Christmas at Matthew's

Christmas at Matthew’s

December 8, 2024
Matthew 1:18-25; 2:13-15, 19-23

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ took place. When Mary his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they were married, she became pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  Joseph her husband was a righteous man. Because he didn’t want to humiliate her, he decided to call off their engagement quietly.  As he was thinking about this, an angel from the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because the child she carries was conceived by the Holy Spirit.  

Matthew 1:18-20

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Overall, Matthew draws heavily on Mark’s account of Jesus life, death and resurrection, but as we saw last week, Mark doesn’t give Matthew much to work with when it comes to Jesus’ birth.  We don’t know Matthew’s source material for the first few chapters, but we do know that he is very intentional about the way he frames the story.  Matthew relies heavily on the hope of Israel’s prophets and he even begins his story with a genealogy tracing Jesus’ family lineage through Abraham and David. 

Christmas at Matthew’s house is a great big family reunion, but when we look closely at the genealogy, we find that he even invites a few of the “black sheep” that some would rather not see at the reunion.  Outsiders ranging from Rahab to the Magi get a seat and Matthew’s table, but it is clearly still Israel’s table. 

At the end of the day it is Joseph, son of David, who is addressed first by the angel.  Joseph must fully embrace Jesus as his own son, to adopt him as a legal part of David’s household, despite the questionable circumstances around his conception.  

I can only imagine how Joseph must have felt being addressed as a “son of David.”  As an ordinary craftsman, his “royal” lineage did not carry much weight.  King Herod was on the throne and he was little more than a puppet of the Roman Empire.  There was no “son of David” waiting in the wings to save Israel from their oppressors this time.  The idea that Joseph would be in line for the throne must have seemed as laughable to him as the idea of having a child in her extremely old age seemed to Sarah. 

But this is precisely Matthew’s point.  He builds on Mark’s emphasis that this Jesus is indeed the son of God and will usher in God’s kingdom, but Matthew also knows that for his people, none of Jesus’ signs or wonders will mean much without some serious credentials in the Messianic bloodline. 

While Christmas for Mark is all about Jesus’ messianic activity through his life, death and resurrection, Matthew’s Christmas is all about family.  Who is Jesus’ family?  Where does he come from?  Can he truly be the one we have waited for? From the genealogy to the announcement to Joseph and even to the foreign astrologers who see the sign of a new king in Israel, everything about Matthew’s Christmas story points to this simple truth, that Jesus is indeed the heir to David’s throne. 

The Jewish people have gotten a bad wrap in history and even in the gospels as they are often made scapegoats for Jesus’ death.  Matthew reminds us, however, that Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel.  Gentile Christians are not a replacement for the Jews.  Instead we see God’s promise to Abraham fulfilled, that through him and the nation of Israel, all nations would feast together on God’s Holy Mountain and God, Emmanuel, would come and dine with us.

Listen to the full sermon here

Reading with the Saints

Reading with the Saints

Reflections on the Wesleyan Quadrilateral - Tradition
August 25, 2024


2 Thessalonians 2:15, Hebrews 12:1, Romans 15:4, Matthew 28:19-20

see also how Jesus uses tradition - "You have heard"
Matthew 5:21-22, 27-28, 31-32, 33-34, 38-39, 43-45

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold on to the traditions we taught you, whether we taught you in person or through our letter.

2 Thessalonians 2:15

Whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction so that we could have hope through
endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures.

 Romans 15:4

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Whether we come from a religious family or not, we all grow up with traditions.  Perhaps we remember family traditions around holidays, birthdays, trips, or other special occasions.  Maybe it was as simple as Sunday dinner at a family member’s home or a weekend movie or game night.  No matter how small or elaborate, our traditions say a lot about what our family most values and those values have shaped much of our lives. 

