The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera
The Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 21, 2025
In this sermon, you are invited to reflect on Joseph’s brief but influential role in the Christmas story—a story marked by trust, courage, and quiet faithfulness. Though Joseph speaks no recorded words in scripture, his actions reveal a deep attentiveness to God and a willingness to step into uncertainty for the sake of love. His story invites us to consider how God works through humility, obedience, and grace.
Joseph’s short story
Mark’s gospel doesn’t have a nativity story; John’s gospel is cosmological; Luke’s narrative focuses on Mary; today Matthew wants us to know about Joseph - that he, too, was the recipient of an annunciation, a heavenly message about the birth of Jesus. There are not a lot of paintings about this encounter - Tissot, Rembrandt and Goya have one; all show Joseph asleep attended by an angel speaking in his ear. One painting shows the angel holding the scroll from Isaiah we heard today.
The annunciation to Joseph came after Joseph knew of Mary’s pregnancy and had resolved to reject her as his spouse. It is likely that his sleep was troubled; one ancient painting titled the Anxiety of St. Joseph has him leaning across his workbench, hands clasped and a stressed face.
Scripture carries Joseph’s story only so far. He disappears from the biblical narrative when Jesus was about 12 and so it is assumed that he was an old man when he took Mary as his wife and that he died before Jesus was an adult and began his ministry. What we do know about his ‘short story’ is given in these first chapters of Matthew; Joseph listened to this message from God and must have pondered over it the way Mary did.
Joseph showed up for this journey of faith; it will not be the only time he steps up. Joseph did as the angel mandated - he took Mary legally as his wife and Jesus became his legitimate child. He named the child born of Mary - Jesus - becoming his father, adopting, carrying, saving, teaching, loving, supporting them both.
We could say Jesus had two daddies - calling them both Abba. There are more paintings of Joseph holding the infant Jesus, presenting him with Mary for circumcision, walking them to Egypt to escape Herod’s murderous intent to eliminate rivals for his kingship, and fetching Jesus from his place among a council of elders at the temple. But today, we have Joseph’s dream, God’s message to him to fashion this family for God’s purpose. We do not have a verbal response - no magnificat; he is silent and he acts much like an earlier Joseph as protector, as someone whose actions saved his family.
Several years ago a child newborn, perhaps stillborn, was found on Christmas Day in a cemetery in Massachusetts. No mother was discovered although the police tried. These first responders named the child, held a funeral, buried him and erected a headstone. They named him Joseph. Every year they searched; every year there was a memorial service. One year they had to hold me up an icy hillside to the grave because I had worn my big girl shoes. These men and women lived into the witness of Joseph, adopting a child not their own, protecting him from anonymity, doing what they could despite a desire to punish his mother. They too were mostly silent but stepped into a circumstance beyond their control and they were faithful and loving; their actions spoke of faith; they became Joseph’s parents; they remembered him.They resembled him.
Earlier in Matthew’s gospel there is an unusual genealogy which includes some women and a nod to Joseph’s descent biologically from King David. Jesus’ descent in Luke highlights the priestly heritage of Mary so Jesus will be king and priest and it all began with dreams and visits from heavenly messengers.
One year as we were assembling the manger scene we couldn’t find Joseph. It turned out he was in a box in the basement with some rejected kings, no doubt in discussion about Jesus. In a play by Dorothy Sayers, He That Should Come, Joseph is in dialogue with other religious men. He would be waiting outside the birthing as no man was permitted at the birth itself.
The year we had to search for Joseph we had constructed a frame around the pulpit for all the figures so that they could be seen more clearly and to serve as prompts for the sermons. On Christmas Eve as families came forward for communion someone bumped the scaffolding and Joseph fell. He was caught in the arms of a child we had never seen at church before - and we never saw again.
The Joseph Matthew wants us to see today was caught in the arms of the child Jesus. And we should not forget his short story.
There are many Josephs in our midst - those who are silent and strong, those who are faithful and steadfast. They show up to face hard times and circumstances for the sake of Love, because it is the right thing to do. They know that God is underneath it all, and they pay attention to what is required.
We are always given an opportunity to be a part of the life stories of others; who knows what will be birthed because of that.
And we are listening in the dark for what we never expected to hear; God speaks a word., maybe even a short story.
Amen.
The Rev. Dr. Linda Privitera
St. John’s Cathedral,
Jacksonville, Fl.
