Sermons at St. John's Presbyterian Church
2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705
Telephone 510-845-6830 Fax 510-845-6837
http://www.stjohnsberkeley.org
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Sermons at St. John's Presbyterian Church |
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| St. John’s Presbyterian Church 2727 College Avenue, Berkeley, CA 94705 Telephone 510-845-6830 Fax 510-845-6837 http://www.stjohnsberkeley.org |
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Transcribed from the sermon preached December 26, 2010
The
Reverend Robert McKenzie, parish associate
Scripture
Readings: Matthew 1-2
Someone has said that our lives are
governed by three questions. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am
I
going? When I
retired I spent three
years mulling over these questions and wrote a 362-page book to help me
figure
out some answers for myself. I
discovered a lot about myself that I had never thought about. I
recommend doing
something like that as a useful exercise during your waning years. It's
an
instructive way to get at the first two questions –Who am I? And where
did I
come from?
The last question, where am I going?
always filled with uncertainty and mystery gets even more so as we draw
closer
to our final retirement. It's not that there is any question about the
final
outcome – we suffer the destiny of every living thing - but whether
anything
remains of me after I draw my last breath.
The apostle Paul is quite certain that a glorious future
awaits those
who die in the Lord, and that God's grace and love awaits us in all
it's
abundance, but none of us can quite believe what that can possibly mean
and
whether we measure up. As I say, the question of where we are going
remains a
mystery to the end and I think, on the whole, that is a good thing.
The gospel writers, in their telling
of the story of Jesus, are acutely aware of all three of these
questions. Take,
for instance, the way Matthew tells his version of the Jesus' story.
The very
first sentence of his gospel reads, “The book of the genealogy of Jesus
Christ,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.”
A genealogy tells us where someone comes from and whether,
therefore, he
is an important person or not. Did my ancestors come over on the
Mayflower? Did
they fight in the American Revolution? On what side? I can boast that
my
ancestor was James Watt, the inventor of the steam engine. My father
fought in
both world wars in Europe. What does that have to do with me? In the
culture
where I grew up, it made a lot of difference.
So Jesus could claim to be the son of
Abraham, the father of Israel, and a son of David, Israel's greatest
king.
Because of being David's son, Jesus was heir to the promise of God that
David's
kingdom would last forever. It was like being born prince Charles, one
day to
be king of England. Who I am is determined by where I came from. Or so
it
seems.
The genealogy in Matthew, which
establishes Jesus' ties to David, heir to the throne of David, also
poses some
questions. Unlike most genealogies, unlike the genealogy in Luke, for
instance,
Matthew includes the names of five women, and these are not exemplary
women. First there
is Tamar whose
husband died leaving her childless. She was rejected by her husband's
brother
who was supposed to marry her and sire a child for his dead brother. So
wily
Tamar dresses up as a prostitute, seduces her father-in-law and bears a
son who
is included in the genealogy.
Next is Rahab, another prostitute who
aided Joshua in the conquest of Jericho. Her offspring is also listed
in the
genealogy. Ruth, a foreigner is also included. Then there is the wife
of Uriah
the Hittite, Bathsheba by name, whom King David himself
impregnated while Uriah was off fighting in
David's army. In order to cover up his folly, King David ordered Uriah
back
from the battlefield to sleep with Bathsheba. Uriah, being a stubbornly
honorable man, refused this offer of conjugal felicity while his
comrades were
in battle. So David sent him back into battle, instructing the
commander to put
Uriah at the forefront of the attack where he was killed. The offspring
of this
unholy alliance between David and Bathsheba was none other than king
Solomon.
Finally there is Mary, the mother of
Jesus, pregnant not by her betrothed, Joseph, but, as the story goes,
by the
Holy Spirit. And now, the story becomes really complicated. What are we
to make
of Matthew's genealogy, which includes all these questionable women,
ending
with Mary? It seems to say, for one thing, that in the economy of God,
glaring
moral transgressions do not negate the larger scheme of things, God's
long-term
purpose. It also raises the question, does it not, of Jesus' paternity?
What is
Matthew trying to say when he tells us “that which is conceived in her
is of
the Holy Spirit”? Can the story be read to say that the baby in the
womb of Mary,
whoever the father may be, is blessed by the Holy Spirit, is destined
by the
Holy Spirit to become the world's savior?
Must it be read that the Holy Spirit, somehow
miraculously, implanted a
male seed into the womb of Mary? To put a modern spin on the story,
what would
a DNA test show about Jesus' paternity?
The traditional reading of the text,
which seems to make of Jesus half God and half human, some super
hybrid, is, to
my mind very problematic. If incarnation means anything it means that
God has
embraced our full humanity in Jesus as the means of bringing about
God's
purposes for the world. The stories of Jesus' birth, however they are
read,
cannot compromise the full humanity of Jesus. Otherwise they make a
mockery of
the central conviction of Christian faith, namely that God has entered
into
full partnership with the human race through the man, Jesus of
Nazareth, son of
Mary and Joseph, a human in every way like you and me.
Who, then, fathered Jesus? That is the
mystery. But the inclusion of Mary in the genealogy along with the
other four
women suggests paternity outside the accepted norm, whether by the Holy
Spirit
or some human agency. The
statement
that Mary was pregnant before she and Joseph “came together” is
contradicted by
the genealogy. For it links Jesus to King David, not through Mary, but
through
Joseph. Was he the vital link in this genealogy or wasn't he?
