Shining the light on Christmas

I'm getting applause for reading it.

Surely you get an applause for preaching it as well at the end.

So at the end, maybe.

We'll see.

Let me just start by kicking off that I'm just so grateful

for all of those who contributed to decking the halls here at St Paul's.

It looks fantastic, the building, to walk in here

and to lift the spirits after a difficult year,

but also to walk around.

I'm particularly grateful because I live here,

and so I get to see all this stuff lit up each night.

So if you want to come up and really enjoy it,

just wander around the place at nighttime.

It just really lifts the spirits.

So well done to everyone who's contributed to that

and to the working bee as well.

It is a time of celebration.

I think the lights and everything sort of puts that into it.

And so I want to dive into, I think, the most exciting of Christmas texts,

and that's what you have in front of us in the genealogy

at the beginning of Matthew's Gospel.

So if you'd like to get your Bibles open to Matthew chapter 1,

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

and we're going to dive into this.

There are three things that I want to see this morning

from this list of names.

And this is on your St. Paul's app.

If you've got the St. Paul's app for a bit of an outline,

we'll take some notes.

Number one, Christmas is good news, not good advice.

Secondly, Christmas turns our values upside down in this world.

And thirdly, Christmas is the promise of ultimate rest.

And so really, the title for today's talk is

Shining Light on Christmas Rest.

Shining Light on Christmas Rest.

So firstly, Christmas is good news, not good advice.

Now, what we notice at the beginning of Matthew 1

is that it doesn't begin with once upon a time.

You see, that's how fairy tales,

that's how legends, myths all begin, once upon a time.

Once upon a time sends the signal

that what we are currently engaging with

probably didn't happen.

Matthew begins very simply,

this is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah,

the son of David, the son of Abraham.

So what Matthew does right at the very beginning

of his Gospels, he grounds who Jesus is

and what he does in history,

in extensive history.

Jesus is not a metaphor, he is real.

The biblical accounts of Christmas

are what actually happened in history.

The birth of the son of God into the world

is a gospel, it's a good news,

it's an announcement for all of the world.

The birth accounts of Jesus are not telling us

what we should do,

but what God has done in history for us.

Jesus is the Messiah, the son of Abraham.

You see, central to Abraham,

God made a promise to Abraham

that all the people of the world

would be blessed through him.

through a descendant of Abraham,

God would reverse the devastating impact

of sin and rejection of God

for all time and eternity for all people.

And Matthew declares that in Jesus,

this time has come.

He's also declared here to be the son of David.

God promised, extended that promise to Abraham

and said to David in 2 Samuel 7,

that one of your descendants, David,

will sit on my throne

and rule all the universe forever.

And so what we have here

is these threads through the Old Testament

connecting promise to the covenant promise of David

right through until we see here,

this is it.

The moment has arrived.

After 400 years of not hearing

a sound of revelation from God,

Jesus bursts on the scene and God speaks.

The time has come.

The silence is over.

That's what makes this good news.

Jesus is the Messiah.

Jesus is the fulfillment

of God's thousands and thousands of years

of plan of salvation.

And the heart of the Christian gospel

is that you do not save yourself.

God came to save us in the person of Jesus

on that very first Christmas night.

You see, Christmas tells us

that Christianity is unique.

All other religions and philosophies of life

give advice.

The founder of the great religions

come along and say something like,

do this, do that.

I'm here to show you the way

to spiritual reality,

to enlightenment,

to salvation.

Do all these things

and you will follow the path to salvation.

That's advice.

And some of the advice is quite useful.

Christianity is not primarily

about self-improvement.

We begin with Jesus

not by adopting an ethic,

not by turning over a new leaf,

not even by joining a community.

We begin by believing the report

about what God has done in history

in the person of his son Jesus.

Did God really become a human being?

Did Jesus really live and suffer and die

as a sacrifice for all of humanity?

Did he really rise triumphantly from death

to live forever and rule forever?

