Advent 3: Journeying (Love)

Two weeks ago, we lit the candle of HOPE. ‌ We are trusting God to realize our deepest hope … our waiting is a sign of our trust. ‌ [light 1st candle] ‌ Last week, we lit the candle of PEACE. ‌ We are trusting God to bring peace …shalom, wholeness. And we accept that we are invited to participate in this peace-making even as we long for the full peace that only Jesus can bring when He comes to make all things new. ‌ [light 2nd candle] ‌ This week, we light the candle of LOVE. ‌ We are borrowing words from Kate Bowler to help us express what waiting for LOVE feels like this Advent ‌ God, we are waiting for love, not the simple kind or the sweep-you-off-your-feet kind, but the absurd kind. The kind wrapped in rags, resting in a bucket of animal feed. Love enough to save us all. Blessed are we who look for Love deeper, fuller, truer-than we have ever known, than we could have ever hoped for. Blessed are we who seek you, the light that dawned so long ago in that dark stable. Love given. Love received. Receive this gift, dear one(s). ‌ Love has come [and is coming] for you. ‌ [light 3rd candle as O Come O Come Emmanuel begins]

Love that Journeys Matthew 1:1-17

Journey. What does that word evoke for you?

Do you think of packing up? Of planning a route? Or perhaps of choosing a destination?

Or perhaps, you think of the exhausting and/or exciting act of travel. Of seeing new places. Of tasting new flavours. Of diving into history or culture.

Journey. Keep that word with you as we engage our text.

Today begins our journey through the gospel of Matthew.

If you’ve been tracking with us at SWCC for any length of time, you may have noticed that from Christmas or early January, we tend to focus in on one of the four gospels, immersing ourselves in the life and teaching of Jesus all the way through the story of his death and resurrection at Easter.

This year is no different and our guide will be the first book of the New Testament, which we usually call Matthew or the Gospel according to Matthew.

We’ll take our time introducing ourselves to this gospel in January, but in some ways, these first couple of passages that we’ll look at this week and next will ground us for the rest of our journey.

So, what should we know before we embark?

Matthew cares about continuity. He wants his readers to see connections.

Matthew is writing to people who are familiar with and steeped in the story of Israel.

He is showing his readers right from the start of his gospel that Jesus is the goal and climax of Israel’s history. And he’s assuming that his readers know this history and know the stories behind names and references.

Now, family trees might be your thing. Or maybe they put you to sleep. But either way, a genealogy of who begat whom doesn’t typically make for exciting reading. However, there are people named in this text who you may know the stories of. There are also people in this text whose presence there may surprise you. And then there are also some names that as you listen to Joyce read, you will simply say a quiet prayer of “thank you God that Andrea didn’t ask me to read today.”

But listen carefully. Notice what seems recognizable - and let Matthew direct us to see how the story of Israel that we’ve been tracing throughout the fall is connected to the arrival of Jesus the Messiah.

As Joyce comes, will you stand for the reading of God’s Word?

Matthew 1:1–17 CEB

A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar. Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Aram. Aram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. Nahshon was the father of Salmon. Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab. Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth. Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of David the king. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah. Solomon was the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam was the father of Abijah. Abijah was the father of Asaph. Asaph was the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram. Joram was the father of Uzziah. Uzziah was the father of Jotham. Jotham was the father of Ahaz. Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah. Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh. Manasseh was the father of Amos. Amos was the father of Josiah. Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers. This was at the time of the exile to Babylon. After the exile to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel. Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud. Abiud was the father of Eliakim. Eliakim was the father of Azor. Azor was the father of Zadok. Zadok was the father of Achim. Achim was the father of Eliud. Eliud was the father of Eleazar. Eleazar was the father of Matthan. Matthan was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary—of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ. So there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to Babylon to the Christ.

How can we make sense of such a list?

Let’s zoom in on the opening the closing and then we’ll take a few minutes to look at some of the bits in between.

The (most important to Matthew) ancestors… are David & Abraham.

In the very first verse, Matthew shows us his cards, as it were. He cares about continuity.

Matthew 1:1 CEB

1 A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:

Jesus Christ. Jesus the Messiah. Christ meaning “the anointed One” … And this anointed One has been long awaited. Going back to the promises that David’s son would reign forever and ever. And going way way back to the promises made to Abraham that through him a great nation would come about and that through that nation all the nations of the world would be blessed.

Remember, Matthew is assuming a certain level of knowledge among his readers… they are likely to know that the Messiah, the Chosen One, the anointed One is not God doing something brand new, but in continuity with David and with Abraham.

The First Nations version has such a lovely way of translating names. They gave Matthew 1:1 like this...

Matthew 1:1 (FNV)

1 Here is the record of the ancestry of Creator Sets Free (Jesus) the Chosen One, a descendant of Much Loved One (David) and of Father of Many Nations (Abraham).

So, right from the beginning, we can see that the Creator who loves deeply and broadly is doing something new…but not something unrelated to all that has led up to this point.

To help us grasp this list, Matthew also is using 14 generations between important milestones in the story is Israel. First from Abraham to David, then from David to the exile, and then from the exile to the Christ.

