WEBVTT 00:00:10.419 --> 00:00:13.839 In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 00:00:13.839 --> 00:00:19.859 of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The Nativity and Four 00:00:19.859 --> 00:00:25.559 Feasts is upon us. Christ is coming to be born 00:00:25.559 --> 00:00:30.600 the King of the Jews. the hope of all the Gentiles, 00:00:30.620 --> 00:00:37.240 the son of David and the son of Abraham. And 00:00:37.240 --> 00:00:43.939 yet, in St. Matthew's male -centered genealogy, 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:49.479 Christ isn't actually the son of David or Abraham 00:00:49.479 --> 00:00:56.439 or any of these men. Matthew makes that painstakingly 00:00:56.439 --> 00:01:01.609 clear for us. Abraham begat Isaac. Abraham fathered 00:01:01.609 --> 00:01:05.090 Isaac. Abraham sired Isaac. And Isaac begat Jacob. 00:01:05.250 --> 00:01:09.010 And Jacob begat Judah and his brother. And Jesse 00:01:09.010 --> 00:01:13.549 begat David the king. And on and on and on until 00:01:13.549 --> 00:01:19.469 Joseph. But Joseph doesn't beget Christ. No, 00:01:19.469 --> 00:01:24.890 Joseph is the husband of Mary. Of Mary, Jesus 00:01:24.890 --> 00:01:31.180 was born, who is called. In a genealogy that 00:01:31.180 --> 00:01:35.560 records the act of beginning by 41 different 00:01:35.560 --> 00:01:41.060 men, Matthew intends us to feel this abrupt break. 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:46.060 Christ isn't begotten by Joseph. Rather, he is 00:01:46.060 --> 00:01:51.920 in fact born, born of Mary. If Joseph doesn't 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:58.299 beget Christ, then who does? Well, God. God the 00:01:58.299 --> 00:02:02.739 Father begets Christ in eternity. Christ is begotten 00:02:02.739 --> 00:02:06.019 of the Father before all ages, but born of Mary 00:02:06.019 --> 00:02:09.840 in time. And we can spend hours upon hours on 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:13.360 just that statement alone. Christ has no human 00:02:13.360 --> 00:02:17.740 father because his father is God who alone begets 00:02:17.740 --> 00:02:21.800 him. And yet, by being born of the Virgin, he 00:02:21.800 --> 00:02:25.949 assumes the flesh of his mother, Mary. She bears 00:02:25.949 --> 00:02:29.229 God in the flesh. That's why we call her the 00:02:29.229 --> 00:02:32.750 Theotokos, literally the God birther, the one 00:02:32.750 --> 00:02:37.289 who gave birth to God, the mother of God. Although 00:02:37.289 --> 00:02:40.789 Joseph isn't Christ's biological father, the 00:02:40.789 --> 00:02:44.650 genealogy nevertheless catalogs a people with 00:02:44.650 --> 00:02:49.009 whom Christ voluntarily identifies, manifesting 00:02:49.009 --> 00:02:52.750 his own divine father's solidarity to these people. 00:02:53.069 --> 00:02:57.310 A solidarity so deep, so profound, that Christ's 00:02:57.310 --> 00:03:00.909 Father, in fact, assumes their names into his 00:03:00.909 --> 00:03:04.050 own title. So, for example, in the Old Testament, 00:03:04.110 --> 00:03:06.330 you'll hear this in the New as well. Christ's 00:03:06.330 --> 00:03:09.710 Father calls himself the God of Abraham, the 00:03:09.710 --> 00:03:13.189 God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, the God of Israel, 00:03:13.270 --> 00:03:16.969 the God of Judah, the God of David. He considers 00:03:16.969 --> 00:03:20.860 these forefathers holy and beloved. They believe 00:03:20.860 --> 00:03:23.560 in the Lord. They hope in the Lord. They love 00:03:23.560 --> 00:03:27.900 him. They serve him. Nevertheless, in their earthly 00:03:27.900 --> 00:03:32.960 lives, none are perfect. In fact, many in this 00:03:32.960 --> 00:03:37.500 genealogy fail miserably. You just have to read 00:03:37.500 --> 00:03:42.180 the stories about them. But God loves them. And 00:03:42.180 --> 00:03:45.900 so, like father, like son, Christ identifies 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:49.840 with these. As the father voluntarily becomes 00:03:49.840 --> 00:03:53.120 the God of Abraham and the God of Jacob, the 00:03:53.120 --> 00:03:57.039 God of David, Christ now voluntarily assumes 00:03:57.039 --> 00:04:01.180 their flesh to become the son of David, the son 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:04.199 of Abraham, to save his people from their sins. 00:04:05.900 --> 00:04:10.819 But besides these men, the genealogy also significantly 00:04:10.819 --> 00:04:14.919 highlights four women with whom Christ identifies. 