Returning to preach at CCC after my sabbatical (study leave) I pulled my thoughts together around six questions, under the title “You’re Only Human”, borrowed from Kelly Kapic’s book.
Where have I been?
I’ve been reading, thinking and writing about the very human relationship between Joseph and Jesus, and questions like:
- Who was Joseph, the man?
- What did it mean for the human boy Jesus to experience having two fathers?
- How does this relate to the experience of contemporary foster fathers and children in their care?
The set word count for my MA dissertation is 18,000 words and I’ve written about that number, although I’ve not been working at the strict 200 words per day suggested by someone in my card as I started the sabbatical (“not too hard” they said!)
I’ve got more to write, and it needs putting together as a whole, but I’ve done the main work, which was my main aim, and I’m confident that I will finish it in the time allowed.
…but what about CCC?!
Who are you?
I hadn’t forgotten everyone at CCC, but this question leads into something different I’ve been reading and thinking about.
Think about how you would introduce yourself to someone you’d never met before. What sort of things would you say? Maybe your name, where you were born, who’s in your family, what’s your job, your political affiliation, the team you support…
It’s very hard to introduce ourselves without referring to relationships with other people – even our name was given to us by someone else. Consider your belly-button! It’s a reminder in your own body that you started life physically connected to someone else. Even the man Jesus had a belly button!
We are who we are in relation to other people, and to God
Why is this important? As Kapic explains, it helps us to get the right perspective – we are finite creatures while only God is infinite. Our names are given to us, but God has a name that refers to no one else: I Am Who I Am
We have limits, not because of sin but because we are created creatures. There are things that you can do, that I cannot; and there are things that I can do that you cannot – skills, ways of listening to others, etc…
It’s not true that “I can do anything through him who strengthens me” – that’s a misunderstanding of Phil. 4.13. Paul is saying there that whatever circumstances he is in, whatever God calls him to do, he can live through the strength that God gives
But none of us can do anything we wish – we need each other’s skills, time, energy – and other people need ours. Realising this gives us a healthier picture of ourselves – we are not independent individuals – we need God, and we need community around us
What has this got to do with Joseph and Jesus?!
The opening of Matthew’s gospel: “An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham” immediately places Jesus in relation to two enormous figures in Jewish history. Being descended from Abraham meant that Jesus was Jewish. Being descended from David was what was expected of the Messiah who was coming to save the people.
This was not just a piece of interesting history – this was a big part of the definition of who Jesus was, and was going to be.
What was the relationship between Joseph and Jesus?
Matthew 1.16 is very precise, breaking the pattern of the preceding verses, and tells us that “Jacob was the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah”.
This tells us that Joseph was not the biological father of Jesus, so how is this “the genealogy of Jesus” (v.1)? Clearly there was going to be a ‘fatherly’ relationship between Joseph and Jesus, the detail of which has been part of what I’ve been working on.
Some say adoption, some say foster father (interestingly very few say biological father as the consensus is that it was not Joseph, even if it was not miraculous), some say ‘legal father’. The truth is that our modern labels do not translate directly, and what I’ve been doing is looking for ways in which Joseph’s care for Jesus was akin to 21st century foster care. But Joseph was a father of some kind to Jesus, and it gave him Davidic ancestry
Matthew 1:18-25 tells us that Joseph was also husband to Mary, and…
- His first response to her pregnancy was to break off the relationship. It’s easy for us to point a finger at Joseph, because we know the end of the story, but how many of us wouldn’t reconsider a relationship if we found the other party was about to have a baby we knew wasn’t ours?!
- He wanted to treat Mary well and break it off quietly
- He was responsive to the words of God, via an angel, and “when he awoke, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him”
- He took Mary as his wife but he didn’t sleep with her yet
All these things that we know about Joseph, and which tell us the sort of person he was, are based on relationship.
Joseph was ‘righteous’ (Matthew 1.19). Perhaps this is the only ‘non-relationship’ thing we know, but this only shows in his relationships with others.
Joseph was given the privilege of giving Jesus his name, meaning God saves, and Matthew refers to the fulfilment of a prophecy, giving Jesus another name – Emmanuel, which means ‘God is with us’. There’s a relationship if ever there was one – God with us.
When did this happen?
“But when the fulness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law…” (Gal. 4.4). God was not to be rushed: when the fulness of time had come, Jesus came, born of Mary, a human being.
Time’s a peculiar thing. If ever there was a reminder of our finite-ness, it’s the passage of time, and especially it’s not getting everything done that we wanted to in the time we have. Kapic is really helpful here (p.10) suggesting that what we have is not a time-management problem but a theological and pastoral problem. We need to acknowledge, and embrace, and maybe even enjoy our limitations and inability to ‘get everything done’.
We are working with God – God calls us to pray, to work for the Kingdom, to be on mission – but I think sometimes we have to wait for the fulness of time. In our finite-ness we have to wait, and we don’t like that!
How does this work out?
We discover ourselves, not by huge amounts of introspection, but in relationship with God and with each other.
Galatians 4 continues… “we receive adoption as God’s children – we cry out ‘Father!’” We have the Spirit of God living in us and we are who we are not just because God says so, but because being in a relationship with God changes who we are
If you’re not a child of God, the way is always open – Jesus made the way for us to be welcome in God’s family – all you need to say to God is thank you for work of Jesus to defeat evil and bring the light of God’s love – please take away all the things that have broken my relationship with God (forgive my sins – the actions and attitudes which are not how you want them to be) – I welcome you into my life – I want to live for you, with your help – I want to be adopted into the family of God!
Once we’ve started a life as a child of God, recently or years ago, we know that we are secure in the love of God – “you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God”!
As for our relationships to each other, Paul writes in Galatians 5.13-14, “you were called to freedom… through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up… ‘You shall love you neighbour as yourself’.”
At the end of my sabbatical I’ve been thinking, “What about church? What have I missed? What am I looking forward to?”
I can ‘go to’ church anywhere, and choose to worship God in those places, or not. But what is special about your ‘own’ church is the relationships with people – we grow and become who we are, and hopefully who God calls us to be, in relationship.
- I don’tmean that I am defined by the role I have and that you’re defined by the role you have.
- I do mean that as we relate together, and love each other as we love ourselves – putting the needs of others as more important than our own – we become more fully human, as God created us to be.
Father God, I thank you for this gathering of your people
I thank you for who you’ve made each of us to be
Thank you for our adoption into your family, and for making us your sons and daughters
Thank you for the relationship that restores between us and you
Thank you for the relationships that creates between us as your children
We pray for your Holy Spirit to grow our appreciation of each other and your work in each of us
We pray for more of the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our life together.
Amen.