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| Joseph and Jesus by Matt Chinworth |
"Joseph
son of David,
+ Matthew 1:20
For this season of Advent, Emmaus City Church will be invited to join together in weekly reflections and homilies during our Sabbath gatherings featuring Scriptures from (RCL) Advent Year B.
The readings for the fourth weekend ahead are from 2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16; Luke 1:46b-55; Romans 16:25-27; Luke 1:26-38.
We will also engage in daily reflections throughout Advent, utilizing The Eternal King Arrives. Previous readings included:
The third reading from this third and final week of Advent is featured below. Enjoy.
Week 3: Divine Coronation
Text: Matthew 1:18-25
Day 16: Why Joseph Is Known as the Silent Saint
How to Listen for God's Leading When Things Seem to Go Wrong
By Joy Clarkson
Joseph is known as the silent saint.
Though his part in the story of Christ is not small – his is the royal line Jesus claims, his the profession Jesus adopts – he does not say a single word in any of the Gospels.
This is something of a theme in the stories surrounding Jesus' birth: Zechariah struck silent in the temple and Joseph quietly considering how to proceed, while Mary and Elizabeth burst forth in prophetic utterance, early proclamations of the gospel.
But just because Joseph does not speak should not lead us to think that he is passive. Indeed, Joseph is presented to us as a man of decisive action emerging from a richer inner life.
The only character description we are given of Joseph is that he is "faithful to the law" (v. 19). So, without publicizing Mary's situation (being an unwed pregnant teenager) to anyone (as far as we are told), he decides on a plan that is both faithful to the law and gracious to Mary.
All this he comes to privately, and we can only assume painfully, and all his pain and his generosity remain beneath the surface. The silent saint has a virtue that simmers beneath the surface, where his self-control in the face of being wronged restrains him and allows him not only to forbear but also protect Mary, the source of his pain.
And as with many people who have made fraught decisions within themselves, something bubbles up for Joseph from even deeper beneath the surface: a dream, and with it an angel. Joseph, who was faithful to the law, the Word of the Lord, was faithful to this word from the angel. Within himself once again he resolves to act, without any outpouring of prophetic speech. He let people think that he, a thoughtful and self-controlled man, had gotten her pregnant with child in a moment of lapsed self-control. He took Mary's shame onto himself, perhaps foreshadowing what Jesus would do for all humankind. And all this he did without saying a word.
Ours is a world drowning in words.
In Joseph, the silent saint, I see a different way of being – a way of silence and action, where sometimes the most important words are the ones we don't speak.
Reflect
Reflecting on Joseph's silent
but decisive actions,
what can we learn about
the power of silent strength
the power of silent strength
and self-control in our own lives?
How can we cultivate a similar posture
of silence and action in the midst
of challenging situations?
Consider the role of dreams and
divine guidance in Joseph's story.
How can we be attuned to God's voice
and guidance in our own lives?
How can we discern his will
and trust his leading,
even when it may be
confusing or challenging?
Bonus: Joseph the Dreamer
Come Lord Jesus: Timeless Homilies for Advent and Christmas
By Bishop Robert Barron
Joseph was willing to cooperate with the divine plan, though he in no way knew the contours or deepest purpose of it.
The great virtue of St. Joseph was that, at the key moment, he was willing to surrender to a plan and a purpose beyond what he could see or discern.
Søren Kierkegaard famously wrote,
"Faith is a passion for the impossible."
Joseph is a great example of this
attitude of faith.
Joseph plows ahead with this painful and difficult task that God has given him because he knows he is part of a plan that he can't fully understand.
Joseph listens to God's word in a dream.
Dreams play a very interesting role in the Bible. Jacob has a dream while sleeping on the stone and sees the angels ascending and descending; the Old Testament Joseph is an interpreter of dreams and successfully reads the dream of Pharaoh; the wise men in the New Testament are redirected to their homeland because an angel appears to them in a dream. In one of the Psalms, we find this line: "Even in the night my heart exhorts me" (Psalm 16:7). In the stories of the saints, there are numerous references to God speaking through dreams. Many artists and scientists have told us that their inspiration has come from dreams. When Freud and Jung in the twentieth century speculated that dreams are the bearers of deep meanings, they were speaking out of a very old tradition.
What does it mean that Joseph is willing to listen to the wisdom of a dream? It means that he is willing to go beyond the strictures of the rational mind – not repudiating them, but going beyond them, thinking in new ways, entertaining unexpected possibilities, plumbing deeper and richer dimensions of his soul. It is an openness to a way of knowing, a way of seeing, which is beyond the ordinary.
The Bible and the Church never recommend that we repudiate reason; the problem comes when we say that the only thing that is real is what we can know by reason. Then we live in a very tight and controlled and narrow space, and we are unable to hear the word of God when it comes.
We can't see the patterns of God
when they emerge.
Faith is a willingness to dream
in that sense.
It is a willingness to be challenged
out of our ordinary way
of seeing and relating.
Think of the Christmas story:
God becomes one of us.
In order to save us from our sins,
he becomes a little baby.
Common sense?
Hardly.
Corresponding to what we
normally see and think about?
No.
Only dreamers believe it ...
those who have a mind and heart
expansive enough to take in
God's ways, God's mind,
God's way of seeing.
As we approach the
Nativity of the Lord,
we are encouraged to dream,
like St. Joseph,
according to the rhythms and
the patterns of God's own mind.
In that way, we are more ready
for Christ's coming.
After he considered this
an angel of the Lord
appeared to Joseph
in a dream ...
+ Matthew 1:20
Here are links to other recent Advent articles:
Immanuel: God Present with Us, for Us; The Bold & Courageous 1st Advent Hymn; My Honest Advent; Advent Films Reflections: A Quiet Place, Arrival, Children of Men, Joyeux Noel; Praying with Mary and Jesus; Making Room for Limits; Making Room for Outsiders; Experience God-with-Us Today in Your Fears; Waiting is the Womb in Which We Are Formed; Christ with Shopping Bags or Generous Christ?; Advent Film Series Reflection: All the Light We Cannot See; When We're Afraid, God Pursues; He Is Not One to Leave Us Hurting; The Good News About Our Bad News; A Season of Decrease; There is Great Joy in Our Darkest Hours; In the Wilderness with the One Who Is Wilder; Courageous Response; Be Not Afraid Means Merry Christmas
Blessings of peace and presence for you,
Rev. Mike “Sully” Sullivan
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