The greens are a little shaggy – that’s one of the first things you notice about “December Golf.”
Bentgrass on the putting surfaces has been allowed to grow a bit taller than usual, to put on its “winter coat” as it were. A thoroughly reasonable decision, one that permits a green’s tender blades to endure a frosty season and prevail.
Because they’re shaggy though, it’s more difficult for a golfer to take the measure on a green in December. Putts don’t roll quite as true. Many (most?) attempts wind up short of the hole. And so, “Winter Rules” tend to kick in. Your companions/competitors become noticeably more generous in conceding subsequent putts. Their “gimme” range expands, their hearts lean markedly toward “mercy.”
That’s true, at any rate, if you pick your foursomes well. In some golfing circles, the “gimme” is an abhorrent concept: It breaks the rules. You’re supposed to hole-out every putt – says so right in the book.
I much prefer a more lenient crowd, I confess. Golf – like life – is plenty hard without layering on litigiousness. We need rules, sure. They’re our best defense against chaos. But we need to know when to break them, too. And this is a grace I find displayed in all of the guys with whom I choose to play “December Golf.”
Something tells me Saint Joseph would share my taste in golfing companions. Today’s gospel calls him “a righteous man.” Which is to say, he knows the law. He also knows how things tend to get a little shaggy in life. Decisions aren’t always clear-cut. The choices you face can be messy, even precarious. It’s a reasonable fear that you might come up short.
Joseph navigates this landscape, I notice, by fixing his eyes and heart on God’s promise – a promise to be with us, through every circumstance. Joseph looks beyond the law, ancient and venerable as it may be. He looks with expectation towards Emmanuel.
In Christ, Joseph encounters a God of surprises … a God ever-ready to extend new gifts, unexpected gifts to us. And perhaps in just this way, Joseph teaches us our Advent task: joyfully wrestling with how best to welcome this saving Word into our hearts and home.
O Wisdom
Lord and Ruler
Root of Jesse
Key of David
Rising Sun
King of the Nations
Emmanuel
Come, Lord Jesus!
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 