You can listen to this reflection here. Today's gospel reading is here.
I wonder if we would have as vivid a sense of Jesus’ humanity if the Gospels never showed him to us as an adolescent, seeking his independence, schooling a bunch of adults, giving his parents some “lip.” Only Luke tells this story, and we rarely hear it in church, but it gives us our only picture of Jesus before he turns up at the Jordan at the age of 30 as a full-fledged adult about to embark on God’s mission. Here we see a tantalizing glimpse into how that mission may have been unfolding in him.
This vignette takes place at Passover, when Jesus’ family go to Jerusalem with friends and relations to celebrate the holy days. When they start their return journey, Jesus stays behind without telling anyone; his parents assume he’s with others in the entourage and for a full day no one notices he’s not with them. Frantic, his parents return to Jerusalem and search high and low for three days and where do they find him?
After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, ‘Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.’ He said to them, ‘Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?’
Only a teenager could so blithely ignore the emotional turmoil of his family, arrogantly sure he is right. “What’s wrong with you guys? Didn’t you read my mind?” (I kind of hear him say these words in the voice of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory..) But of course this is Jesus, son of God and son of Mary – so in a sense he is right, just stating facts.
I wonder how those words landed on his parents. They must have held all those prophecies about their firstborn in their hearts all these years, perhaps hoping they would never be realized. Did those words, “My Father’s house” strike fear into Mary’s heart, pain into Joseph’s? Luke says only, But they did not understand what he said to them. Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.
Mary had to do a lot of treasuring things in her heart, the gifts as well as the ache and anxiety about when that sword would pierce her heart. But it appears that after this incident, things returned to normal in that household in Nazareth. Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour, had friends, went to parties and weddings, and presumably took up a position in his earthly father’s business. Until he took his position in his heavenly father’s business.
That is where we will meet him next in the Gospels.
© Kate Heichler, 2026. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
Showing posts with label mary and Joseph. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mary and Joseph. Show all posts
12-19-25 - Change of Plans
You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.
Those who have grown up with the Christian tradition have long since accepted the implausible impossibles at the heart of our Christmas story. We either accept them as “gospel truth,” or as narratives given authority by centuries of holy use, or at least as a great story. Do we even blink anymore at hearing that a young girl might become pregnant “by the Holy Spirit,” and be supported by a man who had every reason to quit her but stayed because an angel told him to?
It has become so ingrained as “that’s how the story goes,” it can be hard to experience the wonder and fear such events might evoke. A few years ago I was inspired by a crazy “What if….” What if God had decided that Joseph would bear the son of God? I mean, if we’re talking about the God for whom nothing is impossible, why not go there? I wrote this up as a somewhat playful short sermon drama that I’ve only once dared to have performed in church; I wanted to ratchet up the sense of dislocation this story should elicit in us.
Joseph and Mary experienced a radical change of plans. Their future looked all set – they were engaged, would soon be married; Joseph had a good living as a builder, Mary was young and healthy. The plan looked good.
Except God had a different plan – a way, way bigger plan. A plan that required an unbelievable amount of faith, to believe in something that could not possibly be proven in any empirical way. A plan that demanded an inconceivable amount of courage, to defend a “conceiving” that looked an awful lot like sin and betrayal. A plan that would bring some joy, yes, and also a great deal of heartache and uncertainty.
Those who have grown up with the Christian tradition have long since accepted the implausible impossibles at the heart of our Christmas story. We either accept them as “gospel truth,” or as narratives given authority by centuries of holy use, or at least as a great story. Do we even blink anymore at hearing that a young girl might become pregnant “by the Holy Spirit,” and be supported by a man who had every reason to quit her but stayed because an angel told him to?
It has become so ingrained as “that’s how the story goes,” it can be hard to experience the wonder and fear such events might evoke. A few years ago I was inspired by a crazy “What if….” What if God had decided that Joseph would bear the son of God? I mean, if we’re talking about the God for whom nothing is impossible, why not go there? I wrote this up as a somewhat playful short sermon drama that I’ve only once dared to have performed in church; I wanted to ratchet up the sense of dislocation this story should elicit in us.
