We look to the example of Joseph and Mary 

    who responded to the decree of Caesar Augustus to be taxed,

    obediently placing themselves in subjection under him.

You are our sovereign Lord, the true Augustus Caesar, 

    the one whose kingdom increases and has the power to bless us.

May we diligently come to the place where we can truly pray:

 

“O my God, you only are my Creator and Lord!  

I cast myself down to be entirely subject to your holy will,

    with all that is within me or pertains to me.

Here is my heart, my soul, my body, my spirit.

Here is all I have and am; 

    I cast it all down and offer it as a sacrifice to you, O Lord,

    to make it genuinely submissive to you.

If before now I have resigned this to the world, 

    or if now I have walked according to my own will, oh, not any more, 

    for from now on all that I am is to be subject to your will.

Renew this decision day by day more and more,

    and make me willing and able to follow you in all things, and to be obedient.”

 

Jakob Denner, 1659-1746, German Mennonite pastor and author

Readings from Mennonite Writings freely edited

 

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In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to their own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child.