God With Us in the Stories Within the Story Preached for Wollaston Congregational Church on December 6th, 2020 Scripture: Matthew 1:1-25 This week we read from the very beginning of Matthew’s gospel. We usually think of the story as beginning, as Mary read, “now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way …” remembering the angel who appeared to Joseph said “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife.” This is how we remember that God came to be with us, in the form of a newborn child. In the Isaiah passage we heard today a newborn child is a sign from God. As often happens in the prophets, the child’s name, Immanuel, is the message saying “God is with us.” You may have been surprised to find out, from our reading today, that Matthew actually begins his story with a genealogy, of Joseph, Jesus’ earthly father. There’s a family history that Matthew wants to tell, and like many family histories, there are stories within the story. In seminary I learned to do a genogram, rather than a genealogy. A genogram shows the relationships between family members: healthy, estranged, or over-attached. There are symbols and lines to show divorces and separations, ethnicities and religious traditions, sexual and gender orientation, adoptions, and people with addictions, to name a few. A genealogy presents the larger story of a family tree, giving only the names. A genogram reveals the stories within the larger story. In Matthew’s genealogy of Joseph we also have genogram. Stories that would have been otherwise hidden are told in the scriptures. Matthew alludes to this by naming or implying the presence of four women: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. Matthew’s primary message is that Joseph is descended directly from King David, and Abraham before him. These are powerful examples of Jewish respectability. The connection to David’s line gives credence to Matthew’s argument that Jesus is the Messiah. If this was Matthew’s only message, the genealogy would be a straightforward list of fathers and sons. But it’s not the only message. In the cases where women are named in this genealogy, there is also scandal and messiness. First of all, none of the women who are mentioned are Jewish. These are not the great matriarchs of the Hebrew Bible: Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah. These are the ones who existed on the margins. Second, their inclusion in this family tree was generally a result of abusive treatment by the men, or the women’s own clever use of what little agency they had. Tamar was a widow of Judah’s sons, whom Judah sent to live back in her parents’ house. And so she tricked Judah, disguising herself as a prostitute, and securing her place in the lineage of Joseph. Rahab assisted Joshua’s army in overcoming Jericho. She lived on the edge of the city and was a prostitute, and so she was able to have the Hebrew spies come and go from her home without any suspicion. Rahab helped the Israelites in exchange for their clemency and the inclusion of her family in their tribe after the invasion. Boaz of Bethlehem took in the Moabite woman, Ruth, when she arrived, destitute with her mother-in-law Naomi, from a famine her homeland. Naomi advised Ruth to appeal to Boaz to marry her, as her closest male relative. Obed was their first child, who grew up to become the grandfather of King David. The last woman, Bathsheba, is not explicitly named by Matthew. But her husband, Uriah, is named. David lusted for Bethsheba and took her, as a King can do. This was one of David’s gravest sins, especially as he arranged for Uriah to be killed in battle when he discovered Bathsheba was pregnant. And yet, God eventually redeemed the whole situation. Solomon was born to Bathsheba and became the wisest king in Israel’s history. The documentary movie, “Girls on the Wall”, tells the story of a group of girls who are incarcerated in the Warrenville Juvenile Justice Facility. A drama teacher, Ms P, comes to the facility to lead the girls in creating a musical to tell their own stories. This is not exactly a “feel good” movie. It is hard for the girls to tell their stories. In every prison there are stories within the overarching story of crime and correction. These stories tell of drug-addicted parents. They tell tales of abuse, and neglect, by both the girls’ family members and the system as a whole. For some of the girls, the musical will be a turning point in their lives. It is an opportunity to confront the past and go forward in a new direction. A kind of redemption. For others, their journey will not be changed. They will remain lost in the criminal justice system for the foreseeable future. Most of the girls in Warrenville are creative and articulate, and already in the habit of improvising raps and dances. They point out that many successful black artists write their songs while incarcerated. But the girls also carry a deep anger. Their tempers wear thin, especially when painful memories are triggered. One girl, Christina, has been jailed because she is a “runaway.” That is to say, she ran away from various foster placements because she wanted to find her mother. All her life she has worried for her mother, who is addicted. Her whole quest is simply to find her mom and care for her. During the