Of Questionable Pedigree

Matthew 1:1-25
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Family histories are interesting things to dig into.  If we were to look into anyone’s family history, we would find heroes and villains and saints and sinners.  People are people and one could say that there’s nothing stranger than people except for family.  True, family history makes for an interesting read,

Looking at Jesus' family history here in Matthew, at face value it would seem he has an impressive pedigree.  Matthew tells us right off that Jesus is the Messiah, the son of David, who was Israel’s greatest king, and the son of Abraham who was the forefather of the Jewish people and the father of our faith.  But, like all family histories we can’t just read the names and ignore the persons.  Do a little research and we soon find the troubling reality that Matthew begins his account of Jesus with a family tree that consists of mostly the blacksheep.

If we look at Jesus’ family tree from Abraham up to David, before things got royal, we find Matthew does something interesting by mentioning the names of women in a line that should be all men.  He mentions Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth—three women that some would say were of questionable virtue but who stand out as models of faithfulness.  Let give you the goods.

First, there’s Tamar and Judah.  Tamar was actually Judah’s daughter-in-law.  He had three sons.  She originally married his oldest son.  The story goes that he was wicked and God killed him.  According to their way back then, Judah had to give Tamar to his second son.  He was also wicked and God killed him too.  So, Judah figured Tamar was cursed and sent her back to her father falsely promising that he would give her to his youngest son when he was old enough.  A few years go by and in the meantime Judah’s wife dies and the youngest son grows up but Judah doesn’t send for Tamar. So, she gets quite upset and cooks up a scheme that the next time Judah came to her village to get his sheep sheered she would disguise herself as a prostitute and get pregnant by Judah himself in order to become his wife.  The scheme worked.

Next, there’s Rahab.  Well, Rahab was a Canaanite prostitute who ran a house of ill repute in Jericho at the time the Israelites were going to invade their way into the Promised Land.  Before attacking Jericho Joshua sent a couple of spies to see what they were up against and, lo and behold, the first place they visit is Rahab’s happy house.  Word gets out that circumcised men were a-town in Jericho and so she faithfully hides her foreign customers on the promise that when the Israelites invaded they would not destroy her house and kill her.  The spies keep their word and in the end she marries an Israelite named Salmon and becomes the mother of Boaz who married Ruth.

That leads us to Ruth and Boaz.  We are very familiar with the story of Ruth, that she was a Moabite woman married to one of the sons of an Israelite woman named Naomi who had moved to Moab due to a drought in Israel.  Naomi’s sons die and she decides to move back to Israel so that her family can take care of her since she was a widow.  Ruth had no obligation to go with her, but out of shear loyalty Ruth left the security of her family in Moab to go with Naomi.  Naomi and Ruth settle on the land of Naomi’s kinsmen Boaz, who allows Ruth to glean from his fields.  Ruth sets her sights on him and following Naomi’s advice one night during threshing time she goes to where Boaz is sleeping and “uncovers his feet” and stays there all night.  He takes a liking to her and then comes Obed, the grandfather of David.  Now let’s move on to the royal lineage following king David.  Everybody likes royal gossip.

So, Jesus is connected to David by means of the wife of Uriah.  That’s Bathsheba.  Uriah was a very faithful soldier to David.  While Uriah was at war David saw Bathsheba conveniently bathing on her rooftop in plain sight of the royal balcony.  David decides she is a must have and so they have an affair by which Bathsheba becomes pregnant.  Out of options for hiding the affair, David winds up having Uriah sent to the most heated part of a battle where he is sure to die, and he does.  David, Israel’s most faithful king is an adulterer and a murderer.  David winds up making an honest woman of Bathsheba and marries her.  That baby dies but she later gives birth to Solomon.

Solomon is known for his wisdom, his wealth, for building the Jerusalem temple, but also for conscripting his people into hard labour to build fortresses, and…for his 700 foreign wives who were princess and 300 concubines.  Yes, there were biblical laws concerning kings having too much wealth and too many wives (Deut. 17:14-20), but Solomon was above the law.  Solomon’s downfall was that he allowed his foreign wives to build shrines to their own gods in the temple he build for Israel’s God and he worshipped their gods there with them.  He set in motion a trend of royal idolatry.  Things only get worse.  Solomon’s son Rehoboam increased the hard labour Solomon had imposed on his people so aggressively that they revolted causing Israel to split into two kingdoms that were almost always at war. 

Moving on, there is hardly a faithful king from David until the Babylonian exile.  Almost all of them were remembered for their idolatry and their abuse of the poor except for Uzziah and Josiah who were known for religious reform.  The kings of the Davidic line actually got so wicked that two of them, Ahaz and Manasseh, sacrificed their own children to foreign gods. The Bible says that the sins are Manasseh are the reason God let the Babylonians conquer the Jewish people and take them away in exile to Babylon, why God let them destroy Jerusalem and his own Temple.  God had had enough.

