Carol Service Sermon 2016
I don’t know if you’re a
fan of the family history programme, Who
Do You Think You Are?
The latest 13th
series is currently showing.
It opened with East Enders
actor, Danny Dyer, tracing his ancestors back to the Norman Conquest.
My aunt has tried to trace
our family history.
Amongst the Lloyds, she
could only get as far back as Thomas Lloyd, who was an iron puddler, born
around 1822 in South Wales and his father Thomas, who was a coaker.
If you know what a coaker
is, perhaps you’d tell me afterwards.
I’d be very interested for
the 1st time, perhaps less so after the 50th person!
As far as I know, there
was nothing especially remarkable about the Lloyds.
Who Do You Think You Are? thrives on surprising revelations.
For a really good family
tree, you want some royalty.
And a few black sheep.
People often find it very
moving to discover their family history, and it can make a real difference to
them.
The Bible gives us accounts
of Jesus’ family tree.
I didn’t have them read
because I thought I’d spare you all that begetting and long lists of hard to
pronounce names.
But they would make a
wonderful Who Do You Think You Are?
There’s royalty, and a few
dodgey characters.
And it ought to make a
difference to us.
The very fact that the
Bible tells us Jesus’ family tree, reminds us that when it comes to the
Christmas story, we’re in the realm of history.
Jesus’ birth was in
Bethlehem in Judea in the days of Ceasar Augustus, when Quirinius was the
governor of Syria.
It’s wasn’t “once upon a
time in a land far, far away”.
This is not a fairy story,
or myth, or make-believe.
The nativity is not just a
beautiful story designed to teach us lessons about life.
Christmas is not just for
the kids!
Here is good news of God
entering human history in a specific time and place, as part of a specific
family, with a troubled history.
It’s a family tree with
royalty.
Jesus is a descendant of
the greatest Biblical king of all, King David.
In fulfilment of prophecy
he is born in Bethlehem, the city of David.
David had been promised
that one of his sons would have an everlasting kingdom.
As we read from the
prophet Isaiah, this child who would be born would reign for ever on David’s
throne with justice and righteousness.
Jesus is that promised
rescuer-king, who would put the world to rights.
Jesus is also a descendant
of Abraham, the great founding father of the people of God in the Bible.
Jesus is the seed or
offspring of Abraham, through whom God had promised that all the nations of the
world would be blessed.
The Bible even traces
Jesus’ family tree right back to Adam.
The Bible is stressing
that Jesus, although he’s God, is also a real human being.
His birth is for the whole
of humanity, for all the nations.
Jesus will a new and
better Adam.
He’ll be faithful where
Adam failed.
He will un-do the effects
of Adam’s sin for all those who put their trust in him.
We are all children of
Adam, but we can all be included in Jesus, the New Adam, by faith.
There are some other
surprises in Jesus’ family tree.
A number of women are
mentioned, which would have been unusual in those days.
And Jesus’ family tree
includes a number of Gentiles, non-Jews, who weren’t members of God’s chosen
people, Israel.
Jesus’ family means to
include those whom others would exclude.
His family is open to all
who will come to him.
And there’s scandal in
Jesus’ family too.
We spoke about great king
David.
But Jesus’ family tree
refers to him as: David, the father of Solomon, “whose mother had been Uriah’s
wife.”
Therein lies a tale!
Jesus’ family tree
deliberately brings up one of the most shameful incidents in the Bible.
Uriah was one of David’s
closest friends, to whom he owed his life.
Yet, when Uriah was away
fighting David’s wars for him, David took his wife and then arranged for Uriah
to be killed in battle to cover his tracks.
David was a murderer and
an adulterer.
And the Bible wants us to
notice that.
Jesus’ family tree
includes Rahab the prostitute.
It mentions:
“Judah the father of Perez
and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar” (Mt 1v3)
Now I realise that might
be taxing your Sunday School knowledge a bit!
In fact, they probably
left out this story as rather unsuitable.
Tamar had been wronged by
her father in law, Judah, so she tricked him into sleeping with her, so that
she might have a child.
East Enders has nothing on
that, does it?
Why bring these skeletons
out of the cupboard and show them off?
The family Jesus is from tells us the family he came for, the family he came to form.
Jesus is born into a
family that’s all too human, that’s sometimes messed up and dysfunctional.
But the Bible doesn’t
cover up these dark family secrets.
It’s because of them that
Jesus came.
He joins us in our
predicament to sort it out.
He comes as a Saviour – to
a family with issues, a problem family - to rescue and forgive.
Jesus joined our family so
that we might join his.
He became a human being so
that we might become children of God.
Whatever our background or
pedigree, whoever we are, whatever we’ve done, Jesus invites us to join his
family as his beloved brother and sisters, restored and forgiven.
As we just read from
John’s gospel:
“To all who received him,
to those who believed in his name, he gave us the right to become children of
God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision, … but born
of God.” (1v12f)
Who do you think you are?
The Bible would say we are
all members of Adam’s fallen family.
But Jesus came to be our
brother.
He welcomes all who will
put their trust in him to be children of God in his renewed family.
The great question of
Christmas is how we will relate to Jesus who is the Saviour, Christ the Lord.
May God bless you and your
family, this Christmas. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment