John 1.10-18 (Matthew 1.1-17, Luke 3.23-38)
Davis Hall, West Camel, 10 January 2014
‘He came to his own, and his own people did not accept him ... But to all who did receive him, he gave power to become children of God.’
Among the many pleasures I’ve found in rural ministry are the phonecalls or emails I regularly receive from people wanting to know the location of their great-great-great Uncle William’s burial plot in one of our churchyards. And with those enquiries come fascinating conversations about the lives those people are researching.
Family history research is increasingly popular today - the internet has greatly helped those driven by a desire to discover the truth about their forebears. Or those seeking to locate lost relatives they hope are still alive.
Last March, for the very first time, I met a second cousin of mine, Brian, who as it turns out was living just 35 miles from us in Devon. It was an unexpected email to my mother two years ago which led to Brian and I meeting, and it was a special day for us. You may have had similar experiences yourself, and cherish the memory of that first meeting.
‘He came to his own, and his own received him’ ... and it was a very precious moment indeed.
But we know that for every story of a happy family reunion there are other stories: of people who have tried for years to locate a relative, but failed to find them; or who, on making contact with them, discover that all is not well in their relationship, and, as their search ends in rejection, pain and heartache follow.
‘He came to his own, and his own people did not accept him.’ Today, when we hear those words, we tend to think of Jesus being rejected by the people of Nazareth. Why would they do that? Is it because they thought they knew his family history and as far as they could see there was no room for a messiah in it?
We might also consider that verse in terms of today, Jesus coming to his own people here in the UK, where almost 60 per cent of us describe ourselves as Christian, but most don’t practice our faith by church attendence. ‘He came to his own, and his own people did not accept him.’ Why? Is it because a gap has opened up between the Jesus we think we know through two millenia of Christendom, and who the scriptures say he really is?
It’s a question which should encourage us back to the scriptures, to help us to grow clearer and more confident about who this Jesus is who we claim as our own.
Hidden away in the gospel narratives of Jesus’ birth, usually forgotten in Christmas sermons, are two passages which can help Jesus’ own people of today to accept him with our eyes newly opened to the reality of who he is. They are genealogies.
Matthew’s genealogy portrays Jesus as descended from David, their great King and forerunner of the messiah. So, in a world where the King of the Jews, Herod Antipas, wields fierce political and military power, Matthew’s Jesus is the alternative King of the Jews, overturning expectations about the One who will bring salvation - as our Jesus might, if we see him that way. As a peaceable king who rules not by force or coercion but by the persuasiveness of his self-giving love.
And Luke’s genealogy connects Jesus all the way back to Adam, ‘son of God’. In a world where only the Roman emperor could be called the ‘Son of God’, Luke puts across the divine heresy that Jesus is the alternative Son of God. Luke’s Jesus challenges the authority of the powers-that-be, the empire of his day - as our Jesus might, if we see him that way. As one who instils in us the confidence that the world doesn’t have to stay the way it is. [2]
‘He came to his own, and his own people did not accept him ...’ Imagine how that feels.
‘... But to all who did receive him, he gave power to become children of God.’ Now - imagine how that feels.
And this is the greatest thing to learn from the genealogies of Matthew and Luke. The good news that Jesus is fully bound up with us in human history. And that when we accept him, when we embrace him, he adds our names to HIS family line. So that, just as we take the characteristics of our forbears and our families, into our own ways of life, so too God’s Spirit enables us to walk in His way, every day. To experience ‘from his fullness ... grace upon grace,’ as John puts it.
‘He came to his own...’
This New Year, may we open our eyes afresh to the Jesus who comes to us, may we accept him again, and more keenly, more deeply. And in accepting him, may we know the power which enables us to live as children of God in the world today, and tomorrow.
Notes
[1] Based on last Sunday’s talk, Holly Willoughby's nightmare (is God's nightmare too) - see there for further expansion on these themes, and more detailed footnotes.
[2] 'Joy comes from the confidence that the world doesn’t have to stay the way it is.' - Shane Claiborne blog, 14 Hopes for 2014, January 6, 2014.
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