The rest of the men named in Jesus’ family tree after the Babylonian exile up to the birth of Jesus were never kings.  Only one, Zerubbabel, ruled for a brief time as a governor in the land.  These men are only mentioned in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus and nothing else is known of them.  For four centuries there was not a Davidic king ruling in Israel.  Rather, foreign kings and emperors ruled over them.

Then comes Jesus, the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  Looking at his family tree here one would think him destined to be a real estate mogul and not the one to bring in the Kingdom of God.  Add to all of this that Matthew goes further to note that there is scandal surrounding the question of Jesus’ paternity.  In fact, if Joseph had not been faithful to an angel of God who appeared to him in a dream and adopted Jesus as his own, Jesus would not have had any connection to the Davidic line at all.  In fact, if Joseph had been faithfully obedient to Scripture he could have had pregnant Mary stoned to death.  But, Joseph is a kind and faithful man who loved an innocent, brave, and faithful young woman and they together faithfully rose to the occasion of the call of God.

Well, by now you are probably asking where I’m going with this and you have every right to ask that question and I could very easily say, “I don’t know”.  This one needs more pondering than we have time for.  Nevertheless, one thing we do have to note is that no matter how messed up our families may or may not be God can and will still work through us.  God’s plans and purpose of saving the world still come about regardless of how downright evil his own people get.  This world is so messed up that even the birth of Jesus, the Saviour, isn’t without scandal.  This world is so very messed up, but God doesn’t abandon it.  In love and faithfulness God gets his hands dirty and carries through his grand plan for his creation no matter what sin, evil, and death might do.  God himself becomes part of his creation.  God himself becomes human; a weak, vulnerable baby who will save it all.  Amen.

Disillusionment and Joy

Matthew 11:2-11; Isaiah 35:1-10

So there sat John the Baptist in prison, more than a wee bit disillusioned I suspect.  The Empire struck back at him, one could say.  King Herod and his wife, Herodias, whom he stole away from his brother, often rode past where John preached in the wilderness by the Jordan River.  There were many mansions of the rich and famous in the area.  John liked to hold the two to account for their adultery whenever they passed.  So, Herodias, not liking this prophet of God meddling in her morality, got Herod to arrest him.  John was not under a death sentence, but getting out wasn’t likely unless Cousin Jesus, if he was the Messiah, got on with it. 

I say if because I think that even to John Jesus was a bit of an enigma.  He didn’t live up to the expectations of what the Messiah was supposed to be.  Faithful Jews were expecting an overthrow of their Roman occupiers and a clean up of their corrupted royals and temple authorities.  But Jesus didn’t fit that bill.  He just healed people, had some great debates with the religious authorities, cast out demons, pronounced forgiveness of sins...and he kept company with all the wrong people (whores, revenuers, and fishermen).  To the powers that he was supposed to overturn, Jesus seemed more a source of entertainment and a bit of a blasphemer than the One who was to bring in the Kingdom of God; though the size of the crowds was concerning.

So, John went and did what many a pastor goes and does about mid-career when ministry hasn’t gone the way you expected.  He sent out a hotline to Jesus wondering what was the hold up.  You see, it’s a difficult thing to come to grips with the troubling reality that God does what God does…or doesn’t do, and it seldom is what we want and expect to happen.  John sent some of his own disciples ask Jesus, “Are you the One, the Messiah who is coming, or should we wait for another?”  Jesus told them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see.”  And just to make sure they got it right, Jesus gave them a list of things that he was doing, things that the prophets of old and particularly Isaiah foretold that the Messiah would do.  Ah, blessed assurance.

So…what did these disciples of John hear?  In my imagination John’s disciples heard the sound of people praising God with great joy, a sound so loud that it seemed to be the voice of all creation resounding in joy at the arrival of its Saviour. If you have ever heard Middle Eastern people when worship comes on them, you know what I mean.  It is emotional, loud, and powerfully joyful.  If you are the type who hears the sound of colours, it was like the wanton wasteland of the dry wilderness of becoming lush, breaking forth and blossoming like the dry riverbeds in the Palestinian wilderness coming into blossom in Spring just after the end-of-winter flooding…bright purples, pinks, yellows, whites (I’ve seen that bloom and it’s beautiful.)

