Scripture: Matthew 1:16 – “…and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, who bore Jesus, who is called the Messiah.” (NRSVue)
Christmas is nearly upon us. My last-minute gifts should be trickling in in the next few days and I need to make time to wrap everything, hopefully before Saturday night after our 7 PM Candlelight Service (blatant plug here: if you can make it out, you will love it!). As I chose the gifts and the wrapping paper and the often sarcastic or in-joke tags, I think about the people I love, their virtues, their foibles, and why they are so important to me.
Pretty much all my Christmases have been merry and bright, with plenty of gifts, and people (generally) behaving themselves. But not every one’s experience with Christmas is the same way. We do not always conform to the happy Hallmark Christmas patterns where everyone gets along. Often, we are more like the family in Home Alone, where everyone is a jerk to each other, to the point where one of the children gets left behind and no one notices. There are always the “black sheep” in the family that are made to feel less welcome or do not quite fit in or are disruptive to those Christmas card perfect expectations about what a family should be.
Christmas is the beginning of Jesus’ story and the stories about these beginnings are naturally found at the beginnings of the Gospels. At Christmas we hear about the pregnancy of Mary and the birth of Jesus in the Gospel according to Luke (see again the Christmas service this Saturday). We read about the incarnation of the Word of God made flesh in John. We hear about the Good News made visible at the beginning of his ministry in Mark (who doesn’t really have a Christmas Story.) But while Matthew has a Christmas story focusing on Joseph and the Wise Men, it does not start with Christmas, but with a genealogy. In fact, this genealogy is the first think you read when you pick up the New Testament. When you want to hear about the savior of humanity and all the compelling tales that make up the “greatest story ever told,” a list of “begats” is hardly what is going to pull you in.
Matthew presents a symbolic and likely not quite accurate depiction of Jesus’ ancestry, made up of three groups of fourteen, dating back to Abraham. Some of the names on the list are memorable, like Jacob or David. Others are not so well known, like Aminadab, Nashon, Salathiel, as well as the somewhat fishy inclusion of Salmon. But nestled among forty-two generations of men are a few references to women. These are to Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, “the wife of Uriah”, and finally Mary.
What do these women have in common? Well, none of them fit the mold of a perfect woman. All of them were “black sheep” in the eyes of society. Tamar and Ruth seduced the fathers of their children in some way. Rahab was a prostitute who betrayed her city to an invading army. Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, committed adultery with King David, who tried to cover up her pregnancy by ordering Uriah to be killed on the battlefield. Mary was an unwed teenage mother.
Yet, these are the women that Matthew highlights in Jesus’ background. Not the beautiful princesses or devoted wives. Women that were outcasts and troublemakers. It reminds us that we cannot get to Jesus without imperfect people. In fact, it is those people that society judges as unworthy that are the ones that are the most loved by God and the most essential to our lives and our salvation. It is the black sheep of the family that make the family what it is. All the saccharine memories of perfect Christmases do not.
So, this holiday, embrace those who are different. Embrace those who buck convention. Embrace those who frankly drive you crazy. Those are the people that Jesus has come to save and who save us by guiding us out of complacency into relationship with God. Things aren’t going to be perfect. But if it worked on the first Christmas, it will work for you.
Prayer: God, help me love my family for all its imperfections and all its joys. Bring the love for family and friends into my heart as we celebrate the birth of Jesus. Amen.
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