A difficult journey

I wasn’t supposed to host Mary and Joseph, although when I set up the project I hoped there’d be at least one date available for me to have them. Well, one of our hosts couldn’t arrange the pick up due to work commitments, so my hope has become a reality. My handwriting is awful, so I’m sitting at my computer at home with Mary and Joseph looking on…

I’ve just read all the diary entries. Wow! I’m so glad I took up this idea from a recent ministers’ meeting. The thoughts, reflections and the people in different places these royal visitors have inspired have been so encouraging to read.

I’m the kind of person who loves to travel. In comfort. I remember the first time I visited Ruth Hulser in Tabora. The journey was awful! 250 miles by train in 18 hours, most of which was under the hot African sun, was like being boiled alive! Arriving at 1.00am to be greeted by Ruth was a great relief. The distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem is about 80 miles but with Mary being 8-9 months pregnant it’s reckoned it took them anywhere between four and seven days to complete the journey (with or without the famous donkey which isn’t mentioned in the Bible!). That was not a comfortable journey. Hot during the day and cold at night. Rough tracks with danger lurking at every corner. And if Bethlehem had no spare rooms because many were travelling to their home towns, perhaps it wasn’t the only place to turn them away. Could it be that that kind of awful journey meant that Jesus was born premature? I mean, surely Joseph wouldn’t have set off if Mary only had a week to go?

Well, whatever the details of the story were, this was the toughest way to start life. The smiles on Mary and Joseph’s faces were surely not there during the journey. Grimace more like.

It’s a bit over-used, but our lives are like journeys. Jan and I have had cause to reflect on the twists and turns our life journeys have taken. If only we’d have stayed there, if we’d just have done that, instead of this, and so on. Fruitless exercise really. Sometimes the journey has been really tough. Like the journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Sometimes doubting that God was with us, sometimes knowing his presence so closely. Just imagine Mary and Joseph’s doubts when they finally got to Bethlehem and couldn’t find anywhere to stay, anywhere to have the baby promised by the angels. Please don’t tell me they said to each other “don’t worry, God knows what he’s doing”! No, but as we look back we can see God’s hand and strength at work and just as Mary “pondered all these things in her heart” and trusted God more and more, so should we make that same decision of faith.

 I need to explain these pictures! Both were taken not long after Mary and Joseph were given to me at Twinklers by Denise. The first one is the easiest to explain. Sue, Sally and Elaine are serving Twinklers with refreshments. Elaine looks as though she’s about to grab two mince pies, which I had hoped would be offered to Mary and Joseph, but there was no room for them in the Bunyan kitchen!

The second was taken at the sound desk at the back of church. I’d just told the toddlers about the story of Jesus’ birth with another Mary and Joseph, a pink teddy Mary and a brown teddy Joseph! I’m not sure the real Mary and Joseph were very impressed, but they were very polite and said nothing.

Dave Morris

Transcending time

Barbara handed Mary and Joseph over first thing this morning, but I left them in their box during Twinklers in case they ended up in the tea set box or garage. At the lunchtime church staff meeting at Sue H’s, they sat on a little table. We were talking and praying all about the Christmas activities at Bunyan and Great Ashby Community Church and I suddenly became aware of them next to me. Them in their time 2000 years ago and us here now: what would they make of it all? Yet without them we would not have been doing what we were doing, and that sudden sense of them seemed to transcend time.

Some have commented that Joseph looks rather oriental. It does not say  on  the box where they were made, only that they were made by craftsmen and are individual. Later, sitting on Pete & Kirsty’s mantelpiece with their nativity set, it was interesting to see how the same figures could be so different: Pete and Kirsty’s Mary and Joseph figures have darker skin and could be South American.

Mary and Joseph seeing another version of themselves

This evening they have sat on the television: that same television that has, rather than Jesus, become the focus of much of our time these days. Wednesday night is marked by Heroes, a story of people with fantastic powers, transcending time and space, and of the battle between good and evil.  And it contrasts the story of Mary and Joseph; lives of submission, humility and weakness. Ordinary lives of parenthood but punctuated with the inexplicable and the miraculous surrounding their son, out of their control. Not lives of comic-book heroes, but their faithfulness to their calling enabled something altogether more marvelous than the human mind can conceive.