00:04:15.789 --> 00:04:21.250 Four women who anticipate his own mother, Tamar, 00:04:21.449 --> 00:04:26.550 Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah's wife. It's technically 00:04:26.550 --> 00:04:31.149 what Matthew calls her, Bathsheba. Unlike Mary, 00:04:31.410 --> 00:04:35.310 these women are all foreigners. They are all 00:04:35.310 --> 00:04:38.490 Gentiles, two Canaanites, a Moabitess, and a 00:04:38.490 --> 00:04:41.709 Hittite. Like Mary, however, these four women 00:04:41.709 --> 00:04:47.029 were all involved in highly irregular and scandalous 00:04:47.029 --> 00:04:52.009 -looking relationships. After Tamar is widowed 00:04:52.009 --> 00:04:56.149 by two of Judah's sons, Judah refuses to give 00:04:56.149 --> 00:04:59.370 her in marriage to his youngest, thinking she's 00:04:59.370 --> 00:05:02.810 cursed, fearing that his son, his last son, will 00:05:02.810 --> 00:05:07.889 die, and disregards the Old Testament leveret. 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:11.199 marriage tradition, which requires a brother 00:05:11.199 --> 00:05:14.360 to marry his dead brother's wife and produce 00:05:14.360 --> 00:05:19.160 children. To preserve Judah's line, which anticipates 00:05:19.160 --> 00:05:22.279 the Christ, Tamar, however, disguises herself 00:05:22.279 --> 00:05:26.560 as a prostitute and posts up at one of Judah's 00:05:26.560 --> 00:05:30.740 favorite hangout spots in order to be seen taken, 00:05:31.100 --> 00:05:34.639 bedded, and impregnated by her father -in -law. 00:05:35.740 --> 00:05:38.579 In the end, when all is revealed, Tamar is vindicated 00:05:38.579 --> 00:05:41.600 as Judah declares her to be more righteous than 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:47.300 he. Matthew wants us to recall these events when 00:05:47.300 --> 00:05:51.699 he includes Tamar in Christ's genealogy. Unlike 00:05:51.699 --> 00:05:56.220 Tamar, who disguises herself, Rahab is actually 00:05:56.220 --> 00:05:59.959 a prostitute when the two Israelite spies enter 00:05:59.959 --> 00:06:03.259 her brothel looking for what men typically look 00:06:03.259 --> 00:06:08.180 for. in such unsavory places. The Hebrew in Joshua 00:06:08.180 --> 00:06:11.879 explicates their desires to sleep there, as in 00:06:11.879 --> 00:06:15.660 to sleep with women. While the two spies are 00:06:15.660 --> 00:06:19.500 looking for such things, Rahab is looking for 00:06:19.500 --> 00:06:23.139 God. So she hides the spies, she helps them escape, 00:06:23.439 --> 00:06:26.639 but not before confessing Israel's God as the 00:06:26.639 --> 00:06:30.459 God of the universe and begging to be saved from 00:06:30.459 --> 00:06:34.620 Jericho's impending doom. Again, Matthew wants 00:06:34.620 --> 00:06:38.300 us to recall these events by preserving Rahab's 00:06:38.300 --> 00:06:41.839 memory in Christ's genealogy as the mother of 00:06:41.839 --> 00:06:46.480 Boaz. As a Moabitess, Ruth descends from the 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:50.339 incestuous union of Lot and his daughters, where 00:06:50.339 --> 00:06:53.480 the daughters uncover their father's nakedness 00:06:53.480 --> 00:06:57.379 and sleep with him to continue his line. Ruth, 00:06:57.399 --> 00:07:00.240 however, after her husband dies and leaves her 00:07:00.240 --> 00:07:03.620 childless, remains faithful to Naomi. her bitter 00:07:03.620 --> 00:07:06.660 mother -in -law, and identifies with Naomi's 00:07:06.660 --> 00:07:10.339 people and her God. Eventually she meets Boaz 00:07:10.339 --> 00:07:13.160 and at the prompting of her mother -in -law dresses 00:07:13.160 --> 00:07:17.040 like a harlot and goes into the threshing floor 00:07:17.040 --> 00:07:21.379 at night to uncover Boaz's nakedness. In the 00:07:21.379 --> 00:07:24.000 book of Ruth, when the author mentions how Ruth 00:07:24.000 --> 00:07:28.079 uncovers Boaz's feet, this is a Hebrew euphemism 00:07:28.079 --> 00:07:32.040 for uncovering nakedness. offering herself to 00:07:32.040 --> 00:07:35.300 him, echoing what the mother of Moab did to her 00:07:35.300 --> 00:07:39.439 father Lot. By including Ruth, Matthew again 00:07:39.439 --> 00:07:43.779 wants us to recall these things in Christ's genealogy. 