Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus. (Matthew 1:18-25 NRSV)

It must have been a very difficult time for Joseph,
those early days before the Angel of the Lord came
to him and told him that the Child was God’s,
and not the result of some
extra-marital affair.

Those much have been anxious days for Joseph,
even after the Angel came and explained
that Mary had been chosen to give birth to the Savior.

I mean, let’s put ourselves into Joseph’s Sandals
for a moment;
You’re engaged to a young woman
but you have not yet married,
and you discover that she is already pregnant.

Even today -- although it is much less of a scandal
than it once was --
Even today it is not something a family proclaims
It is not something you shout from the House Tops.

In Joseph’s day and culture,
not only would the woman be disgraced,
and condemned to live a solitary life,
but the family would be disgraced
and would probably have to move
to another town or even province.

Yes, those must have been very anxious days for Joseph --
and for Mary, I’m sure.
Anxious and difficult days,
indeed
for a young, soon-to-be-married couple.

But, you know something,
Joseph was patient
-- patient with Mary,
and patient with God.

Patience is not easy.
But it is a grace we must all be willing to seek.


Would you pray with me?

Gracious God, move among us this day so that we may always know that we are never alone; and speak to us so that we may always hear, understand, and remember -- give us your word by which you mold and shape our living; in Jesus Name we pray. Amen.

Anxiety and patience --
two emotions,
two realities
of this season.

We know and experience Anxiety all to well ...
and shouldn’t.
While patience is something that few of us
really know at all.

I can remember what it was like,
when I was a wee little child
waiting for Christmas to come.

Each night, for the 24 days before Christmas,
we would go through a countdown for Christmas.
We had a strip of cloth that was hung in my bedroom.
It had a Christmas Tree at the top,
and a row of 24 buttons which would be taken off,
a button for each night,
until we got to the bottom of the countdown on Christmas Eve night,
when we would ring the Bell and get into bed, all full of excitement.

I can remember being so anxious about how LONG it took for the days to pass,
and it did feel like it took forever
for those 24 days of December to crawl past
and for Christmas Eve to arrive,
But when it would finally come, I would --
with great excitement --
be so happy and so nervous that I found it hard to go to sleep that night.

I can remember waking up on Christmas Morning,
long before the Sun would rise,
and my brother and I would go in
and bounce on our parents bed
to get them up
so that we could go and see what Santa brought us.

I can remember jumping up in down in the hall with excitement,
with a feeling of great impatience burning through my stomach,
crying for my mother to hurry up in the bathroom.

The lights from the Christmas tree were shining through the air-vent on the door
leading from the hall-way into the living room,
and I could see them blinking on and off, promising wonderful gifts
and great delight
but here was Mom, sitting on the toilet in the hall bathroom,
taking her sweet time,
while I was about to burst with excitement.

Little did I know that Mom was waiting for the coffee to finish perking.

For a child,
Christmas seems to come far too infrequently,
and it takes way too long for it to get here.

For adults,
however,
the situation is almost completely reversed.

For me, these days it seems as though Christmas comes more than once a year
and there are never enough days in December
to get done all the things that need to be done.

For the average American adult,
the phrase: “Slow as Christmas”
Seems to have lost its meaning.

My mother puts great effort,
every year,
into making sure that Christmas is perfect,
that the house is beautifully decorated
that the cookies, the cakes, the pies, and the other sweets
were all made wonderfully delicious.

She worked hard to shop for us all, looking for presents that would please
looking for the mythical “perfect” gift.
And then she worked hard to wrap the packages,
and to tie artful bows, so that they looked lovely under the Christmas Tree.

My mother put a great amount of effort into making each Christmas perfect.

Indeed, we all work so very hard,
that I’m afraid that we tend to lose sight
of just what all of this celebration is supposed to be about.

Children need patience.
Adults need to let go of their own anxieties,
and we can all take a lesson from the example that Joseph set.

“Joseph, the son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”

With such words of assurance,
how could he have possibly worried?
how could he have possibly been filled with anxiety?
how could he have been anything other than patient?

I’m not so sure I would have fared as well as Joseph
even IF I had been given such a wonderful honor
as being the earthly father
of Jesus Christ,
Emmanuel,
GOD WITH US--
although I often wonder if,
knowing what he knew,
was Joseph ever hesitant
to spank Jesus when he was
a Bad, precocious, little boy?

Patience and Anxiety.
We are called to await, patiently,
the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are called to wait, without anxiety,
because we, too, have heard the words of the Angel of the Lord,
and we, too, know that the child,
whom we will celebrate in his birth
this Christmas morning,
is GOD WITH US,
Emmanuel,
and that this child,
whom we celebrate in his birth,
came to save us from our sins
so many centuries ago.

We have no reason to be anxious this Christmas

If we don’t get the shopping done
Jesus will still come
If we don’t get the decorating done,
Jesus will still come
All we have to do is be patient,
and wait,
and prepare,
and he will be here ...

Sooner than even we adults expect.

“Joseph, the son of David, do not be afraid
to take Mary as your wife,
for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”