In today’s sermon, Fr. Micah contrasts being right with being righteous. He draws our attention to one line from the Gospel reading, which says, “Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to put her to shame…” Joseph’s righteousness was not in his being right, but in his unwillingness to put Mary to shame.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Christ tells us to be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect, but the perfection he describes in the following verses is not about being right. Instead, he says that, just as God sends his sun to shine upon the righteous and the unrighteous, so we are to be. 

Just as Joseph was unwilling to put Mary to shame, so we are to be unwilling to put one another to shame, instead loving one another in righteousness.