"ADVENT IS UPON US"
We have begun the Advent Season, with all its promise and peril and demanding qualities, and danger of being sentimentalized. When we were preaching dialogue sermons, Caroline and I rarely ever used the lectionary passages for Advent, because the Biblical passages were so disconnected from the season itself. We preferred to concentrate on the Biblical stories about Advent and Christmas, and there were two biblical books that used these stories - Matthew and Luke (though John has a spiritualized version.) Not using the Biblical Christmas stories in Advent allows the culture to take them over, which we obviously have allowed.
The first Christmas story in the Bible comes in Matthew's gospel, in which the author begins the New Testament with a genealogy of Jesus - dull reading until you notice that Matthew infuses the usual "male begetting" genealogy with 5 women - and what five women they are! If you haven't encountered their stories, take time to do so in this Advent season: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Uriah (also known as Bathsheba), and Mary. Here's a brief synopsis of them.
In the 38th chapter of Genesis - in the middle of the Joseph saga - comes the story of Judah (head of one of the 12 tribes of Israel) breaking a promise to his daughter-in-law Tamar. Tamar has been widowed twice by Judah's sons, and he promises to let her marry a third son when he comes of age. But, wanting to keep his third son alive, Judah does not allow the son to marry Tamar. At this time in the Bible, a woman's main value is in having children, especially sons, so Tamar takes matters into her own hands. She disguises herself and dresses as a sex worker. Judah takes a fancy to her and has sex with her. She becomes pregnant, and when Judah hears about it, he wants to have her killed for being pregnant outside of marriage. Tamar shows Judah the signet ring that he exchanged for the sexual work, and Judah sees his error in not providing for her. He gives her sanction and shelter, and she gives birth to twins named Perez and Zerah.
Rahab's story is mentioned in Joshua, chapters 2 and 6. After the death of Moses, Joshua leads the people into Canaan to begin the intermingling and finding a new home. Like the Europeans who came to America, he feels that he must conquer and subdue the people who are already living in Canaan. He sends spies into Jericho and tells them to check things out. They stay at the home of Rahab - it has a reputation for welcoming strange men. When the people of Jericho hear about the spies, they come to kill them, but Rahab hides and saves them. When Joshua "fit the battle of Jericho," his fighters spare the home of Rahab, and then she joins them as they travel into Canaan. She eventually marries Salmon, and her son Boaz will figure prominently in the story of Ruth. Ruth is an immigrant to Israel (good thing that Trump's ICE police were not around when she entered the land). After the death of her husband, Ruth pledges herself to her mother-in-law Naomi, and their powerful story is found in the book of Ruth. Suffice it to say that Ruth will become the great-grandmother of King David - a foreign woman in whose line Jesus is born.
The fourth woman mentioned in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus is not named. She is called "the wife of Uriah," and you can find her story in Second Samuel chapters 11 and 12. We know her as "Bathsheba," but Matthew wants us to know that King David stole her from her husband Uriah, raped her, then got her pregnant. When these events take place, Uriah is off fighting for Israel, and David tries to cover his crimes by giving Uriah time off from war, in order to come home and have sex with his wife Bathsheba. However, Uriah has taken a vow of celibacy during the war, so he does not have sex with Bathsheba. Finally, David then commits an even worst crime - he arranges to have Uriah killed in battle so that he may "officially" have Bathsheba to be his wife. The prophet Nathan comes to David to confront him on these events.
The fifth woman mentioned in Matthew's genealogy is Mary, who will become the mother of Jesus. We will look at her story later, but for now, we can note that as teenager pregnant before marriage, by someone other then her fiance, she joins with the litany of women in Matthew's genealogy who live their lives on the margins. In mentioning women - and especially these five women - Matthew reminds us that the lineage of Jesus pushes him (and should push us) to the margins of life. Most of us want to move towards the center of life, but this genealogy asks us to hear that God wants us to move towards the margins of life. On what kind of journey will we embark in this Advent and Christmas season?
