An Unexpected Christmas Series / Sermon 2 / Ruth and Bathsheba December 16, 2012

Transcription

1 An Unexpected Christmas Series / Sermon 2 / Ruth and Bathsheba December 16, 2012 Okay, if you have your Bible or your Bible app, open up to Matthew 1. We ll get there in a few minutes: Matthew 1.1. Some of us think it s kind of fun, kind of funny, to have some scoundrels in our family tree. Now this guy isn t in my genealogy, but I d be amused if he were. Here s his obit: Thomas Black Jack Ketchum: Horse thief, sent to the Montana Territorial Prison, Escaped Robbed trains six times. Caught by Pinkerton Detectives, convicted and hanged, Pretty seedy dude, right? But some people don t want a guy like this in their family tree, so they might try to clean him up a bit. How about this re-write. You crop the picture and insert this text: Thomas Ketchum: famous cowboy in the Montana Territory. He acquired valuable equestrian assets and had intimate dealings with several railroads. Beginning in 1885, he devoted years of service at a government facility, finally taking leave to resume his dealings with the railroad. In 1887, he was a key player in an investigation by the Pinkerton Detective Agency. In 1889, Uncle Thomas passed away during an important civic function held in his honor when the platform upon which he was standing collapsed. Last week we jumped into the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew. Now instead of beginning with the story of Jesus birth in Bethlehem, with a manger, angels, wise men, and all that, Matthew begins with a genealogy. Killer dull for us, but critically important for them. His goal was to prove to his Jewish readers that Jesus was related, first of all to Abraham, which made him a Jew, but secondly to King David, because every Jew knew that the Messiah had to come from the line of David. And since Matthew was going to claim that Jesus was the Messiah, he wanted to show right at the start that Jesus was qualified, genealogically. But then Matthew does something really odd. Back then they would leave the bad guys out of their genealogies. But Matthew goes out of his way to throw them in, even when he didn t have to. In their day they would leave out or rewrite a reference to someone like a Thomas Ketchum. In Matthew s world you didn t want twits in your genealogy, but Matthew not only leaves them there, he highlights them. There are four women in this genealogy of Jesus. Now that was weird back then; because women Page 1 of 10

2 really didn t count, genealogically. Two of these women aren't even Jewish, which means that Jesus (the messiah) didn't have a pure Jewish bloodline. Why would you point that out? And if you were here last week, you know that these women had some rather colorful stories, if you know what I mean. They had slept in the wrong beds, they were not models of virtuous women. And Matthew seems to stop and pause and force us to focus on these women. Why would he do that? And we said that the reason they are included is that not only are they are part of the story, more importantly they are the point of the story. Because Matthew is writing to a very, very religious group of people who believed that in order to be good with God, you come to God based on the things you have done, and the things you have not done. In fact all world religions essentially embrace this approach to God. God, I am coming before you today and I need you to bless my babies, I need you to bless my crops, I need you to bless my business. And the reason you should take me seriously is because here are some good things I have done, and here are some bad things I have avoided, and here are some things that I quit doing. God, I know I'm not as good as some people, but I'm not as bad as others. Generally speaking the platform that we stand on in our approach to God is essentially all the good things we have done and the bad things we have avoided. The problem with this nonsense is that many people in the world of Jesus, including Matthew himself, and many honest people in our world know that if my approach to God is based on my personal holiness, my consistency in living a good life, then I am never going to have a good relationship with God. I'm never going to have peace with God. I'm never going to feel good enough, I m never going to be good enough. Well, Matthew is about to tell the greatest story ever told. It's a story where God is going to reiterate something that has been true all along: that we have been invited to approach God, not based on what we have done for God, or what we haven't done for God. We have been invited to approach God based on what God has done for us. That s huge! Matthew gets to tell the story of God sending his son into the world to be the savior, not just of the Jews, and not just of good people, but of every one of us, so that we can approach God based not on what I have done, Page 2 of 10