movie, Christina is adopted by a suburban Christian family, who want to help her mend her life. And yet, it is too difficult. They are loving people but they don’t seem to understand how alien their world is to Christina. She runs away yet again, continuing on the quest find her birth mother. Another girl, Rosa, is a natural leader. She is intelligent and articulate, even charismatic. She helps the other girls when they struggle during rehearsals. She gives them a safe space to talk. The other girls trust Rosa because she has been through the same things as them. Ultimately Rosa prevails and after she is released she goes to work with Ms P, helping others in juvenile facilities express their stories through drama and music. It’s been some years since I have visited a prison. Back when I was in seminary I served as a mentor through a prison ministry group for the college behind bars program. It’s been some time since I listened to the stories within the story of a young, woman, Isabel, whom I mentored in the women’s prison. Going into the prison as a visitor helped me to begin to understand the brokenness of the prison system. There are good people who work in the system, and they try to do what they can for prisoners. They root for them, encouraging them to take advantage of educational opportunities. They try to show them a way to transform their stories. And yet, it seems that the entire system is set up in favor of failure. When I went to visit Isabel I’d sit in the waiting area for hours. The office would slowly process each visitor, making sure they were on the approved list for the woman they were visiting. We were taken three at a time through the “trap”. All valuables must be stored in a locker, all metal objects must be removed from your body. Under wires trigger the metal detector. Eyeglasses must be passed through on a tray. I had been warned, “helpers” like myself were not very welcome. The Correction Officers were usually friendly the women’s family members and gave them a pass on the dress code. That was not the case with the mentors. Perhaps they were suspicious that we were working against them in some way. I was supposed to write to Isabel to arrange visits but it was a convoluted process. We were not allowed to share our last names or home addresses. And so the prisoners’ letters were delivered to a mailbox at the seminary. So I’d go along hoping that I’d be allowed in. Sometimes I’d arrive and discover that Isabel was not allowed visitors that day. One time I discovered she’d been taken into solitary confinement. Isabel was so embarrassed to tell us that she’d been in “the hole.” She explained that it was just one of those days. There was a woman who’d been getting at her, wearing her down and finally pushed her over the edge. She’d gotten into a fight. And so she been sent to solitary. If that happened again she’d be thrown off the college program. The other mentors and I did our best to encourage Isabel to keep her act together and focus on the larger story. At the same time we knew that it would be hard. Prison life is stressful, always pushing the prisoners back into their messier stories. Isabel was an incredibly intelligent young woman, determined to earn A’s on all her classes. After a day of hard work on the prison building, she’d settle to study in her cell, trying to block out the noise of the place. The aging building was always too hot or too cold. She had to write her papers by hand, and read the textbooks hunched on her bunk. Her work paid off, she graduated with honors and she was valedictorian of her class at the prison. Her graduation was held in the visiting room that was transformed, for once, into a celebratory space. Family members, course instructors, mentors and prisoners were free to mix and mingle. We took photos and ate cake: just like normal life. I was so proud to attend the event and hear Isabel give a speech. Isabel’s prison sentence was not over, but my mentoring relationship with her was. I know that she continued with her work in the building as well as taking more courses. And I’m confident that Isabel is destined to lead a productive and valuable life, once she is released. She has found the way to turn her story around. Joseph was of David’s line, but there are stories within the larger story. God does not reject the messiness of human life and human relationship. Instead, this is the way God enters the world, in the midst of the stories within the story. We all have our messy stories within the story. Some of us will let “God with us” in, to redeem and transform those stories. But for others the journey will be longer and harder. Whether the story is redeemed or whether it is not, God still comes in. God comes is as an infant born to a young woman. The child’s relationship with the woman’s husband in complicated. It’s a messy story. And the family history of the husband, who seems so respectable, also has messy stories within the story. But that doesn’t matter. Because, no matter how messy the story is, God is with us. And that is what matters. I remember a phrase a colleague of mine would pray before he began to preach: If God is with us nothing else matters … And if God is not with us nothing else matters. May it be so. Amen
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