So, if that’s what John’s disciples heard, what did they see?  What could have caused all that loud praising?  Well, Jesus doing what God himself said he would do when he himself came to deliver not only his people but more so all of his creation from oppression by sin and death.  Weak hands were strengthening.  Unstable knees were steadying.  Jesus was opening the eyes of the blind and unstopping the ears of the deaf.  He was making the lame to leap like deer and loosing the tongues of the mute so they could praise.  He was cleansing lepers and even raising the dead.  Jesus was sending out his own disciples ahead of him and they did these things also as if to make a highway in the desert so that God’s people could come to him.  Joy was overtaking those people.  Sorrow and sighing was fleeing.  John’s disciples were seeing and hearing Isaiah 35 manifesting all around Jesus everywhere he went.  What better news could there be for the poor in the land than these signs of “Immanuel” – God is with us!?

Jesus told John’s disciples to go report what they hear and see and also sent them back with a little kick in the pants for John.  Tell John, “blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”  If I had to paraphrase that, it would be, “John, I am who I am and I will do as I do.  I may not be doing what you think ‘God’ ought to do.  But I am ‘God with you’.  Keep being faithful, John.” 

I can relate to John.  Faith in Jesus can be quite disillusioning.  We want a God who does what we think he out to do, but God does or does not do what he wants to do in what seems like a test of patience to us as he works all things to the good for those who love him.  It is especially difficult when suffering is involved.  As a minister, I’ve walked with more people than I care to through terminal illness praying all the way that God would heal and yet God didn’t.  Instead, what God more often does is come along side the person he’s calling home and gives peace.  Instead of fear there is the peace of Christ.

When I think of the present circumstance of the world today I get really spooked.  The environment of planet earth is at the tipping point.  The population of species homo sapiens is reaching the point of being unsustainable on this planet.  I can only think of one global leader who is a step above mediocrity, Angela Merkel.  The rest are mediocre at best and/or diabolically corrupt.  The economy is great for the rich, but the day will come likely in the next decade when economic disparity will catch up with us and the Recession of 2008 will seem mild to what’s coming.   I want Jesus to come be King Jesus right now.  I don’t want to live through a time when billions of people starve to death and there are epidemics and wars.  Then there’s the state of the Church.  My outlook on life is profoundly affected by the fact that my profession, professional clergy, is one of the fastest declining in the world.  I am not seeing the Kingdom of God grow as I hoped it would through my work.

All things considered it would be quite easy to be disillusioned with the whole God/Jesus thing.  If it were not for one thing, the blatant fact that God is with us.  In patience and in prayer the presence of the Lord is with us and there is a joy that comes with that.  These Advent themes of Hope, Joy, Peace, Love are all the effects of Jesus being with us and he has promised to be with us to the end of the age when he finally comes.  To know ourselves to be the beloved children of God in Christ upon whom he has rested his Spirit is something to be joyful about this day and always.  Where the presence of the Lord is the lame leap, the blind see, the deaf hear, the mute speak, the dead are raised.  Whether literally or spiritually, where Jesus is present healing happens; and there is the silent sound of all creation joyfully worshipping. Amen.

A World of Peace-filled Leadership

Isaiah11:1-10
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I went on a study tour of the Middle East back in 1995.  It was probably the most peaceful time in the last seventy years to visit the region. In 1993 Israel and the Palestinian Liberation Organization had struck a deal for peace in which they recognized each others right to existence.  Their leaders at the time – Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres, and Yasser Arafat – received the Nobel Peace prize for their efforts.  In 1994 Israel and Jordon had signed a peace treaty that opened their borders to each other.  These leaders were all men of war who saw that peace would not be wrought in the Holy Land by means of war.  More importantly, the realization came with accepting the responsibility that a peaceful future for their children meant they had to act to break ranks with their political bases and popular sentiments rooted in hate and fear and make the difficult decisions that would make peace a reality.

Given that everyone has their flaws, Prime Minister Rabin, President Arafat , and King Hussein were the type who believed that problems were best handled face to face.  Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein chose to work face to face rather than from behind negotiators.  Rabin and Arafat also met several times, not just in cold offices, but also in each other’s homes in the presence of each other’s families.  At one such meeting Chairman Arafat actually got on the floor to play with Rabin’s grandchildren.  How different the world would be today if global leaders actually put their prejudices aside and befriended one another as family? 

Of the three the character of Hussein truly needs to be noted.  As the leader of a land-locked nation in the heart of the most troubled area of planet Earth, he is remembered for his courageous kindness, his courage to speak the truth to his Arab and Israeli neighbours, and his willingness to open his land to refugees at great cost to Jordan.  His gracious hospitality in the matter or war refugees revealed his fierce generosity.

