Sermon
One of the Presbytery committees I'm on begins every meeting with a short bible study where we just read a scripture together and give our thoughts about it. This past week, the committee used Matthew 1:2-17, the text that begins the gospel of Matthew and immediately precedes the text that Craig read just now. It begins like this:
Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father
of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram
the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon,
and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth,
and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.
And continues with a seemingly endless list of who begat who. Forty-two names to be exact. As we on the committee were giving our thoughts about what struck us, some of us were struck by the words “father of” So many uses of “father of.” Since society was so patriarchal then, this makes sense. Still, we were lamenting that there were hardly any women named. Of those 42 names, only four of them are women. Given the society at the time, it would have been a shock to see any women's names at all. For our society though, four is not enough. The four that are named come with some social stains – Tamar seduced her father-in-law (not mentioned is that Judah was seeking a prostitute when he came upon Tamar), Bathsheba committed adultery (not mentioned is the fact that David committed adultery also in this relationship), Rahab was a prostitute and Ruth seduced her kinsman Boaz. Perhaps more notable than anything sexual about these four women is the fact that they were all gentiles. All four were also socio-economically, politically, and culturally powerless. One more item to point out is that some of these names were born of women who were thus far unable to have children or were beyond child bearing age.1 Yet these women are part of the lineage of Jesus. As is Joseph, who is not the biological father of Jesus. All the men in these 28 generations are referred to as “the father of….” But Joseph is listed as “….Joseph the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
In other words, none of this should have been possible!
It is into this context that the gospel writer jumps next into telling us that “The birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.” The highly imperfect and unexpected and improbable continuation of God in the world took place in this way. The stage has been set, so that when we read the scripture for today, describing the birth of Jesus, we understand that God has intervened in this way before. When we read in this text that a child has been born under unexpected circumstance, that go against societal and cultural expectations, we realize that we have seen this before. And at the same time, never before in this way. God has intervened in other families, as far back as Abraham, in order that a child would be born. That shows us the continuation of God's work. But God has never given a woman a child directly by the holy spirit before. Like this but not like this, at the same time. In this way, the birth of Christ told in the gospel of Matthew is an event that brings us the comfort of God's patterns while at the same time bringing us the discomfort that can come with something unimaginably new.
Joseph and Mary were engaged. Learning of her pregnancy, Joseph would have been doing the right thing if he divorced her. Going the extra mile doing this right thing, Joseph bypassed the public shame that would come upon Mary by deciding to divorce her quietly. But after being visited by God in a dream, he did none of this. The right thing to do, had changed. When we ask ourselves “what is the right thing to do?” we need to remember that the “right thing” depends on who gets to define what is right. Society and culture defined what a faithful man would do in these circumstances. But Joseph was faithful to God above society and culture. God told Joseph that as difficult as it looked and as difficult as it would be, things would be ok. What Joseph was a part of was the fulfilling of Isaiah's ancient prophecy that we read today also. Isaiah reads, “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” “Immanuel” means “God with us.” The word “virgin” doesn't appear in the original Hebrew, but the Greek translation uses the word used for virgin. This heightens the connection with the prior lineage image of families continuing on only because of God's intervention. A miracle birth was seen as evidence that God had something special in mind for the life of that child. Even the naming of the child, Jesus has meaning. In Joseph's dream he was told to name the child Jesus “for he will save his people.” The Hebrew word for Jesus has the same root letters of other names as well as the same root as the name for God never spoken aloud, “YWYH” which means “savior.”
Matthew's gospel does not include all the imagery and fodder for our imaginations like the gospel of Luke. Neither does Matthew's gospel give Mary a front stage spot like Luke does. If you've never heard the biblical stories about God, about Jesus, then the scripture for today just sounds interesting, improbable, but doesn't seem very relevant.
Locating the birth story of Jesus immediately following the excruciatingly long lineage that seems to be overkill is key to the relevancy of the birth story. Without the lineage, it is a fascinating birth story. With the lineage, it is a much more powerful positioning of God in the midst of humanity, with all of it's flaws and crooked paths and difficult decisions. Even after this long lineage all the way from the time of Abraham, God has found the most direct route yet to intervening in human history. While God worked through Moses and the prophets, God has found an even more outrageous way to be with us. God isn't going to work through Jesus, God is in Jesus. There are so many ways to be new. The love that God must have for God's people must be tremendous.
On Wednesday many churches are having a Blue Christmas or Longest Night service. Just because the calendar says Christmas and society says “Yay!” doesn't magically transform despair and misery into joy. A service on the longest night is to remind folks that it's okay to be blue when everyone around you isn't. The night will not remain long because after this longest night will come gradually lengthening light each day. While we will not have a service live, Bethany will re-publish the Blue Christmas service created in 2020, on Wednesday at 7pm.
While so many tragedies in the world surround us and fill our lives, I find myself especially deeply saddened and heartbroken by suicide. This week a family will not have their 12 year old to share their lives, their holiday season, and their world because this poor 12 year old did not survive his jump off of the Golden Gate Bridge. A boy I don't know, a family I don't know, yet we all know them in some way. We all share their horror. Also, the dancer, producer, tWitch who many of us may have known about from his time on the Ellen show, at just 40 years old took his own life this week. A vibrant cheerful man with a beautiful family, had such demons that to lose all that was good, seemed to be the only way to stop the pain.
Where were the angels in their dreams? I have this memory of reading a prayer in church for the first time and making a mistake. I was mortified! I read something about angels alerting us….as angels altering us…! The thing is, I have always loved the idea that seems more to the point, that when we encounter angels, we are altered. When Joseph was visited by God in his dream he altered his plans. His life was altered. What God has passed to us in the person of Jesus we are to pass on to others. Our job is to be those angels. Our job is to remind people, not always with words, that even in the darkest dark, Jesus is the light of the world. This isn't something we can plan. I'm going to be an angel now, to them over there. Sometimes we are angels and don't even know it. We don't get pats on the back for being angels. If the boy, or tWitch, or any of us, were visited by angels when we most needed it, our lives would be altered. I hope their families have angels now.
Today's text is a reminder and assurance that God continues to work through odd circumstances, unseeming events, biological impossibilities, people with societal stains, outsiders, the “other,” the powerless to work God's will. We can only pray for the grace to be a part of God's light. Today marks the first day of Hanukkah, or the Festival of Lights for our Jewish brothers and sisters. One tradition says that this holiday commemorates the miracle of a time during the rebuilding of the Second Temple. Even though there was only enough untainted olive oil to keep the menorah's candles burning for a single day, the flames continued flickering for eight nights, leaving them time to find a fresh supply. Our next hymn reminds us of that the love of God who gave us the Christ is the light that we are all waiting for. The last verse says,
Love has come, He never will leave us!
Love is life everlasting and free.
Love is Jesus within and among us.
Love is the peace our hearts are seeking.
Love! Love! Love is the gift of Christmas.
Love! Love! Praise to You, God on high!
Amen.
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1 Case-Winters, Anna, Matthew, in BELIEF commentary series, pp.23-27, 2015
Klink, Aaron, and Harris, Daniel, Feasting on the Word commentary series, Year A, Vol. 1, pp.92-97