Three times God speaks to Joseph through an angel in a dream.  The first time was to tell him to take Mary as his wife after he had decided to divorce her quietly because she was pregnant.  The second time was to flea to Egypt to escape Herod’s efforts to kill the child Jesus.  The third time was to return to Israel when it was safe.  “Get up, and take the child and his mother to Israel, for those who were trying to take the child’s life are now dead.” Matthew 2:20

The Bible does not reveal many details, so we don’t know the time periods involved or all of the circumstances.  Whatever the time, perhaps years, Joseph’s response to the sequence of events exhibited great trust and confidence in God.  He accepts an explanation for Mary’s pregnancy that defies all human experience. Then he takes his wife and new baby to a foreign land in reliance on a warning in a dream.

We see the faithfulness of God to Joseph in his multiple words, signs and the evolving circumstances.  The angel’s message about Mary giving birth to a son, who was to be a “Savior” and “The Messiah,” was subsequently confirmed by some unknown shepherds who report that angels told them the same thing. (Luke 2:11)

By the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth recognizes Mary as “the mother of my Lord.” (Luke 1:43)  Further confirmation comes through the words of Simeon and Anna during the presentation of Jesus in the Temple. (Luke 2:2-38) Then God directs three kingly men from foreign lands to find Jesus, Mary and Joseph and give them gifts that probably sustained them in their flight to Egypt. (Matthew 2:1-12)

Finally, Joseph receives one more message that it is now safe for them to return to Israel.  We see trust and faithfulness in Joseph in his willingness to act on the words he had received and in his submission to the circumstances.

What is our level of trust and confidence in God when he gives us that gentle nudge or whispers in our ear?  Do we hear him when he speaks through others?  Do we see his faithfulness and desire for us in the circumstances of our lives?  Lord, let me trust in you like Joseph.

Do you believe that Jesus came for all the people you encounter daily in your lives? The angel told the shepherds, “I bring you good news and great joy that will be for all people.” (Luke 2:10)

The “good news” was not just for the shepherds or just the Jewish people, but for all people. All people included the unbelieving and pagan world of the Roman and Greek cultures at the time. It included people who later became Muslim, Buddhist and Hindu. It includes the atheists of our day. Whether they know it or not, Jesus is everyone’s savior.

For us, “everyone” includes the check-out clerk in the grocery store, the telephone solicitor who we hang up on, the person at work who is difficult to get along with, the person asking for money outside the metro station, the person who talks during church services or the children who can’t sit still. “Everyone” includes those who think different politically than we do and even those who wish to do us harm.

Lord, when I see people you put in my life, let me look upon them with the understanding that you came for them just as you came for me. It doesn’t matter who they are, what their religion, race, position or financial status is. Your offer of salvation and new life is available to them. Let me use the opportunity to introduce them to you first through my conduct and second by my word, as you give me the opportunity. John’s Gospel tells us that all who accept you, Lord Jesus, and believe on your name will become sons of God. (John 1:12)

As we move to the end of the Christmas season and begin a new year, we might pause to consider this message of the angel that could easily be overlooked.

Are we spreading the word about Jesus, like the shepherds who were the very first to give witness of him? They were told by an angel that a Savior, the long awaited Messiah was born. They were told where they could find him and how they would recognize him — in Bethlehem, wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in an animal’s feeding trough.

God chose shepherds, one of the humblest of occupations at the time, to be the news media of the day to spread the word about God becoming one of us through the cooperation of an unknown teenage girl in a remote area of the world in the most humbling of circumstances.

“When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” (Luke 2: 17-18)

We can only imagine the reaction of Mary and Joseph to having some shepherds, complete strangers, visit them and share a story that confirmed what they, too, had been told by an angel – that the son born to Mary was the son of God, Savior and Messiah.

The news of a savior of the world being born is of course pretty amazing stuff. The good news the Shepherds first proclaimed 2000 years ago is just as important to the world today as it was then. A savior has been born! The creator has become one of his created! An anointed one has come and is present to reconcile God and humankind, and humankind with one another. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, this savior offers to dwell in us, to be present to us and enable us to be and bring his presence to the people and circumstances in our lives.

Like the shepherds, we may consider ourselves unlikely heralds that Jesus is still present in the world today. He is present to all who accept his offer to dwell in them. Like the shepherds, we also have the opportunity to spread the word about Jesus in what we have seen, heard, and experienced.