3 but on what God has done for me. It s not about my works, my effort, my spiritual resume; it s about gift, it s about grace thank God. So as Matthew traces the genealogy of Jesus, he underscores the fact that all along, not simply in the New Testament but all along, God has lavished his grace on people who have not deserved it. The reason they are a part of the story is that they are the point of the story. The reason you are part of the story, in spite of what you have done or haven't done, is because you are the point of the story. And so as Matthew begins the story of Jesus he says, Remember, remember: God has chosen the unworthy all along, God has chosen sinners all along, because it s not about what we do for him, it s about what he has done for us. It s all gift; it s all grace. Matthew 1.1, ready. Matthew says, This is a record of the ancestors of Jesus the Messiah, a descendant of David (the greatest king) and of Abraham (the greatest patriarch; this is a messianic lineage): Abraham was the father of Isaac. Isaac was the father of Jacob. Jacob was the father of Judah and his brothers. (Matthew 1.1-2) Matthew didn t need to throw in the brothers. But maybe he wants to remind us that God didn t choose the good brother Joseph. God looked down at these 12 brothers and said, No, not Joseph, how about Judah. That ll raise an eyebrow or two. If you were here last week we told a couple stories about this Judah. Verse 3: Judah was the father of Perez and Zerah (whose mother was Tamar). Now that would really raise an eyebrow or two. He didn t have to mention Tamar at all. But Matthew reminds us of her story, of how she seduced her father-in-law. This Perez, in the line of David, in the line of Jesus, was the product of incest. Let s keep going: Perez was the father of Hezron. Hezron was the father of Ram. (Great names, aren t they?) Ram was the father of Amminadab. Amminadab was the father of Nahshon. (Sleepy yet?) Nahshon was the father of Salmon (kind of a fishy guy). Salmon was the father of Boaz (whose mother was Rahab). (Verses 3-5) Matthew didn t need to mention her. We talked about Rahab last week, too. Do you remember the rest of what she is called? Rahab the, the harlot, the prostitute, the slut. A pagan prostitute, she s not even a Jews, a pagan prostitute in the line of Jesus, the messiah. Go figure. Page 3 of 10

4 Let s keep going. Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). (Matthew 1.5) The third women of Matthew s genealogy. Now most people today think Ruth was a pretty nice girl and she probably was. But they probably don t know the rest of the story. I think she was brash and provocative. She pulled one stunt that went well beyond suggestive it was flat-out racy. She broke the rules. Ruth s story starts in Bethlehem the same Bethlehem where Jesus would be born eleven centuries later. Times were hard, and food was scarce, so a man named Elimelech took his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Kilion and they left for the country of Moab, across the Jordan river. The Bible doesn t tell us how long they lived in Moab before Elimelech (dad) died. What it does tell us is that some time after that, the two boys, probably teenagers, got married. They didn t marry some nice Jewish girls. It says they married Moabite women, foreigners, outsiders one named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. It s a sad story. It says that about ten years later, the sons died. Now we have three widows. I don t think these women were hard to live with. I don t think that s why all the men died. I saw a joke one time that said Do you know why most men die before their wives? Answer: They want to. Just a joke. No, I don t think these were rough women, I think these were just rough times. Now they are alone. Three widows: Naomi and her two Moabite daughters-in-law. So Naomi decides to go home, to Bethlehem. Now this is the part of the story most people know. Naomi tells the girls, You go back to your families. It will be easier for you here in Moab than in Bethlehem, where you will be outsiders, foreigners. Go home and find other husbands. Well, Orpah does, go back to her family. But Ruth well, she says those words to Naomi that you hear sometimes in weddings: Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. And so Naomi and Ruth go back to Bethlehem, and they are really in a tough spot. They had a whole lot going against them, and not a whole lot going for them, or so they thought. At a time when people honored women with children these ladies had none. At a time when women were dependent on their husbands, or their sons, these ladies had none. At a time when Jewish communities were close-knit and suspicious of outsiders here was Page 4 of 10

5 Naomi and a Moabite girl. On top of all this they were flat-out poor. They were in really tough spot. So Ruth does two things that I think would qualify her as one of the bad girls of the Bible. The first one really wasn t too bad just brash. It was harvest time. The guys would go out and cut the wheat or the barley. Then the girls would come behind and rake it together into bundles. Then they would pack the bundles off to the threshing floor. If you were poor, if you were hungry, you could go out into the field when that work was done and pick up whatever was left behind for food. Well, Ruth bent the rules. She didn t wait until the workers were done. She didn t wait until the bundles were carted off. She went out where they were still raking it up and she started picking up her food. It was gutsy, and dangerous. It would have been dangerous for a nice Jewish girl. But Ruth was a Moabite. The surprising part of the story comes when the owner shows up a guy named Boaz. When the foreman tells him what the Moabite girl is doing, Boaz says... I don t know why he says this. Maybe Ruth is really cute. Or maybe it is because Boaz finds out she belongs to Naomi, and Naomi was a relative. Anyway, Boaz says Leave her be. In fact, pull some grain out of the bundles and leave it for her, and give her some of your water, and make sure she comes back every day. When mama hears what happened, well, she is tickled to death. And then she comes up with what I think is a really risky scheme. And here is where Ruth, I think, qualifies as one of the bad girls of the Bible. Here is where she really breaks the rules. Boaz, and probably some of the other men, are going to be sleeping at the threshing floor that night. So Ruth washes up. You have to understand, this is a desert, and water is scarce. You might take a seasonal bath, but not every night. So, this is special. And Ruth puts on some perfume you get the idea. And she puts on her best clothes Here is where she bends the rules. Here is where Ruth becomes part of the Christmas story. She waits until Boaz goes to sleep, then she slips in, very quietly. And it says, literally she uncovered his feet and lay down. I don t know how you read it, but I think it says she crawled into bed with him. She didn t do anything, she just lay there. But folks, it s against the rules now, and it was really against the rules back then. You don t crawl into a guy s bed without his wedding ring on. Page 5 of 10