You see, Christmas shows us

that Christianity is not good advice.

It's good news.

It's a pronouncement.

It's a proclamation.

Secondly, we see here

that Christmas turns all of our values upside down.

We live in an individualistic culture

where we commend ourselves

through performance

and through accomplishments.

I had this awkward interaction

with someone recently,

a gentleman recently

who has done fairly well in life,

but I never asked him

what he's done in life.

And he was so self-absorbed,

he didn't know what to ask me

what I did in life.

And so all we had

was this surface conversation

because I refused to jump into the conversation

about what do you do?

Who are you?

And so the conversation went nowhere.

Absolutely nowhere.

If I'd opened the door,

I knew him well enough

to know we could spend an hour

just talking about him

and what he's accomplished in life.

That's what we do

in individualistic culture.

That's not how it worked

in the first century in the Middle East

where these events were taking place.

A family tree

operated like a resume

in the first century.

That is,

your heritage,

your clan,

your family,

your pedigree

constituted your resume.

And as they do now,

as we do now,

people adjust their resume

to leave out

the parts

that might be

embarrassing

or a little less impressive.

Most of us

in our 40s or 50s

do not put

our first job

on our resume.

Turning burgers

at Maccas,

cutting weeds

in a cotton field.

And what we know

is in the first century,

Herod the Great

eliminated

many names

from his public genealogy

because he did not want

anyone to know

that those embarrassing people

were associated with him.

It's like the story

I heard

once upon a time

where the children

of a prominent family

were assembling

a book

of the family's history

as a birthday present

for the family patriarch.

They commissioned

a professional biographer

and were careful

to warn

this professional biographer

of the black sheep

of the family

and they needed to do

something about

the black sheep.

Black sheep problem

was a guy named

Uncle George.

Uncle George

was a convicted criminal.

He'd been executed

in the electric chair

for murder.

And the biographer

assured

the children

of the family

that he could

handle the situation

so that there would be

no embarrassment

brought to the family.

And so this is what he wrote

about Uncle George.

Uncle George

occupied a chair

of applied electronics

at an important

government institution.

He was attached

to his position

by the strongest of ties

and his death

came as a real shock

to everyone.

We tend to do that

in our lives,

don't we?

We cover over

the skeletons

in our closet

if you like.

We do it because

we suspect

that people

will value us

less

if they knew

the true us.

Warts and all

as we say.

And so it's quite surprising

that in a culture

where you just

did not do this,

Matthew

does the exact

opposite with Jesus.

Doesn't cover over

the skeletons

in the closet

at all.

And it helps us

to see that

God's value system

is radically

different than ours.

First of all,

I want you to notice

that there are

five women

listed in this

list of this

genealogy.

In ancient

patriarchal societies,

a woman

was virtually

never named

in a list

like this

unless

they were

quite literally

a queen.

Let alone

to have

five of them.

Women

were gender

outsiders

in those cultures.

They had no

legal rights.

They couldn't

inherit property.

They couldn't

give testimony

in court.

And yet

they are here

named in

Jesus'

genealogy.

And what's

more,

three of

the five

are Gentiles.

Tamar,

Rahab,

and Ruth.

To the

ancient Jew,

these women

are regarded

as unclean

Gentiles.

They were

not just

gender

outsiders,

but these

are racial

and religious

outsiders.

And yet

Matthew

deliberately

includes

them

in the

family

tree

of the

long

awaited

Messiah

of the

world,

the Jewish

Messiah.

And by

including

them,

Matthew

recalls

some of

the most

sordid,

nasty,

immoral

occasions

in the

Bible.

It says

in verse

three that

Judah was

the father

of Perez

and Zerah

and the

mother was

Tamar.

Tamar

was

Judah's

daughter-in-law

and she

tricked him

into sleeping

with her.

It was an

act that was

against the

law of God.