Are we spreading the word by our witness and how we live that Jesus Christ is present in the world today through us? It is part of God’s plan for us. All who hear and see his love, peace and joy through us will be “amazed!”  

After hearing the Christmas story over and over, year after year, we might be tempted to take it for granted. Yet if we think about it, God’s willingness to become one of us is the greatest act of humility and love in all of human history. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us” John 1:14

Here we have God, the Father, creator of all that exists, creator of the millions of galaxies and the billions of stars whose distance is measured in light years; this God who created the atom and the molecule whose size is measured in nanometers – that’s one billionth of a meter; this God who created the human being with a body, soul, spirit and mind, became one of his created in order to free each of us from our sins and the world from its bondage to sin – to reconcile us to him and one another.

Father William Barry, in his book, A Friendship Like No Other, says, “God took humanity seriously enough to become one of us, and we do God no service if we downplay what God has done in becoming human.”

God in Jesus was a real human being, born of Mary in the humblest of circumstances in a cave or stable with animals nearby. He had to be toilet trained, learn a language, be raised by real parents, work out his vocation and discern the will of God just as we do.   His family was forced into exile to Egypt to escape the sword of Herod. After assuming his public ministry, the leaders of his own religion handed him over to the Romans to die a horrible death. God is no stranger to suffering. God in Jesus knows what human life is like from the inside. His desire for friendship and to dwell with us and in us knows no bounds.

A cobbler does not become a shoe, a cabinet maker does not become a cabinet, but God the Father and creator of all that exists became one of us. Little wonder that history’s calendar is measured in terms of before and after this event.

Let us celebrate the birth of Jesus for what it is – the greatest act of humility and love in all of history.

How ironic! Jesus experienced rejection even before he was born. “She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.” (Luke 2:7) There was no room for Jesus in the inn, so Mary and Joseph had to settle for a cave that was used as a stable for animals.

While these circumstances may have served God’s purpose in taking on our humanity in the humblest of settings, you have to wonder what the innkeeper might have done had he known who Mary and Joseph were and what was about to happen.

We should not be too harsh in judging the innkeeper, for how often have we failed to make room for Jesus in our lives? There have been times in my life when I made more room for my career than I did for Jesus. There have been other times, when, like the innkeeper, I did not recognize Jesus in a colleague looking for someone to talk to or the street person looking for help on the streets of New York.

The good news is that God never ceases to give us opportunities to make room for him through his son, Jesus. He is always inviting us to open the door of our hearts so he can reproduce himself in us through the power of the Holy Spirit. He is always inviting us to love, to forgive, to serve — to build his Kingdom on this earth in the daily circumstances of our lives.

As we celebrate the day when the God of all creation became one of us at a specific time and place in order to change our lives and the course of history, let us renew our yes to him, our yes to Jesus and our yes to the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

Am I making room for Jesus today in how I relate to my spouse, my children, my colleagues at work and the stranger for whom there is no room in the inn?

Do we appreciate the gift of freedom that God has given us?

When the angel Gabriel visited Mary, we see that God did not force himself or his will on her, the person he desired to be the mother of his son. We may tend to take her decision for granted, but it was not automatic. However holy and righteous Mary may have been, it was still within her power to decline the role God desired for her. He gave her freedom to reject his invitation, but she chose to say yes. “I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38)

How precious is the gift of freedom which God gives to each of us! He preserves it even in the midst of his most important act after creation – his incarnation – the intention to become one of his created in order to overcome evil and save the world from its pattern of acting outside his desire and plan.

We honor and revere Mary for her decision of faithfulness and obedience to God’s desire. As we read Luke, we may tend to gloss over all of the real and practical complications, second guessing, and judgments Mary must have endured in saying yes to God’s messenger. Even Joseph intended to divorce her until God spoke to him in a dream.

Without this freedom to choose, love, faithfulness and obedience have no meaning. They cannot be tested. Their integrity is suspect. A coerced love is no love at all. Freedom is a precondition to love. It’s the way God set things up, and Mary illustrates it perfectly in agreeing to be part of something that had never happened before in human history. Even Jesus had the freedom to choose in the agony of the garden. He prayed that the cup of sacrifice, torture and death he was facing be taken from him, but then he submitted, “Yet not my will but yours be done.” (Luke 22:42)

Like Mary and Jesus, God has given us the freedom to make choices. Several years ago I was offered a promotion in my work that would have required our family to move. Everything in my work experience was calling out to me to accept this apparent advance in my career, but my wife and I discerned that it was not God’s will for us. We will never know what might have happened had I accepted the new position, but we do know what has happened – an apparent initial sacrifice was transformed into a cup overflowing with a multitude of blessings over many years for our Christian family of five children that has now evolved into four additional Christian families and thirteen grandchildren.

