"Begat"
December 2, 2007: 1st Sunday of Advent, Year A
The Rev. John MacIver Gage, senior minister
United Church on the Green, UCC: New Haven, CT
www.UnitedChurchontheGreen.org

Scripture:

Matthew 1:17

May God take these words and make from them a holy word for us today.

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.

[Sarah was the mother of Isaac, and Rebekah was the mother of Jacob. Leah was the mother of Judah.

Tamar was the mother of Perez. The names of the mothers of Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon and Salmon have been lost. Rahab was the mother of Boaz, and Ruth was the mother of Obed. Obed's wife, whose name is unknown, bore Jesse. The wife of Jesse was the mother of 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.

[Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon, Naamah, the Ammonite, was the mother of Rehoboam. Maacha was the mother of Abijam and the grandmother of Asa. Azubah was the mother of Jehoshaphat. The name of Jehoram's mother is unknown. Athaliah was the mother of Ahaziah, Zibiah of Beersheba, the mother of Joash.

Jocoliah of Jerusalem bore Uzziah, Jerusha bore Jotham; Ahaz's mother is unknown. Abi was the mother of Hezekiah, Hephzibah was the mother of Manasseh, Meshullemeth was the mother of Amon, Jedidah was the mother of Josiah. Zebidah was the mother of Jehoiachin, Hamutal was the mother of Zedekiah. Then the deportation to Babylon took place.]

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.

[After the deportation to Babylon the names of the mothers go unrecorded. These are their sons: Jechoniah, Shealtiel, Zuewubbabel, Abiud, Elliakim, Azor and Zadok, Achim, Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob and Joseph, the husband of Miriam. Of her was born Jesus who is called Christ.]

So all the generations from Abraham to David are 14 generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, 14 generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, 14 generations.

Friends, God is still speaking to the world. May our hearts be open to listen and respond. Amen.

Sermon:

This morning, with this first Sunday of Advent, we begin a new church year and a new year's readings in the Revised Common Lectionary which generally guides our journey through scripture in Sunday worship. This year, Year A in the three-year cycle of the lectionary, our gospel readings will come mostly from the Gospel According to Matthew, as last year they came mostly from Luke and next year from Mark—John gets sprinkled in pieces among the others. And so, as the curtain lifts, we open our Bibles, double-check the lectionary, and begin reading right at the beginning with Matthew, chapter 1, verse... 18. Wait, what?

That's right. The lectionary is not a complete index to the Bible. Not every chapter and verse makes it to a Sunday morning, for one reason or another. And Matthew, chapter 1, verses 1-17 is one of those passages that has fallen through the cracks—or was it pushed? I mean, it's not hard to see why this lengthy genealogy of Jesus, and the version in Luke, chapter 3, might get passed over of a Sunday morning. I mean, it's something of a laundry list, isn't it? And a reader's nightmare—just ask Cher, who had no idea what she was in for when she signed up on the readers list last week. One name after another, one difficult name after another, and for most of us, who don't know our Asaph from our elbow, one meaningless name after another. Listening to the length of it, particularly here in the midst of this busy season, even a preacher might be forgiven for letting his mind wander a bit:

and so Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham and Jotham the father of lunch, and lunch the father of laundry, and laundry the father of potluck and candle trim, and potluck and candle trim the father of much needed sleep...

But our own admittedly poor preparation and our dwindling attention span don't mean the list is, in fact, meaningless. The Gospel authors, intending to convey the height and depth and breadth of the meaning for their community and for all humanity of the coming of the promised messiah of God, didn't decide just to waste the first 17 verses and begin in earnest with verse 18, and the story of Jesus' birth. For them, it was important to understand the Messiah in context; after all, Jesus didn't just parachute in one day from full-blown from the mind of God—ta da! It is important to know where he stood in the flow of history, that he stood in the flow of history, to ask where he came from, and from whom—to ask, as we say in the South, "Who were his people?"

Here's where things get messy. Another reason, perhaps, we'd prefer to skip over these 17 verses is not because they say too little, but too much. As in any family history, each name on Jesus' family tree tells a story—each more or less familiar, too be sure, and, once we take the time to take a closer look, each more or less savory to recall, as well. Right there in the shadow of the great stories of great names—of Abraham and Sarah and of King David and Solomon the Wise, among them—are surprising, even shocking stories.

Matthew asks us to remember them, too. Remember Tamar, used and abused by husband, brother-in-law, and father-in-law, in turn. Remember Rahab the Canaanite harlot with a heart of gold, who betrayed the city of Jericho into the hands of the Israelites. Remember Ruth, another foreigner to the covenant, a Moabite who used her feminine wiles to win a husband and a future for herself and her partner Naomi. And while your at it, remember how even the great ones stumbled: how Abraham and Sarah set up the dark-skinned slave woman Hagar as their surrogate and then sent her to her death in the desert, along with her baby; how David raped Bathsheba and then had her husband killed to cover up his crime and make her his own; how Solomon, wise ol' Solomon, raised up a line of sons foolish enough and faithless enough to squander an entire kingdom and send it down the road to foreign domination, defeat and deportation.

What a family reunion that'd be, huh? Oh, there might be some awkwardness around the punch bowl that afternoon. But this, Matthew wants to make the point, is the family of Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, and, yes, the Son of Man, as well. All of these all-too-human relations—the good, the bad, and the ugly—are, in part and in their one ways, responsible for 'begat-ting" Jesus into the world. Matthew wants us to believe that God was at work bringing salvation to birth not just in the shining, mountaintop moments of human history, but in the long, shadowy valleys in between, not just through the brighter lights among God's people, but even the dim bulbs. Every root, branch and twig on this convoluted family tree contributed something toward the gift of abundant life made flesh in Jesus in God's good time, even if it was only genetic material. And we should be thankful.

Aye, there's the rub. I mean, that's the hard part, isn't it? Because little Bible lessons like this rarely stay confined to the written word; instead, they have a nasty habit of leaping off the page and applying themselves to our daily lives. Next thing you know, the preacher's asking you to examine your own family tree, the leaves, the fruits, the nuts, and think about just who it is that "begat" you into life and the life of faith, and to be thankful for them. And, while it's one thing to marvel at the inclusive love and transforming power of God in relation to Jesus' distant relations, it's quite another to consider our own families—not just those folks by whose generous gifts we have been blessed, but also those whose foibles we know all too well, whose faults we saw too early or too late, whose sins may have fallen squarely on our shoulders—and be thankful for all they've done to make us who we are and bring us here to the present moment where we can know God.

But I'm not going to ask you to do that this morning. I'm just going to remind you that, as we head into this season of bright lights and happy Hallmark thoughts and treasured family traditions, if some of them feel artificial, fake, forced, that's because they are. Every real life has shadows, every family and every family of faith has its share of sinners as well as saints, and God, the real God, the God of Jesus, is also the God of Abraham and David and Bathsheba and Tamar. And God, the real God, is our God, too, the God of our real lives, who has been working with us through every up and down, every twist and turn of our life's journeys, to bring us here, to the gift of this exact moment...

...and who will not leave us here. In this Advent season, we remember that while Jesus the son of Mary and Joseph, was the product of his particular thorny family tree and his time and place in history, as we all are, the Spirit of God made him more, made him the Messiah, through whom we would come to know the power and purpose, the glory and grace, the full justice, peace, and compassion of God. And, believe it or not, friends, the promise of the Gospel is that through us—us, with all our gifts and our foibles and our faults, our saintliness and our sins—through us, God will bless and transform the whole world. We will be part of that great long family tree of faith that will "begat" the kingdom of God.

God help us, and God help the world! And God will.