Change of Plans: A New Year’s Sermon
A Sermon by Rev. S. Randall Toms, Ph.D.
St. Paul’s Anglican Church, Baton Rouge, LA
But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeareth in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child's life. And he arose, and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. But when he heard that Archelaus did reign in Judaea in the room of his father Herod, he was afraid to go thither: notwithstanding, being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee: And he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets, He shall be called a Nazarene. (Matt. 2:19-23)
I believe that one of the unsung heroes in the Bible is Joseph, the husband of Mary. I know that many myths and legends have been created about him, but just from the pages of Holy Scripture, we hear very little about him. And after the scene where he and Mary find the twelve-year-old Jesus in the temple, he disappears, except for a brief mention of his name when people refer to him as Jesus's father.
I always feel a little sorry for Josepha. He had no idea what he was getting into when he got involved with Mary. They were from the little town of Nazareth. Nazareth! “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” They were just the ordinary Jewish couple getting ready for a wedding. They were betrothed, which, in Jewish custom, was something like our engagement period, but it was legally binding. There was a ceremony for this betrothal, and it took place in front of witnesses. It was so legally binding that one actually had to get a divorce to break off the engagement. If the man died during this time, the woman would have been considered a widow. The couple did not begin living together during this period, but it gave the man time to get things ready. This engagement period usually lasted around a year. So, I can imagine Joseph being so excited about marrying Mary, in getting things arranged for the wedding, and setting up a household for his new bride. The betrothal period ended with a public ceremony, after which the woman could begin living with her husband. No doubt Joseph was looking forward to that. And then, the unthinkable happens. Mary turns up pregnant. I cannot imagine his heartbreak. The idea that Mary had been unfaithful to him must have been crushing to him. How could she have done such a thing? All the things he had been planning have now come to nothing. I always wonder how Mary broke the news to him. Did she tell him that the child she was carrying was the Son of God? We don’t know. If she did, he probably thought to himself, “How stupid and gullible does she think I am?” Or, maybe he thought, “If she really believes this, she is out of her mind.” One thing is for certain. Whether she told him or not, he was convinced she had been unfaithful. We are told that Joseph was a righteous man, and he decided to put her away privately. Now, we often interpret the word “righteous” as meaning merciful. He was merciful and decided to put her away privately. But the word “righteous” here means that he was obedient to the law of God. Joseph was being obedient to the law of God when he decided to put her away. Remember that under Old Testament law, if a woman had been guilty of such unfaithfulness, the penalty was death by stoning. However, as we find out in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jews did not have the authority to put anyone to death. So, by the time of Mary and Joseph’s betrothal, she would not have been put to death. The normal thing that happened during this period was that she was divorced. Joseph had grounds for a divorce, but he does seem to be a merciful man. It was quite common in these times to have a trial in which the woman would be charged and made a public example. Remember in Colossians 2:15, where we are told that Jesus spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it”? That phrase, “he made a shew of them openly,” means that he exposed them to public shame, and this is what Joseph was expected to do to Mary—put her to public shame. But perhaps because, deep down, he still had strong feelings for her, he was not willing to make her a public example. He decided to divorce her in as private a way as possible. According to Jewish tradition, a divorce could take place in the presence of just two witnesses, and it appears that this is what Joseph has in mind. Still, there was no way to avoid a public scandal of some degree. The betrothal was annulled. Everyone would soon know that Mary was pregnant, and since Joseph would have broken off the betrothal, it wouldn’t be long before everyone would have a theory about what happened. Still, Joseph has made up his mind to divorce her. Matthew says that Joseph “thought on these things.” The verb tenses in these passages indicate that Joseph had made up his mind. He had a firm plan to put Mary away privately.
But then, God interrupts his plans again. He plans to divorce her, but an angel appears to him in a dream and says, “Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” You talk about a change in plans! From marriage to divorce, to be given the responsibility of taking care of the Son of God. No doubt, Joseph starts making his plan to set up the household for his wife and the baby. But then, there is another change of plans: a decree goes out that the world should be taxed, so Joseph has to pack up his family and go to Bethlehem. But Bethlehem is very close to Jerusalem, the place of power, and this will prove to be a dangerous place for the new king of the Jews to be born.
After the birth of Jesus, things seem to be going well for the new family, but then Herod becomes obsessed with finding this child and killing him. And again, the angel of the Lord appears to Joseph in a dream and tells him that there has been another change in plans: “the angel of the Lord appeareth to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” Now Joseph has changed his plans from setting up a home in Bethlehem to traveling to Egypt. We don’t know exactly how long they traveled. Estimates range from a week to a month. Joseph knew that this was temporary, but he had no idea how long he would have to live with his family in Egypt. The angel had said that he would let him know when the danger had passed.
