May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

 

I am sure that you have all been very busy these past few weeks getting ready for Christmas.   It seems a shame that a joyous time of year should be so stressful for so many people but that does seem to be the case.   First we have the stress of doing the Christmas cards and trying to remember who we sent to last year - or, more importantly, who sent to us.

 

Then there is the Christmas shopping where stress levels rise even higher as we grapple with the tough decisions of what to buy for Aunt Maud or little Billy and if little Billy happens to want this year’s ‘in’ toy then there is even more stress in pushing and shoving and queuing to get it.   I don’t know about you but wherever you go, people seem to be going mad Christmas shopping with permanent crowds everywhere.  

 

If all that weren’t enough to send the stress levels sky high we then move on to the day itself - getting the house in order, preparing the food and hoping that everyone will like their presents.  

 

Yes, Christmas can be a very stressful time for us all but at least we can be safe in the knowledge that for one group of people, the last thing that Christmas brings is stress and that is the children.   Children can relax, sit back and watch the grown-ups grow wearier and more strung out while they just get more and more excited.   No stress for them - or so we have always believed.   Until now that is.   Now we have proof that there is one particular aspect of Christmas that creates enormous stress in children and the sharp eyed among you may have spotted the report in last week’s paper that tells us about it.   I have it here.

 

Santa’s grotto is too stressful for children.   The work is, of course from one of those prophets of our modern age, an American psychologist, a professor Jim Hoot.    Professor Hoot would have us believe that the (and I quote) “experience of being perched on the knee of a stranger in a hooded red robe and a long white beard is distressing for many children.   They suffer from what the professor describes as ‘separation anxiety’.   “I have seen so many distressed children thrust onto Santa’s lap” says Professor Hoot, “I don’t know how you cannot conceive that that is abusive”

 

Apparently Professor Hoot did his research work in a shopping centre in Buffalo, New York.   He really should have been at Bunbury school two weeks ago for the school fair and watched the huge queue of children for Santa’s grotto with some children coming out grinning from ear to ear and rejoining the queue for another go.   Or maybe in St Boniface church on a Christmas Eve at 5pm for our crib service. 

 

My three children seem to have ridden out the emotional scars of their ‘Father Christmas’ experiences without too many mishaps.   They haven’t yet turned to a life of indolence and crime but, perhaps it’s just around the corner.

 

I found the article a bit sad as Father Christmas is one of the great pleasures of the festivities.  You never forget that wonder in a small child’s eyes as they wake up on Christmas morning to a full stocking.   Or the pleasure of leaving out a mince pie for Father Christmas and a carrot for Rudolph on Christmas Eve.

 

My own children are now growing out of that stage of unquestioning belief but I was very amused the other evening when, after Elaine and I had returned from a full day’s Christmas shopping, our youngest Patrick, who is 7, asked me quite earnestly what would happen if Father Christmas bought the same thing as we had bought.   I assured him that Father Christmas was far too clever to make that mistake.

 

We have a sense of that same unquestioning belief that we see in children in today’s reading when we look at the way that Mary and Joseph responded to God’s call and as we have talked of Father Christmas, I want to focus on Joseph’s response in particular as the earthly father of Christ.

 

Joseph was a simple man from a noble lineage.   He was a carpenter but could trace his descendants back to King David himself.  The wonderful symmetry of the lineage, which is actually explained to us by Matthew in the opening verses of his gospel, meant that there were 14 generations from the father of Israel, Abraham to David.  14 more from David to the exile in Babylon and a further 14 from the exile, through Joseph to Christ.

 

In choosing Joseph as the earthly father of Jesus, God fulfilled the promise made to David one thousand years before, that a king of David’s line would rule over the nations for ever.   God’s promise to David also said that God himself would be the father of this ruler and call him Son but how would this be possible when he was to have been of David’s line and would thus have an earthly father.  The answer was of course through the legal parentage of Joseph and the actual parentage of God.

 

When Mary revealed to Joseph that she was expecting a child, we can get a measure of Joseph’s character by his reaction.   To be pregnant outside marriage in their society was a very different matter to the way it is regarded today.   In Jewish society at that time, there were three steps in marriage.   First, the two families agreed to the union.  

 

Secondly, a public announcement was made, at which point the couple were pledged to one another.   This was similar to our modern engagement except that their relationship could only be broken through death or divorce.   The third stage was when the couple were formally married and began to live together.   Because Mary and Joseph were pledged, Mary’s apparent unfaithfulness carried a severe social stigma.   According to Jewish civil law, Joseph had the right to divorce her and the Jewish authorities could have her stoned to death.

 

Joseph was faced with a difficult choice after discovering that Mary was pregnant.   His respect and love for Mary clearly led him to dismiss any thoughts of publicly denouncing her with the likely result that she would be put to death.   He had decided that his best course of action was to divorce her quietly and hope that the affair would be forgotten.

 

When the angel appeared to him, his choice became even more difficult.   The angel told him to take Mary for his wife.   This was not one of the options that had occurred to Joseph, leading as it would to the shame resting on him as people would assume the child was his and that he had broken the taboos of the engagement period.

 

Joseph realised that the baby that Mary carried was special from the moment the angel appeared to him.   He put aside his own concerns and took the risks associated with the difficult choice that God had requested of him.   With faith and obedience, he stepped into the role of Jesus’ legal father and in so doing showed himself to be sensitive to God’s guidance and willing to do God’s will no matter what the consequence.

 

Would we be that brave?    The calls that we get from God rarely ask for such life changing action as that asked of Joseph but the calls do come.   How do we respond to them?   Do we ignore them and hope they go away?   Do we rationalise that carrying on just the way we are is just as worthwhile as the call from God to change our ways?   Or do we assume that all of those calls must be for someone else?   Spiritual wrong numbers.    Or do we approach God with the open eyed wonder that a child shows at Christmas when watching out for Father Christmas or staring at the crib?   Do we welcome God into our lives as Mary and Joseph did with the faith of a child in the full and certain knowledge that His will will be done through us.

 

Awaken me Lord to your light

Open my eyes to your presence

 

Awaken me Lord to your purpose

Open my will to your guiding

 

Amen

 

Tom Crotty