December 19: Musings on Joseph
♫ Music:
Righteous Joseph
Matthew 1: 20-25
But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel”(which means, God with us). When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him: he took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son. And he called his name Jesus.
For Who Can Endure
by Luci Shaw
When an Angel
snapped the old thin threads of speech
with an untimely birth
announcement, slit
the seemly cloth of an even
more blessed event with the
shears of miracle,
invaded the privacy of a dream,
multiplied
to ravage the dark silk of the sky, the
innocent ears
with swords of sound: news in a new dimension demanded
qualification.
The righteous were as vulnerable as others.
they trembled for those strong
antecedent fear nots, whether goat-
herds, virgins, workers in wood or
holy barren priests.
In our nights our
complicated modern dreams rarely
flower into visions. No
contemporary Gabriel
dumbfounds our worship, or burning,
visits our bedrooms. No
sign-post satellite hauls us, earth-bound but
star-struck, half
around the world with hope.
Are our sensibilities
too blunt to be assaulted
with spatial power-plays and far-out
proclamations of peace? Sterile,
skeptics, yet we may be broken
to his slow silent birth
(new-torn, new-
born ourselves at his
beginning new in us).
His bigness may still burst
out self-containment
to tell us—without angels’ mouths—
fear not.
God knows we need to hear it, now
when he may shatter
with his most shocking coming
this proud cracked place
and more if, for longer waiting,
he does not.
MUSINGS ON JOSEPH
Sometimes I wish scripture wasn’t quite so concise. I’m told I’m a concise person; I do appreciate brevity. But sometimes, I just want a little more from God’s Word. I read Matthew 1:20-25, one of the very few passages on Joseph - the man who was responsible for ensuring the Savior of the world would first, be born, and second, survive Herod’s slaughter of innocents - and I wish I knew more about him. I wish I could wrap my mind around his experience. We know the facts: he was a carpenter. He was a descendant of David. He was from Nazareth. We get a sense of his character: he must have been a kind and humble man - after all, marrying the pregnant Mary would have been quite scandalous, and we’re told he determined to divorce her quietly.
But what was it really like for Joseph to learn that his betrothed was with child, and then to be told by God in a dream to take on the fatherhood of this fatherless baby, that this unborn one would “save the people from their sins”? The black-and-white words on the pages of scripture aren’t quite enough to satisfy my curious ponderings.
It is in these moments that I am grateful that God made creative people, who provide what’s needed to move my imagination into the space of questions, anxiety, fear, chaos, and awe that Joseph may have experienced at these strange and mind-bending events.
Before we go on, please pause (if you haven’t already) and listen to John Adams’ “Joseph’s Dream.” Take in the image of artist Francis Upritchard’s technicolor sculpture Breath. Read Matthew 1:20-25 once more. Close your eyes, and imagine Joseph. See his face, hear the angel’s voice, watch him wake from that dream…
It’s no wonder the angel told Joseph, “Fear not.”
And in an act that demonstrates the depth of Joseph’s rock-solid character: he “woke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.”
Just like that.
Hmm. Maybe, just maybe there is a gift in the very brevity of Joseph’s story. He hears a Word from the Lord, and he obeys. Just like that.
Oh, for such faith.
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for Joseph’s story. We know little about him, but we do know this: his was a vital role in Jesus’ birth and life. Thank you for inspiring in him a faith that heard and obeyed. As we live the Christmas story once more in this Advent season, grant us the same.
Amen.
Lisa Igram
Associate Dean of Spiritual Development
Video: For Who Can Endure?
About the Video:
Nicole Belanus is a singer-songwriter with acoustic and folk-rock influences. She has recorded four albums of original music. Belanus was recently named best emerging artist at the Sea Level Songwriting Festival, and was recipient of the “Best Vocalist” award from Singer Universe magazine in Los Angeles, CA. In addition to being a singer/songwriter, she creates multimedia and video presentations. This multi-media piece was created for a Christmas Eve worship service and features music by the American composer Thomas Newman (b. 1955) and a poem by Luci Shaw (b. 1928) read by Gary Logan, the Director of the Academy for Classical Acting in Washington, DC.