Finally, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream again. This is the third time the angel of the Lord has appeared to Joseph in a dream. Whenever an angel comes with a message, it usually a change is about to come. Sure enough, the angel of the Lord tells him to return to Israel because Herod is dead. But when Joseph returns to Israel, he finds that one of Herod’s sons, Archelaus, has taken the throne of his father. And this news frightens Joseph. Archelaus was no saint himself. According to Josephus, Archelaus had begun his rule by slaughtering 3,000 Jews who were celebrating the Passover. Archelaus was such a terrible ruler that the Romans eventually deposed him, and Rome appointed a Roman prefect to rule over Judea. Eventually, one of those prefects would be Pontius Pilate. No wonder Joseph was afraid to go back to Bethlehem of Judea. This time, we are told that God warned him in a dream to go to Galilee. Soon, Mary and Joseph are back in the little village of Nazareth, where all of this began. Afterward, Jesus will be frequently referred to as “Jesus of Nazareth,” and sometimes his followers will be called Nazarenes. So, maybe all this helps explain why I feel a great deal of sympathy for Joseph. God was constantly changing his plans.
As we begin a new year, perhaps you have made plans for what you would like to do and accomplish. You know how much I like to make New Year’s Resolutions, and I’m just like most people: I rarely keep them. I not only make resolutions, but I also make plans. On January 1, 2025, I made a list of everything I planned to do in 2025. It was quite a long list. I don’t think I got to do any of the things I planned. For example, I planned to catch many fish in 2025. Do you know how many times I put my boat in the water in 2025? Not once. I have a list of all the things I was going to do, but it just never happened. How many things were you planning to do in 2025 that never came to pass? One thing after another kept coming up. God had other plans. The strange thing is that the things God had planned for me in 2025 were much more worthwhile than the plans I had made.
So, I have been reminded of a few verses in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs 16:9, “A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.” Proverbs 19:21: “There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand.” Though we may have in mind many things we want to do in 2026, we need to keep another verse from Proverbs in view, Proverbs 27:1: “Boast not thyself of to morrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.” While I’m thinking about what I might do in 2026, Scripture reminds us that we don’t know for certain if we will be able to do what we plan for tomorrow.
Now, there is nothing sinful about making plans. The Scripture even encourages us to think ahead and plan for the future. It is right to make plans for our finances and our families, to take better care of ourselves so that we can be healthier in the new year, and, of course, we must make plans for how we will grow nearer to God. We need to plan to commit ourselves to prayer, the study of Scripture, and striving for holiness of life. But what these verses from Proverbs remind us is that no matter how carefully we may plan what we are going to do, whether those plans will be fulfilled in the end rests with God. And we should be thankful for that. We can’t see into the future. We can’t see why it might not be best for us to complete our plans. We don’’t see how our plans might actually harm ourselves or others. We are not able to see what would be best for us to do in 2026. So, God will close some doors and open others. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 5, there are the famous lines that Hamlet says to Horatio: “There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will.” We are like sculptors or stone-masons, beginning a work. We start with the general plan, the general outline, but as we go along, God starts to take over, and the final product is in his hands. Sometimes things turn out just as we planned. Sometimes our plans are adjusted, and sometimes they're just scrapped, and God gives us something fresh because God’s plans don’t square with ours.
Many of us are getting older—a lot older — and isn’t it interesting to look back over the years to see how often our plans were changed? We started in one job, and we wonder how we wound up in another. We had relationships with people that ended. We thought we would always be 18-year-old athletes, but age and illness began to take their toll. Our plans fail. But the counsel of the Lord, his purpose, does not change. God changes, contradicts, and overrules our plans, not because he is cruel, but because he is all-wise and knows what is best for our good and his glory. It is so difficult for us to believe that when going through difficult times. How could this possibly be for our good?
The verse from Proverbs I read earlier is always a great reminder: “Boast not thyself of tomorrow.” We don’t know what will happen tomorrow. We don’t even know what will happen in the next five minutes, much less the whole year of 2026. Taking up this same theme, James said, “Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell, and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and do this, or that” (James 4:13-15). Ultimately, it all depends on “if the Lord will.” I’m not advocating a lack of effort in every area of life. What I am advocating is humility and faith. Work and plan with all your might, but realize that your life is in the hands of God and trust him, even if your plans are frustrated.
