Celtic Advent - Day XIX - December 3

 

Celtic Advent - Day XIX - December 3

O Christ, the Master Carpenter

you at the last through wood and nails

crafted our whole salvation,

wield well your tools

in the workshop of the world

so that we who come rough-hewn

to your bench

may be here fashioned

to a truer beauty of your hand. 

(Iona - Wild Goose Community)

He was known as a 'tekton', a Greek word which has been translated as 'carpenter' but it also means 'artisan / craftsman'. That may have been translated from the Aramaic word, 'naggar' which, in the Talmud, was used to signify a 'very learned person' who had a somewhat elevated or respected position in the community. 

'Naggar' is used in the Talmud as a metaphor for 'a skilled handler of the word of God'. 

What little more we know of Joseph, the husband of Mary and the earthly or "corporeal" father of Jesus, comes to us from brief mentions of him in the gospels of Luke and Matthew and those instances are pretty underwhelming. Even then, we have to rely on what might have been lost - or added - in translation.

In Matthew's genealogy, Joseph's lineage is traced back to King David through the royal line of Solomon. He is named as the son of Jacob. However, Luke traces another line through Nathan, another son of David and Bathsheba. Luke names Heli as the father of Joseph. There may be a somewhat convoluted reason for this, as Jacob was a brother of Heli, who might have died and his wife given to his younger brother Jacob. 

Family life has always been a rather messy affair, which always makes me chuckle when Evangelicals insist that we conform today to ancient biblical "family values".

Before I go on with the story of Joseph, however, I do want to stop and point out something that a dear friend and Rabbi pointed out to me about the differences in the nativity stories of Matthew and Luke. 

The purpose of the two stories is to reconcile the fact that, according to prophesy, the Messiah was to have been born in Bethlehem, but Jesus, in fact, came from Nazareth. 

Having made the journey myself in January, 2020, I can attest that it's not an easy schlepp from Nazareth to Bethlehem. It's just under 100 miles, as I recall, heading south along the flatlands of the Jordan River, then west over the hills and down into the valleys surrounding Jerusalem, and then the long slog to Bethlehem. 

In antiquity, a day's trip for most people was 20 miles. When I was walking the Camino, someone said that the army had a standard of marching around 20 miles a day. So, that ancient trip for Joseph and a pregnant Mary would have been at least 5 or 6 days. 

Added to the perils of the terrain and the weather is the fact that lions and bears and wild boars lived in the heavily forest areas of the Jordan River. And then, of course, there were the inevitable bandits and robbers who found the hilly area perfect for ambush. 

So, in Matthew's story, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem was in response to the directions of Gabriel, who appeared to Joseph in a dream. (That's his story and he's sticking with it.). If you hadn't noticed, it's very common in scripture that, when all else fails, blame it on an angel.

Not to worry, Matthew's angel has a little more work to do. 

Following the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, Gabriel again appears to Jospeh in a dream warning him of the massacre of the children of Bethlehem being planned by King Herod, the ruler of the Province of Judea, and directing him to escape this fate by journeying through Egypt. Once Herod has died, the angel tells Joseph to return, but to avoid Herod's son, he takes Mary and the infant Jesus to Nazareth and the Holy Family settles there. 

Conveniently, Matthew's birth narrative of Jesus aligns with that of Moses. Both were in peril from a cruel king. Both have a (fore)father named Joseph who goes down to Egypt. Like the Joseph in Hebrew Scripture, this Joseph has a father named Jacob, and both Josephs receive important dreams foretelling their future.  

However, in Luke's version of the story, Joseph already lives in Nazareth and the only reason Jesus is born in Bethlehem is because Joseph and Mary have to travel there because they have to be counted in a census ordered by Herod. While there, Jesus happens to have been born in Bethlehem which does fulfill the prophecy of the birth of the Messiah. 

Ancient records indicate that there was, in fact, a census the year Jesus was born, so Luke's story sounds pretty solid. Luke also makes no mention of Joseph having been visited by angels. Neither does he mention the Massacre of the Innocents or a visit to Egypt. So, there's no ribbon or bow to tie up the tidy connections in the birth narratives of Jesus and Moses. 

For me, this makes Luke's story the more believable, but the interweaving of both stories always makes for a great Christmas pageant. I mean, really! How could you have a Christmas pageant without lots of little girls in pink tights, pink ballet slippers, a tutu, a crown of tinsel and some wings held together with pipe cleaners? 

 

We know that Joseph was born around the year 100 BCE and later wed Mary, a young maiden from Nazareth. Church tradition is that he died in Israel before the ministry of Jesus and before the Crucifixion (John 19:26-27). He is believed to have been buried somewhere just outside of the Garden of Gethsemane. 

That's really all we know about Joseph. Except that he was older than Mary, "did the right thing" and did not divorce Mary after she revealed her pregnancy. The last we hear of Joseph is when the family went to the Temple when Jesus was 12 years old and Jesus was lost in the crowd. After that, Joseph drops off the radar screen. 

Which is really a shame. 

Oh, except that 'tekton' thing. When you are in Palestine, it becomes clear that there are not a lot of trees. There are beautiful olive trees which are huge and one can purchase beautiful furniture and prayer beads and religious artifacts made from olive wood. 

There are some scrub pines here and there, lots of palm trees, lots of orange, almond, and pomegranate trees, as well as some cedar, oak and beautiful acacia trees. 

What is clear, however, is that there are many more rocks and stones than there are trees. It's also a widely accepted fact that Jesus was born in a cave, not a wooden manger. Indeed, our Palestinian guide, a man in his 60s, told us that people still lived in caves just 100 years ago in Palestine. Indeed, he remembered visiting his grandparents who lived in a cave. 

Animals stayed in the caves with their owners, keeping them safe not only from the elements but also bandits. It is entirely probable that the "manger" Jesus slept in was carved out of stone and filled with straw, and that was not unusual for infants of antiquity. 

So, Joseph was probably not "a lowly carpenter". Perhaps he was a stone mason. Or, he may simply have been a very learned man, respected by his community, who was a 'naggar', a skilled handler of the word of God. That would make sense on several levels. 

You could't have picked out  a more perfect earthly parent for the son of God than if God had made the choice. Which I suppose, is the best argument for the believe that God, in fact, did choose Joseph, just as God had chosen Mary. 

In this Advent season, I hope we can spend some time considering Joseph, the 'teckton' and strive to fashion our own lives of faith with the dedication of an artisan, honing our abilities to be more skilled at handling the word of God. 

Here is a powerful poem by Ann Weems, from "Kneeling in Bethlehem"

Yesterday's Pain

Ann Weems

In the godforsaken, obscene quicksand of life,

there is a deafening alleluia

rising from the souls of those who weep,

and of those who weep with those who weep.

If you watch, you will see

the hand of God

putting the stars back in their skies

one by one.

Yesterday's Pain

Some of us walk in Advent 

tethered to our unresolved yesterdays

the pain still stabbing

the hurt still throbbing.

It's not that we don't know better;

it's just that we can't stand up anymore by ourselves.

On the way of Bethlehem, will you give us a hand?