“Where you coming from, and where you going to?”  Phil and I were asked that once by a man in Maine when we pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot.  Our little Subaru hatchback was filled to the brim, and he was curious about our situation.  Since we were camping, yes, it did look like we had everything but the kitchen sink crammed into our little car!  We were a curious sight.  But what surprised us is, this man in Maine actually acted on his curiosity.  He came over and struck up a conversation with us.  In Philly, people might be curious about you, but they don’t ask questions!  We felt like we were in a very different culture up in Maine!

Reading the beginning of Matthew’s gospel made me think of that man in the McDonald’s parking lot.  It’s as if the writer of Matthew is concerned about us knowing where Jesus is coming from, and where he’s going to.  Or perhaps more accurately, he wants us to know WHO Jesus is coming from, and WHO Jesus is going to!  We read Matthew 1 verses 18 and 19 as our gospel lesson today, but let me give you just a taste of the first seventeen verses of Matthew:

“An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.  2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar… and Jesse the father of King David.  And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, 7 and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, … And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, 13 and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, … and Matthan the father of Jacob, 16 and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.”

Matthew’s list of Jesus’ ancestors may not seem so important to us.  But it was very important to his original audience.  The Old Testament contains many passages of prophecy about the coming Messiah.  Matthew takes great care in his gospel to connect these ancient prophecies to Jesus, born in Bethlehem.  This morning we read from Isaiah 11, which foretells how the Messiah will come from the stump of Jesse.  Jesse was the father of King David, one of the most revered people in Jewish history.  It was from this royal family tree that eventually Joseph would come. It was important for Matthew to make this connection to establish the authenticity of Jesus’ claim to be the real Messiah.

But there are some surprises in Matthew’s genealogy, too.  First, his list of ancestors includes women.  This was never done in the ancient world; only the names of the male ancestors were listed.  But Matthew includes women because, by the time he was writing, he had been exposed to the fullness of Jesus’ teaching.  He could see that women mattered to Jesus as much as men.  So he included five women—Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, the wife of Urriah (Bathsheba), and Mary–who played important roles in Jesus’ family heritage.

Matthew’s list also includes Gentiles.  Again, this is a surprise.  Matthew’s primary goal in writing was to convince other Jews that Jesus was indeed the Messiah they had been hoping for.  But Jesus made it clear through words and deeds that he had come not only to save the Jews, but to save the world.  All people mattered equally to Jesus.  So Matthew makes a special point to include non-Jews in Jesus’ family lineage.  By telling us who Jesus comes FROM, he gives his readers a message from the very start about who Jesus is coming TO.

Where you coming from, and where you going to?  Or, more to the point, Who you coming from, and who you going to?  Matthew makes the case in the first chapter of his gospel that Jesus’s family tree is no accident.  From Abraham, to Jesse and King David, to Joseph the husband of Mary, Jesus is part of a long line of people connected to God—and as believers in Jesus, so are we!  But remember, this was written after the fact.  Poor Joseph had no idea that he was part of such an important plan when Mary told him she was with child, and the child was from the Holy Spirit.  What was he supposed to do?  Matthew 1:19 tells us, “Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose Mary to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly.”  We will read next week of how it took an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream, to convince him to go ahead and get married to Mary, and raise the child within her as his own.

But for now, let’s think about Joseph, and what he was up against.  In that culture, marriages were arranged.  Mary and Joseph might have been chosen for each other by their parents when they were very young.  Or the marriage might have been worked out shortly before the betrothal.  Betrothal was a year long period where the man and woman were legally bound to each other, but they were not yet married.  The only way to break the betrothal was through divorce.  When Mary told Joseph that she was pregnant, of course he assumed she had been unfaithful.  “With child from the Holy Spirit”–well that was a new one!  We can see how Joseph would have thought it best to just walk away.  What an important decision point!

We have no idea how the story would have turned out if the angel had been unable to convince Joseph that he could trust Mary, and trust God.  But it would have been different!  A couple months ago, Phil and I decided to start watching the old comedy series, “Seinfeld” on Netflix.  Recently we watched an episode where Elaine was travelling to a wedding on the subway, and for some reason, the subway stopped, and everyone was stuck.  She started to have a little meltdown and said to herself, “Why didn’t I just take a cab?  For six dollars, my whole life would have been different!”  Of course, she was overreacting a bit, but she makes a good point.  Every day presents important decision points.  We just aren’t always able to tell in the moment.  We live life forwards, and understand it backwards!

