Advent- Week 1 "A Carpenter named Joseph."

So, even though it’s not “officially” Advent yet, my Christmas tree is up! (And, I’m willing to bet that I’m not alone!) We are going to go ahead and get a jump on our Advent study by beginning today! We will be looking at a chapter each week from Adam Hamilton’s Faithful: Christmas through the eyes of Joseph. You definitely don’t need the book to participate in the weekly devotionals and discussion, but feel free to pick up a copy as a supplement, as I know that my summary won’t be near as effective as reading the week’s chapter in its entirety!

Chapter 1: A Carpenter named Joseph

Matthew 13:54-56

54 Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. 55 “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? 56 Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?”

     Hamilton opens his book with a chapter on Joseph, and the influence that he must have had on Jesus. There is some historic debate about how old Joseph was -- some historians say that he was an elderly widower, while some say that he was of “normal” marrying age for the time, so 15-17 years old. The Bible doesn’t specifically mention Joseph’s age, or how old he was when he died, but we do know that he was around at least until Jesus was 12 years old, and left in the temple.

     The Bible tells us that Joseph was a carpenter, and we have to think that it wasn’t by accident that God didn’t “choose a priest, an educated scribe or lawyer, a physician or successful businessman,” or even a master architect or builder. God chose a humble carpenter to serve in the role as Jesus’ earthly father, just as He had chosen the youngest and scrawniest of Jesse’s sons to become King David. “God continued that pattern, looking at the heart and choosing an unlikely hero for the important mission of raising the Messiah.”

     Hamilton turns the focus of the chapter toward thinking about how fathers, stepfathers, grandfathers, and other men have shaped our lives. “For some of us, that role is powerful, positive, and beautiful; for others, it may have been difficult and painful. However our fathers have shaped us, we are their children in ways we may not fully realize.”

     I think we can probably all think of lessons, positive, negative, or even in absentia, that we have learned from our fathers. While good fathers model the image of God as a father, dads that struggle with fatherhood sometimes can skew our view of God as a father. If we have more negative than positive views of our fathers, we can sometimes be slower to want to have a relationship with another type of “father” in God.

     And in our context at Methodist Family Health, I think it’s a fair assumption that many of the clients in our care are probably also struggling with their relationships with their fathers, step-fathers, etc…

“None of us has been asked to do what Joseph did in raising the Messiah. But every mother, father, stepmother, stepfather, grandma, grandpa” (etc….) “has been asked to raise children of God, to show them a picture of God’s love and mercy, and to teach them intentionally what it means to be God’s children. When we do that, we follow the example of a righteous man, Joseph of Nazareth.”

     For those of us who have children  I think this is true, but it can certainly also be true as we interact daily with kids who are in our care at MFH, and who are hurting and may need some extra pictures of what it means to daily walk with Christ.

(All quotes were taken from "Faithful" by Adam Hamilton.) 

Questions for Discussion

-          What did you learn from your dad (or stepdad, grandfather, mentor, etc….)?

-          What lesson are you trying to teach those in you care (whether it be children in your custody, children in your family, or kids you work with?)