Joseph—Foster Father of God

We take such delight every Christmas at hearing, remembering, and telling again the story -- the prophecies, the journey on a donkey, the birth -- and the personalities -- John, the angel, innkeeper, Mary, Joseph, Jesus, shepherds, angels, Herod, wise men. The details from the gospels tend to blur into one grand story and tradition.

Even as a child I was taken with Joseph. He's always in the story, the Scripture, the Christmas pageants, the anthems, songs, and hymns. Even though he didn't have much to say in the children's Christmas play, I wanted to play Joseph. He impressed me with his quiet strength, his decisiveness, his protectiveness, his sense of duty. He always managed to do the right thing, even in difficult circumstances. At substantial personal and professional risk, he took in and cared for a young unwed mother and her fatherless child. Clearly, Joseph was, as he is described in the United Methodist Book of Worship service of Los Posadas (page267), "good Joseph."

For someone so important to the Christmas story, Joseph is not a big part of the hymns and songs of the season. If he gets a mention at all, it is usually in passing, as in, "Mary, Joseph, lend your aid" in "Angels We Have Heard on High" (UMH 238) or "Joseph and Mary mild, seated by the manger, watching the holy child" in "Sing We Now of Christmas" (UMH 237). In "One Holy Night in Bethlehem" (The Faith We Sing, 2097), we learn that at the birth of Jesus, Joseph was the attending and dutiful father, feeding the donkey, experiencing the joy of the birth, and thanking God. In a song named for Joseph, "Joseph Dearest, Joseph Mine" (The Faith We Sing, 2099), we find that Joseph helped Mary with the baby Jesus, and Mary prayed for God to reward Joseph in paradise, and that Joseph acknowledged that God's light will shine on both of them in paradise. Joseph's seeming insignificance in the songs of Christmas is revealed by the songs that do not even mention him: "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming," "Away in a Manger," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "What Child Is This," "Angels from the Realms of Glory," "In the Bleak Midwinter," "Infant Holy," "O Little Town of Bethlehem," "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks," "Silent Night," "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing," "The First Noel," "Joy to the World," and many others.

I imagine Joseph to be a good father to Jesus in his young, formative years, teaching him his skilled craft, helping him to increasingly accept responsibility. We don't know when, how, or why Joseph left. He is present at various events in Jesus' life as a child, but never as an adult. We surmise that Joseph died during the twenty years between Jesus' childhood and the beginning of his ministry. Mary is present throughout and even after Jesus' life, but Joseph is gone after the family visits the Temple in Jerusalem when Jesus is about twelve. Not a single word spoken by Joseph is quoted in any of the four gospels.

There are non-biblical stories and traditions. According to Catholic tradition, Joseph died in the arms of Jesus and Mary and is held up as a model of a pious believer who receives grace at the moment of death. Pope Pius IX named him patron of the Universal Church. Unofficially, he is patron against doubt and hesitation, patron saint of fighting Communism, and of a happy death. Tradition stresses Joseph's qualities of hard work, patience, and persistence. He is the patron saint of nations (China, Canada, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Vietnam, others), and of cities (Florence, Turin, Baton Rouge, Buffalo, Cheyenne, Louisville, Nashville, San Jose, Sioux Falls, others). (Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Joseph)

We non-Catholics have been mostly uncomfortable with the place given to Mary by the Catholic faith. And we also lack the tradition of the importance of Joseph. I believe we would do well with more hymns to sing about Joseph and his role as husband to Mary and foster father of God.