This week, we looked at the birth narratives in the Gospel of Matthew. There are lots of themes the sermon could have focused on: Joseph agreeing to stand by Mary after the angel's visit; King Herod being afraid; the wise men changing directions as they head home; etc. I started out with the idea to tie the story to Abraham's call, but drifted a bit and spent more time on the what Matthew's focus on the genealogy tells us.
I had another story for the conclusion, but at the last minute switched to the story that ha developed that day. it worked fairly well.
“Called into Relationship”; Matthew 1: 1-2; 17-23; Matthew 2: 1-12; St. Andrew Presbyterian Church; December 14, 2025
Matthew 1: An account[a] of the genealogy[b] of Jesus the Messiah,[c] the son of David, the son of Abraham. Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers,
17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,[i] fourteen generations.
18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah[j] took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to divorce her quietly. 20 But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” 22 All this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23
“Look, the virgin shall become pregnant and give birth to a son,
and they shall name him Emmanuel,”
which means, “God is with us.”
Introduction: We continue looking at the four gospels and how they talk about,
or in the case of the Gospel of Mark do not talk about ,
the birth stories of Jesus.
AS you know, Luke tells the birth of John the Baptist alongside the birth of Jesus and has shepherds and angels in the skies announcing the birth of Jesus.
The Gospel of Matthew is perhaps best known for the first story we read this morning: the wise men or magi traveling to see the Christ-child.
did you note that the text does not comment on how many magi or wise men there were,
although we have immortalized the number as three in the song “We Three Kings of Orient are” that’s not supported biblically,
but that’s another story.
Matthew also lifts up the role of Joseph by having the angel visit him in the night to tell him to stay with Mary.
when you see the pageant here on Wednesday night,
you will now know which parts of the story are from the Gospel of Matthew
and which parts are from the Gospel of Luke.
This morning, I want to point out a couple of things about how the Gospel of Matthew tells the story of Christ’s birth.
Move 1: First of all, the Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of the Jesus.
(the Gospel of Luke waits to share the genealogy of Jesus until Chapter 3:
after the stories of Jesus’ birth have been told,
after John the Baptist has announced Jesus was on his way to begin ministry
after Jesus himself has been baptized)
a. But not Matthew
“the first words of the gospel of Matthew are “an account of the genealogy”
which suggests that the genealogy really matters.
1. the genealogy really matters because it goes back to Abraham.
2. the Gospel of Luke, the genealogy traces back to Adam, the first human,
but Matthew traces the genealogy back to Abraham.
3. And did you notice that the genealogy starts with Abraham
As I’ve said before, I’m not much of a genealogist, but anytime I have helped my kids do genealogy projects for school, we started with the most recent relatives and worked our way back as far as we could go.
But not the Gospel of Matthew.
the gospel of Matthew begins by mentioning King David and then starting the genealogy with Abraham.
b. Why Abraham?
1. Because Abraham is the one whom God promises a son will be born to his very old wife Sarah.
Abraham is the one to whom God promises descendants as numerous as the stars.
And perhaps most importantly, Abraham is the one whom God first calls into covenant relationship.
the particular relationship God has with Israel begins with Abraham.
2. This means that the coming of Christ is connected to the covenant God made with Abraham.
the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants continues through the child born to Mary.
The God who called Abraham is the same God who comes in flesh in the Christ-child.
the relationship God had with Abraham continues in the relationship Christ will have with his followers and his believers.
The Gospel of Matthew begins by making clear that the God who called Abraham,
the God who is on covenant relationship with Israel,
is the God who comes in flesh as the child born to Mary.
move 2: the gospel of Matthew also reminds us that in the Christ -child, God engages us in real relationships that are lived out in the real world.
a. If we were to take the genealogy name by name, we would discover the lives of real people,
some of whom did things well
and others who made mistakes along the way.
1. Abraham had his moments of not trusting God, but also packed up and left his homeland when God called him.
2. King David was perhaps Israel’s greatest warrior and leader,
he is described by the biblical text as having a “heart for God,”
but his sinfulness is fully exposed in his relationship with Bathsheba and his arranging for the death of her husband Uriah.
