Living in the Ordinary
And beginning a new gospel today.
Today we begin the fourth and final gospel. We’ll take Matthew a bit slower than the others this year and end just in time for Advent on December 1st.1
What an exciting way to begin a new gospel. A genealogy. Yay.
But honestly, if we do take the time to read this without just glossing over the names, we discover some things.
For one, we don’t recognize more of these names than we do. Most of what we read in scripture are highlights. If we’re not careful, we tend to apply the highlights to our daily lives. But not every day is Pentecost or Christmas. Miracles don’t happen every day, at least, not to each of us every day. We live in the ordinary, which if we let it be, is actually quite beautiful. But this list of names demonstrates to us that God works throughout time and, most of the time, it won’t be headline news.
But second, God works the extraordinary within the ordinary and in ways that humans wouldn’t necessarily predict or prefer. The inclusion here of the likes of Jacob, Rahab, Ruth, and even Bathsheba (who is inexplicably and unfortunately not specifically named) seems to be an intentional effort by Matthew to demonstrate that the path of God’s will is neither neat nor humanly conventional.
Matthew 1:1-17
A record of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, son of David, son of Abraham:
Abraham was the father of Isaac.
Isaac was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers.
Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar.
Perez was the father of Hezron.
Hezron was the father of Aram.
Aram was the father of Amminadab.
Amminadab was the father of Nahshon.
Nahshon was the father of Salmon.
Salmon was the father of Boaz, whose mother was Rahab.
Boaz was the father of Obed, whose mother was Ruth.
Obed was the father of Jesse.
Jesse was the father of David the king.
David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been the wife of Uriah.
Solomon was the father of Rehoboam.
Rehoboam was the father of Abijah.
Abijah was the father of Asaph.
Asaph was the father of Jehoshaphat.
Jehoshaphat was the father of Joram.
Joram was the father of Uzziah.
Uzziah was the father of Jotham.
Jotham was the father of Ahaz.
Ahaz was the father of Hezekiah.
Hezekiah was the father of Manasseh.
Manasseh was the father of Amos.
Amos was the father of Josiah.
Josiah was the father of Jechoniah and his brothers.
This was at the time of the exile to Babylon.
After the exile to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Shealtiel.
Shealtiel was the father of Zerubbabel.
Zerubbabel was the father of Abiud.
Abiud was the father of Eliakim.
Eliakim was the father of Azor.
Azor was the father of Zadok.
Zadok was the father of Achim.
Achim was the father of Eliud.
Eliud was the father of Eleazar.
Eleazar was the father of Matthan.
Matthan was the father of Jacob.
Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary—of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Christ.
So there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David, fourteen generations from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen generations from the exile to Babylon to the Christ.
Prayer
God,
Thank you for working your extraordinary ways in ordinary contexts. Like me. And the person reading this prayer with me.
As I go through this day - one that as far as I know has no specific incredible happenings, at least in my life - keep me on, Lord.
I’ve got some things to do. And I do understand and pray that they are contributive to your kingdom. So keep my heart, eyes, and hands steady as I proceed. Give me grace for me and for others around me. Help me maintain integrity and what is right, even as I may mess up.
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Yes…this is a year when our chocolate “Advent” calendars match up with, you know, the actual season of Advent.