St Joseph of Nazareth and Workers’ Day: A Reflection on the Prophetic Call of Men in Society: Where Religion Meets the Secular World

As the world commemorates “Workers' Day” on this the 1^st of May 2026, an international labour day that is celebrated globally to honor workers' contributions and fight for fair labour practices, in other instances such as in South Africa where the fight was also against oppressive regimes such as apartheid and the fight for racial equality. One could not help but remember that the Church also celebrates this day under the theme of a patron Saint that is often under-played as a key role player in the formulation of the world’s religious construct and belief system, Saint Joseph the worker or the carpenter or Joseph of Nazareth as he would be known in Christianity.

 

In a world that is becoming deeply secularized by day, it is a rare occasion where the religious and secular world would celebrate or commemorate a day in common. The secular world views this day as a revolutionary day that speaks to global, regional or national politics and the fight for human rights, while the religious world’s focus is on the person of Joseph the father of Jesus Christ and his humility in the story of the birth of a miracle child. But the contrasting features of both of these views is barely seen as prophetic and speaking to the sacrificial call of humanity, specifically that of “men and their role in society”. Joseph is affectionately known as “the carpenter or the worker”, a man whose role in the story of his foster-son Jesus the Christ is somewhat down-played both in scripture and theological discourse. Author of the Anglican book of commemorations called Saints and Seasons makes a point that “after fulfilling his role of protecting his wife Mary and the miracle child that is Jesus, Joseph disappears from the pages of the Gospels” (Saints and Seasons 1993:60). Not only does he disappear in the Christian narratives, but also in other important scriptural literature, the Quran being one of them, to this writer Masud Masihiyyen says there are two possibilities concerning Joseph’s absence from the Islamic scripture “either Muhammad’s ignorance of the subject or Muhammad’s deliberate choice of exclusion”. Seemingly ‘Joseph disappears from the minds and lips of the believers’, perhaps as a result of the same possibilities. As a result, Joseph’s role in the life of a contemporary man becomes nothing but a shadow that lingers around and only mentioned in passing on Christmas day when the story of the birth of Jesus Christ is narrated. However, the prophetic nature of the role of his story is and must be seen in the commemoration of the global day for the rights of workers.

 

But in contrast, what is the story of Joseph to the contemporary context, what role can this story play in the life of the contemporary man and society?. We know that Joseph was engaged to be married to the virgin Mary, mother of Jesus who was born without Joseph and Mary engaging in sexual intercourse. Even though Luke seems to suggest that society did not know about this miraculous birth and continued to assume even at Jesus’ age of thirty that “Jesus was the biological Son of Joseph, Son of Heli” (Luke 3:23 NIV), we cannot but imagine through the contemporary context, ‘the societal stigma, disgrace and embarrassment that Joseph endured when the news reached society’, our assumption would be that ‘just as Muhammad ignored Joseph in in Quran, the Gospels equally ignored this reality’, and so without doubt ‘we affirm our assumption that such was the case’, at least for the purpose of our juxtaposition of Joseph’s story to the contemporary. Whether it is in the black, white, coloured or Indian society in South Africa, or anywhere in the world for that matter, a man would be a laughing stock of society should his partner, girlfriend, fiancé or wife ‘conceive outside that relationship’, so we ought to recognize the fact that “Joseph must have went through an extremely difficult period of humiliation and embarrassment as a man, more-over as he lived in a highly misogynistic, patriarchal and sexist Biblical era”. Matthew also tells us that “God informed Joseph that Mary’s pregnancy was from the Holy Spirit and that he should continue to Mary her” (Matthew 1:18-25), which may suggest that ‘Joseph, like any other man was not happy about the pregnancy which he knew as a matter of fact that he played no role in it, as a fiancé’. But, through all of that “Joseph went ahead and took Mary as his wife, and named the child Jesus, as commanded by God” (Matthew 1:24-25), solidifying his commitment to continuing to work hard in an effort to provide for his family, hence “the church celebrates Joseph the worker on this world workers’ day, coincided with the secular commemoration of workers’ globally”.    

