Word to the Wise
Thursday, December 17, 2009 - Thursday in the Third Week of Advent
[Genesis 49:2, 8-10 and Matthew 1:1-17]The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.....[Matthew]
In the later years of his life, my father undertook a complete genealogy of our family. It was a labor of love for him and the results were published in two spiral-bound books which are treasured by those of us who received copies. My father's family has been in the Natchitoches, LA, area for more than twelve generations, and questions are always coming up about events in that history-soaked area which involved members of the family. My mother's family is included but there is not much information available. I mention all this because I have discovered that genealogy is an enormous preoccupation and has been since before the time of Jesus! The genealogy from the Gospel of Matthew in today's gospel is an example. The mind-numbing, tongue-twisting list of names is the terror of any priest or deacon who must read it out loud to the congregation today, but scripture scholars such as Raymond Brown, SS, in his book, THE BIRTH OF THE MESSIAH, urge us to pay attention. Like many genealogies, this one was compiled for a reason and done in a particular way. It would take longer than I have to go into it all, but a couple of things are important enough for us to note in keeping with the season of Advent. Matthew's genealogy is not the same as the one in the Gospel of Luke. Matthew is concerned with showing that Jesus is descended from Abraham and David and is the fulfillment all the prophecies. Matthew begins with Abraham and works forward. Luke begins with Joseph and works back to Adam! Not all the names are the same! Matthew notes that some of the ancestors of Jesus were women with unusual lives. Pay close attention to the lines that include the words, "whose mother...." Luke mentions none of them. In short, these genealogies are produced as a way of preaching and not as a biographical fact-list. I recommend reading the passage on your own since I rather doubt it will be proclaimed with any great enthusiasm! Like all of us, Jesus was born into a family, but he was born as a result of God's promise which was realized through that family and those ancestors. They were a "mixed bag" as are we. The genealogy is a way of saying that Jesus is clearly the fulfillment of God's plan and the connections are not meant to be exact - just close enough! I think most of us will settle for that! AMEN
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