Glory to the New Born King

Hark the Herald Angels sing.

While mortals sleep the angels keep their watch of wondering love.

The Christmas angels the great glad tidings tell.

The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around.

A shining throng of angels praising God.

A few weeks ago I spent a Friday night in Hanley at Nightchurch. At about 1'o clock on the Saturday morning I was sat chatting with a couple of clubbers who had come in to get out of the cold, have a cup of tea and a chat. They started talking about angels. One of them had been advising the others about asking their angels to help them out when they were going through tough times. These girls were absolutely convinced that they have guardian angels watching over them, who answer their prayers and who leave white feathers as signs of encouragement and hope.

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Advent 4 - Joseph

They say that you wait ages for a bus to come along, and then two come along together. Well, here I am again for the second time in a month and, not only that, it’s the same Sunday as I talked on last year, The last Sunday of Advent, the last Sunday before Christmas. Last year, the reading focussed on Mary, and I felt fairly out of my depth trying to identify with a 15 year old, unmarried, newly pregnant, woman. This year, the reading focuses on Joseph, which, on the face of it puts me in a better starting position. If it weren’t for the fact that Joseph was in a fairly unusual situation.

Let’s walk this through. Joseph was a righteous man, a just man. So why didn’t he have Mary stoned? How would you feel? Your fiancé comes to you and says she’s pregnant, but you know you haven’t slept with her, and not only that but she says and angel told her it was from God.

I’d be devastated, angry, lashing out, vindictive. And the law says, in Deuteronomy that Joseph would have been well within his rights to have her stoned. But he didn’t. Not because he was merciful, but because he was just.

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