In addition to family traditions, we also have religious traditions.  For some, that tradition may simply be that you didn’t go to church at all, but maybe a grandparent or other family member had a church at some point.  For others, it may have just been going to church on Christmas or Easter, or perhaps you were one of those who was in church every time the door was open.  Regardless of how often or how little you were in church, you no doubt learned something about faith from members of your family or from your church.  Some of those traditions may have given you a negative view of faith or religion, others may have been very positive.  But again, all of these religious experiences helped form our value systems and our faith or lack-there-of.

My own religious tradition was a mixed bag.  I grew up in the Catholic church and hated it, but I didn’t know there was anything else.  As a teenager I was “saved” in a Baptist church.  As a college student and young adult I branched out to a number of different denominations and finally landed in a United Methodist Church when I took a job as a part time youth pastor in 2003.  I chose to remain United Methodist for a many reasons, but when I look back on my religious background, I am deeply aware of the mixture of pain and blessing from each congregation and tradition.  Some things I have grown beyond and others that I once rejected I have come to appreciate more deeply in more recent years. 

Just as our own religious experiences are part of our tradition, so the larger tradition of church history has shaped our denominations and even much of our culture.  No matter how fresh or modern a church might be, it is still rooted in a long tradition of faithful saints who have gone before us.  We are not the first to study the Bible, to worship God, or to have a relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit, and we will not be the last. 

In all of our efforts as humans to make our mark on the world and leave our legacy, it is easy to forget that we are part of something so much bigger than ourselves.  As we study the scriptures, we can find tremendous blessing and wisdom in walking with the Saints who have gone before us, both ancient and recent. 

We cannot escape it. 

The tradition is part of who we are.

The question is, how will we allow it to teach us, to shape us, and to bless our lives?

God of the Generations

God of The Generations

The God of Abraham - Part 7

Sunday, October 15, 2023
Genesis 24:34-67

[Her family] called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?”  She said, “I will go.” So they sent off their sister Rebekah, her nurse, Abraham’s servant, and his men. And they blessed Rebekah, saying to her, “May you, our sister, become thousands of ten thousand; may your children possess their enemies’ cities.” Rebekah and her young women got up, mounted the camels, and followed the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left.

 The servant told Isaac everything that had happened. Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent. He received Rebekah as his wife and loved her. So Isaac found comfort after his mother’s death.

Genesis 24:58-61, 66-67

Listen to this Week’s Sermon here:

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Most of us are uncomfortable with our own mortality.  As one doctor said to a newly diagnosed cancer patient, “We all have a terminal illness.  It’s called life.” 

While I don’t know that I would call life an “illness”, there is definitely truth to the fact that it is a terminal condition.  One of the worst parts of that truth is that no matter how long we live, we will always leave something seemingly unfinished.  We long to know what will happen beyond us.  We want to leave a lasting legacy. 

The good news is that God is a God of the generations. 

Abraham barely saw a glimpse of God’s promise.  He never even lived to see his grandchildren, yet God remained faithful to Isaac, Jacob & all the rest. 

Let us live with this eternal perspective, in faith and hope because God is faithful in every generation. 

Amen.

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 Hymn: God, We Spend a Lifetime Growing

Tune: 8787D, ODE TO JOY, BABILONE (Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee)

God, we spend a lifetime growing,
learning of your love and care,
planting seeds you give for sowing,
working for the fruit they’ll bear.
Now we honor faithful servants
who, with joy, look back and see
years of growing in your presence,
lives of fruitful ministry.

 Thank you, Lord, for ones who teach us
what has brought them to this place!
May their faith-filled witness reach us;
may we glimpse in them your grace.
Strong in you, their strength uplifts us
from our birth until life’s end;
Spirit-filled, they give us gifts, as
prophet, mentor, guide, and friend.

 Christ our Lord, you walk beside us,
giving daily work to do;
years go by and still you guide us
as we seek to follow you.
If our sight fails, weak hands tremble,
minds forget the things we’ve known,
Lord, we trust that you remember,
hold us close, and see us home.

— by Carolyn Winfrey GilletteText: Copyright © 2001.

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