4th Sunday Advent 2022
Dear All
Today we gathered to celebrate the 4th Sunday in Advent. We once again welcomed James to play for us.
This afternoon is Milngavie Choir Christmas Concert – All Saints Bearsden 3pm – tickets available on the door. Do come!!
This Week
Tuesday 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Thursday 10am Said Eucharist followed by coffee in Friendship House
Christmas Eve 4pm Joint Carol Service with All Saints at All Saints – please let me know if you would like to sing in choir with All Saints singers
Christmas Day 10am Sung Eucharist for Christmas
Please note there will be no service of Said Eucharist on Thursday 29th December
Readings for next Sunday – Christmas Day – Isaiah 9:2-7 Titus 2:11-14 Luke 2:1-20
Today’s Readings – Matt 1:18-end Isaiah 7:10-16 Romans 1:1-7
Up and down the country small children will be taking part in nativity plays. I remember when I was at school the nativity play was one of the highlights of the year. It was a beautifully written play and accompanied by wonderful carols.
I can recall the first time I appeared in the production I was a shepherd called Gideon. The following year I was cast as Anna, the fictitious mother of Mary. To this day I can recall my first lines “Where are you going Mary?” not difficult to remember but terrifying for me as they were the words which opened the play.
Today’s scriptures are focused on Joseph, one of the most significant characters in the nativity story but not necessarily the most talked about.
Interestingly, despite commanding a prestigious role in nativity plays, in the gospels Joseph is not scripted to say any words at all but everybody likes him because he appears such a good sort. He’s loyal, dependable and solid but actually he was more than that he showed courage and faith in the most extraordinary way. In fact, his story is remarkable because he defied society’s rules by accepting Mary as his wife.
Joseph was engaged to be married when he discovered his bride was having a baby. The law was very clear in those days If a women’s virginity was in question she could be stoned to death by the men of the village at the entrance of her father’s house.
But Joseph was not prepared to be responsible for any such act, no matter how he had been wronged. Instead, he decided quietly to end the contract between him and Mary. But then God took a hand in the situation and intervened. Joseph had a dream in which an angel told him not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife for the child she was carrying was from God. When Joseph woke up, he obeyed the angle, apparently, without a second thought.
The story of Mary and Joseph always sounds wonderfully romantic. But the reality was probably quite different, by agreeing to marry Mary Joseph was voluntarily sharing Mary’s disgrace. So, no wonder the angel told him “Do not to be afraid”
Fear of public disgrace and ridicule is a powerful motivation. Yet Joseph never hesitated. When he thought he had heard God speak to him in a dream he acted immediately. He was even commanded to name the child which was in effect an instruction to bring up the boy as his own son. Joseph was told by God to defy both social convention and the law.
Joseph’s actions changed the course of history and enabled Jesus to grow up to be the son of God. But how different life might have been for all of us if Joseph had dismissed his dream. In the first century the life of a women alone with a child born out of wedlock would be almost impossible. Jesus would have grown up as an outcast in dire poverty, if he survived at all.
Joseph certainly goes down in history as an honourable man but there have been many others also in history who have showed tremendous courage in the face of opposition.
Perhaps we can think of times in our lives when we have had to drew on our inner strength to do what we perceive to be the right thing to do and not necessarily what we want to do or what others expect of us.
It is easy to look back and condemn the attitudes of the past. We can be shocked that before his dream Joseph even considered getting rid of Mary, but it is within most of our living memories that pregnancy out of wedlock was considered a taboo. Institutions like mother and baby homes and the Magdalene laundries only ceased to exist relatively recently. The very moving film the Magdalen sister set in Ireland is a great testament to that fact.
It therefore had to be a brave man who would accept Mary in her extraordinary condition. Joseph not only overcame his own misgivings he also listened to and trusted in God “Joseph, son of David – do not be afraid” he tells him.
At the beginning of the Christmas story Joseph’s behaviour and his obedience to God’s call sets the tone for the for the following unfolding story of the gospel.
So today let us celebrate Joseph’s story and hold him as a wonderful example to us – an example of trust, faith and courage.