Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
I spent this weekend in Texas visiting some friends and their three children. It was a busy, joyful weekend. At church on Sunday, we sang "Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus," one of Charles Wesley's advent hymns. I've never really thought about this particular hymn but it spoke to me this advent. The simple idea of Jesus being "long expected" gave me pause. I imagined natures of God's people waiting, hoping for the messiah that would set them free and bring true justice. Our reading today give us some idea about this "long expectation." They also give us, however, a glimpse into the surprising aspects of this messiah, things we could not have expected or imagined.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with the genealogy of Jesus, one of those long lists of relatives that we find throughout the Old Testament. This particular list serves to show Jesus' Jewish heritage, to confirm his place as the messiah foretold by prophets. In the list, however, appear several surprising additions. Three women appear in addition to Mary at the end: Tamar, Rahab, and Ruth. As we see in several biblical narratives, scripture upholds the importance of women in fulfilling the promises of god, despite persistent sexism against them through the centuries. Ruth is perhaps the most surprising because not only is she a woman, she is also not Jewish. She is honored in the Hebrew Scriptures for her faithfulness to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and her willingness to forsake all she knows for the family she has committed herself to.
So what is surprising about Jesus himself in these details? I think one important thing comes to light in these small but significant additions. Because of the incarnation, we should learn to expect to find god in unexpected places, including unexpected people. This is deceptively simple. Usually, we find this to be much more difficult than we would expect. Sure, we find God in our families and in laughing children and in the beauty of nature. But do we also find God in the darkness of terminal illness or in the former friends it seems impossible to forgive? Do we seek and see the face of Christ in the hungry poor or the death row inmate? It is in these places where God's grace is hardest to see, but where the truth of the incarnation also becomes most important. As we get closer to Christmas, we should be excited that our long expected justice has come. But we should also be ready to be surprised, in ways that stretch us and push the limits of our Christian charity. This will remind us that we cannot love as Christ loved without the abundant grace of God, grace that is both long expected and unexpected.
- Katherine Schmidt