Today is the first day of the Season of Advent, a time of
preparation for the coming of the Christ Child. It is a time of new beginnings,
because it is the Church’s New Year. Advent is a time to pause, if only briefly,
amid all the secular preparations and be amazed that the Holy God loves us so
much that God became incarnate (was made human) to reconcile us to
relationship.
This Advent, I invite you to come with Mary and Joseph on their
journey to Bethlehem and explore what parallels there could be to our own
Advent journey.
We know the story of Mary and Joseph’s travels from the second
chapter of the Gospel of Luke. “In those
days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be
registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was
governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also
went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called
Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went
to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a
child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And
she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid
him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.”
The Gospel account is pretty sparse in details. What did
everyone think when they heard of the census? I can guess that there was a lot
of grumbling and likely even some cursing about the government wanting to count
the conquered people. Very likely there was a prayer for Messiah to come. The
Messiah as envisioned by the people would overthrow Rome and restore Israel, as
had happened under the Maccabees a couple centuries earlier.
On an individual level, though, there was preparation.
Because you had to return to your family home, Luke tells us, “Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth
in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was
descended from the house and family of David.” There were many routes the
family could have taken, and we’ll look at that next week. This week, we are
looking at the preparations for the journey.
What do you do when you are getting ready for a trip? Are
you one who plans out every detail and packs what is needed for rain or shine?
Or are you more laid back and just toss in a few changes of clothing and
underwear and hope for the best on the adventure?
Let’s think about what Mary and Joseph might have packed for
a journey of about 100 miles (about 10 days). They had the additional planning
for the likelihood of her child being born while they were away from Nazareth.
We don’t know if they needed to arrange for someone to care for any animals
they might have owned. Possibly they owned a sheep or 2 or a goat for milk.
They might have had a dog around the house and a cat in the wood shop to keep
down the mice. These weren’t the pampered pets we now have. They would have
been much more self-sufficient, especially the cat.
Tradition says that they owned a donkey and that Mary rode
that animal at least part of the way to Bethlehem. A donkey can carry about 100
pounds for a distance. If Mary rode, there wasn’t much opportunity to pile the
packs on the animal, too, so Joseph would have needed to carry their supplies
himself. An average man can carry 50-60 pounds, so the couple would need to
keep that in mind as they packed. Let’s imagine that they could only take as
much as can be put in a suitcase without paying extra weight charges at the
airport.
For the trip, they needed something to keep them clothed. It
is likely that they didn’t own very many changes of clothes, so it was not as
onerous a task as it is when we decide to pack for a trip. Perhaps a clean
tunic and a heavy outer robe that would also serve as a blanket would be all
the extra items needed.
Perhaps they carried along mats of some sort to sleep on at
night, so they wouldn’t have to lay directly on the ground. Maybe Joseph even
included the supplies for some kind of small tent to protect Mary from the
nightly elements.
Food for the trip was a necessity as there were not
convenient McDonald’s along the route to grab a snack. Nor were there handy
WalMarts to stop at to pick up supplies left behind. They could shop or trade
in village markets when they passed through, if they had the coins or items to
barter with.
Joseph probably took at least a few of his tools so that he
might earn some money or food by doing odd jobs along the way.
The couple would have taken some swaddling cloths and
blankets for the soon-to-arrive baby. However, they wouldn’t have been laden
with all the paraphernalia and gadgets that we think are essential for infants.
What do their preparations for the trip tell us about our
preparations for this Advent journey?
What kind of clothing do we need for our journey through
Advent? Do we need food or shelter? Are their tools we might need or special
items that we should take along?
Isaiah 61:10 tells us what kind of clothing God has prepared
for us. “…He has clothed me with garments
of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, As a bridegroom
decks himself with a garland, And as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
That’s pretty fancy clothing for a trip. However, this isn’t just any trip. We
are going to meet the King of Kings, our Bridegroom, the Son of the Living God!
We don’t have to worry about what to wear because God’s love already has us
covered.
What about tools? Let’s look at Ephesians 6:13-17 for some
things we can add to our outfit and carry as tools. “Put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you
may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the
breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the
readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up
the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of
the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which
is the word of God.” Our journey may be to the Wedding Banquet, but it is
not always an easy trek. Therefore, we need to be prepared with truth,
righteousness, and peace. Most of all we have the shield of faith, the helmet
of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit for protection.
Do we need to pack food for our Advent journey? Food is a
huge part of the secular celebrations of the season. What spiritual food should
we pack? In Isaiah 25:6 we hear, “The
LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain; A
banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, And refined, aged wine.”
Jesus tells his disciples, “I am the
living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he
will live forever; and the bread also which I will give for the life of the
world is My flesh.” (John 6:51) And of course, we have the Eucharist to
feed us as instituted by Jesus at the Last Supper.
In Exodus, the Israelites complained that they didn’t have
food, and God sent manna for them. It was a food they simply had to gather and
consume. We are offered a similar feast on our Advent journey. God will provide the food we need for the journey, if we are open to accepting
it. If we take time
to be on this journey, we will find that we are fed, and clothed, and led.
Do you have ideas of other things you would pack for this Advent journey with Mary and Joseph?
Next time, we’ll consider the actual road trip that Mary and
Joseph embarked on.
