December 17: Christmas is a Time for Secrets
♫ Music:
Day 16 - Monday, December 17
Joseph: A Just Man
Scripture: Matthew 1:18-21, 24-25
Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. 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.” 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.
Poetry:
Invitation
by Vassar Miller
Here is the land where children
Feel snows that never freeze,
Where a star’s the reflection
Of a baby’s eyes.
Where both wise men and shepherds
Measure all Heaven no smaller
Nor larger than He is
And judge a lamb is taller,
Where old and cold for proof
Would take a stone apart,
Who find a wisp of hay
Less heavy on the heart
Come near the cradle where
The Light on hay reposes,
Where hands may touch the Word
This winter warm with roses.
CHRISTMAS IS A TIME FOR SECRETS
When my children were little we played a game by teasing them in a singsong kind of way with “I know something you don’t know.” We still do it although they are adults with their own families. This tradition highlights the coming of a secret to be revealed. It builds anticipation and an eagerness to receive the veiled promise.
Today’s text views Joseph who had a secret, which I am confident he shared with Mary: the visitation of the angel to disclose to him the unique role he was to play. God would invest in him a powerful responsibility of high privilege. He would become the only man in all of humanity to receive this role as the earthly father of Jesus. He must have retained the freshness of his epiphany about the heavenly mystery for the rest of his life. Today’s plaintive music helps us contemplate his deep longing for the good of his family. That good includes the wonder of a child and the need to preserve that wonder as our poem reminds us. No doubt Joseph pondered all this and more in his heart.
The birth of Jesus ushered Joseph in to being a dad for the first time. I remember the birth of my first-born son. I wondered how I would care and provide for him and my wife. The recognition of the responsibility was almost debilitating.
Joseph must have felt something like I did. One of the early Church Fathers wrote, “It was as if the angel was saying to Joseph, ‘Do not imagine that, because he is conceived of the Holy Spirit, that you have no part in the ministry of this new dispensation. In the conception you had no part. Nevertheless I am giving you what pertains to a father.’” (Chrysostom)
How revealing it is of Joseph’s character to find him in most nativity scenes hovering in the background. Quiet, strong and willing to take a supporting role, he prepared the way for Jesus to grow up as he protected and lifted Mary to the place of honor. We can learn this lesson from Joseph, to be a father is to sacrifice for the good of those you love. Today’s art titled “Joseph’s Secret” demonstrates questions, consternation and confusion, even conflict of purpose of all that was normal and natural about being a father. There was nothing in his life to prepare him for the role he was to play in the incarnation planned by God for the redemption of a “people for his own possession.” (I Pet. 2:9)
The angel repeatedly instructed him where to go, what to do. Joseph had no way to predict the future, only to assess the past events of the four visitations from the angel so that he could respond step by step. Don’t you wonder what he was thinking as he walked beside Mary who rode the donkey when they traversed the desert toward Egypt; when they returned to Palestine and settled in Nazareth?
My first-born son I had for 23 years before another man took his life. I understand what it means to raise a boy to manhood only to lose him. I can identify with Joseph and the challenges he faced. In a simple way, the life of a dad, whether Joseph or anyone of us is captured in the third stanza of Edgar Guest’s poem, “Only a Dad.”
Only a dad, neither rich nor proud,
Merely one of the surging crowd,
Toiling, striving from day to day,
Facing whatever may come his way,
Silent whenever the harsh condemn,
And bearing it all for the love of them.
Joseph is a model especially for men, whether single, dad or dad to be. I think we cannot do better than esteem him and emulate his character.
Prayer:
Oh Eternal Triune God, we see Joseph as the model of an earthly father who points us to you and holds up a standard for us to adopt. For all of us parents, fathers and mothers, we ask you to help us manifest the characteristics of Joseph. Righteous and just man that he was, dependable, responsive, supportive, provider and protector; help us to emulate him. Help us to sacrifice for the good of our family and submit to you the way Joseph did. May our lives be a demonstration of a life lived well, for your glory.