00:07:44.319 --> 00:07:48.180 The wife of Uriah, that is Bathsheba, found herself 00:07:48.180 --> 00:07:51.699 taken by King David after he beheld her bathing 00:07:51.699 --> 00:07:55.879 from his roof. David took another man's wife, 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.439 his friend, his friend Uriah the Hittite, slept 00:08:00.439 --> 00:08:04.459 with her, committed adultery. After realizing 00:08:04.459 --> 00:08:07.540 she was pregnant, David then arranged for his 00:08:07.540 --> 00:08:10.740 friend's murder, sending him out to battle in 00:08:10.740 --> 00:08:13.160 the front lines, telling the rest of his soldiers 00:08:13.160 --> 00:08:15.819 to abandon him in order that he would be killed, 00:08:15.980 --> 00:08:19.000 freeing David to take Uriah's wife as his own. 00:08:19.680 --> 00:08:22.540 After the child of the adultery dies, the couple 00:08:22.540 --> 00:08:27.319 produces another child, Solomon, for whom Bathsheba 00:08:27.319 --> 00:08:30.300 schemes to preserve his kingship. solidifying 00:08:30.300 --> 00:08:34.360 Solomon's place in Christ's genealogy. Through 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:37.539 scandalous events, these four women all take 00:08:37.539 --> 00:08:41.460 initiative in preserving a lineage that becomes 00:08:41.460 --> 00:08:45.080 Christ's. But through their initiative, the Holy 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:49.539 Spirit manifests his secret activity. Matthew 00:08:49.539 --> 00:08:52.659 includes these four women because scandal and 00:08:52.659 --> 00:08:56.419 divine activity converge in them to bring about 00:08:56.419 --> 00:09:01.970 the Messiah. thus anticipating Mary. Mary's pregnancy 00:09:01.970 --> 00:09:05.429 is considered a scandal in ancient Near Eastern 00:09:05.429 --> 00:09:09.669 parlance because she hasn't yet lived with Joseph, 00:09:09.950 --> 00:09:15.070 her husband, her betrothed one. The son in her 00:09:15.070 --> 00:09:18.450 womb, however, was put there not by another man, 00:09:18.610 --> 00:09:22.389 but by the Holy Spirit in order to bring forth 00:09:22.389 --> 00:09:25.919 the Christ hidden to Joseph. hidden to the public, 00:09:25.980 --> 00:09:28.759 but mentioned by Matthew from the very outset, 00:09:28.879 --> 00:09:34.679 even before Joseph knows. In Mary, God does something 00:09:34.679 --> 00:09:39.200 radically new. In the past, God intervened to 00:09:39.200 --> 00:09:42.879 work in spite of moral or biological deficiencies 00:09:42.879 --> 00:09:46.379 in human parents, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Hannah. 00:09:46.600 --> 00:09:50.779 But in Mary, he works in spite of the total absence 00:09:50.779 --> 00:09:55.600 of a human father. No male human begets Christ, 00:09:55.820 --> 00:09:59.519 already begotten. He is conceived in the virgin's 00:09:59.519 --> 00:10:02.539 womb by the Holy Spirit. In this way, she becomes 00:10:02.539 --> 00:10:05.340 the God -bearer, different from every single 00:10:05.340 --> 00:10:09.039 woman who preceded her or follows her. There 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:11.919 is no one like her. Christ becomes Emmanuel, 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:16.659 God with us, because the virgin bears God in 00:10:16.659 --> 00:10:24.559 her. And knowing that Christ isn't his son, Joseph 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:29.799 has to enter into essentially the very same thing 00:10:29.799 --> 00:10:34.080 we heard in Hebrews 11, the epistle reading. 