http://www.nicolebelanus.com/
Breath (Detail from Weeks Table Installation)
Francis Upritchard
Mixed media
About the Artist and Artwork:
New Zealand-born sculptor Francis Upritchard (b. 1976), a graduate of Christchurch’s Ilam School of Fine Arts, currently resides and works in London, England. Upritchard’s sculptural figures inhabit a universe whereby imagination and the ancient and contemporary collide. Often juxtaposed and staged upon the geometric, clean lines of modernist furniture, her work traverses the limits of human behavior, imbuing gravitas with each assemblage and scenario. Upritchard's figures are made of polymer clay laid over wire armatures; their skin is painted in everything from neutral tones to brightly colored grids, and they are clothed in robes and gowns, made by the artist. One of the components of Breath is an elderly individual, about the size of baby doll, who lies prostrate on a table. Upritchard intends the viewer to read the figure as a dead man, but when the curators of the Advent Project saw this image it spoke to them of Joseph’s miraculous dream as well as references to the Old Testament Joseph.
About the Music:
“Joseph’s Dream” (from El Niño)
Lyrics:
Then Joseph feared greatly and stopped talking with her,
considering what he would do.
Night came upon him:
Behold, behold an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying:
Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
Journey forth with her and be despised at the inns
and stopping places on the way,
even though you are worthy to ride in state,
in a chariot of gold.
The large houses and costly apartments will remain empty,
but this comfort will remain hidden to you,
Let Mary labor and give birth among the animals and beasts of burden,
on a cold night, in a strange land and in a poor resting place.
And it shall come to pass that He
shall give thee rest from thy sorrow,
and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage
wherein thou was made to serve.
About the Composer/Performer:
John Coolidge Adams (b. 1947) is one of America’s most admired composers. His compositions, both classical music and opera, have strong roots in minimalism. His works include Harmonielehre (1985), Short Ride in a Fast Machine (1986), On the Transmigration of Souls (2002), a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks (for which he won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 2003), and Shaker Loops (1978), a minimalist four-movement work for strings.
His operas include Nixon in China (1987), which recounts Richard Nixon's 1972 visit to China, and Doctor Atomic (2005), which covers Robert Oppenheimer, the Manhattan Project, and the building of the first atomic bomb. The Death of Klinghoffer is the controversial opera for which he wrote the music, based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of wheelchair-bound 69-year-old Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer.
One of John Adams’ most recent works is an oratorio based on the life of Mary Magdalene called The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Adams is currently Creative Chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.
www.earbox.com
About El Niño
At the turn of the century, Adams composed El Niño (2000), an oratorio based on the Christmas story of Jesus. El Niño’s texts are in Spanish, Latin, and English and are gathered from approximately 30 different sources including poems by Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51?-1695), Rosario Castellanos (1925-1974), Gabriela Mistral (1899-1957), Rubén Darío (1867-1916), and Vicente Huidobro (1893-1948). The Biblical texts include familiar Old Testament prophecies and New Testament Nativity accounts, as well as writings from the Apocrypha, and non-canonical texts from the early Christian era. There are anonymous verses from the medieval Wakefield Mystery Plays, a passage from a Christmas sermon by Martin Luther (1483-1546), and the hymn “O quam preciosa” by Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179). The music is derived from many different idioms, including Handel, pop, and liturgical music. Some music critics are referring to El Niño as a new Messiah for the 21st century.
“The piece is my way of trying to understand what is meant by a miracle. When I recently re-read some of the New Testament gospels I was struck as never before by the fact that most of the narratives are little more than long sequences of miracles,” Adams said at the time of the premiere. “I don’t understand why the story of Jesus must be told in this manner, but I accept as a matter of faith that it must be so. The Nativity is the first of these miracles, and El Niño is a meditation on these events. In fact, my original working title was “How Could This Happen?” This phrase, taken from the Antiphon for Christmas Eve, also must surely have been uttered by me at the births of my own son and daughter.”
About the Poet:
Luci Shaw (b. 1928) is a Christian poet. Shaw studied at Wheaton College, Illinois, and is now Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver. She lectures on art and spirituality, the Christian imagination, poetry-writing, and journaling as an aid to artistic and spiritual growth. She has published ten volumes of poetry and numerous non-fiction books, and has edited and collaborated on multiple other works, including several with her dear friend, Madeleine L'Engle. Shaw usually works in free verse, and typically her poems are short. Nevertheless, in tone and content, she affiliates most readily with the transcendental poets, often finding in natural details and themes the touch of the eternal or other-worldly. For over 60 years, Luci has had a tradition of sending Advent greetings to friends and family and with each year’s greeting, she most often includes a new Advent poem.
www.lucishaw.com/