6 This was a pretty risky scheme. What s going to happen when Boaz wakes up? What s he going to do? He could brand Ruth a prostitute. Decent women don t sneak into a man s bed. He could call Ruth a golddigger. Maybe she was simply a dirt-poor foreigner looking for some deep pockets. But he doesn t. He doesn t embarrass her at all. He sends her home, and by the end of the story Ruth is the wife of Boaz. And they have a son, named Obed. And when Obed grows up and marries he has a son, named Jesse. And when Jesse grows up and marries he has a son, named David. And Ruth, the Gentile, the provocateur, the greatgrandmother of King David is the third woman of the Christmas story. Let s keep going: Boaz was the father of Obed (whose mother was Ruth). Obed was the father of Jesse. Jesse was the father of King David. David was the father of Solomon (whose mother had been Uriah s wife). Matthew doesn t even tell us her name, but you know. For some reason Matthew wants us to remember that David fathered Solomon through another man s wife. It was Spring, the time of year armies went off to war. So David, the king, sent his army off to fight the Ammonites. He stayed home. We don t know why. What we do know is that David would have been better off fighting the Ammonites than fighting his lust. They used to build flat roofs on their houses. Then they could do their chores up on the roof. On a nice night they could sleep up on the roof. They could simply take a stroll up on the roof, where it was quiet and... good for snooping. And King David was up on his roof one evening, strolling and... snooping. His roof was probably higher than most, and so he could look down onto the other roofs, and into the other courtyards and there she was Bathsheba bathing. She is not in a bathtub with bubbles up to her chin. At least some of her clothes were off, and she washing herself maybe she was simply grimy; maybe she was purifying herself after some uncleanness; maybe, we don t know, maybe she noticed David, the king, watching. She knew she would be visible. And David did what a king might do. He was used to getting what he wanted. He found out who she was Bathsheba, the wife of one of his top soldiers. And he had her brought to the palace. And then, it says it is so simple, so matter of fact. Three phrases in English, just seven words Page 6 of 10

7 in Hebrew, and their lives are turned upside down. It says, She came to him, and he slept with her, then she went back home (2Samuel 11.4). That s all it says. She came, they slept together, she went home. And the damage done in those few moments was extraordinary. That probably would have been the end of it. Just a one-night stand; an hour of passion; just a couple of commandments broken, so far. No one except his guards would probably know except God. Except for one little detail about the size of a fertilized egg. I don t know a month later? Six weeks later; how long would it take? Things aren t right. And Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, is horrified. She is pregnant, and Uriah her husband has not been home he s off fighting a war. What is she going to say? What is she going to do? Her shape is changing, and she is not going to be able to hide it long. So she makes a decision that makes her part of the Christmas story. She sends a message to David, the king. It says, I m pregnant. I suspect that throughout history very few words have caused such a mixture of horror and delight. The Bible calls David a man after God s own heart. Well, not always. God would never sanction what David does next. It says that David sent for Uriah and when he got back from the war, they chatted! What a crock. David says to him, How is Joab, my commanding general? And how is morale? And how is the war going? Uriah probably felt pretty good about life. David, the king, wanted to chat with him about the war. Uriah was moving up in the world. He had no idea. If David had been a man at this moment, he would have fallen to his knees and confessed his sin. He would have begged Uriah s forgiveness. He would have done whatever he could to make it right. But he didn t. He was a king and sometimes kings forget that God expects them to be honorable men too. So David chatted, and then he set his trap. He said... here s what it says literally: Go down to your house and wash your feet. That s what it says literally. But it s not what it means. Here s what it really means Go home and enjoy your wife. Go home and have a good time. Go have sex, please! But something strange happens. Uriah doesn t go home. And he doesn t enjoy his wife. It says that he slept at the entrance to the palace where David s servants slept. That s odd. Unless you realize that in these days soldiers were supposed to practice abstinence in times of Page 7 of 10