The “chapters” of ancestry:

Matthew 1:17 CEB

17 So there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to Babylon to the Christ.

Matthew 1:17 (FNV)

17 And so there were fourteen generations from Father of Many Nations Abraham to Much Loved One David, fourteen more generations from Much Loved One David until the removal to Village of Confusion Babylon, and then fourteen more from the removal to Creator Sets Free Jesus, the Chosen One.

The “chapters” of ancestry:

First from Abraham to David, then from David to the exile - a time of great loss and confusion - and then from the exile to the Christ.

The “chapters” of ancestry help us grasp the movement more broadly. The time from Abraham to David was a building time with an upward trajectory. The time from David to exile was not an upward trajectory. It was an unravelling of the story of Israel. And then from exile to the Christ, there is a building tension that out of all this destruction and threatened identity, God is promising to bring Messiah. A slow and hard to father upward trajectory.

The names in between… so drab, so hard to pronounce, so skip-able that you might not notice… there in the midst of a patrilineal ancestry, are WOMEN.

But also, not the women you might expect to be included. Sarah. Rebekah. Leah. Rachel. These are the women we might expect to find here if women were included.

But that’s not who we get.

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Bathsheba.

Now, what do these four women have in common?

They are Gentiles.

Tamar & Rahab are Canaanites.

Ruth is a Moabite.

And though Bathsheba’s ethnic origins are not clearly stated, she is named here as the wife of Uriah which brings to mind that Uriah was usually referred to as “Uriah the Hittite.”

These four women bear witness to the unfolding fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham in Genesis 12:3

Genesis 12:3b (NIV)

and all peoples on earth

will be blessed through you.”

God doesn’t eventually extend blessing to Gentiles, God has been extending blessing from the very beginning. And not just the blessing of “yeah, I guess you can be here too.” But the blessing of weaving these Gentiles into the very story of Israel, into the ancestry of Jesus the Messiah.

Now, the other thing these women have in common is that they are each sometimes held with contempt because of sense of sexual impropriety.

But friends, the suspicion and contempt that these four women have borne DOES NOT COME FROM THE TEXT of scripture. Oh, it’s not that there aren’t some irregularities. But the women are not held in contempt by the authors of Scripture.

Tamar is praised as being fruitful.

Rahab is listed in the book of Hebrews - one among many whose faith is held up as exemplary.

Ruth’s faithfulness and loyalty are echoed at weddings even now - ironically, the words we quote were promised not to her husband but to her mother in law.

Bathsheba is not faulted for the sin David commits against her. Nathan the prophet is clear about the sin in the situation belonging to David.

So here in this long list of fathers, are these Gentile mothers. Reminding us that the outsiders have been woven into the story all along. The promise to Abraham is being fulfilled even now as Jesus inaugurates His kingdom.

Now remember, Matthew cares about continuity. He wants his readers to see connections.

Matthew is writing to people who are familiar with and steeped in the story of Israel.

He is showing his readers right from the start of his gospel that Jesus is the goal and climax of Israel’s history. And he’s assuming that his readers know this history and know the stories behind names and references.

But Matthew is also preparing us to hear the story of Mary’s miraculous pregnancy, which we’ll read next week. And rather than hiding the less-than-ideal parts of Jesus’ ancestry, Matthew seems keen on revealing them and even highlighting the bizarre ways that God seems to have been able to work. The less than picture perfect people and situations out of which God continues to faithfully keep the covenants made.

So, back to the image of journey.

What kind of journey are you on these days? How is your Advent journey going? Have you resonated with one particular word or idea this year?

Maybe the image of waiting from the first week? Or waiting for hope - or perhaps waiting AS hope.

Or maybe that beautiful idea of peace, shalom, in which things fit together and relate to one another as they were intended to. There is so much in our world that highlights the broken relationship that people have with one another and with creation, and with the Divine. Or, maybe the image of being invited into the acts of peace-making… of saying with Mary, “Let it be unto me… I am the Lord’s servant.” Accepting that we have a role to play in helping the kingdom to come.

Or, perhaps today’s word - that candle of love, and this idea that love compels us to journey TOWARD something. Often, leaving behind safety and stability.

And our willingness to allow love to compel us to be on the move, is a reflection of the Divine love we have seen and received.

This text today - this “boring” list of names… is a compelling reminder that God has always been moving towards us in love. Through generation after generation. When the trajectory looked hopeful and when it looked doomed. As the people of God, their journey had some pretty major ups and downs, much as our journeys do. But God, from the very beginning has been coming for us. Love has motivated God to come to God’s people.

And today, that is still what is happening.

We are on our journeys, yes. Full of ups and downs, trajectories towards love, towards God, and also trajectories away. But friends, God is still journeying toward us. And so we look for God’s coming - in Bethlehem.

Sarah Bessey puts it so beautifully:

“The Christmas story is God’s journey towards - towards us, towards humanity, towards the cross, towards resurrection, towards redemption, towards renewal, towards the reconciliation of all things, towards you.”

It is in the love of God that we find our starting point, our destination and our reason for the journey.

And, because we trust God even a little, we ask God to come. And we trust that God will indeed come for us.

Let’s pray.

Where it seems as if our stories, our journeys, have been too complicated, too slow, too full of meandering, or even wandering away from you, thank you for the reminder of this long list. Of familiar and unfamiliar names. Remind us that whether our story is known or unknown, you are always journeying toward us. And then let our connection to You propel us outwards to love others.