Simon and Sue Odell

No settled place to be

Pauline brought my two visitors to me this morning while I was having a pastoral meeting with Dave. When she told us what a wonderful time she had had with Mary and Joseph I was concerned  because I was going to be out all day. Dave suggested that I took them with me.

 

The first place I went to was Margaret’s home where they sat on her dining room table while we prayed and prepared the programme for the Senior Citizens’ Carol Service next Tuesday. Then they went back in the box while I travelled to Baldock  to Joyce’s home. They sat on a table in Joyce’s office while we ate lunch, chatted and prayed. It reminded me that Mary and Joseph had no choice in where they had to go or where Jesus would be born but God was with them and directed their path.

 

Mary and Joseph stayed in their box while I did other visits, they didn’t come out until I arrived home, from a church membership class with Kim, at 8.30pm. They are now in the centre of the dining room table in our new home. Mary and Joseph had no settled place to be. No warm comfortable place for Jesus to be born in. Kim and I had just been reading 2 Corinthians 8: 1- 15. Verse 9 says;

 

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor that you through His poverty might become rich.”

 

Jesus gave up everything for you and for me so that we might know the riches of His grace!

 

Thank you Mary and Joseph for travelling with me today. 

 

Barbara Francis

Party!

Mary and Joseph went to a party with Pauline today!

Opening up this blog…

I can’t say I’m entirely surprised that this blog hasn’t taken off much so far. So here’s an idea: if anyone from Bunyan would like to post an entry here even though they’re not hosting Mary and Joseph on their journey, you’re more than welcome. Just email your thoughts on the theme of “making room for Mary and Joseph” to advent2008@bunyan.org.uk and I’ll arrange to get them online.

Trevor

The Journey begins…

Having set this blog up for Mary and Joseph’s Advent journey, I do wish it wasn’t me who was due to be the first contributor; it would be nice to see some other people’s contributions first. But fate (?) was not on my side: by the time I reached Dave and his list, the 1st of December was the only date left.

Mary and Joseph sit on top of our piano at home, having embarked on their journey. “Finding Time”, as we have been asked to do, is not easy – I have made my way to a quiet place in my lunch hour to write my thoughts in the journal (and now transcribe them here), and it has made me think about how little time I do make for God.

We’ve been asked to record our “thoughts and prayers”. Well, many who know me will be aware that my thoughts about God are mostly questions, and my prayers virtually non-existent. And when I refer to “questions”, it really all boils down to one question: “is there a God?” I have no clue at present. If advent is a time of waiting for, preparing for, and expecting Jesus, then perhaps it is a good reflection of my current state of questioning. Or maybe not: am I “waiting for Jesus”, or have I in fact long since given up on him?

I have described myself elsewhere as an “agnostic Christian”, and have also stated that “I don’t know whether I believe or not”. Both descriptions have been questioned: if I don’t know whether I believe, I have been told, then surely I do, in fact, not believe. I’m grateful for those who have assured me that it is quite possible - maybe even healthy – to be uncertain. What I do know is that I don’t want to pretend to believe something I do not.

Anyhow – I ramble as always. Here’s one hope and expectation I do have for Advent 2008: that as I see what others write in the journal and post here* I will read and see things that help me in my thoughts and questions.

Later this evening, Mary and Joseph will be moving on. I look forward to hearing of their progress. Oh, and a happy Advent to anyone who reads this.

Trevor Coultart

(*and please do post here if you feel able – there are instructions on how to do so in the front of the book, and you can be published anonymously if you prefer.)  

The journey starts here…

Mary and Joseph are about to embark on their advent journey around Stevenage. Those who have agreed to host the couple for one day in December have been asked to record their “thoughts and prayers” on the theme of “making space for Mary and Joseph”.

These writings are being compiled in a notebook which is journeying with the couple, but hosts are also being invited to have their thoughts published here so that others can read them throughout advent.

The journey starts on 1st December…