One of his gestures of kindness speaks more loudly than any to the character of this king.  On March 13, 1997 on the north end of the Israeli/Jordanian border, a Jordanian soldier open fired on a group of Israeli school girls killing seven and wounding six.  Hussein immediately returned to Jordan from an official visit he was on in Spain.  He then immediately went to the Israeli town of Beit Shemesh to sit with the grieving families.  When he arrived he went on his knees before the families saying the incident was “a crime that is a shame for all of us.  I feel as if I have lost a child of my own.  If there is any purpose in life, it will be to make sure that all the children no longer suffer the way our generation did.”  He also sent compensation to each of the families.

With respect to what happened to the bright light of these peace-filled leaders and their efforts, Rabin suffered assassination by an Israeli right-wing extremist in the fall of 1995.  Benjamin Netanyahu, who did not share his peace-filled sentiments, succeeded him.  Netanyahu soon began escalating tensions with the Palestinians all but eradicating the work of Rabin and Arafat.  The breakdown of peace in the region took its toll on King Hussein. His wife, Queen Noor, reflected on the king’s feelings at this time.  She said: “Everything he had worked for all his life, every relationship he had painstakingly built on trust and respect, every dream of peace and prosperity he had had for Jordan’s children, was turning into a nightmare.  I really didn’t not know how much more Hussein could take.”  Hussein died in 1999 of cancer.  Arafat remained a figurehead leader of the Palestinian Authority until his death in November of 2004.  The Palestinians suffered as much from infighting as it did in its struggles with Netanyahu.  Arafat may or may not have been poisoned.  Ironically,  the one Palestinian leader who sought a peaceful resolution with Israel was seen by both the Israeli and American governments as an obstacle to peace.  One might ask “peace on whose terms?”

Our passages today speak of the quality of character of Christ Jesus, the King who is to return and put the world to right.  The Psalmist says he will judge the people with righteousness, which means he will act to set things right.  He will defend the cause of the poor, bring deliverance to the needy, and crush the oppressor.  Isaiah writes that the Spirit of the Lord is on him, the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and his delight is the reverence of the Lord.  He is dressed in righteousness and faithfulness.  When he comes he will act, his executive orders will be judgements for the good of the poor, laws that will actually bring economic equity rather than just tax breaks for the super wealthy.  His words of truth will be like an iron rod striking the earth.  By his breath, i.e. the Holy Spirit, he will kill wickedness.

Isaiah continues and says that a day is coming when there will be no more predation.  The Temple Mount will no longer be a reason for people to hurt or destroy one another.  And…he says, “The earth will be filled with the knowledge (the personal knowing) of God as the waters cover the sea.”  This is the day we await and work for, the day when King Jesus returns, a day when the world will be led by peace-filled leadership.  This day is what our talk of waiting in Advent is all about.

These passages set the stage for our Advent longing for peace.  Advent isn’t about building our nostalgia around the birth of the Son of God in a cozy manger where he cooed with the doves so we can eat some turkey and open some presents and proclaim it to be peace on earth and good will towards men; fa-la-la-la-la.  Advent is about our deep longing for the day that is coming when Jesus returns with judgement in hand to set the world to right.  Advent is about us…US…sleepers awaking from our drunken stupor of consumerism, materialism, individualism, and greed that has turned the first coming of Jesus into some sort of sick celebration of debt, economic slavery, and environmental devastation. (Sorry if I’m ruining your Christmas with my conscience.)

In Advent we look at the world today and say, “Where are you King Jesus?”  No head of state on earth today in any way exhibits the quality of character or exercises judgements in the way the psalmist and the prophet Isaiah says they should.  Instead wickedness abounds.  The present leader of Israel is being brought up on charges of corruption.  The American President is about to be impeached.  The Canadian Prime minister says one thing in public and another thing in private and should have more to say to the American President than just complaining about being late for a cocktail party because of the President’s love of theatrics.   In America, children are getting locked in cages at borders.  In Canada, children on reserves are still getting sick from tainted water.  Refugee children are still washing up on the shores of the Mediterranean.  All these children will grow up in a world that is in an environmental crisis that our current global leaders do not have the courage to fix while they can because those sorts of decisions curtail campaign funding and are prohibitive to re-election.

Historian Ronald Wainwright in the last of his 2004 Massey lectures in which he was remarking how global leaders were ignoring the environmental crisis at hand, he said, “Adolph Hitler once gleefully exclaimed, ‘What luck for the rulers that the people do not think!” What can we do when the rulers will not think?”  He wrote that 15 years ago.  Today we have people who don’t think and rulers who will not think and all anybody seems to care about is what they see and hear on social media.  Nobody is thinking about the future of our children!

If there was ever a time for Jesus to return it is today.  Regardless, let us his followers awake and by the power of the breath of his Holy Spirit that he has breathed into us bear fruit worthy of repentance and live in harmony with one another to the glory of God.  Let us live in the image of the coming one who gave his body for the sustenance of the world and let his blood be shed for the forgiveness of our sin.  Amen.