Joseph and Mary experienced a radical change of plans. Their future looked all set – they were engaged, would soon be married; Joseph had a good living as a builder, Mary was young and healthy. The plan looked good.
Except God had a different plan – a way, way bigger plan. A plan that required an unbelievable amount of faith, to believe in something that could not possibly be proven in any empirical way. A plan that demanded an inconceivable amount of courage, to defend a “conceiving” that looked an awful lot like sin and betrayal. A plan that would bring some joy, yes, and also a great deal of heartache and uncertainty.
- What plans of yours have been disrupted – by God, or by the choices of others, or by circumstances beyond your control? Have you grieved those lost plans? It’s worth naming them, if only to better let them go.
- How creative and resilient were you in adapting to the new circumstances? Have you adjusted yet?
- What is your prayer in response to plan changes?
- Where do you sense the Holy Spirit’s involvement in your life?
- Can you glimpse a bigger plan in what has happened? Name it.
Looking back, sometimes we can see blessing in what came about instead of our plans. In It’s a Wonderful Life, George Bailey discovers that his continually laying aside his life plans made him not a failure, but a blessing to countless people, including himself. It is considered a holiday film because of its Christmas climax – but it also echoes the challenges facing Mary and Joseph in our nativity story.
I surely hope they were blessed by the new trajectory of their lives as they embraced God’s plan. I firmly believe that the world has been blessed by them. I have been. Here's how their conversation with the angel might have gone...
GABRIEL: Look, I know this is not what you were expecting. And I can’t promise that it’s all going to be easy from here on out. This plan of God’s – it’s complicated, and it’s not all happy endings along the way… though hang on for the real ending. That’s a doozy. You’re going to face adversity and hardship and challenge—
JOSEPH: Keep going, pal – you’re really selling it!
GABRIEL: But you’ll also find you’re right at the heart of God’s greatest gift to the world. God is all-powerful, yet God cannot set this story in motion without both of you. It’s going to take tremendous faith, but I assure you, it’s a heck of a story.
MARY: Do we have a choice? Feels like this pregnancy is already well underway.
GABRIEL: You have a choice in how you respond… Will you walk into the story? Will you exercise your faith? Will you hold each other when one of you starts to doubt? Will you let love be your answer?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
I surely hope they were blessed by the new trajectory of their lives as they embraced God’s plan. I firmly believe that the world has been blessed by them. I have been. Here's how their conversation with the angel might have gone...
GABRIEL: Look, I know this is not what you were expecting. And I can’t promise that it’s all going to be easy from here on out. This plan of God’s – it’s complicated, and it’s not all happy endings along the way… though hang on for the real ending. That’s a doozy. You’re going to face adversity and hardship and challenge—
JOSEPH: Keep going, pal – you’re really selling it!
GABRIEL: But you’ll also find you’re right at the heart of God’s greatest gift to the world. God is all-powerful, yet God cannot set this story in motion without both of you. It’s going to take tremendous faith, but I assure you, it’s a heck of a story.
MARY: Do we have a choice? Feels like this pregnancy is already well underway.
GABRIEL: You have a choice in how you respond… Will you walk into the story? Will you exercise your faith? Will you hold each other when one of you starts to doubt? Will you let love be your answer?
© Kate Heichler, 2025. To receive Water Daily by email each morning, subscribe here. Here are the bible readings for next Sunday. Water Daily is also a podcast – subscribe to it here on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast platform.
12-18-13 - Field of Dreams
Every once in awhile I have a dream that, upon my waking, stays with me in vivid detail, with a message that I sense has come from God rather than from my sub-conscious. I call those “God dreams.” I’ve had maybe three or four.
Joseph had a LOT of them! Like his namesake, the Joseph with the jealous brothers and the woven cloak, the New Testament Joseph received regular angelic communications through his dreams. Unlike the Joseph of yore, however, whose dreams were symbolic and required interpretation, Joseph of Nazareth gets clear instructions, “Do this,” “Go there,” “Don’t go there,” “Okay, it’s safe now…”
Now, in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, the angels just show up directly to people like Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds, unmediated by REM sleep and human processes. They’re just there – “Look out! Be not afraid!” The writer of Matthew either heard different stories, or maybe thought Luke was embellishing things, for in his telling the angels speak through dreams, though their messages agree with Luke’s. After Joseph learns of Mary’s premature pregnancy, and resolves to divorce her quietly, “…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’” In Luke, this is pretty much what Gabriel says to Mary. In Matthew, it is Joseph who receives the divine message. And he acts on it.
