The second time the Christmas story includes a “Fear Not,” it’s to Joseph, in a dream, when the Angel Gabriel is telling him not to misread Mary’s pregancy: “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:20-21).
The Bible too often highlights the exploits of men, so Mary’s prominence in our understanding of the nativity has always been for me welcome redress! There is actually not much in Scripture about Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus. Only the Gospels of Matthew and Luke mention him. In Luke, he hangs around until Jesus is twelve – but with nar a word (he has no speaking part in Luke!) – then he disappears completely from the holy story without further mention.
But the infancy narrative in Matthew focuses more on Joseph than Mary! Matthew was initially addressing his Gospel more to Jewish Christians, so he wants to demonstrate that Jesus is the Messiah promised by the prophets, coming through the line of David. And in Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph names the child so that as well as Son of God and Son of Mary, Jesus is – through the action of Joseph – Son of David too.
For this “Fear Not,” I was reading all about Joseph a couple of days ago… in the middle of the night because some troubles on my mind and heart had woken me and kept me from going back to sleep. Then I came to this delightful vignette about Joseph’s continuing presence:
During his 2015 visit to the Philippines, Pope Francis shared with the crowds his devotion to St. Joseph, particularly a statue of the sleeping St. Joseph. In Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph gets clear directions from God TWICE while he is asleep. Joseph is told by an angel in the first dream, not to be afraid of marrying Mary, and in the second dream – in the next chapter – he is warned to flee to Egypt with his new family. In both cases, Joseph, when he rises from sleep, does exactly what God directed him to do.
For Catholics, Joseph is the patron saint of the Church Universal because, it is believed, he can watch over it both day and night, asleep or awake. He Is also, not surprisingly, the patron saint of fathers, families, workers (especially carpenters and craftsmen), travelers, immigrants, and those seeking a happy or holy death (because the Catholic church assumes he died in the presence of Mary and Jesus). He’s also invoked by expectant mothers, home buyers and sellers, people with missing loved ones and for social justice causes. Not just a man for all seasons; Joseph is an intercessor for this, our own particularly difficult season.
Pope Francis explained he kept a statue of the sleeping Joseph on his desk, and whenever he faced difficulties, he would write them on a piece of paper, slide the paper under the statue, and ask St. Joseph to pray with him about the troubles.
I couldn’t sleep because of troubles. As Protestants, we don’t really have saints and intercessors (or actually, we believe all the faithful are saints!), but post Vatican II, the whole church is more relaxed about borrowing traditions, understandings and even faith, so I decided to try it.
I acted like I was getting up to go to the bathroom, and then snuck to the kitchen to find paper and pen (because Leo sleeps lightly and if he wakes to me going someplace other than the bathroom, he’s all worried, “what’s going on?” …like I’m dying or running away!). I found a paper napkin and a marker, and wrote, “St. Joseph” and the prayer intention of my heart.
But I don’t have a statue of sleeping St. Joseph! If I had a creche set with a “standing Joseph,” I would have folded my note and placed it there. With Leo, I have MORE Christmas decorations than ever before, but no creche figures? So where to put my note to St. Joseph?
First, I thought, the cat sleeps with us and watches over us; I could slide it under Auggie at the end of the bed. He’d be a good stand in for a statue of a saint! But Auggie moves around too much and world probably eat my prayer napkin (and who knows if St. Joseph can discern your prayers from your pet’s stomach?).
Then I decided, “I think the ‘bedside monitor for my Loop recorder’ is a perfect placeholder for sleeping St. Joseph. Always present, quiet, watching, hard working, even if usually asleep.”
A Loop recorder is a little monitor slipped under the skin over your heart to constantly record its activity and look for arrhythmias. I got one (even though the cardiologist said it was unnecessary, the ocular neurologist insisted) after my eye stroke, because aFib could have been a cause. But two and a half years later, I have not had any arrhythmias!)
The Loop bedside recorder is a stripped down Boston Scientific cell phone that reads the monitor under my skin and sends the data to some central station each night while I sleep. (I think now I’ve named the recorder Joseph! Maybe the monitor is Gabriel?) You can see the white napkin still folded underneath the silver recorder stand.
I liked handing off my worry and my concern to St. Joseph, knowing that whether he was sleeping or awake (like me), he would take up my prayer intention too. I fell back to sleep.
I never know quite how prayer works (but I believe in it, trust it!), but I can imagine Joseph will pray even with Protestants and pastors! And praying with Joseph gives me a new set of connections to the Christmas story.
If you have a Joseph Creche figure, you might try asking Joseph to pray with you too? Even if you don’t, you know how we allow substitutions for the bread and grape juice when you are at home on zoom for communion? Well, a pet, or some kind of medical monitor, or anything really that reminds you how God’s love covers our everything are all probably enough to invite a saint to pray!
There’s a lot going on these days — much of it not too good — and our world needs as many prayers as it can get.
In faith and courage,
Michael