The other day I was walking through the house, and my wife was watching one of the movie versions of John Steinbeck’s story, Of Mice and Men, a film I refuse to watch simply because it is so heartbreaking. This was the 1992 version with Gary Sinise playing George and John Malkovich as Lenny. When I was in college, it was often required in our English classes that we read that story, and the professors loved to ask the question on an exam, “Why did Steinbeck title his story, 'Of Mice and Men'?” Many students didn’t get this right because they thought it was because Lenny loved to play with little furry animals. But Steinbeck got the title for his story from Robert Burns’ poem, “To a Mouse” (1785). The full title is “To a Mouse, on Turning up Her Nest with the Plough.” It’s a poem about a farmer who is ploughing his field, and by accident destroys the nest that a mouse has made. In the poem, the farmer apologizes to the mouse for having destroyed his home that the mouse had planned to use for the winter months. But the farmer tells the mouse that he and the mouse are not really that different. Just like the mouse, we humans make plans for the future that come to nothing. Burns’ immortal words are these:
But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,
An’ lea’e us nought but grief an’ pain,
For promis’d joy!
“Aft gang agley.” Now there’s an excellent line for you! That’s the thing about reading Burns’ poetry. He will sometimes write in what we consider plain English, and then he starts interspersing all these Scots expressions, like “gang aft agley.” “Gang aft agley” means “to go wrong,” “to go awry.” That is, the best laid schemes of mice and men don’t turn out as planned. Our planned promised so much joy, but we wind up in grief and pain.. The farmer feels sorry for the little mouse, but most of all, he feels sorry for himself. The poem ends with the farmer musing that animals really have no concept of the past or future. They live in the eternal present. Human beings, on the other hand, think about the past and are filled with regret. They think about the future and are filled with anxiety because they know deep down inside that their plans for the future don’t always turn out the way they planned. The poem ends:
Still, thou art blest, compar’d wi’ me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e’e,
On prospects drear!
An’ forward tho’ I canna see,
I guess an’ fear!
That’s a sad outlook on the future if there ever was one—that when human beings look into the future, the best we can do is only guess and fear. But thank God, that is not the Christian hope. Though it is undoubtedly true that our best laid plans don’t turn out the way we thought, the Christian does so much more than look at the future and guess and fear. The future for the Christian is that, though our plans may come to nothing, it only means that God has a better plan. And though we may be frustrated and sad that our plans did not turn out as expected, we know that God has a good purpose, because, despite all signs to the contrary, all things, even our plans that have been disappointed, will work together for good, for those who love God and are called according to his purpose.
So, I look at Joseph and think of how many times he was frustrated that things did not work out as he had planned, and no doubt he sometimes grumbled and complained. But I wonder what he thinks now. I don’t put any stock in the extra-biblical legends about the holy family. But I have my own speculations about what Joseph and Mary are doing right now. I think we know. They are bowing before Jesus, the one who saved them from their sins, and they are worshiping him. I wonder if they ever think about how their lives turned out so differently from what they had initially planned there in the little town of Nazareth when they were just a young couple planning to be married. But as they think about how God used them in the eternal plan of redemption, I’m sure that they have no regrets. Looking back at all the grace and mercy shown to them, even in those times of incredible fear and sadness, I think they can probably say they wouldn’t have had it any other way, because look at how God was glorified even in all their tribulation.
And so it is with all of us. Throughout our lives, God changes our plans. We get frustrated, angry, and disappointed when God has something else planned for us. Then, one day, one last time, God is going to say, “Change of plans. It’s time for you to come home now.” Though we live in great fear and anxiety about the approaching of that day, just a few moments after we have entered the full radiance of God’s glory, all our fears and anxieties will be seen as having been utterly pointless.
What’s coming in 2026? Some of the members of our congregation had a rough 2025. Will 2026 be any better? Well, it’s according to what you mean by “better.” One thing the Christian can be sure of us is that whatever happens in 2026 will be for the best. As Christians, we don’t face the future with guessing. We don’t face the future with fear. We face the future with hope and confidence. It takes faith to look to the future in that way, but all of Scripture is a constant encouragement to do so, especially the words of our Lord Jesus Christ when he said, “Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” Again, our Lord wasn’t saying we shouldn't plan for the future. He was saying that we shouldn’t worry about the future. Each day has enough evil of its own to deal with. Don’t add worries about the future to the things you must take care of today. And when this life is over, and we can see how everything in our lives fit in with the eternal purpose of God, all of us will say, “Thank you, Lord, for all the times you changed my plans. Your plan was best.” Amen.