"Bit Players" Matthew 1: 1-17

We are spending Advent reflecting on some of the less known characters, or some known by name but who play a bit part in the Christmas story. 

We begin by reading through the genealogy of Matthew.  I would ask if anyone has ever heard a sermon preached on this text, except I know that some of the people in Troy have because I preached this text a few years ago.  I suppose if I adjusted the question to "does anyone remember a sermon on this text" everyone might be able to answer "No!"

One of the interesting things in the Matthew genealogy is the inclusion of women as the names are traced back.  Of all the names listed in the genealogy (approximately 3 sets of 14 names) only five are women. 

Here is the summary of the women as provide by Rev. Nanette Sawyer on her blog "Question the Text," http://www.questionthetext.org/2013/12/15/when-is-righteousness-scandalous/ Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus names 5 women in it: Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba (wife of Uriah), and Mary. (Luke’s account names no women.) Each of these women acted boldly and against convention in order to bring about some kind of justice. And their actions maintained the royal lineage of Jesus. Tamar, whose husband died, was denied the protection of levirate marriage, and so tricked her father-in-law into giving her children, one of whom was Perez, an ancestor of King David. Rahab, a prostitute, was the mother of Boaz, an ancestor of King David. Ruth lay “at the feet” of Boaz and became the mother of Obed, an ancestor of King David. See a pattern here?

Bathsheba was taken from her husband Uriah by King David and became the mother of King Solomon, the next king in David’s lineage. (And why, we might ask, was Deut 22:22 not applied in the case of Bathsheba and David? But that is another topic.)

And that brings us to Mary, pregnant when she shouldn’t be, appearing to be un-righteous by conventional standards, and yet she is doing the right thing.

As I reflect on this text and the theme of bit players, I am working on the basic idea that the Christmas story has room for all of us, even the bit players playing small parts.  I keep coming back to this question (or series of questions):  "if Rahab (sub in another bit player) is part of the story of Christ's birth, who else does that invite into the story?"

Do you see a place for yourself in the Christmas story?