Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands;
Collect for Saint Joseph, BCP page 239
There are three churches in our relatively small diocese that are named for Saint Mary, but none that claim Saint Joseph as their patron saint. That is not uncommon, there are many fewer churches throughout the Church named for Saint Joseph than for his beloved wife. While Mary is certainly worthy of all the attention and praise Christians heap upon her for her willingness to say yes to God’s call to bear a son who would grow up to be the savior of the world, much was asked of Joseph as well. Remember Mary was found to be with child before she and Joseph had slept together. Not wanting to embarrass her, Matthew tells us Joseph planned to quietly divorce her until an angel came to him in a dream and urged him to not to be afraid to take Mary as his wife, explaining that the child she carried had been conceived from the Holy Spirit. So Joseph stayed with her. After the birth and the visit from the wise men another angel appeared to Joseph and urged him to take his wife and infant son and flee to Egypt because the baby was in danger. Again, he obeyed. From other references to “the parents" or "his parents", we know that Joseph was both a faithful Jew and a caring parent to Jesus as he grew up. In short, Joseph played an important, if behind the scenes role, in raising the man who came to be known as the Messiah, Son of the living God.
While some people crave the spotlight, others are quite comfortable playing an important role in the lives of others and even the world in general while not necessarily ever being recognized for their efforts. Indeed, many people prefer to live a lifetime of largely unrecognized service than to have to deal with the pressure that comes with being the one in charge. This is a good thing of course, because without followers no leader would ever have been able to accomplish anything. That is as true for Jesus as for anyone currently offering up sound bites on the evening news. Perhaps then, the reason Joseph's feast day falls on March 19th, which is always during Lent, is because this is the time of year when we traditionally focus on how we live our lives, to what degree we’re willing to put the good of the community - be that family or company, congregation or nation, ahead of our own personal ambitions. I have read that on the outside wall of the Episcopal Church Center in New York are the words “whose service is perfect freedom”. I sense Joseph was a man who would have identified strongly with that sentiment. I wonder how many of us could say the same.