3. And as we have pointed out before,
the genealogy in the gospel of Matthew lists five women (tamar, Rahab, Ruth, Bathsheba, and Mary) among the 42 or so names,
and none of them led fairy-tale perfect lives:
one, is full of trickery;
another, a prostitute;
another, a stranger from a foreign land;
another, a beauty who betrays her husband
and then there is Mary, a young virgin, who is somehow pregnant when she shouldn’t be,
but who carries God’s child.
4. The genealogy of Jesus is full of real people,
none of whom are perfect,
some of whom are even a bit more suspect than we might want from any relative of ours (but, of course, probably no more suspect than the relatives we do have)
But, they are the ones by whom the Gospel of Matthew traces the path from Abraham to Jesus.
c. What does that mean for us?
1. It means that the birth of Christ is not some great story that is beyond our reach,
or a great story about some other people
or a great story just for the people who deserve it or have earned it.
2. the birth of Christ is for all the Abrahams,
and Tamars
and Ruths
and Davids
and Marys
and Jims
and Margaret’s
and plug in your name and any other name that comes to mind.
3. Sometimes the Christmas season seems to demand everything be shiny,
and glittery,
and joyous
almost as if people who are feeling sad,
or not at a great place in their lives
or are mired in a dark time in their lives
ought to be embarrassed to be a part of Christmas
or excluded from the Christmas season.
4. But the Gospel of Matthew reminds us, as David Lose notes: that in the birth story, “God worked through real people with real challenges. He didn’t choose a fairy-tale princess to bear the savior, but rather an unwed peasant girl. He didn’t choose a political or business success story to name and care for Jesus, but rather a man with his own doubts and questions who wanted to do the right thing but needed angelic guidance to accomplish it. ( https://www.davidlose.net/2016/12/advent-4-a-god-really-with-us/ David Lose)
5. The God who comes in flesh as a child born to Mary to be raised by Mary and her soon to be husband Joseph,
this child comes into the reality of our lives and our world,
this child comes into a world where magi visiting the Christ-child have to return home by another way because King Herod is using his power to try to find and kill the new born king,
and when that does not work will order that all 2-yr old male babies be killed.
this child comes into a world where a shooter in Australia opens fire on a synagogue where people gathered to celebrate Hannakuh
and where a shooter opened fire on a Saturday at small, college campus in New England.
That is way more reality than we might like,
but that is where the Christ-child arrives to live among us as we are
in all our brokenness.
d. I suppose that is why the Gospel of Matthew makes the point that the child born to Mary,
the Son of God,
will be called “Emmanuel.
1. “God with us”
2. God choosing to join with us,
whoever we are
wherever we are
whether we are ready for God or not.
3. We do not choose for Emmanuel to join us as if we have invited him to this year’s Christmas party.
4. God chooses to come in Christ to be with us because God chooses again and again to be in relationship with us,
to redeem us
and to save us.
Conclusion: I got a text early this morning from my newly ordained Presbyterian minister daughter who is going through Advent for the first time.
oh by the way, she is also a new mother.
Today is a big day at church when they do the Christmas pageant as the worship service.
her 6 month old daughter Charlie Grace is going to be the live baby Jesus in the manger for the pageant.
Minister and mother of baby Jesus all in on morning!
But, then came an inch of snow, some sleet,
and blowing winds to bring the wind chill down way below freezing.
She and the church leadership made the call to have worship by Zoom.
No live pageant.
Charlie Grace makes her debut as baby Jesus sitting on a couch on Zoom.
Not quite the glorious Christmas pageant as designed.
But a reminder that God comes as Emmanuel to join with us wherever we are
because God chooses again and again to be relationship with us.
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi[a] from the east came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star in the east[b] and have come to pay him homage.” 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him, 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah[c] was to be born. 5 They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet:
6
‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah,
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd[d] my people Israel.’ ”
7 Then Herod secretly called for the magi[e] and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” 9 When they had heard the king, they set out, and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen in the east,[f] until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped,[g] they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
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