Amen
Dr. Glenn T. Collard
Director of Coram Deo International
About the Artwork:
Joseph’s Secret, 2003
Wayne Forte
Acrylic on vellum
58 ½ in x 54 ½ in
Joseph’s Secret captures the mystery and quiet depth of the man who was called to be the foster father of Jesus, the Son of God. We know very little about Joseph other than what we learn from a few references in the Gospels. What we do know is that he was a “righteous man," compassionate and forgiving when confronted with Mary’s pregnancy, obedient when visited by the angel of God on two occasions as they let him in on the secret that the child Mary bore was conceived by the Holy Spirit, faithful protector of Mary and the Christ child, charged with raising Jesus to maturity so that he would be ready to take up his ministry, and sacrificial when the time was right. And according to Luke, in the time when Jesus was in his care, “Jesus increased in wisdom and years, and in divine and human favor.”
About the Artist:
Wayne Forte was born in Manila, Philippines in 1950, married in Brazil in 1981, and studied at the University of California at Santa Barbara and Irvine (B.A. 1973; M.F.A. 1976). Wayne lives in Laguna Niguel, California. He has been a member of CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) for 25 years and participated in the Florence Portfolio Project in 1993. He has also taught courses at Biola University and Gordon College and the Orvieto Semester Program in Italy. Wayne was educated to paint in the self-referential Modernist tradition but longed for that passion of an earlier age, a passion for the spiritual and the transcendent found in the Biblical narrative paintings of Grunewald, Rubens, Rembrandt, and Caravaggio. His goal is to create paintings with powerful messages about faith that can resonate with contemporary viewers.
About the Music:
“The Cherry Tree Carol” from the album An Appalachian Christmas
About the Composer:
"The Cherry-Tree Carol" is both a traditional Christmas carol and one of the Child Ballads (No. 54), a collection of traditional ballads from England, Scotland, and America, anthologized by Francis James Child during the second half of the 19th century. The song was reportedly sung in some form at the Feast of Corpus Christi in the early 15th century. The versions eventually collected by Francis James Child are thought to be a combination of up to three separate carols that merged through the centuries. The ballad relates an apocryphal story of the Virgin Mary, presumably while traveling to Bethlehem with Joseph for the census. In the most popular version, Mary asks her husband to pick some cherries for her, citing her child. Joseph spitefully tells Mary to let the child's father pick her cherries. At this point in most versions, the infant Jesus, from the womb, speaks to the tree and commands it to lower a branch down to Mary, which it does. Joseph, witnessing this miracle, immediately repents his harsh words. The more contemporary versions sometimes end here, while others often include an angel appearing to Joseph and telling him of the circumstances of Jesus's birth. Other versions then jump ahead several years, where the next verse picks up with Jesus on his mother's lap, telling her of his eventual death and resurrection.
About the Performers:
Mark O'Connor (b. 1961) is an American violinist whose music combines bluegrass, country, jazz, and classical music. O'Connor composes, arranges, and records American music in genres that include folk, classical, and jazz. His works include concertos and compositions for string orchestra, string quartets, string trios, choral music, solo unaccompanied pieces, and a symphony. His "Fiddle Concerto," a violin concerto in American fiddle style commissioned by the Santa Fe Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, has been performed over 200 times, making it one of the most performed concertos written in the last 40 years. His composition, “Appalachia Waltz” has been adopted by Yo-Yo Ma as part of his live performance repertoire. O'Connor has won three Grammy Awards and was named Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association six years in a row (1991-1996).
About the Poet:
Vassar Miller (1924-1998) was a writer and poet born in Houston, Texas. Her lifelong struggle with cerebral palsy made the simplest tasks arduous yet inspired 10 volumes of searing and highly regarded poetry. She began writing as a child, composing on a typewriter due to the cerebral palsy, which affected her speech and movement. Ms. Miller's work often explored religious themes, although she also wrote about her own pain and sense of isolation, and there were occasional flashes of acid humor. Poems collected in Wage War on Silence made her a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1961. She also was twice named the Poet Laureate of Texas.
About the Devotional Writer:
Dr. Glenn T. Collard
Director of Coram Deo International
Dr. Glenn T. Collard is the Director of Coram Deo International (Before the Face of God), in Charlotte, North Carolina, a ministry encouraging a resurgence of historic, authentic worship in today’s church. He writes, “The central concept of Coram Deo International is to live every day before the face of God. I believe this is the key to both the spiritual formation of the individual and of the resurgence of the church. The unifying principle is to anchor our current praxis to the ancient church fathers.” Glenn and his wife Dianne are the parents of three children. Their oldest son, Tim, is with the Lord. They have two other grown children, who are married and serving the Lord. They are the proud grandparents of five granddaughters.