Sermon for November 30th, 2014

Matthew 1:1-17

1 An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, 4 and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, 5 and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, 6 and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, 8 and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, 9 and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, 10 and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, 11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, 14 and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, 15 and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

17 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.

Advent Encounters: Saints & Sinners

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. This Sunday, and for the next several weeks, I'll be preachig a sermon series called "Advent Encounters." We'll look at the stories in the bible surrounding the birth of Jesus, and in particular how his birth brought unlikely people together in interesting ways.

I belive that this story, the Christmas story, still has the power today to bring unlikely people together in interesting ways, life-transforming ways, around the person of Jesus. So let's see what, together, we can learn from this diverse cast of characters that can shine the bright light of hope into our darkest, coldest winter nights.

We begin with the strangest, most unlikely, most diverse cast of characters of all -- Jesus' own family tree. In the familiar King James version they are known as the Gat family. You know...Abraham B. Gat, Isaac B. Gat, Jacob B. Gat...not sure what the "B" stood for, but I always thought it was neat how they all passed on the same middle initial!

And since we're talking about geneology and family trees, I thought I'd share the following story:

A man was researching his ancestors, and came across some information on his great-great uncle, Remus Starr, who was hanged for horse stealing and train robbery in Montana in 1889. He also found a photograph of Remus, showing him standing on the gallows. On the back of the picture were the words: Remus Starr: Horse thief, sent to Montana Territorial Prison, 1885. Escaped 1887, robbed the Montana Flyer six times. Caught by Pinkerton Detectives, convicted and hanged, 1889.

Well, the man thought about this for awhile, and then made the following entry in his family history book: Uncle Remus Starr was a famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. His business empire grew to include acquisition of valuable equestrian assets and intimate dealings with the Montana railroad. Beginning in 1885, he devoted several years of his life to service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in a vital investigation by the renowned Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Uncle Remus passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collasped.

A few days later, the same man learned about his great, great uncle Willie, a convicted murderer who had been condemned to die in the Electric chair. Uncle Willie's entry in the family history book read like this: "Uncle William occupied a chair of applied electronics at one of our nation's leading institutions. He was attached to his position by the strongest of ties. His death came as a true shock."

The greatest story ever told, the best selling book of all time, begins with a geneology--one we tend to skip right over because it is just a list of strange names tied together with a string of begats. This is a mistake, because in that long list of strange names are hundreds of encounters, hundreds of fascinating stories, some which we know well, some which are in the Bible but unfamiliar to us, and some which are completely lost to the pages of time and history.

Contrary to what many of us were taught growing up, I don't think this geneology is meant to be taken literally, at least not in the modern sense of the word "geneology." At the very least, that's because it ends with Joseph, who we are told is not genetically related to Jesus at all, but is rather his adoptive father. As someone who was adopted by my own step-father, I find great comfort in that--shared genes are not required to be part of a family tradition.

But there are other problems with this list as a geneology: For one, it doesn't agree at all with the geneology of Jesus found in Luke, which is also supposed to represent Joseph's side of the family. It also doesn't agree with geneologies in the Old Testament of some of the people who are part of it. In fact, it doesn't even agree with itself--Matthew tells us there are three sets of fourteen generations, but no matter how you actually count his list, you come up short by quite a few.

The ancients were not as obsessed with historical accuracy as we are today. In fact, geneologies of ancient and even late medieval kings often contain so many figures from mythology and legend that it is highly doubtful that anyone took them literally.

The best modern day analogy I can think of to approximate the ancient geneology is the Facebook wall. On my facebook wall (or profile) online, like many people, I have long lists of famous people, authors, or musicians I like--people who have influenced my own thinking and style. By listing Woody Guthrie, John Denver, and Bruce Springsteen on my facebook wall, I'm not saying that I'm actually related to any of them. But there is a sense in which I stand in their tradition. I claim them as musical forebears; My own music is a product of their influence.

So when Matthew sets his stage for the greatest drama of all time, he introduces the star of his show with a list of names--think of it as opening credits, or the giant scrolling words at the beginning of the Star Wars movies. These names are carefully chosen to tell a story--several stories--to quickly relate a message to die-hard fans of Jewish history. The message is this:

Out of scandal and faithfulness is born hope. Out of human initiative and divine intervention is born...a messiah.

We'll begin with the scandal. There are a lot of stories in this geneology, but I'm going to focus on five--five stories of scandalous encounters, the kind that our biblical authors present in "delicate" wording, like the humorous stories I told at the begining of this sermon.

In verse three of our geneology, we read of "Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar." Judah and Tamar were not married when they begat Perez and Zerah. In fact, Tamar was Judah's daughter-in-law, and we read in Genesis 38 that one day she dressed herself like a prostitute and waited for her father-in-law, who, not recognizing her, requested her services. And so, Judah begat twins (Perez and Zerah) by Tamar.

Scandal number two: Skip a couple of generations, and we read in verse five that "Salmon [was] the father of Boaz by Rahab." This is Rahab from the book of Joshua, as the Israelites are about to mount a siege against the mighty city of Jericho. Joshua 2:1: "Then Joshua son of Nun sent two men secretly from Shittim as spies, saying, “Go, view the land, especially Jericho.” So they went, and entered the house of a prostitute whose name was Rahab, and spent the night there. Delicately, of course, the Bible does not say why Joshua's men went straight to a house of ill-repute, nor what they did while spending the night there.

Scandal number three occurs immediately after number two: "and Boaz [was] the father of Obed by Ruth. Now the story of Boaz and Ruth, in the book of Ruth, is a beautiful love story, and one many of us are familiar with. But if you read closely, it's at least rated PG-13, or worse. In fact, it may be the original 50 shades of Gray.

• geneology? modern term. what's the original?
• generation count is off (14-14-12), doesn't match Luke's anyhow, or Old Testament geneologies.
• all through Joseph anyhow.
• family history as "facebook wall"
• four/five women: “It is,” concludes Father Raymond Brown in his magisterial 1993 study The Birth of the Messiah, “the combination of the scandalous or irregular union and of divine intervention through the women that explains best Matthew’s choice in the genealogy.”

• Scandal + Faithfulness + Human Initiative + Divine Intervention = Jesus the Messiah = Hope.