The Voice of our Past: the Story Tellers of Christmas

Intro

Scrooge is visited by the three different visions (ghosts) of his past present and future.

He realizes how awful he has been so makes changes to his present day dealings with people - especially with the family of tiny Tim, the boy with the deformity of his leg.

Learning from the past is sometimes scary part of life. We look back and see things that cause pride and also things that we are not so proud of.

The issue is not what our past has been, but whether it changes our present and future.

We are going to an unusual place in today’s message: Joseph represents a new branch in the line of David.

1. Learn from the Past (Mt 1:1-17)

The title is: the genealogy of the Messiah. (Not the genealogy of Abraham)

most genealogies name the start of the line, not the conclusion of the line. (Implication: Jesus must be someone special!)

14 generations

from Abraham to David

from David to the Exile

from the Exile to the Messiah

Not every name is listed here. Some are omitted. That makes those who are included much more notable.

Matthew 1:1–6 NIV

This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,

Not going into the second and third branches of this line. We’ll skip over those names and stories and get to Joseph in our second point today.

This genealogy is different in another aspect.

Women!

New Testament (Second Edition) 1:1–17: The Background of Jesus

Ancient genealogies usually omitted women, but Matthew includes four women (1:3, 5–6).Three of these women were Gentiles (Gen 38:6; Josh 2:1; Ruth 1:4) and the other was at least associated with a Gentile (2 Sam 11:3)—though Matthew omits the four matriarchs prominent in Jewish tradition, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah and (less relevantly here) Rachel. Thus he hints from the Old Testament that God has always planned a mission to all peoples (Mt 28:19). Yet

So, who were these people? Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, Mary (focus on her next week)

5 women were named.

Tamar (Genesis 38) - strange story with lots of cultural aspects that seem troubling to us in the 21st century. In those days, being a female meant that you couldn’t own property. So, if your husband dies (or divorces you) you won’t have any way to make a living. And God cares for women and children.

If you are watching this from home with your children, be warned that this next few minutes are rated between PG-13 and R. So, this would be a good time to get a small snack. See you in about 3 minutes.

Tamar’s husband commits a grievous sin and the Lord takes his life. She has no sons. Therefore the property would go to her husbands brother.

The husbands brother is responsible to marry her and impregnate her so that a son would continue the line.

However, that new husband doesn’t want to divide the inheritance so makes it impossible for her to get pregnant.

the Lord causes his death because of his failure here to produce an heir for her.

The third son was too young to marry. So the Father made a promise that when the time came, they would marry. Tamar is sent away to live with her own family a distance away.

He refuses to do so because he believes that Tamar was the cause of the deaths of his sons.

Her father-in-law should then be required to take her as a wife and to provide a son to be the heir.

Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute and waits in a public place to entice her Father-in-law, Judah to have sex with her.

Judah doesn’t have the money to pay her so promises to come up with the cash tomorrow. She asks for his signet ring and the cord it hangs from, and his staff as pledge of the payment.

Tamar gets pregnant.

Judah learns of her pregnancy and calls for justice by stoning her to death. At the trial (big moment) she pulls out the signet ring and the staff to show that he is the rightful father of her child.

Wow, that could easily be a six part HBO miniseries.

What are we to learn from this? Actually, this story shows that the Canaanite woman was more righteous than this Jewish family in the line of Abraham.

IL: My own Danish heritage.

I always thought that my roots were solidly pure and based on Christian principled people. Somehow I imagined that some Danes went down to Jerusalem, witnessed the resurrection, and returned to Denmark and the nation has been Christian since the first century.

My Great, Great (maybe another Great) grandfather came from Denmark, made his way across America and to SW MN where he was instrumental in starting the Danish Baptist church in town. End of story.

Not the full story.

Tamar - a righteous Canaanite

Rahab - a prostitute from Canaan

Ruth - a recent immigrant from Moab

Bathsheba - had a “me too” experience

So, in this genealogy we learn...

Jesus’s birth breaks down racial barriers

Jesus’s birth breaks down gender barriers

Jesus’s birth breaks down social barriers

I hope that you can see yourself in this message. You have a past. It does not determine your future. God has dreams for you that go beyond anything you can imagine. It doesn’t matter where you’ve been. What matters is where you’re going. You have this moment to determine and take the first step in that direction.

I also hope that you can see Branchline in this story. We are at that “was the father of...” stage. In the near future there will be another name of the pastor’s door.

I spend a good deal of time on Wednesday of this week looking at some of the written history of Branchline. I saw some really incredible things. Do you know how rare it is for a group that starts with a basement Bible study to end up becoming a church of many hundreds of people? Rare.

Was it all smooth sailing? Certainly not. The real story is one of perseverance over many years. The vision of the church to reach people outside their own relationships is part of our DNA. It is also part of our DNA to not do everything perfectly.

Own it.

Get over it.

Get on with it.

Last I checked there are still people without Christ in Hastings and the surrounding area.

Trans: Let’s take a look at the second part of Matthew 1 for some insights into getting on with it.

2. Do Things Differently Now (Mt 1:18-25)

trans: now we move from learning from our past to setting a new course for the future. It involves the story of the last in the line - Joseph.

Matthew does a peculiar thing here. He moves to Mary rather than Joseph.

Joseph is not technically the father of Jesus. The birth occured even though Mary was a virgin.

let’s read this part of the story...

Matthew 1:18–25 NIV

This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was faithful to the law, and yet did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” 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”). When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he did not consummate their marriage until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.

Joseph was a righteous man.

it isn’t so much what he did, but what he did based on what he was told. With new information from God, he chose to follow even though it went against tradition and his own initial desires (good though they were).

He was prepared to do a noble thing.

He wanted to do a good thing. Breaking the engagement privately rather than publicly shaming her is a good thing. It was respectful. It was understandable. And it was socially acceptable.

However, God had better plans.

Friends, don’t let the good things you are doing now stand in the way of the better things that God wants for you.

His life changed when he obeyed the Lord.

I think that to be more honest with this phrase, your life changed because of his decision.

We don’t really know the impact of our decisions. Some of them are immediate. But many (most?) of them will be felt far down the road.

Conclusion:

Once again, I hope that you can see yourself in this story.

maybe you’re here today and your past is all you can see. Maybe, you’ve never really turned over your life to Christ, sought his forgiveness, and committed to follow him. If so, here is a short prayer that will lead you into the first step of making a dramatically different future.

“Lord Jesus Christ, I see today that my past is full of wrongful things that have hurt me, hurt others, and have hurt you. I am sorry. Please forgive me. Enter my life and make me new inside. I choose this day to follow you as the true leader of my life - not me. Thanks for forgiving and giving me new life. Amen.”

For others here, you have made that decision, but somehow, you’re stuck. Reach out to your staff here and find ways to get involved. It might be to become part of a small group. It might be to begin to serve. It might be another area. Let us know how we can help you make a change that will result in a better you.

For us as a church - that’s why I’m here. I’ve learned a lot this past week. And I’ve connected a few dots. Chances are that some of my intuition is right on. But I also know that all of it needs to come about as you tell your story, the leadership board tells their story, the pastors share their story. And we’ll find out what we have to learn from our past. What needs to be cherished. And what we can do better moving ahead. My experience tells me that there is nothing from our past that God cannot and will not use. Even things we did awkwardly, poorly, or otherwise. But there are some ways to move forward and into the future that God has for us.

You cannot undo your past. But you can remake your future by changing direction.