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.

Jesus has come not to be just one more king (or prime minister or president or whatever). He has come rather to usher in an entirely new order, characterized by new hope, grace and above all love – the kind of love that never gets tired of extending and receiving second chances.

The fact is, we do not know what the future holds for each of us, whether conflict or peace, comfort or hardship. But we can face it with confidence, assured that whatever comes, God is faithful. We may not know what the future holds, but we know Who holds the future. Come what may, God will meet us, will be with us in our need, and will give us the words and strength and courage we need to face what we must face. “In the world you will have trouble,” Jesus assures us, “but t