00:10:36.960 --> 00:10:41.080 A life of Christ. Joseph must nevertheless identify 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:46.100 with him at the risk of shame, at the risk of 00:10:46.100 --> 00:10:49.419 every danger that will come to him and his family. 00:10:50.470 --> 00:10:53.750 mirroring in his own life what Christ actually 00:10:53.750 --> 00:10:57.629 does for Joseph, what Christ came into this world 00:10:57.629 --> 00:11:01.049 to do for Joseph, and the entire line of David 00:11:01.049 --> 00:11:06.190 and Abraham and all of humanity. Christ voluntarily 00:11:06.190 --> 00:11:09.509 enters into the fullness of human life and identifies 00:11:09.509 --> 00:11:12.950 with it, the joys and the sadness, the faith 00:11:12.950 --> 00:11:15.610 and the faithlessness, the righteousness and 00:11:15.610 --> 00:11:18.549 the sin, the hope. and the shattered dreams, 00:11:18.750 --> 00:11:20.929 the kingdom and the exile, the life and the death, 00:11:21.070 --> 00:11:24.830 all of it, Christ inhabits it. He assumes it. 00:11:24.889 --> 00:11:28.049 He integrates it into himself. He fills it with 00:11:28.049 --> 00:11:31.470 divine life, God with us, manifesting how God 00:11:31.470 --> 00:11:35.129 is still with them. Abraham and David, all of 00:11:35.129 --> 00:11:38.149 the saints, the God of the living, not the God 00:11:38.149 --> 00:11:42.629 of the dead. Obeying the angel's command, Joseph 00:11:42.629 --> 00:11:46.720 takes Mary into his house, but refrains. for 00:11:46.720 --> 00:11:50.840 meritoriously knowing her. Joseph calls Mary's 00:11:50.840 --> 00:11:54.120 son Jesus, for he will save his people from their 00:11:54.120 --> 00:12:00.639 sins. Yeshua, Hebrew. Jesus. Salvation. Savior. 00:12:01.000 --> 00:12:06.000 God saves. The Lord saves. Victory. Healing. 00:12:07.299 --> 00:12:11.779 Another chance. In Jesus' coming, he saves from 00:12:11.779 --> 00:12:16.799 sin. In Jesus' coming, he conquers death. In 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:20.200 Jesus' coming, he overcomes the demonic powers 00:12:20.200 --> 00:12:23.700 of this world. In Jesus' coming, he brings healing 00:12:23.700 --> 00:12:27.840 in his wings. In Jesus' coming, he shines his 00:12:27.840 --> 00:12:32.100 light and the darkness scatters. Because in his 00:12:32.100 --> 00:12:36.700 coming, God comes down. God with us, God for 00:12:36.700 --> 00:12:41.620 us, and God in us. Brothers and sisters, he identifies 00:12:41.620 --> 00:12:47.220 with our humanity. All of it. Everything that 00:12:47.220 --> 00:12:53.299 we are, everything that we carry, the good things, 00:12:53.419 --> 00:12:56.039 the faith, the hope, the love, all of it, as 00:12:56.039 --> 00:13:00.480 weak as it might be, but also the mess, the brokenness, 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:05.559 the shame, the failures, the darkness of our 00:13:05.559 --> 00:13:09.519 life, the cold season prompts us to these things. 00:13:09.720 --> 00:13:14.950 What about our own hearts? Jesus invades all 00:13:14.950 --> 00:13:17.730 of those things as the God of love that need 00:13:17.730 --> 00:13:23.110 to be filled with his life and presence. Let 00:13:23.110 --> 00:13:30.090 us prepare. Let us rejoice. Let us shake off 00:13:30.090 --> 00:13:32.789 anything that would hinder from us. Let us confess 00:13:32.789 --> 00:13:35.889 anything we need to confess for looking at this 00:13:35.889 --> 00:13:40.389 genealogy. There can be nothing that disqualifies 00:13:40.389 --> 00:13:43.750 us from being loved by Christ. Nothing that would 00:13:43.750 --> 00:13:47.870 keep us at arm's length from Christ's love and 00:13:47.870 --> 00:13:51.669 mercy and compassion to us. Nothing. No one is 00:13:51.669 --> 00:13:58.210 above. No one is... No one. Christ will not let 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:03.730 anyone go. Let us enlarge our hearts, as the 00:14:03.730 --> 00:14:07.309 Apostle puts it, so that Christ might come, so 00:14:07.309 --> 00:14:11.730 that Christ might enter into us, filling us with 00:14:11.730 --> 00:14:17.809 life. light, love, joy, and peace, and even with 00:14:17.809 --> 00:14:22.129 himself, Christ dwelling richly, born in our 00:14:22.129 --> 00:14:23.269 hearts. Amen?