There will come a day when Jesus will
feed a multitude with a picnic,
and then instruct his disciples
to gather up the broken pieces in
twelve baskets.
Within those baskets lies the meaning:
as God gave manna in the wilderness
to a people newly free,
so God has set his people free again;
moreover, only on the day before the Sabbath
were they to store up manna for tomorrow,
and so these baskets announce
the advent of God’s rest,
an invitation to enter in;
yet more, the twelve who gather-up
are, in-so-doing, commissioned,
not only as disciples but fathers of the tribes,
long torn asunder, swept away,
but gathered now from east and west
and north and south.
But for now, Joseph,
gathering-up the torn-and-scattered
fragment-hopes-and-dreams into
the dream-weaver’s basket;
seeking to make sense.
And so the angel comes
not as to Zechariah or to Mary or to shepherds –
bearing a news for which they need to know
they did not dream it – in physical form;
but to the place where Joseph works
to process meaning:
enters his dream…
and in that unseen place
anoints this son of David
hidden king –
the very thing his son in time
will hang for.
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