4th Sunday of Advent
Texts: Matthew 1:18-25;
Isa 7:10-16; Rom 1:1-7
HOW GENEALOGIES CAN FRAME STORIES OF PEACE
Many people are fascinated these days by their genealogies, aren’t they? Perhaps you’re one of them. The fascination is bolstered now, too, by the science of genetics. Companies like ancestry.com and 23andme.com offer both genetic testing and a vast database for researching one’s family tree.
Here’s why genealogy can be so captivating and helpful: it helps us to frame our stories. In the ads for ancestry.com or 23andme.com, for example, they most often feature someone who discovered a person in their family tree who they especially identify with. One featured on ancestry.com is “Heidi’s Story: Born for Adventure.” Heidi describes herself as the “oddball” in her family. Most everyone else is “reserved,” but she is adventurous. She especially relates, therefore, with her great grandfather who emigrated from Poland, who was adventurous like her. She frames her own story by finding the ones in her family tree that she takes after.
Even casually, we can be aware of trends in our family trees that help us frame our stories, right? I haven’t done a great deal of research myself, but I am more aware of my family’s story on my father’s side. The Nuechterleins were one of the families in a large group of immigrants from Bavaria in the 1840’s who split into two groups when they arrived in America, one group to the St. Louis, Missouri area and the other to Frankenmuth, Michigan. Together these groups founded the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod — St. Lorenz Lutheran Church in Frankenmuth, MI being one of the two founding churches. My Nuechterlein ancestor was one of the first Principals at the St. Lorenz Lutheran School. As I learned about my Nuechterlein family tree growing up, I became aware of the many Nuechterleins who were schoolteachers and pastors in the Missouri Synod. My Great Grandpa was a pastor in Frankenlust, MI for forty years. Of his sons, two became prominent Lutheran teachers and two pastors. My grandfather was a pastor, then organist-choir director. My dad was an electrical engineer, and so is my brother Dave. You know which vocation I chose from my family tree. My genealogy has definitely shaped the way that I frame my own story. How about you?
One of the best books, most impactful books, I’ve read this year is Fortune, by Lisa Sharon Harper. “Fortune” is not a word to describe her economic status; it is one of the dominant names in her family tree on her mother’s side. Being African American, the book is similar to Arthur Hailey’s famed Roots, both the book and then the historic TV mini-series of the 1977. Theologically trained Lisa Sharon Harper beautifully tells the story her family going back to being one of the first enslaved peoples brought to these shores from Africa in the 1600’s. It’s a story of suffering and oppression but one also of the hope of redemption for the nation we love, a story of growing freedom with the potential for truer freedom if we can frame our story more truthfully.
I believe that Matthew aims to tell just such a story for his nation of Israel. It’s one of redemption from their sins. The very name Jesus, we are told, is because “he will save his people from their sins” (Matt 1:21). Jesus will help his people to find true freedom by helping them to correctly understand their story. And how does Matthew help them tell their story? Unlike Mark, who simply launches into the story of Jesus at his baptism as an adult, Matthew begins at the beginning with the story of Jesus’s birth that we have in this morning’s Gospel Reading. But you may have noticed that that is chapter 1, verse 18. The first 17 verses are . . . wait for it . . . Jesus’s genealogy. Matthew begins by framing the story of Jesus’ birth and life with a genealogy very much worth looking at. I’ve given you a large portion of it in today’s Sermon Notes.
We won’t read it out-loud but instead glean some insights from an overview. First, notice the structure Matthew summarizes in verse 17. The genealogy is given in three sets of fourteen generations, forty-two in all, from Abraham to Jesus. Those three sets of fourteen are demarcated by significant events in Israel’s history. The first stopping point is King David, the height of national success. But over the next fourteen generations the nation slowly falls apart until they are conquered by the Babylonian Empire and taken into exile. The next fourteen generations experience much suffering and oppression under the boot of several powerful empires — the Roman Empire being the latest and most powerful. So Matthew frames the story of Jesus as one of coming into true freedom after years of suffering and oppression.
But there is also this curiosity marked by the names I’ve bolded in the Notes. In a genealogy list of 42 generations marked by the names of 42 men, Matthew strangely includes the names of five women. Mary’s name, the last of the five, we know well. Matthew’s about to tell her story as the mother of Jesus. But the other four? I’ve given you a synopsis of their stories in the Notes. Once again, we won’t read that out-loud but simply highlight two notable aspects. One is that all four women give birth to sons in difficult circumstances created by a male-dominated society. Tamar’s life is tied to that of her deceased husband, unless she does something out-of-the-ordinary to turn around those circumstances — which happens to be deceiving her father-in-law out his sexual need for a prostitute. All the other women have similar stories of courageous women doing persevering in a man’s world to become part of the story of saving God’s people from their sins. This includes Mary herself, for Matthew makes sure we know the circumstances: Mary becomes pregnant before laying with Joseph so that he plans to quietly divorce her. An angel in a dream helps Joseph to understand that it is OK to marry Mary, even though the circumstances will likely make them at least somewhat of outcasts. The genealogy of women giving birth to sons in circumstances that makes marginalizes them frames the story of a Messiah who lets himself be made an outcast on the cross in order to save us from our sin of marginalizing others.
The second thing to notice is that two of the women aren’t even Jewish. Rahab is a Canaanite, and Ruth is a Moabite. Matthew highlights the fact that the story of Jesus the Messiah is not about the Jewish Messiah being purely Jewish. In fact, in the next infancy story, the story of the Magi who come bearing gifts to the baby Jesus, he will frame the story as one of fulfilling the prophesy of Isaiah that the Messiah will be a light to the Gentiles. Jesus the Messiah will not be about Jewish nationalism, about putting their nation of Israel first. It will be about fulfilling the promise to Abraham and Sarah that their descendants will be a blessing to all the families of the earth. This Jesus will be about true freedom for his people by freeing them from their sins of nationalism in order to take up their true purpose once again, which is to be a blessing to all peoples and all nations. Matthew frames the story of Jesus with a genealogy that embraces the participation of outsiders in order to bring about the unification of the human family.
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, I believe that as we prepare for this Christmas, we are uniquely under the threat of White Supremacist groups who are planning political violence. How does our story of Christmas, the birth of the Savior of the world, the Prince of Peace — how does that genealogy and birth frame our story? Our story as a nation? Our story as a congregation which bears the name of the Messiah’s birthplace? Our stories as followers of the Messiah who came and let himself be branded as an outsider in order to save us from those sins and lead us into true freedom? Amen.
Paul J. Nuechterlein
Bethlehem Lutheran Church,
Muskego, WI, December 18, 2022