And even

though Jesus

was a

descendant of

Perez and

not Zerah,

Matthew

includes them

both.

and both

Judah and

Tamar

so that

we remember

that whole

sordid

story.

The

saviour of

the world

came into

the world

into a

dysfunctional

family

just like

yours

and mine.

And remember

Rahab?

Rahab?

Mentioned

in verse

five,

just a

Gentile,

she was

a prostitute.

But the

most

interesting

story is

in verse

six,

it mentions

King

David,

royalty in

the family

tree and

you go,

woo,

that's

fine,

good

stuff.

Except

in one

of the

most,

I think

one of

the great

and ironic

understatements

of the

Bible,

Matthew

adds

here,

it was

the father

of

Solomon

and

whose

mother

had been

Uriah's

wife.

Her name

was

Bathsheba.

And by

not naming

her and

mentioning

instead her

first husband

Uriah,

Matthew is

again calling

us to

recall a

terrible and

a tragic

and assorted

chapter in

Israel's

history.

King,

the greatest

blot on

great King

David's

name.

Before he

was king,

David was a

fugitive running

for his life

from King

Saul.

And a

group of

37,

just 37

loyal men

went on

the run

with King

David

against

Saul and

all the

might of

the kingdom.

And they

put their

lives on

the line

to protect

David.

They would

do anything

for David.

And

Uriah was

one of

them,

2 Samuel

23.

And when

David was

finally made

king from

his palace

roof, he

saw Uriah's

wife and he

wanted her and

he took her.

she got

pregnant and

then he

arranged to

have Uriah

killed so

that he could

marry her and

cover up the

whole sordid

thing.

And it was

out of this

dysfunctional

family and

this deeply

flawed man

that the

saviour of

the world

came.

So this

list of

names here

includes moral

outsiders and

cultural outsiders

and racial

outsiders and

gender outsiders

rather than

being excluded

or covered

up or

covered over.

They are

publicly

acknowledged as

ancestors of

the perfect

Jesus Christ.

It's such an

unusual

genealogy.

Why did

Matthew

include it?

He didn't

have to

include all

these details,

so why did

he deliberately

include it?

There's a

verse in the

Bible that

gives us a

clue.

It's 2

2 Corinthians 5:21

Corinthians 5

verse 21.

God made

him who

had no

sin to

be sin

for us

so that

in him,

talking about

Jesus,

we might

become the

righteousness

of God.

The saviour

of the world

jumped right

into the

middle of

evil,

unjust

affairs of

human existence

sin.

He

jumps into

the quick

sand in

order to

pull us

from it.

He

identifies with

our weakness

and our

brokenness

to rescue

us out of

it.

The Christian

message is

that if you

repent and

you believe

in Jesus

Christ,

he

unites you

with him

and all

of his

saving work

and all

of its

benefits

for

eternity.

There is

not a

single

great

individual

who

doesn't

need

his

grace

and

there

is

not a

single

rotten

individual

who

can

fail

to

receive

his

grace.

Every

gift that

we give

and we

receive

at Christmas

are symbol

of the

greatest

gift of

all,

God's

grace to

us in

Jesus

Christ.

Now as

James

mentioned

last week

and you've

got to

repeat it

because it's

just so

good.

Some

gifts by

their very

nature

just cause

you to

swallow

your pride

and hopefully

you won't

necessarily

receive one

of these

this Christmas

but you

know a

book titled

Ten Easy

Steps to

Lose

Weight for

instance or

another book

titled Overcoming

Selfishness

you receive those

kind of things

that just

can't help

but you

know highlight

your flaws

or cause

you to admit

your weaknesses

or that you

need help in

some kind

of way

and the

message of

Christmas is

such a

gift.

The message

of Christianity

is that there

has never been

a gift offered

that makes

you swallow

your pride

to the

depths

of the

gift

of Jesus

Christ

requires us

to.

Christmas

means that

we are

so lost

we are

so unable

to save

ourselves

that nothing

less than

the death

of the

Son of

God

himself

could not

save us.