 

The Bible tells us that Joseph and Mary went on to have other children, siblings of Jesus Christ who appears in the Gospels of Mark 6:3 and Matthew 13:55, which tells us that ‘despite the difficulties, the family of Jesus was an ordinary unit in society”, perhaps one that is referred to among theologians and the contemporary as ‘a blended family’, therefore we know for a fact that “Jesus the incarnate Son of God, was brought up under the guidance and love of Joseph the carpenter”, whichever principles that Joseph lived and believed in, as a father he must have instilled them in his children, Jesus (in his human nature) included. If at all Joseph did not recognize his prophetic call to fatherhood, manhood and the principle of familyhood, working hard to provide, to guide and to protect his family, Jesus in his human nature and his siblings ‘may have went astray’. The church prays on this day to ask God “to enable humanity (especially men) in the contemporary to follow the example of Joseph of honour, faithfulness and humility and to endeavor to obey their calling”.

 

The contemporary world has become numb and cold to the prophetic and natural call of men to be providers of their families, to protectors of women and children, to be primary workers of society, be it in the family unit, in the workplace, in the church or in communities, the world lacks the Joseph’s of today. Even though the Bible is silent on the life of Joseph and where or how he ended-up, I am convinced that Mary and Joseph lived up to their matrimonial vows of ‘till death do us apart’. Theologians and scholars alike suggests that Joseph died with Jesus and Mary at his bedside, the Bible tells us that Jesus hung on the cross and entrusted his Mother to his friend John, and that to me is because “in the natural order of God’s plan and mission, children are the responsibility of parents until maturity, which is what Joseph and Marry did with their child Jesus and parents are equally the responsibility of their children till death, which is what Jesus did with his mother and John the beloved”, and so no matter what circumstances surround our lives “we ought to fulfil this order of God, by taking responsibility of children, parents and each other as humanity, no matter our genetic information.

 

On this day of commemoration, we are reminded through Joseph of Nazareth that “Men are called to work, to provide, to protect and to love women and children unconditionally”, and it is such Men that we celebrate as believers and non-believers alike, a demonstration that God’s mission is limitless, the Religious World and the Secular World, live under one creation of God.       

 HAPPY WORKERS DAY!!!

Kgosiemeng Phejane

Writing in his personal capacity as just another human under God's sun....

The Resurrection of Jesus, Profanity and Contemporary America: A Trumped Up Theological Oxymoron

 

The church of God in the Christian faith across the globe, woke up to ululation and shouts of holy phrases and songs in celebration of the risen Christ on Sunday the fifth (5^th) of April, the year of Our Lord 2026, Hosana, Hosana he is Risen, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is not in the tomb, his disciples were told by the Angel according to the Gospels. this day is generally known as Resurrection or Holy Sunday. The doctrinal belief of the Roman Catholic, its Protestants, the Orthodox church and other Christian denominations, is that ‘the Messianic figure that is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rose from the dead on this day, after his crucifixion by the Roman authorities more than two thousand (2000) years ago’. Therefore, Resurrection or Easter Sunday is considered to be the most important day in the Christian faith, the cornerstone of Christian theology, representing 'victory over sin and death, offering hope of salvation'.

 

This Sunday also marks the beginning of the season of Eastertide, which to the adherents of the faith, symbolise ‘an encounter with the Risen Christ and living the new life which Christ’s victory over death assures’. Therefore, sinful in nature as they are, as a human race, they vow to walk on the side of holiness during the entire week which starts on Palm Sunday, a Sunday before the Resurrection day, known as the Holy Week. Ironically, the world on this day also woke up to a horrifying statement of the escalation of bomb attacks on civilians of the sovereign nation of Iran in the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, between American and Israel against Iran. The President of the United States of America Donald Trump on the holiest of all days posted on his ‘truth social’ and said “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F&%$#’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah” (https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/apr/07/trump-iran-threat-truth-social). Notwithstanding the fact that it is the responsibility of liberation theologies to speak against such reckless political behaviour, the interest of this inquiry is not so much on ‘the political implications and ramifications of the statement, considering that it might just be another political chess card that Trump is playing to rattle the world economy and influence markets in one way or the other’. But rather the theological contradictions of faith and the many ironies that the statement presents, especially in a Religiously Pluralist world of the contemporary, to this Jason Carter, the grandson of the late American President Jimmy Carter, is reported to have condemned Trump’s comments as “unAmerican” and “unChristian”. Another irony in this theological inquiry is that ‘we refer to a theological contradiction on a statement made by a non-theologian’, suggesting that the man was in fact not aware of the ramifications whatsoever – which we shall address in brief. However, because this statement is made by a leader of the most powerful nation of this world, who is a known adherent of the Christian faith, we ought to interrogate the theology behind the statement. We also know that President Trump identifies with faith, in particular the Christian faith because of how American Presidents religiously use the prayer or phrase that is synonymous with America “God Bless America” in their public addresses. In addition, we also know that President Trump is a believer because a little over a week after the start of the said war, a group of American religious leaders gathered in his Oval office at the White House – supposedly to pray for him and America and Israel’s victory in their war against Iran – I use supposedly because the purpose of this gathering gave rise to a pertinent theological question as to “the role of the church in society, especially in the midst of conflict” – which we ought to address.

