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In this week of Christmas, may every person be touched in a special way by the message of hope Christmas brings. If you want to make this Christmas mean something, I invite you to have one primary response to the story of Jesus birth: Trust! Christmas is all about trust. The amazing story of Mary and Joseph, of the baby born in a barn, of shepherds claiming they heard angels sing good news to them in the darkness of night- it’s all meant to awaken in your heart a new capacity to trust: Trust your life is in good, loving hands. Trust there’s a good plan for us all, for you and for the whole world. Trust that despite injustice and evil, good will overcome. That there is a God of justice and peace, and that, as the Bible says, God is love. That God can be trusted.  That you’re reading this for a reason. That God’s hand of blessing is upon you, is working in your life in unseen ways to accomplish divine purposes. Even though there are many disappointments and heartaches, and much work is to be done to heal a broken world, nevertheless, trust. Just because you can’t always see the divine hand moving doesn’t mean nothing is happening. Trust.

 Trust is possible if you accept this astonishing story: God, who made this world and everything in it, mysteriously, wondrously entered into it some 2000 years ago, in order to achieve an amazing plan: to save this world from the human sin and evil that so damages it, and from the power of death to defeat us. Joseph was asked to trust the plan, to name the boy “Jesus” – which means one who saves – to be guardian of this One who is come to bring forgiveness for all our wrongs, acceptance of all into his family, righteousness in time, and a promise of an eternal life in which all things are made right, beginning already now.

 I like Joseph, this good man always trying to do the right thing. When he found out his finance was pregnant, he thought, “my trust has been broken; the right thing is to break off the marriage; but since I’m a good guy, I’ll do it quietly, and not put Mary at risk.” Seemed like a good plan to Joseph, only thing is, it wasn’t God’s plan. So he was given quite a dream. Isn’t it interesting that the angel had to come in a dream? Maybe Joseph’s conscious mind was so hurt and angry he just couldn’t even consider Mary’s version, let alone God’s. So Gabriel comes at night, when he’s asleep, when his defenses are lowered, and the angel whispers, “Joseph, don’t be afraid. Marry Mary. The child is of God. And you get to name him. Call him Jesus, the one who saves. Be his guardian.” That mind-blowing night Joseph learned that trusting like a child is often better than adult-like goodness, and that simple love is better than being right and will ultimately be the power to make things right.

 Can you trust God this Christmas? With your life? Your career? Your dreams?  Your worries? Your family? Your retirement? Your health? Your bills? Your disappointments? Often life deals us negative evidence, like Joseph thought he got when he found Mary was pregnant – confusion, disappointments,  losses, wars, poverty, troubles, sins, injustice, hurts and evils. But we need not allow these circumstances to destroy our hope nor our joy. Can anyone on their own really trust God against the dark negative realities we so often see and feel? Probably not. Not on our own. But like Joseph, we can be caught by a new dream, a promise of grace and justice and peace that calls us to dig deep into the soul and find the faith to live into the hope we are called to, to be guardians of those who are helpless, mistreated, or treated unjustly, believing that our words and our actions, like Joseph’s, can by God’s blessing make us powerful defenders and helpers and deliverers for all who have little voice or power – as little at times as a tiny baby, like the baby laying in the straw. We can trust the message of Christmas. Though God’s purposes and powerful plans often seem so small compared to the challenges to be faced, they are not. This is the Most High God come to earth to establish a kingdom unlike that of governors, presidents, kings, military or police. A kingdom against which not even the powers of hell can long come.

 How do we find the capacity to trust? Jesus said, Unless you become a little child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Why? Three reasons:

1) Children will depend on someone higher for everything needed. From within, like a child, we can depend on God’s promise to provide goodness and mercy every day of life; 

2) Children freely respond to love with a free and liberal love. From within, like children, let’s be set free by freely loving everyone, including our perceived enemies, and trusting God’s righteousness to always show up in the end; and

3) Children go with the plan. The angel spoke to the sleepy Joseph because in the fogginess of slumber his filters weren’t so strong and the child within could open up to the preposterous plans of God, and step out in faith. We, too, like sleepy kids, can hear the voice of heaven, calling us to take bold actions of defense and loving care for those we love, and for all who like baby Jesus find themselves helpless, trusting God to empower other ‘Josephs’ to defend us when we are weak, and then to make ‘Josephs’ of us as we boldly use our strengths for those weakened by life. This Christmas let all the ‘Josephs’ of God boldly trust God’s messages of hope, and then take action to support God’s saving purposes and plans wherever they seek redemption and hope for the world.

 Merry Christmas, one and all!

Frank