8 war. And Uriah was a man of honor. And he didn t think right for him to enjoy his wife when his men were in harm s way. So much for Plan A. David needed him to sleep with Bathsheba so that Uriah would think he was the father of the child. So he went to Plan B. Plan B was kind of like Plan A. Only this time David got Uriah drunk first, and then sent him home to sleep with Bathsheba. Maybe some alcohol would break down his morals. But Uriah wouldn t go. Even drunk, he went only as far as the entrance to the palace, where he slept with the servants. Even drunk Uriah had more moral fiber than his king. So much for Plan B. Now it was time to get serious seriously evil. So David wrote a note to his commanding general. And he sent Uriah back to the front, carrying the note. If Uriah had known what was in the note, I think maybe he would have run away. David was making him deliver his own death warrant. The note said, I want you to put Uriah at the very front, where the fighting will be fiercest. And when things are at their worst, I want you to order the men around him to withdraw. The note said, I want you to make this man dead. And unfortunately the general follows David s orders. And some of the men in David s army fell, it says. Men died to cover David s sin. Moreover, it says, Uriah the Hittite died (2 Samuel 11.17). I don t have time to tell the rest of the story. Essentially this is what happens. Bathsheba mourns the appropriate period of time probably about a week. And then she moves in with David. I wonder what she was feeling. Was there shame, or relief? People would talk, but at least she wouldn t have to face an angry husband. Was she heartbroken, or heartless? There must have been gossip. The wedding was too soon. The timing of the pregnancy was more than questionable. The husband was conveniently dead. A few months later Bathsheba gave birth to a son. In one of the toughest passages in all the Bible, it says that God took that child, as punishment. Now that s hard. Flat out hard. But later, it says, David and Bathsheba gave birth to another son. And they named him Solomon. Ever heard of him? Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law; Rahab, the harlot, the prostitute, the slut; Ruth, the provocateur. and Bathsheba, the adulteress. Not Page 8 of 10

9 women we usually associate with the Christmas story. Not women who would feel welcome in most churches. But Jesus called them, grandmothers. Now, it s so boring to read genealogies in the Bible that we usually skip over them as fast as we can. But Matthew starts his story of Jesus with a genealogy. He wants to show us that this humble baby, resting in a feeding trough in Bethlehem, had the blood of kings running in his veins. He wants to show us that this seeming child of peasants could trace his bloodline to the giants of the Old Testament story, to men like Father Abraham and King David. But in the middle of these giants are these ladies. And maybe maybe they are not aberrations. Maybe there are there, not just because they are part of the story, maybe they are the point of the story. Maybe Matthew wants us to know, right at the beginning, that Jesus didn t just come for the Jews, and he didn t just come for good people, Jesus came from, and Jesus came for sinners. It was important for Matthew, I think it was important for Jesus to call Tamar and Rahab and Ruth and Bathsheba his great, great, great, great grandmothers. Four reasons; four reasons I think these ladies are here, in the birth story of Jesus. Here s the first reason. I think we are supposed to understand that our past doesn t count. Who we were doesn t matter with God. God cares about who we are, and who we want to be. Every one of these ladies had something in their past that could have overwhelmed them with shame. We tend to judge people by where they have been. God looks at where we are going. We see a woman who seduced her father-in-law. We see a woman who used to make her living by selling her body. We see a woman who crawled into bed with a man she wanted as a husband. We see a woman who stood by as her lover murdered her husband. God sees precious children, taking baby steps of faith. Here s the second reason the ladies are in the Christmas story. I think we are supposed to understand that God can use the most unlikely people to fulfill his purposes. I expect to find Abraham and Isaac and Jacob on the list they were sinners, but they were also patriarchs, giants of faith. I expect to find David and Solomon, Hezekiah and Josiah on the list God knows they were sinners, but they were also the greatest of Israel s kings. But the path of the messiah also weaves it s way through the wombs of a Page 9 of 10

10 scorned widow, a reformed lady of the night, a poor and desperate foreigner, and an adulterous. God can use giants, and God can use broken people, sinful people, people like Tamar the incestuous, and Rahab the prostitute, and Ruth the Moabite provocateur, and Bathsheba the adulteress and you, and me. Here s a third reason these women are in the Christmas story. I think we are supposed to understand that the story of Jesus isn t just for some of us. God doesn t love Americans more than he loves others. God doesn t love white people more than he loves others. God doesn t love republicans more than he loves others. Did you know that at least two, of these women were outsiders? They weren t nice Jewish girls. But they were not only part of the Old Testament story, they were part of Jesus story, in fact they were the point of his story. His story is not just for some of us. It is for all of us male and female, rich and poor, black and white, those considered good, those considered bad it s our story. One more reason. If Jesus cherished these women as mothers, don t you think he cherishes you as his sons and daughters? If he could look with fondness at grandmas Tamar, and Rahab, and Ruth, and Bathsheba don t you think he could be madly in love with you? These ladies didn t deserve their place in the Christmas story. I suspect they were always haunted by the labels that followed them throughout their lives. But it looks like they felt the smile of God. And I don t deserve my place in the Christmas story, peeking with wonder at my God, laying helplessly in a feeding trough (neither do you). And I don t deserve my place kneeling at the foot of the cross (neither do you). But the God who swept their sins away will sweep away yours, and replace it with his peace if you let him. ** men form the thread, women form the heart Page 10 of 10