Texts: Isaiah 43-8-21; Matthew 1: 1-17
My parents occasionally had a certain verbal sparring match, one that came to mind when I heard Barack Obama say that he learned he was distantly related to Dick Cheney. It usually began when my mother would try to remind me who my southern ancestors were; my father would then point out that they probably were related to horse thieves and pirates; then he would tease my mother, calling her his pirate queen. That’s usually when she lost her sense of humor.
But we now know is that what my father used to goad my mother isn’t so far from the truth. Based on what we know about mitochondrial DNA, it seems that there may be one common ancestor or at least one common gene pool that survived through matrilineal descent. “M” DNA, as it is named, is passed matrilineally, or from mother to daughter and would not have survived, had the mother had sons only. So, not only was my mother likely related to pirates and highwaymen, just about everyone else is as well.
Our reading from Matthew this morning is usually just glossed over, as not being worthy of examination, but it is. Matthew’s Gospel was written for a Jewish Christian community after the fall of Jerusalem and it’s important that Matthew’s Jesus is a Jew, though with some interesting additions, much like we are children of the United States in light of our own immigrant past.
First, Matthew’s Gospel traces Jesus not just back to David -- albeit in a different manner than does Luke’s Gospel -- but back to Abraham. And just look at the foreigners and unsavory characters included on the list, at least two of whom were foreign women and the third a woman pregnant by her father-in-law.
There’s Tamar, the daughter-in-law of Judah who wants to preserve lineage; one of her twin sons Perez is in Jesus’ lineage; then there’s Rahab, the prostitute who protects the Israelite spies in Jericho in exchange for her family’s safety in the coming invasion; finally, there’s Ruth of Moab who is the great-grandmother of David. The lesson of this genealogy is that all of us came from somewhere, usually somewhere else, or in other words: don’t forget your roots.
In Matthew’s Gospel what really makes Jesus a Jew is his adherence to the law; his five major speeches in Matthew reflect the structure and lessons found in Torah. It’s the way that Jesus interprets Torah that sets him apart from the Pharisees and others who would narrow it to those connected only by blood.
It’s the interpretation of our national Torah, the Constitution, that explains how it embraces all who seek freedom from fear, hunger, and oppression are welcome in our Nation, eloquently captured by another woman, Emma Lazarus: Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land; Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. "Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" She died five years later at the age of thirty-eight.
Several years ago at an immigration law conference I and many others were deeply moved when we saw a presentation made to the family of Russel Timoshenko, a 23-year old immigrant from Belarus who was killed in the line of duty as a New York City policeman. As one speaker said, “This young man and his family didn’t go to some other place when they left their home in Belarus. They chose us and they chose us because we are the land of freedom.”
In the same vein, Jesus’ ancestor Ruth made a deliberate choice to go to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law Naomi rather than return to the land of her parents where remarriage was certainly assured her; she risked it all and Israel won in having David as her great-grandson. Although the nature of their risk taking was different, Tamar and Rahab each in her own way also took a risk to protect herself and her posterity.
As we read from Matthew’s Gospel during this lectionary cycle, we will learn about the ways that Jesus interpreted Torah to open our minds and hearts to a new kind of relationship with God. As it says in Isaiah, “I am about to do a new thing.” God offers us a way through the wilderness of our fears. God offers us a way past the desolation we see in the world. Indeed, God offers us water in the desert of despair. We are only to forget the oppression of the past and look at our history in a liberating way as Matthew’s Gospel presents Jesus, the Chosen One, to be God’s image in the world.
As we study Matthew’s Gospel during this lectionary cycle, let us open our minds and hearts to the true meaning of God’s love shown in the birth of every new baby. Let us examine how the Gospel calls us to truly live with others remembering that we all have horse thieves and pirates in our past.
Let us pray: God of history, God of the future, give us wisdom in the present to discern your will and reflect your loving presence by being your face in the world. In the name of the One who reflects your Presence, even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.