Everyday Witness: Sermon 2

The Story of Us

Matthew 1.1-17

An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.

So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.

 

When was the last time that you heard that genealogy read out in church? Have you ever heard it? Perhaps you have wondered why every Christmas, when we listen to the gospel writers’ account of Jesus’ birth, Matthew’s gospel appears to begin at verse 18 of the first chapter. Well, this is why. It’s not really one to ignite a carol service. What on earth is going on here? Why has the vicar inflicted upon you this gospel readin? It’s not a barnstormer of a bible reading is it? No parable, no miracle, no teaching, no wise words of Paul, no inspirational passage – just a list, and rather long list, of names, long forgotten names of those long dead.

What has it got to do with being a witness?

Well last week, in the first of the sermons in our ‘Everyday Witness’ series, we thought about what it is we are actually witnessing to. A witness has to be a witness of or to something and we are called to be witnesses to God’s big story. We heard about that overarching narrative that links all those great bible stories about a drama in four acts plus a prologue, of which we are players in Act 3. And here, with this list of names, Matthew begins his gospel by locating Jesus in the story of Israel, placing the Messiah in David’s line, bringing the central character into God’s big story.

And what a list of names! Accounts of genealogies were as important to the ancients as they are to us today. As a vicar I am contacted regularly by people asking about parish records as they are researching their family tree and are looking for evidence of a particular ancestor. And think of the popularity of  the tv programme ‘Who Do You Think You Are’. They are all about locating your own personal story in something bigger. There is always a big reveal in ‘Who Do You Think You Are’ isn’t there? An ancestor who gives cause for that celebrity to reassess who they are. And in Jesus’ family tree we find some strange names also – women for starters. Tamar – who disguises herself in order to fall pregnant by her father in law Juday; Rahab the prostitute of Jericho; Ruth a Gentile; the unnamed Bathsheba, described merely as ‘wife of Uriah’ and so flagging up the sordid dealings of David.

It's a collection of heroes of the faith, lesser known names and somewhat dodgy characters. Probably rather similar to our own family trees. And that’s quite reassuring because, as well as this being Jesus’ family tree it is ours as well. When we embraced the faith, became a disciple of Jesus, and were baptised in his name, our name was added to that list that we have just heard. Our story became part of the story of those who have passed through this world in relationship to God. Our story became connected with God’s story.

Who remembers Venn diagrams from their schooldays? I’ve always loved them – a great visual tool to to help think about how different groups or themes interact with each other. So here is God’s story….

And here is our story…

And through baptism and our part on the church, this is what happens to our story…

Becoming part of this great story means a fundamental change of identity.

When we were carried by our parents to a font, or leaned over ourselves as an adult, when those promises were made and the water and Spirit were poured upon us, it was if we passed through the gateway to our inheritance, the land that God has promised us, a share in his kingdom. Like the wardrobe door to Narnia or the changing room door in Mister Benn, the font (and note how fonts are almost always positioned near the entrance doorways of churches) is that doorway to a changed existence and nothing can be the same again. We pass through water so that we can claim our inheritance and place our story within God’s story and the story of his changed, redeemed, transformed people. We come recognising that before that moment we have spiritually been in the wilderness, we come, like all those who flocked to the Baptist, knowing our need of repentance and desiring a new identity.

And it was this new identity and transformed nature that the fledgling Christian community we heard about in the second reading gave witness to by their words and deeds – a countercultural group of people whose identity was founded in Christ and incomplete without each other. They met together, pooled their resources, prayed together, broke bread together. And in a world today in which the idea of identity for many is individualistic or self chosen, there is still something captivating about that vison of an Acts 2 church and still something of it that is replicated in our own church now, in the care we take with each other, the worship we express together and the love we show together to others.

This sermon series is all about gaining that confidence to be a witness to God’s story. That confidence can also be founded upon our own story because becoming part of God’s story means that when we tell our story – our own story of transformation or belonging; or when we tell the story of Christchurch and all that this church has been, is now and will continue to be; when we tell the story of the church in England and that parish system that seeks to give care and hope to all; in telling the story of all of these we are indeed witnessing to that big story of God’s love towards and purposes for his people.