One of my frustrations in life is that I have just enough talent to draw a cow that looks like a cow, yet not enough innate talent to draw a cow that would invite your imagination into the drawing. I’ve always been inspired by art—the full spectrum from whimsical refrigerator magnets to wrapping papers to internationally acclaimed masterpieces. Religious art, from stained glass windows to adornments that wrap our liturgy with beauty, is a silent language revealing culture, history, theology and personal faith. If you accept this as so, what would you say we believe about Joseph, the central figure in our gospel today, as revealed by centuries of artists?

Mostly, Joseph is absent. When he is pictured, Joseph is cast as a peripheral figure, a man on the sideline of life, whose wife and child inhabit center stage for eternity. Religious art treats Joseph as a bearded old man, nearly bald, half asleep somewhere on the edge of the canvas…his chin rests on his walking stick while the whole world falls in love, over and over again with Mary and child. In ancient oils, he sits closer to the celestial light which frames mother and baby…shoes off and feet bare, making a warm scarf for Jesus from his own stocking. One other artist lights his face with a sliver of a candle he holds, while Mary and Jesus are ablaze with heavenly radiance. Joseph is the gentle old man in the dark. And old he probably is, as we never hear of him again, after the baptism of Jesus. Joseph is the sort of man, the sort of disciple we need around today.

Matthew’s gospel names Joseph as righteous…dikaios, translated ‘just’. I like this better than righteous…to be just seems more active. To be named dikaios is to live by the law, God’s revealed will. And yet, Joseph, the just in this story, does not do that. Contrary to Mosaic Law, which governed male and female relationships, Joseph had already decided to divorce Mary quietly, rather than publicly humiliating her. The Law of Moses required capital punishment, death by stoning, of a pregnant unwed girl or woman. By defying the ‘letter of the law’ we already know something of Joseph’s sense of justness as well as the state of his heart. We have a hint of who God would chose to companion Mary through the birthing of Jesus…AND God is telling us something about what is required of us to be God-bearers in the world. For Joseph was chosen to receive the angel of the Lord in his dreams…Joseph is one who believes God will reveal God’s will. Joseph chose to love the heart of God’s law by doing the right thing, to wed Mary the pregnant teen, rather than leave her. Joseph chose to believe the impossible, rather than not. And on the eve of Christmas-time, as a Christian community, we are presented with believing the impossible or not. We, as Christians, even a self-proclaimed progressive Christian community, have similar choices—we believe in God, or not and then we live into those beliefs, or not.

Kathleen Norris, in her book Amazing Grace, tells of an article she read, which depicted a heated exchange between a seminary student and an Orthodox theologian. The theologian had given a talk on the history of the development of the Christian creeds. The student’s original question was centered on belief. “What can one do,” she asked, “when one finds it impossible to affirm certain tenants of the Creed?” The priest resounded, “Well, you just say it. It’s not hard to master. With a little effort, most can learn it by heart.”