Have you ever had a “God dream?” What message did you discern? Did you act on it?
In what ways do you sense the Holy Spirit communicates with you? In prayer directly? Through events and coincidences? By a strong sense or urge to do or say something that bears good fruit? Through meditating on the Word of God? I have a friend who gets pop song lyrics in her head – always with a message that suggests answers or guidance.
I believe the Holy One is often messaging us. As we tune our receivers, we begin to discern those messages more often. And when we do, we check that our interpretation is consistent with what we read in Scripture, not contrary. We can also seek confirmation from others in our community of faith. If the Spirit suggests you do something radical, the Spirit will give someone else confirmation for you.
In Field of Dreams, one of my favorite movies of all time, an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella hears a whispered voice telling him to plow under a fruitful field of corn and build a ball park. This is economic and agricultural madness, and yet he is convinced of the voice’s reality. Equally crazed instructions follow, leading to the impossible reality that Shoeless Joe Jackson and other baseball greats of yore, now dead, start coming through the corn to play on the field and interact with Ray and his family. Ray’s wife supports him following these instructions – but it’s hard. At a crucial point, when she’s ready to give up, they both have the same dream one night, giving them the confirmation they need to stay on this seemingly insane course and follow where it leads.
Where it leads, ultimately, is to love, to reunion and reconciliation and restoration.
Which is where all God dreams ultimately lead… Joseph’s, and mine, and yours.
Joseph had a LOT of them! Like his namesake, the Joseph with the jealous brothers and the woven cloak, the New Testament Joseph received regular angelic communications through his dreams. Unlike the Joseph of yore, however, whose dreams were symbolic and required interpretation, Joseph of Nazareth gets clear instructions, “Do this,” “Go there,” “Don’t go there,” “Okay, it’s safe now…”
Now, in Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, the angels just show up directly to people like Zechariah, Mary, the shepherds, unmediated by REM sleep and human processes. They’re just there – “Look out! Be not afraid!” The writer of Matthew either heard different stories, or maybe thought Luke was embellishing things, for in his telling the angels speak through dreams, though their messages agree with Luke’s. After Joseph learns of Mary’s premature pregnancy, and resolves to divorce her quietly, “…an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’” In Luke, this is pretty much what Gabriel says to Mary. In Matthew, it is Joseph who receives the divine message. And he acts on it.
Have you ever had a “God dream?” What message did you discern? Did you act on it?
In what ways do you sense the Holy Spirit communicates with you? In prayer directly? Through events and coincidences? By a strong sense or urge to do or say something that bears good fruit? Through meditating on the Word of God? I have a friend who gets pop song lyrics in her head – always with a message that suggests answers or guidance.
I believe the Holy One is often messaging us. As we tune our receivers, we begin to discern those messages more often. And when we do, we check that our interpretation is consistent with what we read in Scripture, not contrary. We can also seek confirmation from others in our community of faith. If the Spirit suggests you do something radical, the Spirit will give someone else confirmation for you.
In Field of Dreams, one of my favorite movies of all time, an Iowa farmer named Ray Kinsella hears a whispered voice telling him to plow under a fruitful field of corn and build a ball park. This is economic and agricultural madness, and yet he is convinced of the voice’s reality. Equally crazed instructions follow, leading to the impossible reality that Shoeless Joe Jackson and other baseball greats of yore, now dead, start coming through the corn to play on the field and interact with Ray and his family. Ray’s wife supports him following these instructions – but it’s hard. At a crucial point, when she’s ready to give up, they both have the same dream one night, giving them the confirmation they need to stay on this seemingly insane course and follow where it leads.
Where it leads, ultimately, is to love, to reunion and reconciliation and restoration.
Which is where all God dreams ultimately lead… Joseph’s, and mine, and yours.
