HYMN FOR ADVENT 4. To a Maid Engaged to Joseph
- Gracia Grindal
- 2 hours ago
- 3 min read
Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: Rusty Edwards
(For reason of copyright I cannot print the text here, but you can see it on the Links below)
REFLECTIONS
The Matthew account of the birth of Jesus starts with the angel speaking to Joseph in a dream. The news he hears changes his life for good. Now, instead of breaking his engagement with Mary, he will marry her and become her, and her son’s, protector. He will provide for her and Jesus, keep them safe from the cruelties of Herod, and help raise Jesus.
We do not hear much about Joseph after this. He should be remembered for his dreams and obedience to the angel’s voice. He does appear as he leads Mary to Bethlehem and saves her and the child on their flight into Egypt. In both cases he is guarding the little one and Mary to keep them safe from death and the ending of the their great mission. God’s work in the world is always given to the weak and insignificant to carry out!
I have a friend in Denmark, Lisbeth Smedegaard Andersen, who has just written a book The Son of Mary/Sønnen af Maria. On the cover is a picture of Joseph leading Mary on their way out of the horror of Herod's slaughter of the Innocent to Egypt where they will be safe. Lisbeth interprets the picture as showing quite vividly how Joseph is protecting them: the love and faith we see in Mary, dressed in red, the color of love, and the babe in blue, the color of faith. She has come to see it as an emblem of the life of faith. Joseph, the guide and protector, makes a safe place for the vulnerable as they flee death and persecution. Without Joseph, the central story would be over. Without love and faith, there would be nothing to save.
In calling faithful Joseph to protect Mary and the babe, God kept his promise to Eve and Abraham and all those who waited with hope for the Messiah. That Joseph kept Mary and child safe has given Christians down through the millennia the love and faith to go forward into places we cannot see, but trust they are where God is leading us. We need someone to guard faith and love, someone to protect what we need to live.
HYMN INFO
I wrote this hymn for my first class in hymn writing at Luther Seminary. Rusty Edwards, a seminary student took it and set it to this tune. It was the mid 1980s and the church was looking for hymns on Mary and other women in the Bible. I began writing a series of such texts and Rusty set mos of them. He was unpracticed in writing hymns, but he quickly learned and is now among the most well-known and well-regarded hymn writers, both of tunes and texts, in the world. Hymnal committees have changed my first line from To a Maid engaged to Joseph To a Maid whose name was Mary. It really tells the story of the annunciation of Mary, not Joseph, but Gabriel calls them into a future they could not have imagined before.
LINKS
Schola Cantorum in the Loop
Central Reformed church
MusicbyMichele
Christmas Gift
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"With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." --Jill Baumgartner, Poetry Editor, Christian Century, and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College