Luke 2:1-7

What is the difference between the birth of Jesus and the births of other gods and heroes in the ancient world as we read in the myths? The big difference is that Jesus is real and those other figures are just imaginary. The Greek and Roman gods never existed but Jesus actually was born and grew up and walked around the lands of Galilee and Judea.

One of the ways the Bible reminds us of that is by putting the birth of Jesus in a specific historical context. Whereas those other gods and heroes are placed in the mythic past, the Bible places Jesus firmly in history, not distant history but recent history for those who were reading the Gospels for the first time.

When we read that Jesus was born in the days of Caesar Augustus, we are tempted to pass over such descriptions as meaningless decoration to the important part of the story. I’m going to suggest that we slow down and allow these details to sink in. Let us try and read this Gospel as if the Roman Empire was not ancient history but rather the defining political and cultural force of the day. To do this, we are going to compare Jesus Christ and Caesar Augustus.

Before he was a Roman Emperor named Augustus, he was a young man named Octavian, born close to sixty years before Jesus. Octavian was not born as a king or an emperor or anything else. There was no way someone could have predicted what he would become.

Octavian’s grandmother was the sister of Julius Caesar and Caesar eventually adopted Octavian as his own.

Things really took off for Octavian when Julius Caesar was assassinated. Octavian and Mark Antony took their armies against those responsible for the murder. But that alliance didn’t last long and eventually Octavian fought and defeated Mark Antony. Octavian became the first emperor and was thenceforth known as Caesar Augustus. The name Augustus means “the illustrious one.” It obviously reflects his great humility.

So the first thing that we need to notice is how Augustus comes to power. It is through military might. First the defeat of his enemies and then the defeat of his allies. It is through violence that Augustus reigns.

One of the things that Augustus was known for was the creation of something called Pax Romana, often translated as Roman peace. For many of the lands found within the Roman Empire, they were experiencing peace for the first time. Conflict, based either on ethnic hatred or economic greed, came to an end for the first time in many generations. This sounds like a good thing and it is an impressive achievement. But at what cost?

Augustus didn’t create Pax Romana by convincing the people of the virtues of peace or by helping conflicted parties work through their conflicts. Roman peace was enforced through threats of violence. The message of Roman peace was this: “You will stop fighting with your neighbours or we will destroy you.” It worked. Most of the time.

Another thing that Augustus was known for was his working to strengthen morality. Augustus rightly understood that a society that was immoral to the core could not survive. Augustus attempted to build his empire on a solid foundation of moral virtue. He did this by legislating morality and punishing immoral acts with harsh penalties. To be fair to Augustus, he took these laws seriously and when his own daughter broke them, he had her exiled. Ultimately these laws failed to improve the morality of the

Luke 1:26-38

Can you think of specific people in your life that have been influential in your spiritual development? When I think about those who have helped me grow, I can think of a number of pastors and professors. Of all the people you thought about, how many were teenagers? I would like to suggest that there is a specific teenager that we can all learn from. Her name is Mary.

Based on Jewish traditions that we have, scholars believe that Mary was probably around thirteen or fourteen years old when she became pregnant with Jesus. Let that sink in. I was thirty-two years old when my first son was born and I felt very unprepared to be a parent. And my son was just a normal child, not the Son of God or Saviour of the world.

Yet Mary’s young age makes here example even more praiseworthy. But before going too far down that route, we need to acknowledge that protestants and Roman Catholics have different views of Mary. Roman Catholics have a very exalted view of Mary. They believe that she was born without sin, that she remained a virgin her entire life and she was taken up to heaven without having died. They also believe that she has an important role today, being someone whom you can go through to bring your needs to Jesus. Since none of those things are found in the Bible, we are going to look at Mary as a normal young woman who was called to take on an important role. I believe that by setting aside all of the later additions to Mary, we can find an example that is practical and relevant to our experience. We are going to look to Mary as a model for us of the Christian life.

Like Zechariah and Joseph, Mary was visited by an angel. These angelic visitations are such a familiar part of the Christmas story that we sometimes take them for granted. Angels visiting from heaven are just one of those things that happen.

