Dear People of God of the Southwest California Synod,
In this final message of this year, I send Christmas and New Year’s greetings to you, hoping and praying that you will be able, like Mary, to have time for pondering and treasuring (Luke 1:29, 2:19, 51) the presence of Jesus in your lives. I trust we will make wise choices in these next days and weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic sadly reaches new levels of infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. May our ongoing witness be that we care for the well-being of one another so much that we will make any and all needed personal sacrifices at this time to protect others and ourselves, and in so doing, let us become part of the solution rather than part of the problem. As stated earlier, the Synod Office will be closed until Monday, January 4, 2021. If you have any emergencies in the next twelve days, please feel free to reach out to us as you are able. My email is listed below.
Since 1995, each year I have written a piece about my “patron saint,” Saint Joseph. This year, I entitled my thoughts about this man, “Joseph, the Protector.” I offer this brief meditation during these holy days.
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We know very little about Joseph as he is mentioned or referenced only a few times in the pages of Holy Scripture. The carpenter from Nazareth has a major role in the nativity narratives, but then he disappears from the tellings of the life of Jesus in the years between the time when Jesus was 12 years old and when he began his public ministry at age 30. We never hear Joseph’s voice. Saint Luke and Saint Matthew tell us about a faithful listener and a much-needed protector during challenging, chaotic, and threatening days. Joseph was a devout man who listened to his dreams, listened to his heart, and listened to God. |
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We know very little about Joseph as he is mentioned or referenced only a few times in the pages of Holy Scripture. The carpenter from Nazareth has a major role in the nativity narratives, but then he disappears from the tellings of the life of Jesus in the years between the time when Jesus was 12 years old and when he began his public ministry at age 30. We never hear Joseph’s voice. Saint Luke and Saint Matthew tell us about a faithful listener and a much-needed protector during challenging, chaotic, and threatening days. Joseph was a devout man who listened to his dreams, listened to his heart, and listened to God.
In the village of Nazareth, Joseph had found great favor in a young woman. She was obviously the love of his life. They were betrothed—engaged—planning to be married. Joseph had found something uniquely wonderful in her—and so did God. Now it was God’s incarnational time to join our humanity and be born among us. Young Mary had found favor with God, as Gabriel, the Angel of God sent to Nazareth, had announced. She learned about being chosen and then overshadowed by the Spirit. Mary, the virgin, conceived. And Joseph protected his beloved. Rather than expose her to public disgrace and dismiss her, as he surely could have after learning she was “with child” that was not of him, Joseph heeded the voice of an angel of the Lord who urged him to take his intended as his wife. He guarded Mary’s reputation and they were married. Following the decree of the Emperor, who had called for a census counting, Joseph safeguarded Mary on a 90-mile journey to his ancestral hometown. The arduous journey was during her final days of pregnancy. When they arrived in Bethlehem, over-crowded with other travelers, Joseph was able to find a meager shelter for Mary, wherein she gave birth to the Son of the Most High. Swaddling cloth and rags, a crude manger, noisy shepherds visiting in the middle of the night, a pondering spouse – Joseph had much care-giving and safe-guarding to do. After eight days, following the traditions of their faith, the couple took their son for circumcision and naming… Jesus…the name given by angels to both Mary and Joseph. Three weeks later, again adhering to the ancient Jewish laws and customs, they traveled to Jerusalem and were blessed with Simeon’s song and Anna’s prayers. Now a despot king raised his ugly head in a jealous, narcissistic rage, issuing the cruelest of orders to destroy the newborn sons of Bethlehem, including the holy infant. Joseph, always the protector, and again listening to the angel of the Lord, took mother and child 40 miles to a foreign border, thereby distancing their family from a ruthless and hateful tyrant. Only after the evil King Herod was dead would Joseph leave Egypt and returned to his home and his carpenter shop in Nazareth. We know he taught his son the trade.
Only one other account of Joseph is told, as the parents of Jesus took their 12-year-old boy to Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Jesus became separated from his family, choosing to leave their side to go to the Temple, wanting to be “in my Father’s house.” The parents, normally so careful and attentive, had lost their child. For three days they searched, until finally the lost was found. The Evangelist tells us when they finally came back home, “Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.” We may only surmise that Joseph, good listener as he was, and parental protector that he had become, was one of the reasons why.
May your days be holy, and may God continue to protect and keep you,
Bishop Murray D. Finck
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Southwest California Synod of the ELCA| (818) 507-9591| news@socalsynod.org| www.socalsynod.org
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