 

And so a woke African adherent of the Christian faith in me couldn’t help but find the statement of the American President to be ‘a theological oxymoron of this century, or at least in my lifetime’, such that I am tempted to liken this period of our history with that of ‘the 9^th Century Biblical kakistocracy of king Ahab’ in the book of Kings, more-over because Israel is at the center of what seems to be a political crinkum-crankum, in that Americans are adamant that their President’s decision to go to war with Iran, the myriad of inconsistencies in his messaging during the same conflict and the endless about-turns, are primarily based on his alliance with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, reminding us of the alliance of Israel under Ahab with his wife Jezebel’s country of birth Phoenicia, to which the alliance later broke and left Israel weaker. Therefore, given Donald Trump’s unreliability and inconsistencies, one wonders if the people of Israel will not be left vulnerable should Trump negate on their diplomatic ties at some point.  

 

The overarching theological question in this scenario relates to the oxymoron that is found in the fact that ‘a sitting president of a powerful Christian state, who happens to be a believer, is found using profane language on the holiest day in the faith and makes a mockery of another faith, in the 21^st century’.

 

This left me wondering if President Trump had any idea that “the Arabic phrase ‘Alhamdulillah’, when translated to English means ‘Praise be to God’ or ‘All praise belongs to Allah’, often used much like the English expression “Thank God” to show relief, gratitude or to request God’s favour and mercy”. Now, Santanuk Patro makes a point that “like Jews and Muslims, Christians believe in the one God, called Yahweh in Hebrew and Allah in Arabic” (S. K. Patro 2010: 129), the key question in this scenario is ‘whether the President of the United States is aware of the reality that Christianity and Islam share a God or Allah, and that ‘not only is he mocking the Islamic faith, but he’s also making a mockery of the same God of the Christian religion that he strongly believes in’?. Unless an argument that says ‘for a politician, all these phrases and religious prayers means absolutely nothing’, but it makes no sense at all for a believer to publicly disregard a holy observation by using language that goes against the values and principles of the same faith, including advocating for violence, while at the same time implore the same deity of that faith to partake in the restoration of the same evil that they themselves actively created, or perhaps to Trump Allah and the God that he keeps imploring to bless America are two different deities.

 

From this we ought to back track to the prayer day at the oval office where American religious leaders had gathered in prayer to intercede for him and America in its war against Iran, which gives rise to the question as to “what the church ought to do in response to this quagmire or to have done in the case of praying for a President in the midst of a war which he started”? It is my conviction that “the church has a duty to assume a superior, non-partisan position at all material times”, by remaining impartial in its prayers, stand on the side of the victims and not the perpetrators of violence, encourage religious pluralism and respect for all belief systems and speaking truth to power”. Audrey Chapman reminds us of the South African Kairos Document, where “Kairos theologians put emphasis on the importance of church speaking truth to power”. Therefore, because the war between Israel, America and Iran had already started at the point when these religious leaders were in the Oval office praying for the President of America whom by law had started an illegal war and already killed more than 100 innocent school children, but instead of calling for peace, praying for the families of the victims of this war and others across the world, they chose to pray for a perpetrator of war crimes, a big theological question on the part of the church and humanity, "is God, a God that advocates for war, is God a God that protects, strengthen and give wisdom to perpetrators of war crimes, is God a God that stands on the side of the perpetrators of war"?

Kgosiemang Phejane

Writing in his personal capacity