There is also an ancient tradition, of
questionable repute, that Mary was a victim of rape by a Roman soldier.
It
happens that a garrison of Roman soldiers was established near Nazareth
just
when Mary was coming of age. Roman soldiers were notorious, like all
occupying
troops, for setting upon local women. Make of it what you will. The
Nazis
touted the rape of Mary by a Roman soldier to establish the Aryan
credentials
of Jesus to save him from being a Jew.
Finally, Jesus isn't the only ancient
figure who is said to have been born to a virgin. The same was said of
Alexander the Great, the Roman emperor Augustus and Dionysus. Aside
from
Matthew and Luke no other New Testament writer ever mentions the
circumstances
of Jesus' birth. What is important were his life, death and
resurrection. In
his introduction to the letter to the Romans Paul says of Jesus, he
“who was
descended from David according to the flesh and designated Son of God
in power
according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead”,
not by
a miraculous birth. The New Testament writers are all in agreement that
coming
to terms with Jesus rests not on his birth, but on his death and
resurrection.
Christmas is not the pivotal moment in the life of Jesus. Easter is.
Moving right along. Chapter two. “Now
when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the
king.” Chapter one
opens by establishing Jesus'
credentials as heir to the throne of David. Chapter two opens by naming
the
present occupant on David's throne, that is, Herod.
We are then introduced to the Magi, who come seeking the
newborn
King in the court of Herod. The importance of the Magi to this story is
to
alert the court of Herod that his power is being threatened by the
birth of a
pretender to his throne. The Magi's announcement of Jesus' birth
troubles Herod
and all Jerusalem with him, we are told.
So he enlists the Magi in a scheme to rid himself of this
threat by
piously saying that he desires to honor this new king as well. “Go and search diligently
for the child, and
when you have found him bring me word, that I may too come and kneel
before
him.” The Magi,
having found Jesus and having
delivered their gifts, apparently did not see through Herod's duplicity
for
they had to be warned in a dream not to return to Herod.
Simultaneously, Joseph is warned in a
dream – dreams being the popular mode of communication in those days –
to get
out of the country because Herod meant to kill Jesus. So Joseph makes a
strategic retreat south toward Egypt at night with Mary and Jesus. When
Herod
learns that the Magi tricked him, he storms around the palace in a
rage,
determined to see that this new king is destroyed. He sends out his
secret
police, ordering them to kill every male “in Bethlehem and the
surrounding
region” under two years “according to the time which he had ascertained
from
the magi.” Herod wreaks mayhem on the families of young boys in
Bethlehem while
the young couple and their babe make their get away and remain in Egypt
until
Herod dies a couple years later. They return to Judea but when they
learn that
Herod's son Archelaus is now on the throne, they decide to head north
to Galilee
and settle in Nazareth, a shabby little village where Jesus grows in to
manhood.
But already the die is cast. The
powers of this world will not abide the hope and the promise, which
attends
this new king. A period of gestation follows, during which Jesus
immerses
himself in the traditions of his ancestors, the long and rich history
of the
sons and daughters of Abraham, Moses and the commandments, the
Psalmists and
the prophets, readying himself to burst upon the scene.
One day he travels south from Galilee at the
age of 30, hearing about a new prophet, John the Baptist, and aligns
himself
with John's call to repentance. Jesus baptism by John inaugurates his
own
ministry of preaching and healing and challenging the ruling powers,
leading
finally to his execution by the same powers that tried to destroy him
at the
tender age of two years. Herod had reason to fear this newborn King for
when he
came of age, he challenged the very foundations on which the power of
the
Herod's of the world rests.
But, as we all know, the Herods of the
world continue the slaughter of little children by choking off the flow
of food
and water and medical care and education with their economic, political
and
military strategies designed to enhance their own wealth and power at
the
expense of the children. Not only do they choke off these vital
resources, but
they exploit the youth and poverty of millions of young women in their
brothels
and factories with false promises and threats of exposure. Ruthless
military
regimes all over the world force young men to kill, rape, and ravage
the old,
the children and the women in their lust for power and wealth. The
gospel story
of the slaughter of the innocent babies of Bethlehem, the first martyrs
in the
wake of Jesus birth, is a chilling reminder of both “the hopes and
fears” which
Jesus birth unleashed that frosty winter night.
Needless to say, I love the traditions
of family, the glorious music, the expressions of good will, which mark
the
Christmas season. From my earliest memories into my waning years, the
eager
expectations of children at Christmas fill me with warm delight. Coming
into
this sanctuary adorned with lighted candles, a stately tree, a lifelike
crèche,
even though the Magi don't belong there, fills my heart with gladness.
But it is important also at this
Christmas season that we remember the women's drop in center with our
gifts,
and the families served by GRIP, and the terror which drove our nurse
in
Guatemala to flee, and the suffering of the Palestinians at the hands
of modern
Herods. Christmas
remains a season of
hope and fear. It is to hope that we are called, to point out the
light, which
came into the world at the birth of Jesus and so to live that all may
believe.
The word of the Lord. Amen