It's easy to overlook Joseph. The Bible doesn’t say much about him. In fact in all four gospels, he never speaks, not one syllable. He just stands there silently in the background of Christmas cards and pageants, nearly always overshadowed by Mary, Jesus’ mother. Even the shepherds and the wise-men get more press. Joseph just takes his place in the story without any songs or speeches, trudging slowly but stably along that road from Galilee to Bethlehem.

John the Baptist is a burr in your saddle, the car alarm you can’t turn off, that boorish uncle or ill-natured aunt at your holiday dinner—unpleasant, embarrassing and unwelcome, something you’d just as soon not be part your holiday celebrations. There’s a reason you don’t see ole ‘wild-eyed John’ on Christmas cards or as an inflatable character on peoples’ front lawns. He just doesn’t fit in next to Santa, Frosty and Rudolph. He doesn’t jibe with the Christmas spirit. 

Time is a major concern in our lessons this morning from Paul and Matthew. “You know what time it is,” Paul writes to the church in Rome. The day is dawning, he tells them in so many words, salvation is near, each day only bringing us closer to Jesus’ return.

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God: 2  As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, 3  the voice of one crying in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,’”   4  John appeared, baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and we