What I see in this story about Mary is that she has an appropriate reaction and that is awe. Gabriel tells her not to be afraid, presumably because he could sense her reaction. This is not because she was only a young girl and was being silly. Experiencing God’s presence, even through an angel, is a big thing.

Have you ever been in the presence of great power? It could be something natural such as a waterfall. Or it could be manmade such as a nuclear power plant. Did you have a sense of awe being around it? Not necessarily fear, as if you were in danger, but a feeling of being near something very powerful?

At a previous church, we lived near a Canadian Forces training base. Sometimes as we were leaving for church, we would hear machine gun fire and other times we would hear artillery fire. We were near power. More than that, there was once an earthquake that took place under Georgian Bay that for some reason gave off a loud bang and shook our house. That was power.

What do we believe happens when we gather for worship? Do we believe that this is just about hearing Bible verses and singing Christian songs? Or do we believe that we are coming into God’s presence? And what is our reaction to that presence if we believe it?

Mary is our model. She experienced God’s presence and she demonstrated a sense of awe. I don’t see a fear in terms of terror, but an realistic concept of reverence and appreciation for what was taking place.

For all our talk of being in a personal relationship with Jesus and having God as our loving Father, all good th

Matthew 1:18-25

When I was a child growing up in church I would be one of the first to volunteer for one of the roles in the Sunday school Christmas pageant. It is not that I was a keener and that I loved being a part of it. I wanted to grab the best part before anyone else got it. What was the best part? Joseph.

Joseph was the best part because he didn’t have to say anything. All Joseph had to do was stand there beside Mary while wearing a bathrobe and a towel on his head. I didn’t want to get stuck with the role of angel because I would have to memorize lines.

While my attitude was a bit silly, Joseph doesn’t seem to grow in importance as we grow older. Yes, Joseph is represented in our nativity sets and Christmas art, but he is kind of the background decoration. Even the manger and straw seem more important than Joseph. But is that fair? Could we have a Christmas story without Joseph? Since Joseph didn’t play a role in the conception of Jesus, does he matter at all? That is what we are going to look at.

I mentioned that I liked playing Joseph because I didn’t have to say any lines in the Christmas pageant. I only realized this week that Joseph doesn’t even get lines in the Bible. Joseph only appears in the first chapters of Matthew and Luke. We are told by the narrator what Joseph was intending or what he did, but no words are put in his mouth. We have Zechariah and Elizabeth, who are arguably less important to the story, making statements. Even the shepherds and magi are given words to speak. Mary has plenty to say. Even as a young boy, when Jesus went missing in the temple, it is Mary who speaks on behalf of herself and Joseph. Joseph is completely silent. Isn’t that strange?

After the story of young Jesus in the temple, Joseph never appears again. We are told about interactions with Mary, as well as with the brothers and sisters of Jesus. But no Joseph. Why is that? The assumption is that Joseph likely died sometime between when Jesus was twelve-years old and when he started his ministry around the age of thirty. That is significant. This means that Jesus understood loss. We shouldn’t think that Jesus didn’t feel much, since Joseph was only the adoptive father. As a person who was adopted by my father and as a father who has adopted children, I can tell you that the adoptive relationship is as close as the biological relationship. We should be careful to not speculate too much, but how did Jesus feel watching Joseph die, knowing that eventually he would be raising some total strangers from the dead.

There is something attractive to me about the way Joseph is portrayed in the Gospels. There are those of us who enjoy the spotlight. It is exciting to be front and centre and to be the one making everything happen. But there are also those of us that enjoy being in the background. We like to be quiet and behind the scenes. It is not about being lazy, it is about having a different sort of impact. For such as these, the example of Joseph is meaningful. Joseph could easily be the patron saint of the strong but silent type.

So if Joseph doesn’t get any lines in the Gospels, does that make him unimportant? Is he just decoration like the animals that are standing around the manger? I would like to suggest that Joseph was one of the most important figures at the birth of Jesus and it couldn’t have happened without him.

Like Zechariah before him and Mary around the same time, Joseph receives an ang