Joseph, Surrogate Father of the Lord
“Arise take the young child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” Matthew 2:13b
Mom, Dad,
The past couple of years have been a whirlwind. It all started off when Mary, my wife, then fiancé, told me that she was a virgin and pregnant. In my mind those two things can't both be true, so at first I thought she was losing her mind, and then she started to show, which made me think that she was lying about the former not the latter. I was willing to let her go in secret, but then an angel appeared to me saying that yes both were true, and to top it all off, Mary was pregnant with God's own son. So I took Mary as my wife, we went to Bethlehem to be counted and she gave birth in a manger, because the inn had no vacancies. So here we are surrounded by a couple sheep and a donkey and a few other random animals when all of a sudden a small group of shepherds show up saying that angels told them to come and worship the newborn king.
That was crazy, but then a while later a few weird looking men showed up, and they said that they had followed a star to find our child. They were about to go to Herod and let him known where to find Jesus, when they were told in a dream that Herod wanted no good for our son and then left secretly in another direction. After they left then I had another dream telling me to take Mary and Jesus, our son, and go to Egypt. Of all places, Egypt, the same place and people who had enslaved our own people so many years ago, and the reason I was to do this, Herod wanted to destroy Jesus. Destroy him, he can barely walk and Herod wants to kill him. It doesn't make any sense, but I find that if you listen to God amazing things will happen. So here we go.
Yours truly,
Joseph, husband of Mary, father of Jesus, more or less
+ Do you think that you could be as faithful as Joseph was?
+ In what ways can you be more faithful to God's will in your own life?
+ Pray that God would use you in whatever way he may choose.
Shepherds, followers of the Lamb
“Nearby, in fields outside of Bethlehem, a group of shepherds were guarding their flocks from predators in the darkness of night” Luke 2:8
“Can you believe what just happened?”
“No, what should we do?
“We should go.”
“Go where?”
“To see the child, see the king, the prophet, the savior.”
A Savior, a king, a prophet? No, that is not what you might have thought on first sight, he was just a baby, as typical and normal as my own. He cried when he was hungry, no matter what you may have been told. He hungered and thirst like every other baby, and he may well have given Mary fits later on, that I do not know, but he was different in his own way, quite in an inward way, with a maturity that not only went past his years but also his humanity. The angel said that he came from heaven to bring us back with him, our holy book foretold that his death would cross the divide that we created, and that his life would show us more than we had yet seen. We went to see a savior, a king, a prophet and we found a child. A child to heal us, a child to save us, a child to show us the way.
Years later I would still hear of this child turned man, would hear that he speaks of himself like a shepherd trying to gather his flock to himself. Me and my kindred know what he speaks about, we know the dangers that lurk behind the next rock, we know of the night air's chill and to gather together brings warmth and safety. When I hear that Jesus speaks about gathering a flock I realize that I was a part of that first flock, that gathered around him to behold the future in the present.
+ When you think of Jesus as a shepherd do you think of him as kind and tenderhearted? Do you also think of him as a protector and defender?
+ So often we take for granted that God sent Jesus in the form of a baby, but try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who is experiencing it for the first time, how would (did) you feel? What does it change about how you view Christmas?
Simeon, holder of the Savior
“In Jerusalem at the time, there was a man, Simeon by name, a good man, a man who lived in the prayerful expectancy of help for Israel.” Luke 2:25
You probably do not know me well, I am a mere blip on the radar screen of God's great plan, but like you, I know a thing or two about waiting, about searching. I know that waiting is often the hardest part, I know that a search is as much about what you are searching for as it is about yourself. And I know what it means for the wait to be over and the search to be through.
I had lived a long life, but I held onto this mortal coil because I wanted to see the new beginning. My people were a people of suffering, of clawing our ways back up just to be knocked down again, but I knew hope was on the way, because I knew our story. I knew of a promise to Abraham of a first son, a promise to David of a great son, a promise told by the prophet Isaiah of the one and only Son. And because of my faith and because of my hope, my God gave me the gift to see the 8 day old savior of my people, of all people.
You probably do not know me well, I am a mere blip on the radar screen of God's great plan, I am Simeon and I held Jesus in my arms.
+ How are you preparing yourself for Jesus, even now?
+ Have you allowed life's searches to shape you as you shaped them?
+ Pray that God would allow you to feel Jesus in your heart this season.
The Magi, seekers of the King
“Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star in the east and have come to worship him.” Matthew 2:2
Creation cried that first night, a cry of joy that reverberated through the entire cosmos. It was a sight to behold. We, three, saw what many others saw but, unlike them, we saw it for what it was, a birth announcement. We gathered what we would need for the journey and set out across valleys and mountains, across plains and deserts. We arrived in a far away land and were taken to the reigning power, and asked where the new king was to be born. Even the leader knew nothing of what we spoke, so he had to ask his own wise men, who consulted their ancient texts and found what they sought. But they did not rush out to find this king, they told us to go and find him, and then to report back.
We continued on our journey to find this new king, and find him we did. In this small child lay the hope of the world, yet he cared more about the funny looking men with their odd colors and weird hair. We brought him our gifts, gifts of worship and material gifts, all gifts fit for a newborn king. As we slept we dreamed that the ruler wanted this small child's destruction, so when we took our leave we left by an alternate way. Having been changed by the journey, having been changed by the destination.
+ Think about the last time you took a trip, did you enjoy the journey as well as the destination?
+ What steps can you take to be sure you give this time of advent the seriousness it deserves? What gifts are you bringing to Jesus this year?
+ Pray that God would help you to seek the king as well.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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