New Parents !

I have often had the joy of meeting new parents and seeing their pride at their new child. When a baby is born people often start to look and see who the child looks like or perhaps wonder what type of person they will be as they grow up. 

In the gospel reading for this Sunday (Matthew 1:18-25) we read of the birth of Jesus.  On this fourth Sunday of advent it seems odd to be thinking of what we will celebrate next week. Although, we surely can't really hear about the wonderful moment of God taking on our flesh and becoming like us enough times for it to become stale. 

In that reading Mary and Joseph experience the birth of Jesus. I am not sure that they will  immediately have thought of what Jesus would look like. After all, this was not an ordinary birth. However, they may have thought of what Jesus would grow up to be like. Any parent would! 

In the gospel reading we hear things from the point of view of Joseph. I know when I was a child the best part in the Nativity play was to be Mary. I am not sure that the boys were that desperate to play the part of Joseph. The reason is that Mary is the one who we, correctly, think of as the most important parent out of her and Joseph. After all, she said yes to the angel Gabriel when he told her what God was going to do through her.  Joseph, didn't have an easy run of things either, he was the one who accepted the embarrassment of his fiancé having a child. It would have been a scandal. I remember reading the book, ‘The Virgin Diaries’ by David Wilbourne. In this book he imagined Mary as being part of a family that made pizzas. On the news of Mary’s pregnancy the local boys wanted to throw hot pizza pans at her, and Joseph protected her.  A really great image, I can remember it 21 years after reading the book. 

Mary, and Joseph were new parents. I wonder if they would have pictured the future for their son. It was all totally unknown. If only they had been able to read the epistle reading (Romans 1:1-7). This is because it explained all that Jesus had done. He was of the line of David, who incidentally was the greatest King Israel had ever had. The country was peaceful, and had political power amongst their neighbouring countries. This was of course, known to Mary and Joseph. Also known to Mary and Joseph would have been the fact that the prophets of the Old Testament had prophesied the coming of a new King who would save the people. Whether they worked out immediately that the prophecies were about their son was another matter. They certainly knew things were different, they knew that Jesus was going to be God with us, ‘Emmanuel’. They had been told, but I am not sure that they could have imagined how things would turn out.

In the reading from Romans, we read that Jesus had brought salvation and shown Himself as the one who would bring this, through His death and resurrection. This is certainly not what new parents would have expected. 

I think that the main point is in the words from the gospel, that in Jesus, God is always with us. Our ‘Emmanuel ’. This is right at the beginning of the gospel of Matthew, and then right at the end of the gospel (28:20) Jesus, promises, on His ascension, that He would be with His followers always.  I want to always remember that God is with us always, He will never leave us, He is worthy of all our praise. In good times and in bad times, it’s a promise that can always inspire and comfort