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.

What Do You Expect?

Matthew 11:2-11

December 15, 2013

Advent 3

Last week we got John yelling to prepare the way,

and this week he’s in prison.

And he sends one of his disciples to Jesus to ask Jesus a question.

Now, I love hearing in this story that John has his own disciples.

I get images of rival religious gangs

wandering around the streets of Galilee.

Marking off their own turf. Using secret signs.

But I always wonder,

Why did John’s disciples not go and follow Jesus as soon

as he came onto the scene?

Why didn’t John even become one of Jesus’ disciples?

I think it’s because John had his own separate ministry to carry out.

John and his disciples were called to point to Jesus

the one to come, or at least point to that

empty place where he knew Jesus would eventually be.

Last week we heard John’s description of the Messiah:

John said, “I baptize with water,

but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.

His winnowing-fork is in his hand,

and he will clear his threshing-floor

and will gather his wheat into the granary;

but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

John is full of fire and confidence himself.

 

But this week, about 8 chapters later,

John is in prison and maybe he’s not sure about whether

he’s on the right track.

It seems like Jesus is the one, but John doesn’t seem sure.

Is it possible that our intrepid prophet John is feeling doubtful?

So close to what we know is the answer he’s looking for,

when John’s whole purpose was coming to fruition
Was John the Baptist feeling some doubt?

Or even disappointment at what he was seeing?

“Are you the one we’re waiting for or is there another?”

Now doubt and disappointment might not seem

like the kind of things we should be talking about on Christmas.

But maybe they are very appropriate.

The holidays, are supposed to be a time of celebration,

peace, and joy, but because of the high expectation we put on it,

they can also be a time of disappointment, let downs and sadness.

Many years people face Christmas with dread because of things like

death, divorce, downsizing, loneliness, separation from family.

Or we see the injustice and irony of celebrating when there is still war, still poverty, hunger, violence,

still people dying senseless deaths.

Or maybe we’re disappointed in ourselves and where we have

or haven’t come to since last Christmas.

 

When we’re told we should be seeing the light is when

the darkness sometimes seems the most unbreakable.

These times that television and tradition tell us are so joyful

the divide between what is and what should be seems greater.

Is this what we’ve been waiting for? Or is there something else.

I think it’s kind of comforting to see a strong, fearless man

like John the Baptist feeling doubt and disappointment.

To know that Jesus doesn’t rely on the constant strength

and endless hope even of his most prominent people

is kind of hopeful in itself.

Now the answer that Jesus gives to John’s disciples

probably doesn’t seem very satisfying: Jesus just says,

“Remind John what you’ve seen:

the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, 

the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
and the poor have good news brought to them.”

Maybe John was too busy looking for the pitch fork, the fire,

the thrashing floor the wheat divided from the chaff

Maybe John was looking for that absolute,

confident assurance that we sometimes look for.

Maybe John was looking for something else

and he missed the miracles that were happening right in front of him.

When our expectations get us down,

that is the time when we need to start noticing

the small miracles that God is doing every day:

That we have enough food to eat for today

that one person has shown concern for us

one act of forgiveness, one note of thanks,

One world leader who shakes the hand of another,

one wave, one neighbor who shovels your driveway without asking

one child is given a toy that they wouldn’t have gotten otherwise.

The slow and steady movement of the Spirit in our world.

Sometimes like John, it’s our expectations

that get in our way of seeing all that God is doing

Joseph Campbell the great religious thinking wrote:

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned,
so we can have the life that is waiting for us.

We are the people of God,

we are the messengers that have been sent ahead.

We are the ones who have been called to prepare God's way.

But we don’t need to always be strong or optimistic.

We just need to see the small slivers of light in the darkness.

We are called to point out the slow and steady

movement of the Spirit, the coming of the Kingdom of God.

We might not know exactly what God is up to

But whenever someone asks where God is,

We can say with confidence that the

Kingdom of God is near

God is with us

Cleaning Out Our Closets

Matthew 3:1-12
December 8, 2013
Advent 2

Again, not the type of reading I want to start the
Christmas and Advent season with .
These Gospel stories aren’t very gospelly.

Last week we had the times of trial and the earthquakes.
Today we get the axe lying at the root of the tree
the threshing floor, the wrath to come.

It’s that John the Baptist that messes everything up.
Everyone is coming to John to get baptized.
Baptisms are supposed to be nice events, right.
I’m sure the whole family, aunts and uncles, with the
cameras and the cake that says “Congratulations on your Baptism”
And then John starts yelling at everyone.

John is like that bad uncle that comes to holiday events
and keeps bringing up topics that we shouldn’t talk about
like religion and politics.
He’s the one that makes family gatherings so difficult.
John was not a good dinner guest.

