about, we
learn something of Joseph’s plans.
Plan A for Joseph was to marry Mary. They
are betrothed, which at the time was an official ceremony that contractually
bound a couple together. The couple would not yet live together, but entered a
yearlong engagement, which took a divorce to break off. During that year,
Joseph learns that Mary is pregnant and he knows that he is not the child’s
father. Now comes Plan B.
Matthew writes, “Her husband Joseph, being
a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to
dismiss her quietly.” This is to put it mildly. We later read how in Jesus’
ministry he prevents the public stoning of a woman caught in no less a public
disgrace. Being engaged to Mary, Joseph could have denounced her publicly and
cried out for her to be put to death by stoning. But, we learn that Joseph
would never consider this. Instead, Plan B for Joseph is to quietly make some
arrangements to break off the engagement without Mary facing an angry mob.
Then God intervenes with Plan C. An angel
appears to Joseph in a dream to assure Joseph that this was God’s plan all
along. In God’s plan, Joseph will take on the minor public dishonor of having
everyone assume the child that would otherwise be born out of wedlock is his
own. Joseph marries Mary, she has a child who Joseph names Jesus, which means
“God saves.”
God will save and God will do it through
Jesus. But Joseph and Mary were essential to the plan. Mary had to consent to
the pregnancy and Joseph to the marriage. I promise you; this is not the life
of which either of Jesus’ parents dreamed. It wasn’t their Plan A or Plan B.
But it was God’s plan all along.
I think there is a reason this pattern
repeats itself. We have our own desires, our own plans and dreams. Then life
throws things at us we never planned, a pregnancy, a sickness. Who knows what
it has been or will be for you? But somewhere along the line, you start
looking for another option. Like Joseph who decides God’s will must be to put
Mary away quietly, you don’t always ask God’s opinion in making plans for
life. But God is still there. For me in a small and unimportant way and for
Joseph in history changing way, getting our own plans out of the way can help
God to lead us to the life he had for us all along.
For those of you who have lived longer
than me, you certainly know better than I how life is made up of a number of
little lifetimes. The time when you were in the Navy. The time you lived in
Seattle. The time with your first husband, or wife. There are a lot of plans
we have had. Some went very well. Some not so well. The amazing part of the
story is that even if you already worked your way through the alphabet and are
more likely on Plan CC, God is still ready and willing to be part of your
plans.
God told the prophet Jeremiah, “For surely
I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not
for harm, to give you a future and a hope. Then when you call upon me and come
and pray to me, I will hear you” (Jeremiah 29:11-12).
Whether it is Plan C for you or Plan Z,
God’s plans for your life will be more and better than anything you would
think to ask for or imagine. This does not mean that God is calling you to be
a priest or the stepfather of the Messiah. It may mean that God is calling you
to something like working with the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, or some other
ministry in our church or community. Probably God is also calling you to be
the sort of builder, or accountant, or secretary, or sailor, or teacher,
husband, wife, son or daughter that God desires. No matter what it is God is
calling you to. I can assure you of two things. 1) It’s probably not what you
first thought it would be. and 2) You’ll be happier with God’s Plan C than
with own Plan A.
Today’s Gospel tells us the amazing human
story of Joseph who let go of his own plans to be a part of God’s plan to
bring God with us. God is with us now and wants to be a part of your daily
life. What are the plans you need to let go of to be the person God dreams of?
Listen to God’s advice to Jeremiah, he has plans for you to prosper and to
have a future and a hope. Call on God, pray, and ask God to shape your plans.
God will hear you and answer in surprisingly delightful ways.
Amen.