In Matthew’s Gospel, it is Joseph who takes action to protect Mary and Jesus (Matthew 1.24; 2.14).
Context
1. Single parent families
- 26% of the world’s 7.8 billion population are under 15 years old; that’s over two billion children in total.
- Of these, 15%, or more than 304 million, live in single-parent families, 88% of which are headed by a mother.
- Historically, single-parent families have usually resulted from the death of a parent: sadly, often the mother during childbirth. Improved conditions, however, have not reduced the incidence of single parent families for many other reasons. The countries with the highest proportions are currently the United States (25.8%), Ireland (24.3%), New Zealand (23.7%), Canada (22.1%) and the United Kingdom (21.5%).
2. Refugees
- Almost 71 million babies and children, women and men have been unwillingly uprooted from their homes and are living as asylum seekers or refugees this Christmastide; twice as many as there were just twenty years ago. The past year alone has seen 2.3 million added to the total.
- This month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres called on the global community ‘to re-establish the integrity of the international refugee protection regime’, and continued, ‘Indeed, at a time when the right to asylum is under assault, when so many borders and doors are being closed to refugees, when even child refugees are being detained and divided from their families, we need to reaffirm the human rights of refugees.’
Reflection
1. Why does Joseph’s commitment to Mary matter so much?
- In St Matthew’s Gospel, Joseph finds that his fiancée Mary is pregnant with someone else’s child. The social norms of his time provide him with two options: either to punish her for her perceived infidelity by breaking off their engagement publicly, with all the associated shame and humiliation, or to ‘dismiss her quietly’, ending their betrothal but limiting the social stigma she will incur.
- God, however, reveals to Joseph a third option: that he marry Mary, bring up her child as his own, and risk sharing her social stigma.
- Many single parents today experience social norms little different from those of two thousand years ago. Political rhetoric and actions have added to the discrimination directed against them and their children.
Surely this cannot be the will of God.
2. Why does the flight into Egypt matter so much?
- Within two years, Joseph is faced with another all-but-impossible decision. Acknowledging the will of God again, he turns his family into refugees. Their journey to Egypt was at least 150 miles long, and quite possibly twice or three times that distance if they travelled with traders, for safety, along one of the traditional caravan routes.
- The story clearly implies that the Holy Family was permitted to enter and settle in Egypt. The country imported almost all its timber, so we might speculate that Joseph’s foreign carpentry skills made him an attractive immigrant.
- Today, millions of refugees and asylum seekers are unable to exercise their professions or trades, while those granted legal status often find only low-skilled and low-paid work, irrespective of their qualifications.
Surely this cannot be the will of God.
Prayer
God of love,
hear the cries of children around the world.
Hear the mourning, screams, silent voices of fear and pain.
How many tears and how much more blood will bring us a sense that we are all your children, no matter what race, nationality, religion, class and gender?
God of mercy,
forgive our sins of selfishness and insecurity that make us seek self-protection and power over others first.
Grant us courage today to listen to your call of protecting, nurturing, and loving the most vulnerable ones among us so that we may be a messenger of your peace in the world.
The Rev. Hikari Kokai Chang, Regional Missionary, Wesley Foundation in Japan
From Prayers for the children of the world © 2019 United Methodist Women.
Questions
- What might have happened if Joseph had broken off his engagement to Mary?
- What do the Gospels teach us about who constitutes our ‘family’?
- What prevents us, as individuals, communities and societies, from caring for other people’s children as Joseph cared for Jesus?
- What might have happened if the authorities had refused to allow the Holy Family to enter and settle in Egypt?
- What are our own backgrounds, in terms of recent or distant family origins?
- How have we, as individuals, communities and societies, benefitted from the skills, training and experience of immigrants?
All-age activity
Invite older and younger people to talk about their about experiences of early childhood and/or parenting babies and small children, and ask people to talk about the perceived advantages and disadvantages of being a small child or a new parent in different situations they have known, e.g. different countries or cultures, wartime, post-war rationing, or pre- and post- the advent of television or home computing.
Invite them to discuss and agree a list of material and non-material ‘essentials’ and ‘desirables’ for babies, young children and new parents.
If you have time, invite them to use the list to talk about the meaning of childhood ‘deprivation’, what may be done to alleviate it, and how they might support this work.
Young people
Invite the group to talk about how new babies make them feel and what new babies need, encouraging suggestions about non-material as well as material needs.
Explain that not all babies are born into situations of love and security.
Introduce the work of an organisation that cares for babies and children, e.g. Barnardos, the Children’s Society, Unicef, Childline, the NSPCC or a local charity, and invite or make suggestions for how your Church might support this work.
Robert Beard is a Church of England priest and freelance writer.
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