Sermon for Sunday, December 30

The reading

Matthew 1:1-17

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 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 David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,  and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon. 

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

The message

We are now starting our reading through the Gospel of Matthew.  This will take us from today, the first week after Christmas until Easter in the middle of April. 

Matthew was written for a Jewish audience and stresses the Jewish origins of Jesus. In Matthew Jesus fulfilling prophesy is very important. For instance Matthew 1:22, that we just heard on Christmas All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet:  “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel” (which means “God with us”) or Matthew 4:14  to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: “Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death  a light has dawned.  Those are 2 of about 15 passages in Matthew that cite Old Testament scripture to show Jesus is the long expected Messiah.

Matthew was written in, to and for a community in the midst of chaos, confusion, anxiety and a struggle to understand their place in the world.  In response to an attempted revolt by the Jewish people, Rome destroys the second temple in Jerusalem (around the year 70). Matthew is written a little after that time.  In addition to the external conflicts, there were also internal conflict over leadership for the Jewish community. There were groups that pushed for revolt and war, groups that urged respect for Roman authorities as long as they stayed out of religious affairs and groups in between. Throughout Matthew, Jesus is constantly in tension with the Pharisees and the established authorities (groups that are often seen as and called hypocrites or obstacles to the good news).

After the destruction of the second temple, Christianity and Judaism were essential spilt into two distinct faiths. This division started years before.  Christians would worship on a different day (Instead of the traditional Sabbath of Friday night – Saturday night, Christians meet on Sundays since that was the day of Jesus resurrection) The debate over if someone had to be Jewish, keep the law, get circumcised, in order to become a Christian was over. The first big church fight with Peter and James urging conversion and law keeping against Paul and others, who said those things were an obstacle to bringing outsiders into the church. It was settled a decade or two before with the kingdom of God open to all people because of Jesus.

Matthew starts the Gospel with the geneology of Jesus.  A family history that stretches from Abraham to Jesus to verify Jesus place in Jewish history and connection to those who have come before. It is very different from the other gospel geneology presented by Luke. The 2 agree from Abraham to David and then become very different.  Matthew starts the list with Abraham, Luke starts the list with Adam, there are different numbers of generations. In both cases, they do not cover enough time and there are very good, well known kings who are left out. Instead, less faithful or successful people are included. There are different names on each list and both include names not mentioned anywhere else in history. Since the early church these were not seen as historically accurate.  People have suggested this is because of Levite adoption, other ways to build or join a family, a spiritual genealogy, the genealogy of Mary or Matthew and Luke having access to some lost or unknown history.The fact remains that this geneology is true in that it does verify Jesus place in Jewish history and  his connection to the people, activities and promises that have come before.  The list tells us that God’s will is going to be done, through good and bad, that we are not called to be perfect, we are not able to be perfect. We are called to be faithful. 

Take, for example, the women listed.  There are four, Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba. Including women by itself was very unusual for a genealogy (usually they were only concerned with fathers and male descendants).  Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute to become pregnant by Judah, bear his children and ensure her place in his family (a place that was clearly entitled to under the law but no one wanted to let her have). Their son Perez is the ancestor of David.  Rahab was a Canaanite (intermarriage with them was forbidden in the law)  She was an innkeeper (and likely a prostitute) who betrays her own people and helps Israel conquer the city of Jericho.  When the city falls, Rahab and her family are spared and marry into Israel. Ruth, whose story we heard over the Summer, was a Moabite who seduces Boaz to save herself and Naomi. Ruth becomes the great grandmother of King David.  Bathsheba is married to a Hittite, is basically kidnapped and assaulted by David (who also has her husband killed). She ends up as the mother of King Solomon.

Through each of these women’s lives and actions, in their doing what they had to do to protect themselves and others, they end up continuing the family line of Abraham, David and Jesus. Each of them is an outsider, involved in questionable legal or moral actions.  The family line of Jesus is not purely Israelite, or purely royal or without sin.  There are Moabites and Canaanites, people included from different communities. There are people who were not born into prominence (even David was the youngest and least kingly looking of his brothers, the one set away to care for sheep, out of public view), there are people who have done bad things.      

Today, people have a huge interest in learning where they come from. Our church gets at least 5 or 6 calls a year from people looking for records or information about their grandparents, great grandparents and other ancestors.  There are things like ancestory.com that let you find documents and connections many generations back. There are companies like 23 and me that run genetic tests to help you determine what parts of the world your family is from.  Most of the times this leads to unexpected realizations of diversity, a report that you are a mix of many ethnic groups, a document that shows your great grandfather was a hero or that your great great grandmother was sort of a criminal.  Sometimes this is simple curiosity, other times it matters much more (like applying for citizenship someplace or trying to claim an inheritance).

The imperfections in the genology remind us that God works through all different people, is present in all different places. It also shows a big change in how we are connected to each other, in how we are united. we are now all connected by Christ,  joined to Jesus death and resurrection means citizenship in the kingdom of God, Baptism means our inheritance of God’s grace.