December 28, 2025
Christmas 1
Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.
Please be seated. Friends,
If I were to ask who the main characters are in today’s Gospel, or who are the principal actors, a fair answer might be that there are only two. The only speaker in the Gospel, for all of the words, is an angel of the Lord. The only actor is Joseph. Other speeches are described but not delivered. Other people are present, but only Joseph acts.
Certainly, Herod decrees. But he’s not onstage. Neither is Archelaus, Herod Junior. And Mary and Jesus are along for the ride, but neither speaks and neither acts. Herod’s on a tear. “Off to Egypt.” Herod’s gone. “Back to Bethlehem.” Wait, wait. Not to Bethlehem. Now Herod Junior is on a tear. “North to Nazareth.” Nazareth was a backwater town ridiculed in the Gospel of John: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”
After today’s Gospel, Joseph completely disappears. So this is it, folks, for the whole coming year, for the whole year of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus will grow up a Nazorean identified as the son of the carpenter in the Gospel of John. Carpenter. Not Joseph. The carpenter. And not mentioned otherwise. He’s never mentioned at all in the Gospel of Mark. Luke says he was with Mary when Jesus got lost on a trip to Jerusalem when Jesus was 12 –hardly an auspicious appearance but familiar to any parent who’s ever misplaced a child in a department store — but that’s it.
[Now, here’s a true fact: My mother forgot me on a streetcar in Montreal, when we were out to buy groceries, when I was a little kid. She thought I was following. I was not. And if it were not for the intervention of a noble fellow passenger I’d have grown up an orphan, on the streets of Montreal. But I was found, the same way Jesus was found. But I digress.]
The sense of the Gospels is that Joseph starts out as an elderly protector for Mary, they settle in Nazareth; they have a few kids together, some boys and some girls, but Joseph fades from the picture long before Jesus grows up. He was old and now he’s gone. That’s kind of what’s there, a picture stitched together from various recollections several generations after Jesus. Joseph is by turn wonderfully heroic and by turn completely forgotten.
I’ve always liked the icon I’ve placed on the back of Taking Worship Home. The tradition of Orthodox iconography will see a number of craftspeople create icons in successive generations, each one capturing the same image or images, more-or-less. So the icon in your worship material (and being shown on-screen for our community at home), is a modern 20- or 30-year-old version of something much more ancient. But it is typical of the form while rendered with modern materials, pigments, colours and sensibilities. It’s generally called the Icon of the Incarnation. And it’s very Orthodox.
Jesus is born under the three-fold light of God. The Orthodox sow the Holy Trinity through everything. Mary lies at the centre almost detached from everything else that’s going on. Jesus is parked in a manger and neither Mary nor Joseph is paying any attention to him. It’s like he’s been left on the bus. Almost. Down in the right-hand corner a couple of midwives are washing Jesus post-partum. That’s an image of love and devotion and it’s a thing in the Orthodox world. Angels, shepherds and kings all show up, the former flitting about and the latter just hanging-out. Time is expanded and collapsed at the same time. Advent-Christmas-Epiphany. And Jesus appears twice. At once … in a manger. And again … being washed down.
But the piece I identify with is that of Joseph down in the left corner. Joseph is always depicted in classical Orthodox iconography as bothered or depressed. Often he is shown seated, apart, holding his head as he is here. He’s perplexed or overwhelmed. Often he’s shown as confronted by Satan who is dressed in black and who shows up in the guise of a shepherd. Satan always shows up among the most familiar. And Satan’s work, for the Orthodox, is to tempt Joseph into unbelief; to temp Joseph to reject the mystery of the Incarnation, with all is weird lumpiness and loose ends. God in human form? How’s that gonna work? This icon is as much the story of the temptation to unbelief as it is the portrait of solemn belief.
Incarnation and resurrection are the two anchor points and touchstones of the Church Year, the liturgical year, the Christian year. We are in the unfolding Christmas Cycle, the business of this icon, the cycle of incarnation which runs from Advent, through the 12 Days of Christmas and into the Season of Epiphany. The Cycle of Resurrection will begin, late winter, with the 40 days of Lent, wend its way through the devotions of the Great Three Days, and unfold thereafter through the 50 Days of Easter. Incarnation and resurrection.
But the mystery of the incarnate God is always about the struggle between belief and unbelief. Joseph is not sure. He’s sitting somewhere in the after birth, wondering what he’s gotten himself into. As a pastor, my sleep was often tortured or stolen away as I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I felt inadequate sometimes. The journey seemed complicated. The forces of darkness were real. And Satan often showed up in someone so utterly familiar as to tempt me into unbelief. Surely God cannot abide in this? Where is God in this? What is God’s part in this? Incarnation. Incarnation – literally, the enfleshment of God – can disappoint. The people in whom God abides, can disappoint. That’s the human condition. That’s the human reality. That’s a big part of the mystery of the incarnation.
In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph is portrayed as the heroic protector of Mary and of her son, Jesus. In fact, he goes to great lengths to protect his charges but he never gets to fully experience the fruits of his good works. He doesn’t get to experience Jesus taking to the road and his proclamation of the nearness of God. Incarnation.
None of us ever gets to experience how the great story will resolve. We have that in common with Joseph. I say resolve rather than end. Because my sense of things is that the Christian journey is not about destination so much as it is about encounter and the stations along the way and the manifestation of grace and kindness on the road. St. John’s is one such station. Here are manifest grace and kindness of every sort. And temptation. Temptation is always familiar territory, and it always has the element of failing to honour the incarnation of God in our midst; the face of God in our neighbour; the activity of God even if it were not what we would do.
I love Joseph. He is familiar to me. And a last thought. Today’s Gospel depicts refugees. Today’s Gospel is a refugee story. Whether one is fleeing to Egypt or to Tanzania or making one’s way to Nazareth or Canada … it’s the same story of travel and travail; of vulnerability; of fear; of protection; of desperation; of feeling overwhelmed; of bits of grace and kindnesses; of love; and of incarnation.
Silence for reflection.
And may the church say “Amen”. Amen.
André Lavergne CWA (Pastor)
Honourary Assistant,
Church of St. John the Evangelist, Kitchener.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.