One of the things that my parents enjoyed doing together was Family History, our own and helping others to trace theirs. It began, when my Mum’s father began tracing his history, which led to Dad quizzing his parents about the Muirs and Porters, they knew very little – my Grandpa Muir didn’t have a lot of interest and my Gran had been orphaned aged 5, so the details were vague. We started going through to Edinburgh to find out who we came from and found ourselves tracing the loss of a fortune, discovering the bigamist who told whatever truth was convenient at the time, hearing about cousins who missed being on the Titanic by taking the next ship to America, and many stories of how families come together, split apart and the way fortunes change over the generations.
The gospel writer, Matthew, begins to tell Jesus’ story by tracing his family history. On the one hand it is a list of names, but on the other it is an account of the history of God’s relationship with Israel told through ancient genealogies handed down through the generations. Some of these are people whose lives are familiar and not all of them are filled with goodness and peace. There is scandal and shame, there are families who fell apart, and people who are good and wise, who many would be proud to have as ancestors. Rather confusingly it’s not even the same list as Luke uses. There is lots of debate about why that should be so – but in the end, it looks as if they wanted to highlight some different points. For Matthew, it emphasises Jesus’ right to be considered a King and we see that in the nativity story he uses. Foreign mystics seeking a new king and bringing gifts that would symbolise kingship and suffering. His gospel will follow through on that theme – Jesus is a king, but not like any earthly monarch seeking their own power and glory. He is the ultimate shepherd king whose purpose is to care for the flock. It means that when we use Matthew’s nativity – as we will this year, that we see different aspects of Jesus highlighted from the one where we sit with the shepherds and listen to an angelic choir.
It’s all about how we tell the story and which of our ancestors we want to focus on when telling our story. The narrative that follows will remind us that Jesus is being born into a dangerous world where children are in danger from despotic rulers, families are forced to flee, seeking sanctuary. And in the midst of all the tensions of human life we find God’s grace, God’s gift to the the world and a reminder that even in such troubled times, God is with us.
Each Christmas our task is to cut through all the tinsel, turkey and tasteless jumpers to rediscover God who is with us, God who comes to us as the unking-like King and offers an alternative way of living that is the way of Jesus.
be blessed
Craig