JOSEPH IS BORN AGAIN

“JOSEPH IS BORN AGAIN”

            This Christmas season is about birth and renewal of life, having gathered around the date of December 25 (in the West) partially because that date was the time of celebrating the beginning of the return of the sun after the winter solstice.  In the Christmas story, a young woman named Mary places herself in great danger by agreeing to become pregnant before marriage by someone other than her fiancé.   Her courageous decision likely would have been nullified, if not for the re-birth of her betrothed Joseph.  As I wrote a couple of months ago in relation to the Kavanaugh hearings and toxic masculinity, Joseph swims in those waters as part of the patriarchal system.

            We can imagine his reaction to the news from Mary that she was pregnant by someone else – and that “someone else” was not human but was God.  “Well, that’s a new one,” is Joseph’s likely reply.  Yet he already indicates that he is not totally immersed in patriarchy, because as Matthew’s Gospel tells us, he is not insisting on taking her before the elders to have her stoned to death.  He will break off the engagement quietly and send her back to her father’s house – who knows what will happen next – the streets for Mary?  Though he is not as toxic as other males might be, he still has male supremacy at his core.  Instead of the direct death penalty, he will give Mary the “slow” death penalty – rejection, isolation, disgrace, poverty, selling her body for economic survival, life on the streets.

            Matthew’s gospel tells us of a new birth for Joseph, however.   In Matthew’s genealogy that begins the Gospel, we see feisty and boundary-breaking women listed in the genealogy of Jesus.  It’s stunning that Matthew lists women at all in the genealogy – it is perhaps more stunning that he does not list the accepted matriarchs like Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel and Leah.  Rather he lists outliers like Tamar, who uses her skills to navigate the oppressive patriarchy (Genesis 38), and Rahab, the enterprising Gentile businesswoman surviving in the outpost of Jericho (Joshua 2).  He also lists another foreign immigrant, Ruth, who becomes the great-grandmother of the beloved king David – almost as if the author of Ruth is speaking to President Trump from many generations ago.

            Matthew’s Gospel tells us that Joseph is born again, into this circle of equity and justice rather than patriarchy.  In a vision from God, he hears that he is to adopt this baby-to-be as his own and is to affirm Mary and the baby.  He also is to give them his protection of being male in a patriarchy.  He is asked to step out of the center of patriarchal life and move to the margins with his pregnant-out-of-wedlock fiancé and with the baby who is to be born.  Joseph agrees – he is born again, and it rocks his life.  Luke’s Gospel tells us that the Roman government forces him and his family to make the long and dangerous trip to Bethlehem.   There his baby will be born on the streets, on the margins of life.   Matthew tells us that the predecessor of Donald Trump - King Herod as he is known – sends soldiers to Bethlehem to kill the baby, but Joseph has already taken his family and fled to Egypt.   Never mind, says King Herod – kill all the boys of Bethlehem – no one defies him!  We can only wonder where we all would be if Egypt had made the Holy Family wait at the border of Israel, while seeking asylum.

            In this scary time in our land, let us recall that Joseph was born again, through a new vision from God.  We don’t know how many visions God had sent Joseph prior to this, but at least one got through to Joseph.  In response, he re-oriented himself and softened his heart from the meanness and oppression of the patriarchy in which he lived.  In this Christmas season, let us pray that God will continue to send us visions, and that we will receive them and find new birth ourselves.  May you and your loved ones know the love and justice that is inherent in this Christmas story.  Here’s another poem from Howard Thurman to describe what that new birth looks like.

“The Sacrament of Christmas”

I make an act of faith toward all {humanity},

            Where doubts would linger and suspicions brood.

I make an act of joy toward all sad hearts,

            Where laughter pales and tears abound.

I make an act of strength toward feeble things,

            Where life grows dim and death draws near.

I make an act of trust toward all of life,

            Where fears preside and distrusts keep watch.

I make an act of love toward friend and foe,

            Where trust is weak and hate burns bright.

I make a deed to God of all my days-----

            And look out on life with quiet eyes.