In touch	Check-in	Intercessions
In touch begins immediately below	Scroll down or click for Check-in	Subscribers only: see intercessions

 

In touch

Up-to-the-minute jumping-off points for sermons, linking the reading to the latest news and global issues

Where is Mary?

‘Do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife’ (Matthew 1:20) – where is she in all this?

Context

Matthew’s Gospel tells the story of the Incarnation almost exclusively from Joseph’s perspective. We are told about his feelings on discovering that Mary ‘was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit’ but nothing about the consequences for a young woman, perhaps little more than a child, who was carrying the Saviour within her own womb.

We forget the woman’s part, we dismiss women, we discount them and belittle them. In every age they have been put down. Surely this must cease! Fortunately, Luke gave us a perspective which included more about the person who carried the child for nine months!

Mercifully, women are at long last becoming visible.

• The Queen Consort has spoken about sexual violence against women.
• The wife of Ukraine’s president spoke in Parliament about violence to women in war.
• A former police chief has reported the threats made against the Duchess of Sussex.
• Unrest in Iran began 10 weeks ago following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating the strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab. Since then, hundreds of young women have dared to challenge the authorities about the constraints placed on women. They chant ‘You are the filth, you are the immoral, I am a free woman.’
• There are protests in Afghanistan about restrictions placed on women by the Taliban.
• Families in which women have been murdered are demanding a change in the way police deal with the cases.
• At the men’s football world cup, a great deal of fuss was made over the wearing of armbands supporting the gay community while, under the radar, women referees triumphed unobtrusively, in wearing no head covering and short sleeves, without any challenge from anyone. It is high time we had women refereeing the English FA as they appear to reduce confrontation! Congratulations to countries like France where women referees can develop and show their full potential as world class performers.
• As Frances O’Grady steps down after 10 years as the head of the TUC, she notes the important, but undervalued place women play today.
• The Sunday Times has a number of letters commenting on Hadley Freeman’s article, ‘When did feminism become a dirty word?’

 

Ideas for sermons or talks

Reading Matthew’s Gospel today, we are brought back to a world where women had no rights and men had all the privileges. Whatever feelings the woman who was carrying the child in her womb had, these are not part of Matthew’s account. Telling the story in this way may seem strange today. But equally, we can see in the news that men’s emotions are often ignored to the point where they are just expected to keep a stiff upper lip. As Netflix clearly reminds us, Prince Harry was expected to do so at his mother’s funeral. Men, and boys, shouldn’t be expected to bottle up their feelings even to the point where mental health suffers and the consequences can be life-threatening. In today’s Gospel note that, while Mary in Luke’s story is able to rejoice with Elizabeth, Joseph appears to suffer in lonely silence before making his decision.

In the birth of any child, huge emotions are at play, and the Gospels help us to appreciate this in the way they re-create what the writers imagine must have been happening: the expectations, the fears, and indeed the mysterious nature of their future. The event which would prove to be of earth-shattering importance, as revealed by the Gospel of John’s opening, recasting the whole story of creation (‘In the beginning was the Word…’, John 1:1), is told in the personal stories of Mary and Joseph. The immediate consequences of the incarnation are experienced first by them, and the stories are told with great tenderness and feeling.

 

Questions for discussion

• For any who are parents, do you recall your own emotions as you first became aware that a child would be born?
• Are we aware of the dangers to prospective parents and to the yet unborn child?
• How can we help prospective parents in the worries they face today?

Revd Dr Tom Ambrose is an Anglican priest in the Parish of the Ascension, Cambridge.

 

Check-in

Connecting faith with everyday, real-life issues for young people 

The Christmas story that we are preparing to celebrate at this time is in fact God’s story. Indeed, Jesus is the Son of God and is born of the Virgin Mary. In this week’s Gospel, we learn that the birth and, in particular, the naming of Jesus is at least partly contingent on Joseph’s agreement to name him as such. Indeed, it is this which would bring to fulfilment the prophecy that the child would be called Emmanuel – meaning God is with us. Joseph plays his part in the Christmas story – God’s story, by agreeing to not run away from Mary but accompany her through her pregnancy and to the birth of Christ. As the passage tells us, the easy and righteous thing would have been to walk away quietly and seek divorce. But he did not seek the easy and worldly path, but the spiritually right path, which was to endorse and support the fulfilment of prophecy.

In this way, I am reminded of the work and the witness which has been going on this week. I have experienced charity carol concerts, children singing carols on high streets, and heard of food banks and other initiatives preparing to feed the hungry and the lonely over Christmas. You may well have taken part in a nativity play or concert this week, or sent a Christmas card to someone you know. This might not appear to have the gravitas of accompanying Mary as Joseph did – but it acts in the same way – through this, you are playing your part in God’s story. The easy thing might be perhaps to stay at home in the warm, to do what you want to do – to do what is culturally popular. But it is in the performances and volunteering which marks this week in the year that we act as Joseph did. In our Christmas volunteering and celebrations which are heralding the birth of the God who is with us – we are playing our part in God’s story. Let this be our undertaking this Christmas season.

Joe Allen is a recent graduate of the University of Exeter (MA and BA Theology, 2022). He works as a Pastoral Assistant in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark and as a Coordinator and Trustee for various charities.

Hypertext links to other websites are for the convenience of users only and do not constitute any endorsement or authorisation by ROOTS for Churches Ltd.

The week in focus is also available via Twitter and facebook.

ROOTS publishes weekly lectionary-based worship and learning resources online and in two magazines. FIND OUT MORE.