God is Here
God is Here. That’s it. God is here. We were reminded of this at our recent diocesan convention by The Very Reverend Winnie Verghese, Dean of the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. And really, this is what the evangelist we call Matthew wrote to proclaim in terms that everyone might understand. He begins with a rather remarkable genealogy connecting Jesus the Christ, the Son of David, all the way back to Abraham. [Matt 1:1-18] In his recital of all the fathers who stretch from Abraham to David, and from David to Jesus, Matthew’s main point is that from Abraham onward, not only has God been with all these people, now and forever, in ways that are mysterious and settling, but that God in Christ came not as a vision, not for a visit, but to dwell among us as one of us. That is, God became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood, to experience all that life and death have to offer to every one of us. That is, God is here!
Although ancient genealogies tend only to list the fathers, the patriarchs, the pater familias, Matthew’s account is unique in that in addition to Mary we find the names of four other women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and “the wife of Uriah.” We tend to run past the genealogy to get to the story of Jesus’s birth, but those who first heard Matthew read in public worship would surely have said, “Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. Isn’t Tamar the one who played the role of a harlot to trick her father-in-law Judah into fathering the children he had denied her with his sons for so long? And wasn’t Rahab a prostitute in Jericho who aided two Israelite soldiers escape capture, and was the mother of Salmon’s son Boaz? And wasn’t Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, the gentile widow from Moab? And Obed was the father of Jesse who was the father of King David! And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah? Jesus is related to these four women?” Prostitutes, gentiles, and the woman King David raped all get special mention that leads to Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born. Jesus who is called Christos, Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, God incarnate: the Word that was with God before the beginning of the world; that Word that is God, through whom everything that was made was made. More than any other names in Matthew’s genealogy, these four women plus Mary foreshadow the fact that the baby named Jesus welcomes and loves everyone whomever, from wherever, no matter what. Because he knows God was with these five women, and that our God is surprising and finds important things for all of us to do, so we can all play a part in the life of Jesus the Christ because he came to demonstrate and make us all understand and believe once and for all that God is Here!
Several things in this genealogy: 1) this kid is Jewish, 2) this Christ is Universal, he lives for and belongs to everyone – men and women, slave and free, Jew and Gentile, and 3) these five women are as much a part of him as all those men. This genealogy is surprising, it’s real, it has been through generations of challenging political, military, and religious crises, and yet, through it all, God was there!
Just after the genealogy, Matthw tells us that “the birth of Jesus Messiah took place in this way.” [Matthew 1: 18-25] Thanks in part to St. Francis who invented the creche, we tend to remember the birth of Jesus as Luke tells the story. Matthew’s story is different, concise, and hints at danger lurking in the shadows. And curiously, Joseph, not Mary, is the main character. Joseph, we are told, is a righteous man – that is, he strives to keep all 613 laws of Torah (248 positive, 365 negative). Joseph is engaged to a young woman. In all likelihood, this is an arranged marriage. Joseph has obligations to the young woman’s family. She is most likely 12 or 13 years old. But there’s a problem. She is pregnant. By some unknown entity.
There are all kinds of specifics among the 613 laws of Torah on what a righteous man is to do. A public divorce, which would likely result in an honor killing of the girl by her family for dishonoring their name. Joseph decides against that and chooses to dismiss her quietly and let the chips fall as they may. Tamar would have some wisdom to share with Mary. But wait! All of a sudden, Joseph is visited by an angel of the Lord in a dream who issues the standard, “Joseph, Son of David, do not be afraid to marry this girl Mary, “for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” Jesus is the Greek translation of the Hebrew name Joshua, or Yeshua, which means “God helps,” “God saves,” or my favorite, “Yahweh, help!”
Matthew tells us, this was all to fulfill what the prophet Isaiah had once said, “Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call him Emmanuel,” which means “God is with us.” Isaiah actually said, “a young woman,” not a virgin, which Matthew no doubt borrowed from a corrupted translation. When Joseph wakes up from sleep, he does as the angel of the Lord had commanded him. He took her for his wife, but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.
What do we learn from Matthew’s story of the birth of Jesus the Universal Christ and Messiah? Joseph is from the line of David, and will become the adoptive father of Jesus. And that Jesus will be known as “the son of David,” but by divine intervention, not in the customary biological manner. Joseph is not to be afraid, a pronouncement which will appear at the end of the story addressed to the disciples, who would be us: “Fear not, god is doing a new thing in the world.” [Matt 28:5] Along with Joseph, we learn that there is a righteousness that transcends the laws of Torah. The angel tells Joseph to shatter the old law in order to keep the new law. Joseph will become a righteous man in the new sense, not the old sense, and marry her. That is, Joseph is transformed, and that that is what Jesus comes to us to do: transform us to the new ways in which God is here! (Note, God throughout history adapts his intentions to the matters at hand)
Perhaps most interesting is the fact that the child borne to Mary is given the name Jesus by Joseph, as the angel commanded, and the name Emmanuel by Matthew by way of Isaiah. God Saves. God is with us. Oh, and Matthew already gave him the name Christos, Christ, or Messiah. This is just the beginning! As the child grows up, he will accumulate many, many more names: Son of David, Son of God, Lord, Master, Good Shepherd, Savior, and the list goes on!
But the two names in Matthew’s account of “the birth of Jesus took place in this way,” remain central to Jesus’s life. He saves others. He welcomes others. He heals others. He gives meaning to their lives. They who come from all walks of life, from all places in the known world. He turns away no one. Not one. And the night before he is crucified, he cries out in the garden his own name, “Yahweh, help!” Demonstrating that even Jesus, the Son of David, Son of God, can forget in the darkest moments of his earthly life, that indeed, God is here!
Matthew will conclude his Good News the way it begins. Jesus has one last gathering of his disciples, which by then numbered many many more the original twelve. He tells them to go to the ends of the earth and bring the Good News to one and all. That is, to do the things that he does, and more than all of that! Then he issues a promise: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” God is here!
(BTW, the “you” is plural. I’m with y’all always to the end of the age. God. Is. Here.)
And is it true ? For
if it is,
No loving fingers
tying strings
Around those tissued
fripperies,
The sweet and silly
Christmas things,
Bath salts and
inexpensive scent
And hideous tie so
kindly meant,
No love that in a
family dwells,
No carolling in
frosty air,
Nor all the
steeple-shaking bells
Can with this single
Truth compare -
That God was man in
Palestine
And lives today in
Bread and Wine
-from
'Christmas' by Sir John Betjeman C.B.E.
No comments:
Post a Comment