How will we use this freedom God gives us? Will it reflect love and faithfulness to God and the people he puts in our lives along with the blessings that follow, or will it reflect the epitaph that “I did it my way” and the “success” that follows in the eyes of the world?   

Do present circumstances discourage you from praying for the desires of your heart?

Zechariah and Elizabeth were unable to have children, but apparently their prayers for a child continued, even into their old age. While Zechariah was serving in the Temple, the angel, Gabriel appeared to him and said, “Zechariah, your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son.” (Luke 1:13) He went on to say that this son will be great in the sight of the Lord, filled with the Holy Spirit and bring many people back to the Lord.

Although Zechariah had been praying for a son for many years, his present circumstances caused him to question whether this could still happen. He asked, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” Even Gabriel acknowledged Elizabeth’s advanced age in Luke 1:36.

While Zechariah’s doubt rendered him unable to speak until the promise was fulfilled, his faithfulness in serving the Lord and persistence in prayer over many years was rewarded with the birth of a son, John the Baptist, whose mission was to prepare the way for God’s own son.

Zechariah and Elizabeth are great models for us. They remained faithful and persistent in their prayer over many years and even after the answer to their prayer seemed impossible.

Our daughter, Emily who is now 28, was born with Down syndrome and a speech disability. For more than 20 years we have been praying for the healing of her speech disability so that she could be better understood and able to interact more fully with others. Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, the present circumstances may indicate that not much is happening, but we have seen some progress in her increased efforts to converse, and we will never cease praying in faith for God’s special intervention in the life of this special child entrusted to our family.

Jesus offered the Parable of the Persistent Widow (Luke 18:1-8) to urge his followers to “always pray and never give up.” He says, “Will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night?” St. Paul entreats us to “pray continuously, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (1Th. 5:17) “For nothing is impossible to God,” says Gabriel in a subsequent appearance to Mary. (Luke 1:37)

While we may struggle to know the mind of God, the fact that something may appear impossible is not a reason to refrain from praying for the desire of our hearts.

What are the chances that 102 pilgrims sailing from Plymouth, England in 1620 would encounter two English speaking Indians on the North American continent? These Indians became instrumental in the pilgrims’ survival? Was God looking out for the pilgrims?

Apparently the pilgrims thought so in their actions and prayers. Elder William Brewster quoted from Isaiah 41:9-10 in encouraging them to persevere during their first harsh winter that saw 47 of their party die.

“I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I call you. I said, ‘You are my servant;’ I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

These two Indians, one named Samoset, the other Squanto, helped the pilgrims learn how to plant corn, catch fish, and trade with friendly Indian tribes. During the summer of 1621, after building new dwellings, planting and harvesting enough food to get them through the next winter, the pilgrims were “brimming over with gratitude” and Governor Bradford declared a day of public Thanksgiving in October. (For more detail, see The Light and the Glory by Peter Marshall and David Manuel.)

As our national day of Thanksgiving approaches this week, I pause to reflect on a long list of blessings:

• A loving wife of 51 years and a mutual love that grows deeper each year,
• A family of five children, three sons-in-law, one daughter-in-law, and 13 grandchildren, all of whom have a genuine love for one another and are living out their Christian faith in the day to day throes of life,
• An adult daughter with special needs whose purity of heart and humble ways show the rest of us the face of God,
• A Father God and his son Jesus Christ who love me and offer to dwell in me through the Holy Spirit, who give me purpose in loving and serving the people in my life and in working to take care of God’s creation according to my circumstances,
• Christian friends from the People of Praise Christian community, Christians in Commerce, St. Mark’s Catholic Church and my neighborhood who would take a call at 3:00 AM if the need arose.
• Meaningful work in business and ministry spanning over 50 years,
• Good health that allows me to continue to work, serve, love and enjoy all of these blessings,
• Material blessings that meet our needs.

