A Heritage of Scandal

Matthew 1:18-25

Advent 4

December 22, 2013

The Annunciation of Joseph,
the Carpenter, in Nazareth
by Sieger Koder

I had a friend in school who’s older sister

got pregnant and once she started to show,

her parents took her out of high school

and sent her to a convent for six months

so she could have the baby privately,

so no one would ever know.

I think they told everyone that she was

in a study abroad semester.

They treated it as a shameful secret that they hid from everyone

because you’re not supposed to talk about this kind of stuff

especially in church.

I probably shouldn’t be talking about this now.

Three days before Christmas and all.

I remember when I was in middle school

a person in the senior high youth group was
suspected of being pregnant.

Everyone felt like they could stare at her and shake their heads

when she went by, but heaven forbid,

we couldn’t talk about it in church.

It’s ironic that it has been a tradition in our lifetime that you

would never dream about talking about pregnancy

especially pregnancy before marriage or any kind of other

scandalous thing like that in church

because it’s a pretty important part of the story right here

at the beginning of Matthew’s gospel,

the first page of the New Testament.

 

The birth of Jesus the Messiah
took place in this way…

When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph,

but before they lived together,

she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit.

So they were committed to be married,

but they weren’t living together yet,

but still she was found to be with child…

She was engaged to one person but

she was pregnant with someone else’s child. Scandal!
Sure we know it was the Holy Spirit,

but who was going to believe that?

It’s such a familiar story to us, I think we’ve domesticated it.

Taken away some of its original impact.

We read this version of the birth of Jesus in church
every three years.

We start with verse 18, because the 17 verses before hand

seem pretty boring and long, it’s the genealogy

of Jesus, the bits that say, this one was the father of that one

and that one was the father of this one

That information was probably important to people at the time,

but we usually skip over it when we’re reading
other parts of the bible.

But Jesus genealogy is pretty interesting if you take the time

I’ll read you just the first part:

 

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob,
and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar,
and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram,
and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab,
and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth,
and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
and Solomon the father of Rehoboam,
and Rehoboam the father of Abijah,

Tamar, Rahab, Ruth and Uriah’s wife

Four women are included in Jesus genealogy.

Typically the genealogy is traced through the men

Now it’s not absolutely unheard of that some women are mentioned

but it is kind of unique and these women are particularly interesting.

Each of these women is a familiar character in the bible,

each of these women would be recognized.

Just by saying their name, you could bring up a story in the heads

of people familiar with the Hebrew Scriptures,
which the community that Matthew was talking to would have been.

 

All four of these women have very interesting stories.

Stories that you’re not supposed to talk about in church.

But we’ll do it anyway.

Tamar married one of Judah’s

sons but he died before they had children

She wanted her children to be in Judah’s lineage, so

disguised herself as a prostitute and tricked Judah,

her former father-in-law, and as a result,

she gave birth to his sons Perez and Zerah who are in this geneology.

Rahab was a real prostitute, and a gentile

she used her wit to help the Israelites when they came to Jherico.

She eventually married an Isrealite named Salmon

and they had a son named Boaz.

They are all mentioned here.

Ruth was a gentile who married into an Israelite family

after her husband died, she stayed

take care of her mother in law Naomi

She saved them both from starvation

by seducing Boaz, Naomi’s wealthy older cousin. 

She had a son named Obed who was the grandfather of David.

Then of course, there was Uriah’s wife as Matthew reminds us

Bathsheba, the wife of someone else

when King David saw her bathing on a roof top

and had her husband killed when they found that she

was pregnant with his child.

She was the mother of Solomon.

Talk about a line of scandals.

These certainly are things that respectable people
shouldn’t be talking about. What would people say?

Certainly we shouldn’t be talking about this stuff in church.

Except that its in the bible!

It’s how the whole New Testament starts

this is the story of Jesus of Nazareth.

People knew the stories of each of these great ancestors,

and Matthew used the unusual additions of these women

to remind people that everything

about their own beloved ancestry was not all innocent

it was not without its own scandals.

Matthew is preparing the reader.

After humbling them and reminding them

of their nation’s own interesting past, they are ready.

Matthew says,

“Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way:”

And the scandal of Mary and Joseph and their own drama ensues.

We are waiting for God,

waiting for Jesus to come again.

Most of us look for the holy and pure to find God.

The absolutely peaceful, the places without sin or scandal.

But that’s not how our own lives are.

Our own lives are interesting, scandalous, not without sin

because of that, sometimes we think

that God will have no business working through us.

God would have no business even being around us.

But this story tells us different.

God not only can deal with the scandals

of our family and our lives. God can work through them.

The things that we have considered unholy

and too shameful for God, they don’t’ even ruffle God’s feathers.

God loves to use them to show that nothing and no one is

too-far-gone for God’s attention.

Jesus the Christ –

A child born of a scandal out of a line of scandals

Who would live outside of society’s norms.

Who would die in a scandalous way

to show that God is not above any scandal of our life or times.

As the Angel said to Joseph,

“Do not be afraid,

Whatever happens,

I promise you, God can deal with all this.
God has seen a lot worse.

Mary, the young woman you’re engaged to

will conceive and bear a son

and they will name him Emmanuel,

which means God is with us.”

God is with us. In our life

not in that sentimental, greeting card,

sacchrine - sugary sweet visions of sugar plumbs

dancing in their head kind of way.

God is with us

in every hushed story and whispered secret

in every shame and scandal,

in every story that’s been told behind our backs.

In everything that we’re not supposed to talk about.

Does someone you know have a scandal in their life?

Do you have a scandal in your life?

God can handle it.

Maybe even better than that,

God can use it, and you, in God’s plan.

God is with us.

No matter what.