{"id":554,"date":"2019-12-26T11:11:18","date_gmt":"2019-12-26T11:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/?p=554"},"modified":"2019-12-26T16:13:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-26T16:13:08","slug":"christmas-eve-family-430-pm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/2019\/12\/26\/christmas-eve-family-430-pm\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas Eve Family 4:30 pm"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Luke\n2:1-20<\/strong> & Matthew\n2:1-12<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Joseph<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merry Christmas! It warms\nmy heart that you are celebrating this most special of days; I was there, Joseph\nis my name; let me tell you what happened; it would be good if I started at the\nbeginning of things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nwas wonderful thing that had happened to me back when the Romans still occupied\nmy homelands and my people lived in constant fear of the threats posed by the\nRoman soldiers. I fell in love with a wonderful young woman named Mary; she was\nbeautiful and sweet and a faithful daughter of Israel. As was our tradition, I\nasked Mary\u2019s father if I could marry her, and we worked out the marriage\ncontract with great happiness; I was a blessed man! But I soon learned that the\nblessings of God can sometimes come with some interesting side effects. Mary I\nsoon learned, was going to have a baby, and it was not mine; we were not yet fully\nmarried; we had not been together in that way. What was I to do? My mind told\nme to write a letter of divorce ending our marriage contract, cutting my losses\nand moving on. But God had another plan; in a dream like no other dream I had ever\nhad, an angel of God told me that Mary had not been unfaithful to me, that the\nchild that she carried was from God and this special child would be the\nlong-awaited Messiah of God. Let me tell you; I did not see that coming! But I\nbelieved this dream to be a vision from God; and I believed Mary\u2019s word that\nshe had not been unfaithful; I believed Mary\u2019s story that the child was from\nGod, just as I was told in my dream; God\u2019s word, settled my heart\u2019s anger and\nallowed Mary and I to move forward, even though others looked at us with those\naccusing eyes, judging us as a young couple with no self-disciple, who could\nnot wait until their day of marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Time\nwas growing close for Mary to give birth and Mary and I looked forward with joy\nto that day when she would deliver, surrounded by the support of Mary\u2019s family\nand the promised help of a midwife. But again, it seemed God had other plans\nfor us. A census was to be taken, and I was required to travel to my ancestral\nhome, Bethlehem, to be registered; I was of the family line of David, as was\nMary. My plan was to go as quickly as I could, do all that was required of me\nand return to Nazareth, hopefully before the child was born. My plan! (laugh)<\/em>\nMy plan was not God\u2019s plan and it was not Mary\u2019s plan; Mary insisted on going\nwith me. So, I loaded my work donkey with all of our traveling gear and food\nand supplies for the baby if it came (my donkey was used to carrying my heavy\ntools and wood for my craft); but Mary could not walk for long stretches so for\nmuch of our journey Mary sat upon the donkey and I carried a pack containing as\nmuch of our supplies as I could manage. I will tell you it was not an easy journey;\nit was not an easy journey for either of us. Mary could never seem to find a comfortable\nposition on the donkey. She didn\u2019t complain, but she shifted back and forth\nconstantly. It was my donkey that complained, he was not used to carrying anything\nthat moved around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With\nstops to eat and to sleep at night, we slowly made our way to Bethlehem. Finally\nseeing Bethlehem on the horizon, Mary and I paused to give thanks to God; we\ncould not have gone on too much further in her condition. Bethlehem had grown\nsince last, I had been there, expanded by what could only be described as a\ntent city all around it. My stomach dropped, worried we would not find shelter,\nworried that we would have to set up camp in the midst of this mass of weary\ntravelers and who knows who or what else. We will check with our kin; no room! There\nwas the inn; I will surely pay the fee: no room! How could this be? Where is\nGod\u2019s plan? Isn\u2019t God concerned about his child? What could God possibly expect\nof us? I was distraught, feeling I had failed Mary and God, and feeling maybe\nthat it was God who was failing us. As the bad news washed over me and as I\nwalked back to where Mary was waiting a voice behind me called out an idea. There\nis the stable; it is quiet and private at night; there is clean straw to make a\nbed; see to the animals, the innkeeper offered, and you can stay the night. I\njumped at his offer; I prayed that Mary would understand; I prayed that this\nwas not going against God\u2019s plan. All I could do was the best I could; God, I\nthought, would understand, I hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No\nsooner had we made our bed, was Mary feeling the pains of child birth. I was\noverwhelmed; what should I do? I couldn\u2019t leave Mary to get help, even if I\nknew where to find it. Women delivered babies! Well, I guess that wasn\u2019t God\u2019s\nplan; I delivered Jesus; Mary was so good; when the pain would subside, she\nwould explain what to expect as the labor progressed. God did have a plan! The\nbaby came easily; Mary did well; nothing went wrong; Mary told me how to wrap\nthe baby; it was not so different from how I wrapped some of the things I make in\nmy shop, so to protect them for shipping. Mary was exhausted; I cleaned out a\nfeeding trough, added some clean straw and laid Jesus there safely, moving the\ntrough between us; Mary and the baby were soon asleep; I paced a bit, but soon\nlaid down and we all slept some.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\ncould have been hours later, it might have been just minutes after I had fallen\nasleep, when I heard the talking of men and the clapping of their sandals as\nthey walked to the entrance of the stable. I was up in a breath; I had no idea\nwhat they were up to; there was a pitch fork against the stall; I was ready, so\nI thought; I it seemed, was never ready for what God had planned for Mary and I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our\nlate-night visitors were shepherds, who came only to witness to the miraculous\nevent, which was the birth of Jesus, the Messiah of God, as told them by\nangels. I thought to myself, an angel had told Mary, and an angel had told me, now\nangels (plural) had told these shepherds. God even had a plan for witnesses;\nnot just the shepherds but later Gentiles, wisemen from the east and they\nbrought with them gifts that would help carry us safely through another part of\nGod\u2019s plan and they would be witnesses to the world again as God planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\nfolks, was Mary\u2019s and my life; we didn\u2019t always know what would come next, but\nGod had a plan, Jesus became a special person, God\u2019s Son and the Savior of all\nwho would answer his call. Thank you, again, for celebrating Jesus birthday; may\nyour celebration be joyous and meaningful and may God\u2019s plan for you always be\nclear. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Luke 2:1-20 & Matthew 2:1-12 Joseph Merry Christmas! It warms my heart that you are celebrating this most special of days; I was there, Joseph is my name; let me tell you what happened; it would be good if I started at the beginning of things. It was wonderful thing Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons-and-services"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":555,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/554\/revisions\/555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stpeterschestersprings.org\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}