Another look at Joseph: the non-speaker who speaks volumes

As our guest writer Jeeva Sam points out below, Mary’s husband Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father, gets short shrift in our yearly Christmas songs and stories. Even scripture doesn’t provide much about him. Yet he did play a crucial role, and as Jeeva elaborates so well, we can learn from his restrained manner. Enjoy and be edified.

By Jeeva Edward Sam

Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. (Matt. 1:19)

Quick, now, name one well-known carol that mentions Joseph. Better still, take your time, search on Google, Yahoo, MSN, Bing and Ask—the result is the same!  Not one, nada, nil.

Contrast this with repeated references to Mary, as in: “Mary’s boy child”, “Gentle Mary laid her child”, “On Mary’s lap is sleeping”, “Round yon virgin, MOTHER and child”, “For Christ is born of Mary”, “Mary was that mother mild”, and so forth. Even cattle, sheep and assorted members of the animal kingdom get more press at Christmas!

Point me to one word of dialogue Joseph is permitted to utter in the script of the Nativity as found in Holy Scripture, or in most traditional Christmas pageants for that matter. Need I say more?

Yet, it would seem that this unheralded man is undeniably part of God’s plan for the early part of Jesus’ earthly life. I find it instructive to examine the brief exposure to his character in Matthew 1:19 (Amplified Version): “… Joseph, being a just and upright man and not willing to expose her publicly and to shame and disgrace her, decided to repudiate and dismiss (divorce) her quietly and secretly.”

When Mary is found to be with child without an assist from her betrothed, a “just and upright man” could have ensured that justice was done by having her put to death or at least by issuing a certificate of divorce. Either action would have been kosher, but Joseph adds mercy to justice as he opts for a divorce with dignity.

Years later, when Jesus was asked by some what he would do with a woman who was caught in adultery (as if it is possible to catch only one partner in the act of adultery, hello?) he would stonewall their bid to stone her to death with the words: “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” (John 8:7) Like father, like son, perhaps?

I cannot help but contrast Joseph’s choice with the way I am tempted to respond when someone hurts me. Ever hear the expression: ‘Hurt people hurt people?’ Out of my hurt, I want to make sure that justice is done and you’re hurt too—at least as much as you hurt me.

I could use any platform available to me—Facebook, newspaper columns, TV, blog, pulpit—to at least shame, if not disgrace or downright destroy you. Or it could be a family gathering over the holidays where amid the toasts, treats, eats and greets, some dormant hostility, buried bruise or interred insult rears its ugly head again, or a fresh missile calls for a decidedly unchristian strike-back.

I could opt to leave lash-marks on the offender, or leave quietly with bite-marks on my tongue instead.

May I, like Joseph, be glad to let my non-speaking role speak volumes.

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Ordained by the United Church of Canada in 1982, Pastor Jeeva has been serving the Morgan's Point & Forks Road East congregations in Wainfleet, Ontario since 2007.  He and his wife equip entrepreneurial believers to experience exponential success in their endeavours and offer an intensive mentorship process that takes married couples in stress or distress from breakdown to breakthrough. He welcomes your feedback at jeevasam@gmail.com. 

The enduring mystery, wonder and JOY of Christmas

By the Reverend Canon Anne Moore

I came across this quotation recently. So many of my senses are involved in reading it that I found it quite delightful.

"Late on a sleepy, star-spangled night, those angels peeled back the sky just like you would tear open a sparkling Christmas present. Then, with light and joy pouring out of Heaven like water through a broken dam, they began to shout and sing the message that baby Jesus had been born. The world had a Saviour! The angels called it ‘Good News,’ and it was.” (Larry Libby, "The Angels Called it Good News" in Christmas Stories for the Heart)

I think I like it because it reminds me of the King James Version of the Christmas story as Luke records it:

"And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." (Luke 2:9-11)

Our little human brains can’t describe that night in the kind of precise adjectives that our computer-obsessed society is comfortable with. This is mysterious stuff! So we have to resort to pictures that aren’t as well defined. That shouldn’t be so surprising. After all we are dealing with a once-in-a-lifetime event—the birth of the Saviour of a world gone wrong. Those unschooled, illiterate shepherds did a fine job of getting their story across. I think it was more in the joy on their faces than in the communication through their words. Each time they told the story, to their families, to their friends, to anyone who would listen, that joy must have looked like a bonfire, rays of hope radiating from their whole beings. Good News! Sing it out!