I mean, he called some people a “Brood of Vipers”
children of snakes in other words.
He told them that their lives were all a show.
They act like they’re repentant,
but they’re really just relying on their heritage
They’re resting on their laurels.
They don’t have any intention to change themselves or
the world for God.
They’re too comfortable with the world as it was.

And when John is rude and brings up stuff like that,
Then that forces preachers all over the world to be rude too.

That just makes me have to remind us all 

that after 2000 years of Jesus presence 

Nelson Mandela, Trouble Maker

in the world not all that much has changed.
We’re still too comfortable with things as they are.
We call ourselves Christians, but we don’t act like it too often..
We rest on our heritage, we rest on our laurels
and we resist any kind of change that would make us uncomfortable.

So thanks, John. Now I am forced to remind you that
most of the time we would rather sit and watch the world suffer
than to give up one comfort that we hav..
I have to tell you that I think that if John were
here he would be calling us the same thing:
“Brood of Vipers”. Children of snakes.
Now I have to be the bad dinner guest too. Thanks John.

Why, why does the Word of God do that?
Why do John the baptist and people like him
stir up the pot so much?
He’s telling us to “prepare the way of the Lord
and make the paths straight.”
But he keeps making a mess of things.

Well, the truth is that God needs to make
a mess in order to make things right again.

Have you ever cleaned out a closet?
Not just a little organization, but really cleaned out things,
emptied boxes, thrown out old stuff, clothes and everything?

Then you know, you’ve got to make a mess
in order to straighten things out again.
You pull everything out and throw it all over the room.
For a while it looks like it would have just been better
to leave the closet door closed and forget about the whole thing.

John and other prophets like him,
are here to open the closet door and clean things out.
And they are called by God to do that,
because God needs to get to us.

God doesn’t want just want to reach the
outer exterior that we all show the world.
God doesn’t want to see the closet door.
God doesn’t want to just reach the surface.

God doesn’t just want our ceremonies, and worship,
God doesn’t just want our prayers and praise and platitudes,
God doesn’t just want a couple of acts of mercy,
God doesn’t just want our money.
God wants our hearts. Our whole hearts. Nothing less.

God wants to get to the bottom of the closet.
The closet of our personal lives, the fear, the hardness of heart
the parts that suffer from grief, isolation, hatred,
bitterness, aggression, jealousy, apathy, cynicism.

God also wants to get into the closet of our societies
and clear them out too.
God wants to clear out injustice, racism,
hatred, inequality, oppression, and violence.

God needs to get in there, and God sends prophets
to do that job. They get labeled trouble makers
and rebels and threats to society.
Many of them get imprisoned or killed,
beheaded like John the Baptist
or shot like Martin Luther King Jr. or Ghandi,
They follow in the footsteps of Jesus -- right to the cross.

This week people are celebrating the life and legacy
of Nelson Mandela, the president of South Africa
And the face of the end of South African Aparthide

And he was a wonderful person a person to celebrate.
He stood by his beliefs of equality for all people
he genuinely cared for people no matter their color.
Even from prison without communication with the outside world
he led his people to keep insisting on their freedom.
And when Aparthide was ended and he was released,
he called for peace, for understanding and reconciliation.
No violence, no revenge, just forgiveness and unity.
He should be celebrated.

But make no mistake. For many years
there was not much sympathy for him in the US.
When he was arrested in 1964 and the
US was dealing with our own issues of segregation
here in our country and for a long time
Nelson Mandela was seen as just another trouble-maker.
We get nervous when we see someone
trying to mess up apple carts like ours.
 
Even after Aparthide ended in the 1990’s and he was released -  

until 2008, the US still had
Nelson Mandela listed on the terrorist watch list.
He was put on in the 1950’s when he was starting
to be known in South Africa and wasn’t taken off until 5 years ago.
Even after he had been elected president
he had to get special waivers and clearance to be allowed in the US.

What I’m trying to say here, is that there was a time
when Nelson Mandela was not seen as a good dinner guest.
He was not always seen as the hero he is now.
The world had to catch up with his vision, until then
He was part of the closet cleaning mess that is God’s prophets.

God has big plans for us.
It’s was outlined in Isaiah:
“The wolf will live with the lamb,
the leopard shall lie down with the baby goat
The calf and the lion will be together.”

It’s a wonderful vision of peace and love
between opposites when one normally devours the other
A wonderful vision, but the road there will be difficult.
And we are not there yet. God wants us to prepare.

John the Baptist tells us the way to prepare is to repent.
To change our ways.
To change our thinking and our doing.
It’s not an easy task and God needs all of our help.

So let’s welcome John and Nelson all the other prophets and
trouble-makers to Gethsemane as a guest here at our table.
Let us repent- for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
And let us prepare our hearts and our world for Jesus arrival.