Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”
Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he should not see death before he had seen the Christ of the Lord. He took him into his arms and blessed God, saying: “Now, Master, you may let your servant go in peace."
There was also a prophetess, Anna. She was advanced in years. And coming forward at that very time, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem.
This time of year we all enjoy Nativity scenes; where we
see the Holy Family, infant Jesus, Mary and Joseph. These are peaceful
scenes. The words of Silent Night “all is calm, all is bright” describe the mood. On the night Jesus was born and the angels
sang, and the shepherds came; this was a very special night when heaven and earth
stood still for a moment and celebrated. But the events leading up to this moment weren't so
peaceful. Today I’d like to review these events, through the eyes
of Joseph.
We don’t talk about him much but he is very important to our faith
story.
What we know of Joseph comes from the birth stories in the Gospels of
Matthew and Luke. Joseph was a simple
man, living a simple life, when God chose him to play this remarkable role in
human history. While he was living his life in peace, joyfully awaiting his
marriage, suddenly everything changed. His beloved wife became pregnant and he
didn’t know by whom. That would shake anyone to their core ... and it did him. As
most of us would, he decided he couldn’t go through with the marriage. And then
God spoke to him. God gave him a dream.
In this dream, God shared with Joseph His dream for the salvation of the world.
Joseph dreamed – God’s Dream – that night!
When he woke, in obedience to God, he took Mary for his
wife. The example this great man gives to all of us is how to follow God through
difficult and confusing times. His life teaches us that God’s plans don’t
always match our plans. Often in our
lives things happen that we never saw coming. Certainly that was true of Joseph. Think about what
happened to him ... after ... he said
“Yes” to God.
Once married, when Mary was very pregnant – and we all know what that looks like – Joseph
had to put her on a donkey and travel 70 miles. That’s from here (Pacific
Beach) to Laguna Beach. When they got to Bethlehem – we don’t know the exact
sequence of events – but it’s highly likely Mary was experiencing labor pains. I
think donkey rides are probably pretty good at bring on labor. Now we all know
the anxiety when a woman is in labor, and we are told in the story that Joseph
couldn’t find a place to stay. I certainly hope Mary wasn’t in labor when he
was going through that!
We know that he finds a stable. In our Nativity scenes these sables are
always pristine, but having spent some time on a farm as a boy, I’m not so sure
that sable was as sanitary as we like to portray it. According to Luke’s Gospel
with no family there to help him, Joseph was likely the only one there to deliver
the baby. And this was a time in history when it was common for women to die
during child birth. Talk about stressful situations!
So here we are this precious child was born and they have
this amazing night we celebrate with the Nativity scene. Then with this night
barely done Joseph hears that some evil man wants to kill this beautiful baby. Imagine
a death threat on your child! Once again He listens to God and must abandon his
home and move this little family to a foreign country. Think about these
challenges this man faced.
In today’s Gospel we hear how when Joseph takes Mary and the child to the
Temple, to fulfill a simple requirement of their faith, the priest tells them
that this child is destined to create turmoil in Israel and that Mary, his
precious wife’s heart, will be pierced by a sword. All of these things happened
to Joseph. Joseph was just a regular person, like you and me, simply trying to
live a good and peaceful life. But God had other plans. And Joseph became our model of how to follow
God through difficult times.
Joseph’s life changed drastically because of something
that happened to someone he loved. When Mary said “Yes” to God, his whole life
changed too. Joseph shows us that so
often God’s plan for us can be brought about by things outside of our control ...
health ... jobs ... love life ... family ... it can all change without warning.
And Joseph is our model of how to be prepared when challenges come.
Scripture describes him as “a righteous man,” which
simply means he was a faith-filled and prayerful person. That is why he was prepared to handle these
unforeseen events in his life. The only way he could have dealt with all of
this is because he knew God, and he trusted God. Joseph is the picture of how we
are all called to be.
Being in-touch with God will help us handle the unforeseen
challenges, we all experience in life. Mary and Joseph were simply living their
lives day to day, just like us, when everything changed for them. And what we learn from their lives is that good things can
come out of the challenges we face, even great things. God doesn’t always
remove our challenges. He certainly didn’t for Joseph. But He can work in them.
In our Gospel reading we see two more examples of this in
Simone and Anna. They also were simple people, just dealing with the hand they
were dealt by life, being faithful to God, prayerfully trying to serve him; and
God used them too, to share his dream.
And He can use us too ... just as he did them! Like Joseph
and Simone and Anna, God calls us to dream – God’s dream for the world; and to
do our part to make it come true.
God’s will for us – our call – is first and foremost to
strive to be ... a Holy Family ...
to be like Joseph faith-filled and prayerful. His
role ultimately was simply to be ... a good father. That’s our call too ... to be ... a good father
... or ... a good mother ... a good son ... a good daughter ... sister ... or
... brother.
This is our call.
And what does our call ... to be good family members ...
look like?
It’s simple really:
• Each day ... to love ... a little bit
more than you think you can.
• Each day ... to forgive ... a little
bit more than you think you can.
• Each day ... to be a little bit more
patient ... than you think you can.
• Each day...to be a little bit kinder
and gentler...than you think you can
To bring as much joy - each day - as you can.
If each one of us in this church made that resolution, the
Feast of the Holy Family would be a huge success; and it would be one of the best
and most practical Christmas gifts we could give ourselves and those around us.
It would bring ...
•
joy ... to ourselves
•
joy
... to our family
•
joy ... to our friends
and • joy ... to the world. ...
Then in addition to singing ... “Joy to the World”...
we would be doing
something about it.
Then we will be helping - God’s Dream - to come true.
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