He's not even the Father!

One of my favourite Christmas cards of all time is a cartoon.

In one corner was Joseph and the Wise Men laughing and joking, celebrating Jesus birth with a pint.  In the other corner was Mary saying to one of the shepherds, "The real joke is - he's not even the father!"

When I have told other people about this card, their reactions have been divided.  Some found it funny, some were uncomfortable with it, fearing that it was irreverent or sacrilegious.

But like the hit TV show 'Rev' the humour contains a deep theological truth.  According to the Gospels, Joseph was not Jesus' father - God was.

As we celebrate Christmas, we celebrate the eternal Son of God coming to be born as one of us, a human being in our human world, with nothing special to attract us to him.  He was born in poverty not in a palace.  He was born obscurity, not in celebrity.  He was born not in majesty but in the ordinary, to bring the extra-ordinary into our lives.  He was born in the disgrace of an illegitimate birth to bring the grace of God into our lives.

In the words of Joan Osborne:

What if God was one of us?

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home?

At Christmas, we celebrate that question becoming a reality.

Merry Christmas everyone!