To accept

the Christmas

gift

we must

admit that

we are

sinners

we are

unworthy

of the

gift

and in

need of

saving

by his

grace

and that

is a

descent

too

low

for many

of us

to want

to actually

go into.

You see

Christmas

totally

humbles

us

because it

proclaims

that nothing

less than

the death

of the

Son of

God

can rescue

us.

It also

affirms

us

because he

was actually

willing to

do that

for us.

the greatness

of Jesus

is seen

in how

far down

he came

to love

us and

to lift

us up

as we

have already

said in

our service

this morning

in chapter

two.

Christmas

turns all

of our

values on

their head.

God

isn't

attracted

to us

by impressive

resumes

and performances

even religious

performance.

the only

way to

get God's

approval

is by

acknowledging

our

brokenness

our

sinfulness

our

frailty

our

flaws

our

failures

and our

desperate

desperate

need for

his

mercy.

So

thirdly

if we

accept it

God's

grace

gives us

an ultimate

rest

that we

experience

even now

at Christmas

time.

at the

end of

this list

of names

there's

an obscure

verse

in verse

17.

It says

there were

14

generations

in all

from

Abraham

to

David

14

from

David

to

the

exile

in

Babylon

and

14

from

the

exile

to

the

Messiah.

For

many

years

I just

skipped

across

that

verse

and went

technical

detail.

And yet

nothing's

ever lost

in the

scriptures.

There's

something

very

profound

even

though

that

does

not

mean

a lot

for

us

right

here

right

now

in

terms

of

reading

it

but

that

was

massive

news

what

was

just

written

there

is

news

for

the

first

recipients

of

Matthew's

gospel.

Let

me

explain

it

to

you.

In

the

Bible

the

number

seven

is

very

significant.

Right

at the

beginning

of the

Bible

it's

the

number

for

completeness

it's

the

number

for

the

goal

of

all

things.

Right

at the

beginning

of the

Bible

God

did

the

work

of

creating

the

world

in

six

days

and

it

says

on

the

seventh

day

he

rested.

