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    Today's scriptures will begin the "countdown" to the nativity of the Lord.  In some years, Advent is shorter than others and we manage to get through at least three full weeks before the "countdown" begins.  This year the special scriptures for those countdown days begin at the start of the third week!  And they begin with that dreaded, tongue-twisting genealogy of Jesus which begins the Gospel According to Matthew.  

     This genealogy is not like the kind of thing you would get from subscribing to one of those services like ANCESTRY.com or from a genealogical service.  Matthew has an "agenda" which focuses on showing the Jesus is the descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and King David..  So, his list is not 100% complete, but still good enough for its purpose.  Those three sections of 14 generations each do feature some gaps where names are missing from a strict historical point of view.  After all, Abraham ante-dates Jesus by more than 2,000 years!   The important thing is to show the connection of faith through generations and not DNA!  Indeed, some of the characters in the list were not admirable folks but nevertheless they were part of the continuity of God's plan.

     Jesus is placed squarely within the tribe of Judah about which the prophecy in Genesis (our first scripture today) speaks in terms of predominance.  So, Matthew's agenda includes making sure everyone knows that Jesus is not only descended from Abraham and David, but is the fulfillment of all the prophecies about the Messiah.  The old saying, "God writes straight with crooked lines" comes true in Matthew's genealogy of Jesus, but those lines lead us to Jesus and his birth.  AMEN