This list does not mean we are exempt from trials and challenges, for who can escape them in this world. But we share the God of the Jews and the pilgrims who calls us, strengthens us, and upholds us with his righteous right hand.

What are you thankful for?

How do we view our work? Last Saturday I participated in a seminar conducted by Christians in Commerce International (www.christiansincommerce.org) entitled Hope for the Workplace. One of the participants who worked for a large aero-space manufacturer observed, “I have never thought of my job as serving God.” She went on to explain that she just looked on her work as a job to earn a living in order to do all the other things she wanted to do in life.

Her view of work is one held by many. She never thought about how God views work, that it is part of his design for creation. Genesis 2:15 says, “The Lord God took man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work and take care of it.” From the very beginning God assigned us the task to work and take care of his creation. Work is not a curse resulting from the fall, for work was ordained by God before the fall.

Both Catholic and Protestant teaching uphold the value and dignity of work, and consider it a part of God’s plan for creation. The Catholic Catechism states, “Human work proceeds directly from persons created in the image of God and called to prolong the work of creation by subduing the earth, both with and for one another.

Lester DeKoster, a former professor of Calvin College in his book, Work, The Meaning of Your Life, defines work as, “the form in which we make ourselves useful to others and thus to God.” He goes on to explain that culture and civilization don’t just happen. They are made to happen and keep happening by God, the Holy Spirit through our work. The difference between barbarism and civilization is simply, work.

DeKoster observes that in the Parable of the Sheep and the Goats, Jesus’ choice of services we can do for one another is carefully calculated to comprehend the vast number of jobs of humankind – providing food, drink, clothing, shelter, health care, social services, etc. He says, “The fabric of civilization, like all fabrics, is made up of countless tiny threads – each thread, the work of someone.”

Like the people in the parable, we may be surprised that in doing our work, we too, are serving God. Whether our work is that of a migrant farm worker or the CEO of a large international corporation, it is one of those threads that make up civilization and matters to God. Work is a part of his design for creation and the civilization that follows. It has value and purpose.

How do we view our work? Is it just a job so we can do and have all the other things we want? This is a pocketbook perspective. Is it an idol, becoming an obsession and subordinating all of the other responsibilities we have in life? This is a self-centered perspective. Is it a partnership with God, being a good steward of the talents and gifts God has given us to further the work of his creation? This is God’s perspective.

After Solomon built the first temple in Jerusalem in 964 BC, the Bible says that the glory of the Lord filled the temple in the form of a cloud. (1Kings 8:11) For several centuries the Jewish people looked to the temple to worship, sacrifice and seek God’s presence. Because of various periods of unfaithfulness, God eventually removed his presence from the temple.

Jesus declared that from his time forward, people would no longer worship the Father in Jerusalem, but “true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23) He proclaims that his body is the new temple and if it is destroyed he will raise it in three days. (John 2:19)

Later with his disciples on the evening before his trial and crucifixion, he surprises them with the words that God’s new dwelling place would be in them and all who believe. “On that day [his resurrection] you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.” (John 14:20, 23) He continues, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” The disciples and all who follow in their footsteps believing in Jesus Christ will become temples of the living God.

St. Paul confirms this when he says, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you.” (1 Cor. 3:16)  Again, “We are the temple of the living God.” (2 Cor. 6:16)

Through our baptism and our “yes” to God, we can accept his offer to dwell in us.  Jesus, says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come and eat with him, and he with me.” (Rev.3:20)

The first time I heard the phrase, “Christ in us,” or “be Christ” to others, I reacted with skepticism. I have struggled with sin in the past and I struggle with sin today. While I may try to be like Christ, I fall far short. Certainly, I do not always live up to the Beatitudes or all the other restatements of the commandments in Matthew 5, 6 and 7. Yet, Jesus says, “Come to me all who are burdened…for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

Then I realized that God’s plan for his creation is to dwell in us through his son, Jesus Christ, so that we, with the power of the Holy Spirit, can partner with God in being and bringing his presence to the people and circumstances of our lives. This is where God both resides and acts in the world today – in and through us. We are called to live in Christ and as Christ, to do what Jesus did – to love, show mercy, heal, witness to the truth and share with all who come into our lives that the kingdom of God is in our midst. Jesus says, “Anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these…so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” (John 14: 12)

“The mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations…is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:26, 27)

Where is God’s temple today? We are his temple, the New Jerusalem.