12-17-13 - Best Laid Plans
Here in North America, it is winter – which means plans we make are always subject to change due to weather. This past Saturday, the Interfaith Council and my congregation had planned a large-scale service of hope and healing on the anniversary of the Newtown tragedy. The plans included many musicians, choirs, clergy, a senator or two, even satellite parking provisions. We’d worked on it for weeks. And then it snowed. Hard. With ice. We had to reschedule for the next night. We carried it off, with fewer participants and a smaller crowd (and still the mayor and a senator…). It was beautiful. But not quite what we had planned.
This trivial example pales in comparison to the change of plans Joseph and Mary experienced in our faith story. Their future was set – they were engaged, would soon be married; Joseph had a good living as a carpenter, Mary was young and healthy. The plan looked good.
Except God had a different plan – a way, way bigger plan. A plan that required an unbelievable amount of faith, to believe in something that could not possibly be proven in any empirical way. A plan that demanded an inconceivable amount of courage, to defend a “conceiving” that looked an awful lot like sin and betrayal. A plan that would bring some joy, yes, and also a great deal of heartache and uncertainty.
What plans of yours have been disrupted – by God, or by the choices of others, or by circumstances beyond your control? Have you grieved those lost plans? It’s worth naming them, if only to better let them go.
Looking back, sometimes we can see blessing in what happened instead of our plans, though not always. (Today's country song link is Garth Brooks’ Unanswered Prayers – not a profound song, but somewhat apt...)
How creative and resilient were you in adapting to the new circumstances? Have you adjusted yet?
Maybe you’re in the midst of a life-long “plan change.” I, for instance, thought I’d be married. I’m not…. Yet. Some of us thought we’d have careers that we don’t, or illness or other choices have resulted in a change of direction.
What is your prayer in response to your plan changes? Where do you sense the Holy Spirit’s involvement in your life? Can you glimpse a bigger plan in what has happened? Name it.
The big movie statement on this is It’s a Wonderful Life, as George Bailey discovers that his continually setting aside his life plans has made him not in failure, but a blessing to countless people, including himself. It is considered a holiday film because of its big Christmas climax – but it also echoes the challenges facing Mary and Joseph in our nativity story.
I surely hope they were blessed by the new trajectory of their lives as they embraced God’s plan.I believe with all my heart that the world has been blessed by them. I have.
This trivial example pales in comparison to the change of plans Joseph and Mary experienced in our faith story. Their future was set – they were engaged, would soon be married; Joseph had a good living as a carpenter, Mary was young and healthy. The plan looked good.
Except God had a different plan – a way, way bigger plan. A plan that required an unbelievable amount of faith, to believe in something that could not possibly be proven in any empirical way. A plan that demanded an inconceivable amount of courage, to defend a “conceiving” that looked an awful lot like sin and betrayal. A plan that would bring some joy, yes, and also a great deal of heartache and uncertainty.
What plans of yours have been disrupted – by God, or by the choices of others, or by circumstances beyond your control? Have you grieved those lost plans? It’s worth naming them, if only to better let them go.
Looking back, sometimes we can see blessing in what happened instead of our plans, though not always. (Today's country song link is Garth Brooks’ Unanswered Prayers – not a profound song, but somewhat apt...)
How creative and resilient were you in adapting to the new circumstances? Have you adjusted yet?
Maybe you’re in the midst of a life-long “plan change.” I, for instance, thought I’d be married. I’m not…. Yet. Some of us thought we’d have careers that we don’t, or illness or other choices have resulted in a change of direction.
What is your prayer in response to your plan changes? Where do you sense the Holy Spirit’s involvement in your life? Can you glimpse a bigger plan in what has happened? Name it.
The big movie statement on this is It’s a Wonderful Life, as George Bailey discovers that his continually setting aside his life plans has made him not in failure, but a blessing to countless people, including himself. It is considered a holiday film because of its big Christmas climax – but it also echoes the challenges facing Mary and Joseph in our nativity story.
I surely hope they were blessed by the new trajectory of their lives as they embraced God’s plan.I believe with all my heart that the world has been blessed by them. I have.
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