God

wasn't

tired

rest

means

the

enjoyment

of

the

created

order

in

fact

rest

was

the

goal

of

creation

that's

why

you

don't

have

in

the

Bible

and

then

it

was

Monday

morning

and

God

went

back

to

work

it

was

the

seventh

day

that's

the

goal

the

enjoyment

of

all

of

creation

everything

at

peace

and

harmony

everything

was

perfect

until

sin

entered

the

picture

the

first

people

decided

to

reject

God's

loving

rule

over

their

life

and

they

chose

for

themselves

how

they

think

life

should

work

and

that

state

of

perfection

and

harmony

that

state

of

rest

was

fractured

destroyed

there

wasn't

any

harmony

or

peace

anymore

life

was

now

characterized

by

hardships

and

pandemics

and

lockdowns

and

work

was

going

to

be

done

at

the

sweat

of

your

brow

raising

children

was

going

to

be

painful

weeds

and

pests

you'll

never

ever

conquer

those

things

for goodness

sake

never

conquer

them

always

growing

in

your

lawn

but

God

still

graciously

provided

for

his

people

he

instituted

a

seventh

day

of

rest

as

part

of

their

normal

cycle

in

the

week

but

he

also

instituted

an

ultimate

day

of

rest

an

ultimate

year

of

rest

in

fact

it

was

called

the

year

of

jubilee

and

at

the

end

of

the

last

year

of

the

seventh

period

of

seven

years

that

is

the

49th

year

that

was

the

year

of

jubilee

it

was

the

year

of

rest

no

work

was

to

be

done

imagine

that

a year

of rest

no

work

at

all

no

plough

no

fields

were

ploughed

it

was

a

year

that

began

on

the

day

of

fresh

beginnings

when

the

whole

nation

just

received

forgiveness

for

their

sin

the

jubilee

year

was

characterized

by

freedom

and

return

freedom

from

burdens

labor

and

debt

were to

go

hand

in

hand

with

restoring

of

broken

family

ties

and

repossession

of

lost

property

all

debts

were

canceled

on

the

year

of

jubilee

everything

restart

after

49

years

a

year

of

rest

and

celebration

the

year

of

jubilee

the

year

that

the

nation

of

Israel

looked

forward

to

year

after

year

after

year

just

waiting

for

jubilee

to

come

verse

17

in

Matthew

1

tells

us

that

there

were

three

lots

of

14

generations

or

there

were

six

lots

of

seven

generations

with

Jesus

beginning

the

seventh

seven

verse

17

is

saying

that

what

the

hope

of

the

jubilee

year

foreshadowed

the

reestablishment

of

ultimate

rest

comes

right

now

in

the

person

of

Jesus

Christ

no

more

counting

of

generations

actually

continued

after

Jesus

in

him

is

where

rest

harmony

peace

hope

security

can be

found

if you

grasp

that

Christmas

is not

upon a

time

story

but that

Jesus

really

actually

broke

God

himself

broke

into

time

and

space

and

that

he

has

accomplished

our

salvation

so that

the

prostitute

and the

king

are equaling

him

it's

possible

for you

to have

rest

right now

rest

from all

your

striving

all

of your

attempt

to build

your

identity

total

enduring

final

rest

is what

every

single

human

being

needs

the

rest

that

Jesus

secures

for us

is a

rest

that we

get to

get

both

now

and

forever

with

him

Jesus

gives us

rest

for our

souls

right

now

the

inner

core

of our

being

that's

always

unrestless

always

restless

always

pursuing

the

latest

acquisition

the

latest

affirmation

and

Jesus

says

in

Matthew

Matthew 11:28

11

verse

28

come

to me

all

who

are

weary

and

burdened

and

I

I

will

give

you

rest

take

my

yoke

upon

you

and

learn

from

me

for

I

am

gentle

and

humble

in

heart

and

you

will

find

rest

for

your

souls

many

many

philosophers

today

speak

about

the

deep

hunger

that is

in the

human

heart

constantly

restless

people

are hungry

for love

they are

hungry

for security

they're

hungry

for significance

and meaning

and Jesus

says

I

am the

bread of

life

feed on

me

and you

will never

hunger

again

many

today

are walking

in darkness

and disillusionment

and despair

and Jesus

says

I

am the

light

of the

world

if you

follow me

you will

never walk

in darkness

instead

you will

have the

light

of life

others

in the

last couple

of years

especially

are just

fearful

of death

fearful

of death

and Jesus

says

I

am the

resurrection

the life

he who

believes in

me will

live

even though

he dies

and whoever

lives and

believes in

me

will never

die

you see

Christmas

declares

that you can

have rest

right now

rest in

our souls

right now

if we

come to

Jesus

the rest

of an

unspilled

love

between

you

and your

created

God

what a

gift

what a

gift

Christmas

is not

a once

upon a

time

story

that

shows us

how we

should

live

better

lives

and be

generous

to people

and give

them

gifts

and

Christmas

is news

it's

news

and I

love it

you walk

down into

Westfield

or Chatswood

Chase

and it's

being blasted

through the

speakers

news

as people

fill their

lives with

everything

else

news

calls us

to acknowledge

it

something

has already

happened

and we

need to

respond

to it

the

world

has

broken

into

time

and space

to save

us

this

event

is not

so much

a birth

as it

is a

coming

the

coming

of God

into the

world

and so

Christmas

is good

news

not good

advice

it turns

all of our

values on

its head

and it's

the promise

of ultimate

rest

he calls

us to

look to

him

to come

to him

to trust

him

to believe

him

to follow

him

and to

find

rest

the rest

that we

so desperately

long for

even now

this Christmas

in him

amen

what

to be

to

is

to

save