The story hasn’t changed. When we tell it, do we express that same joy, wonder, certainty? Remember this joy doesn’t have to be limited to just Christmastime. The overflowing joy of knowing Christ’s presence in our lives was one of the themes of Jesus’ final teaching with his disciples the night before he died on the cross. He told them of his extravagant love for them—that he loved them as the Father loved Him (John 15:9). After sharing what this eternal relationship looks like, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full” (v.11). What a promise! Through Jesus Christ our hearts can be filled with joy—real joy!

May you experience real joy this Christmas and always.

Carrying a mystery to term

“For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.” (Luke 1:37, Amplified Bible, Classic Edition)

The mystery both enfolded by and enfolding the Christmas season never really ends. It didn’t even begin that first Christmas. It simply revealed itself to us: to all and any who could see or hear, listen—who had ‘eyes to see’ and ‘ears to hear’—in the eons to come.

In Mary’s encounter with the angel and then with the Holy Spirit those 2,000-plus years ago, the divine seed was planted. Young Mary treasured and wondered at the words spoken to her, and her body nurtured the precious ‘Word’ to term. A mysterious Word, existing since the beginning of time, wrapped in a baby and born into a world so already full of its own words, wonder, beauty and noise—that hearing, seeing, the capital-W Word and Wonder beyond and behind it can be nigh on impossible.

Imagine carrying and giving birth to a mystery. In a way every mother does, but can you imagine carrying and giving birth to a world-changing mystery that both pre-existed you, life itself, and contained the answers of time and eternity? Completely impossible to comprehend, and that’s the point. Mary embraced what she did not understand, nurtured and treasured it. The holy seed came to term and the world would never be the same.

Have you ever had an inexplicable, dramatic encounter with holiness, with God? By its very nature you can’t explain it to anyone else, but like Mary, you can treasure and nurture it. Trust that the divine seed will come to term.

People who hold onto and nurture what God has said to them or allowed them to experience—even though they may not understand it—carry the fruit of the revelation from God that says: ‘Nothing will be impossible with God.’ That’s the commonly translated version of the angel’s words to young Mary when she wondered aloud how on earth she could give birth. A more accurate translation from the Greek would be more like ‘no freshly spoken word of God will ever come to you that does not contain the ability to perform itself.’ What an astonishing gift!

Family aboard "Christmas Terror Flight" leaned on prayer and faith

(Wisconsin, USA)—Charlie and Scotti Keepman, with 24-year-old daughter Richelle, had just traveled to Ethiopia, Africa, where they'd adopted two orphans and were bringing them back to their home in Wisconsin on Christmas day.

Sitting toward the back of NW Flight 253, the Keepmans had no idea of the drama about to unfold rows ahead of them when terror suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, attempted a suicide bombing in his seat.

"We heard a pop and then smelled the fumes," recalled Charlie about the moment Abdulmatallab tried to ignite his explosives. "It smelled like burning wire actually. And I thought that's what it was."

But when flight attendants came running back for the fire extinguishers, Keepman noticed the horror in their eyes and knew something more was happening on their plane.

Trying to remain calm, the Keepmans joined hands with their daughter and newly-adopted children and began to bring the matter before the Lord in prayer, and to sing Jesus Loves Me.

Abdulmatallab's explosive device failed to do more than start a fire, and thanks to one quick-thinking passenger who jumped over seats, apprehending him and preventing him from doing any further damage, a possibly fatal situation was avoided.

The Nigerian Abdulmatallab (23) was later charged with trying to blow up NW Airlines Flight 253.

Charlie Keepman (l)  withYtbarek, 8;  Richelle KeepmanwithArsema, 6;  and Scotti Keepmanwith grandson Harrison Keepmanat their home in Oconomowoc, Wis.   (AP Photo/Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Tom Lynn)

(Full story at source: Kristen Schorsch – Chicago Breaking News Center)

Finding and raising cane: The origins of the candy cane

Okay, so it's not a stupendous theological question, but still: Just where did candy canes come from? Like all 'traditions', various versions of the history behind the striped Christmas treats exist. Some wax theological, others more practical.

One on the side of practicality holds that in about 1670, the choirmaster at Cologne Cathedral grew frustrated by fidgety kids in his church's living Nativity. He had some white, sugar-candy sticks made to keep the youngsters quiet. The sticks were curved like shepherds' staffs in honour of the shepherds at the stable. The idea caught on, and candy sticks became common at living Nativities all over Europe.

In 1847, a German-Swedish immigrant named August Imgard put candy canes on his Christmas tree in Wooster, Ohio. The sweets gained popularity here, too, and around the turn of the century, they assumed their now familiar properties of red stripes and peppermint flavoring. Though these elements might have been added for symbolic purposes, there's scant solid evidence to confirm that theory.

(Read the whole story here.)