So it’s easy for me to say, Joseph had other options.  Instead of “resolving to dismiss her quietly”—he could have instead been curious!  Like the man in the McDonald’s parking lot in Maine.  He could have said, wow, this is something I’ve never seen before.  I am curious to know more!  I need to ask some questions. I need to move closer to this new thing.  Mary saying she is with child from the Holy Spirit—maybe this is a burning bush, like Moses experienced, calling me to turn aside and see.  Maybe I am standing on holy ground!

Like I said, I admit, it’s easy for me to generate other options for Joseph besides just dismissing Mary quietly.  It’s easy for me to say, he could have tried curiosity instead of judgment—because I am looking at the situation in hindsight.  It is much harder for me to say to myself, “Dorry, this unexpected situation you find yourself in, instead of being judgmental—be curious!  Instead of walking away—lean in!  Instead of cursing your circumstances, try imaging you are on holy ground!”  If that’s what I wanted Joseph to do, I guess it’s what I need to do.  Don’t you hate it when it’s time to take your own advice?  It’s the worst!

But on this second Sunday of Advent, the day we light the candle of Peace, I can’t think of a better quality for us to cultivate than curiosity.  Curiosity is the gateway to grace.  It is the pathway by which we can come to know and love God more.  Francis Bacon wrote, “If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts; but if he will be content with doubts he shall end in certainties.”

I don’t know about you, but I would certainly prefer to have certainty now, rather than have to wait for certainty in the end.  But Advent is all about uncertainty.  Ask any pregnant woman, and she will tell you, we don’t know exactly when the baby is going to come.  Or even where!  A few years ago, there was an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about a family whose second baby came with almost no time in labor.  The mother gave birth in the master bedroom!  This was noteworthy to us because, it was the family we sold our house to when we moved from North Wales to Newtown!  Even in our day and age of medical knowledge, there is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to having a baby.

And so it would make sense that there is a lot of uncertainty when it comes to faith as well, because our faith hinges on new birth.  When Joseph heard the news, that Mary was with child, and that child was from the Holy Spirit, he could not envision how that could possibly be true.  But it was.  The most unexpected, inconvenient, unwanted situation in his whole life turned out to be the work of the Holy Spirit.  That is just one of the ways I think we are spiritually descended from Joseph.  The most unexpected, inconvenient, unwanted situation in our lives might just turn out to be the work of the Holy Spirit, too.  And even if God did not cause the situation, God certainly wants to redeem the situation.

Four years ago, long before COVID disrupted our lives, I was sitting at a church council meeting in Newtown.  One of the committee members gave a devotional in which he called God the “Divine Disruptor”.  He went on to explain that “disruptor” is a buzz word in his workplace, and there was a lot of talk about how you want to be the disruptor in your industry and not the disrupted!  You want to be the company that is innovating, and challenging the status quo, and breaking new ground—not the company that is left behind because your competitor has gone out ahead of you.  Likewise, as people of faith, we want to align ourselves with the work of God, who is always breaking new ground.  We don’t want to be people stuck wondering what just happened and why we weren’t part of it!

What a unique way to think of God, as the “Divine Disruptor”.  Poor Joseph had no warning God was going to disrupt his life.  He was following in the traditions of his community, he was following all the rules, he was going to marry the young woman named Mary, just as the families had arranged.  Little did he know that God had been busy making other arrangements!  We honor Joseph as faithful because, in the end, he took Mary as his wife, and he did all the angel commanded him to do, and even though he was never asked if he really wanted to be the adoptive father of the Son of God, Joseph took Jesus in as his own, and raised him, and provided for him, and protected him, and taught him, and passed his faith on to him.  We admire Joseph because of his obedience and resilience.

But we can also learn from Joseph, that when an unexpected disruption comes, we have options.  Instead of being judgmental in unexpected situations—we can be curious and wonder, is this God the Divine Disrupter at work?  Instead of walking away—we can lean in toward God!  Instead of cursing our circumstances, we can try imaging that we are on holy ground!  We are indeed on holy ground, because God cares about where we are coming from and where we are going to.  And God cares about WHO we are coming from, and WHO we are going to.  Every day presents us with decision points—will we move toward God?  Will me move toward God’s people?  We will move toward our authentic, genuine self?  Or will we allow the disruptions that come to move us away from God and our faith?

On this second Sunday of Advent, the day of peace, let’s remember who we are:  God’s beloved children.  Let’s remember who we’ve come from—a long line of people connected to God.  Let’s remember who we’re going to—a whole world loved by God, in need of God’s love.  Let’s remember our family tree, and wait with curiosity, faith and hope for the certainties yet to be revealed.  Amen.