1st Sunday of Advent, Dec 2012
The family tree isn't always what it's cracked up to be. I come from a long line of losers,
half outlaw, half boozer.
I was born with a shotglass in my hand.
I'm part hippie, a little redneck.
I'm always the suspect.
My bloodline made me who I am.
- "Long Line of Losers" Montgomery Gentry, 2009, from the album Back When I Knew It All
I submit for your eyes, a look into my family picture.
I was born in October of 1971. The 8th to be exact.
I submit for your eyes, a look into my family picture.
I was born in October of 1971. The 8th to be exact.
The son of a timid and shy Richland County woman and a wandering man from nowhere.
To this day I know very little about my biological father's side of the family.
Maybe it's better that way.
My biological father was the son of a roaming preacher man.
They were some kind of independent, pentecostal, apostolic, something or other.
To my grandfather's dying day he wanted nothing to do with them.
"A bunch of tongue speaking, crazy people."
I met him twice.
Once, when I was thirty.
I had this notion to look him up.
Those urges, they would come and go over the years.
I was in just such a place in 2001 when I felt I wanted to find him.
The internet is a wonderful place.
It didn't take much digging.
Through one of those people search engines, I came across an e-mail address.
He came up to Ohio and met me at a restaurant in Columbus.
He showed up with a woman from his past, one of many.
We sat and I listened to him weave some wild tales about his life.
He didn't answer a single question I needed to bring peace to my soul.
Left me just as empty as I had when I came in.
8 years later, he calls out of the blue.
Wants to know if we can sit down and talk.
By this time, I had written him off and discarded him.
We met at the same restaurant.
He showed up with a different woman this time.
The last one divorced him, like so many others.
I could barely stomach lunch down as he kept referring to him and his new catch as 'soul mates'.
Black sheep.
We all have them in our family trees.
Maybe, you are the black sheep.
If your family tree is spotless and without blemish, then you won't get anything out of this message.
If you understand the unsightly view of that tarnished piece of family tree that you just wish was not a part of your history, then you'll get plenty out of this.
It really should come as no surprise that the family line of Jesus has plenty of sin to call out.
Maybe we have not opened our eyes to it.
We like to think of Jesus in terms of sinless, spotless and without blemish.
Somehow that brings comfort to us, that we have a part in that holiness.
But, how did we get there?
In dealing with our own family trees, we need to stop, admit and come to terms with those unsightly parts that we wish were not there.
That's the only way God can do anything with it.
And, it is exactly how God makes something worthwhile out of it.
Lets take a look at the family tree of Jesus.
Matthew 1:1-18
New International Version (NIV)
The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah
2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob,
Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar,
Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,
4 Ram the father of Amminadab, Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,
5 Salmon the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab,
Boaz the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
6 and Jesse the father of King David.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife,
7 Solomon the father of Rehoboam, Rehoboam the father of Abijah,
Abijah the father of Asa,
8 Asa the father of Jehoshaphat, Jehoshaphat the father of Jehoram,
Jehoram the father of Uzziah,
9 Uzziah the father of Jotham, Jotham the father of Ahaz,
Ahaz the father of Hezekiah,
10 Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, Manasseh the father of Amon,
Amon the father of Josiah,
11 and Josiah the father of Jeconiah[c] and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon.
12 After the exile to Babylon: Jeconiah was the father of Shealtiel,
Shealtiel the father of Zerubbabel,
13 Zerubbabel the father of Abihud, Abihud the father of Eliakim,
Eliakim the father of Azor,
14 Azor the father of Zadok, Zadok the father of Akim,
Akim the father of Elihud,
15 Elihud the father of Eleazar, Eleazar the father of Matthan,
Matthan the father of Jacob,
16 and Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus who is called the Messiah.
17 Thus
there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen
from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the
Messiah.
Joseph Accepts Jesus as His Son
18 This is how the birth of Jesus the Messiah came about[d]: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit.42 generations.
Maybe you don't know the story behind each one.
Let me fill you in on the unsightliness of this tree.
Where to begin, where to be-gin?
At the beginning.
Abraham is said to be the father of the nation of Israel.
He has one son, Issac.
But, there is so much more to say. The story of all it took to bring that son in to the world.
The story of nearly losing the promise, not once but twice.
He nearly lost his wife, not once, but twice.
He and his wife, both, laughing at the promise of God; the promise that God would bring them a son.
How about Jacob?
Because, it's not Jacob's name we are supposed to be reading in this line. It's Esau.
Tricking his brother out of his birthright, stealing the inheritance.
Jacob was ornery. So ornery that he is known for 'wrestling with God'.
The instructor for my class on ethics at MTSO was Rev. Ervin Smith.
Rev. Smith is a self-described 'deontologist'.
Deontology, in layman's terms, is the study of doing the right thing.
At an early age, Rev. Smith recalls wanting to do the right thing.
I had to tell him I had no such inclination inside of me.
I was too ornery. I had too much Jacob inside me.
How about a major branch in the tree?
King David was considered "a man after God own heart".
The whole nation of Israel would rest on his greatness.
And, this is the man who would send a woman's husband into battle, to be killed, just so David himself could take that woman for his own.
They would have a child, Solomon, considered by most to be the greatest king Israel ever had.
His mother isn't even mentioned by name in this tree.
Simply, "whose mother had been Uriah’s wife".
Solomon's mother is actually one of four women mentioned in the family tree.
Rahab, was a foreigner, a prostitute, a resident of the city of Jericho.
Ruth, was a foreigner, an outsider, who really wasn't supposed to get married to a Hebrew man.
And, then there's Mary.
Most likely, a thirteen year old girl, or there about, who is said to have a vision of an angel talking to her.
Saying that, she will have a child, conceived by God?
"and the Holy Spirit will come upon you and you will be with child"
Really? Seriously? You expect us to believe this stuff?
And, her family is supposed to buy this stuff, much less any of us 2000 years later?
After David and Solomon, it was a hit or miss event with each king.
Some listened, some didn't.
Ultimately, the whole nation is ravaged, first by the Assyrians in the north.
The southern portion would be carried away to Babylon for seventy years.
And, yet, the family line would carry on.
It doesn't take long into reading and discovering the history of this family tree before we say, "What in THE world?"
And, then there's Jesus himself.
Born of a virgin, born by the Holy Spirit, born as the Son of God.
Born out of wedlock, born to lowly Jewish peasants, not royalty, born in poverty, not riches.
Murder, deceit, trickery, adultery, idolatrous, permissive.
And, that's just Jesus' family tree.
What your tree look like?
I don't know about you, but my biological father is enough to turn my tree sour.
Jesus has a whole cast of unbelieving, faithless, unfaithful people to call his family.
And, this is where the Savior of our faith comes from.
If the God who created this sinful world can take something as unsightly and sinful as this tree and use it to bring his one and only Son into the world, for salvation and redemption, what can he do with your tree?
The most unsightly things we try to hide and cover up because we don't want anybody to see how awful they are, those are things God yearns to work with.
The Jacob, The Esau.
The faithless Abrahams. The wavering Davids.
He longs to take each one of us into his hands and mold us into something He would call beautiful.
Of all the long, boring family trees we see detailed in our scriptures, this one holds so much for us to bring close to our hearts.
Because, if God can bring holiness out of something as vile as this family tree, he certainly can bring some good out of yours and mine.
